Rock Monuments - Abbey Road

The Financial Times of London reports that music giant EMI is seeking to sell maybe the most famous studio in the world: Abbey Road. The site of many noted recordings, Abbey Road Studios is housed in an 1831 Georgian townhouse located in the St. John's Wood neighborhood of London. Of course, no work produced there is known to rock 'n roll fans more than the Beatles' final album, titled in 1969 for the place where they made 90% of their wax works.

The BBC interviewed Sir Paul McCartney this evening, who provided these comments: "There are a few people who have been associated with the studio for a long time who were talking about mounting some bid to save it. I sympathise with them. I hope they can do something, it'd be great. I have got so many memories there with the Beatles. It still is a great studio. So it would be lovely if somebody could get a thing together to save it."

Abbey Road's studios came into use when EMI bought the place and refurbished it back in 1931. Because the studio is large enough to fit a symphony orchestra, the space has been popular over the years for the recording countless film scores, including The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, as well as some of the more noted orchestras throughout the world.

In addition to the Beatles eponymous album, whose cover of the Fabs made the street crossing in front of the studio an iconic image, these revered works were also made: Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon; The Alan Parsons Project's I, Robot; and Radiohead's The Bends.

On 25 June 1967, the first worldwide television satellite broadcast originated from Studio Two at Abbey Road. The Beatles sang "All You Need Is Love" in an effort to promote world peace. Viewed by 400 million people in 26 countries, the telecast was in black and white, later to be colorized by the Beatles in their documentary Anthology (that's producer George Martin in the booth at the beginning of the clip; watch for Mick Jagger in the audience, as well):