PAUL MCCARTNEY is relieved the BEATLES decided against naming their final album after a studio engineer’s favourite cigarette brand.
The group initially agreed on the title Everest after spotting one of Geoff Emerick’s cigarette packets during a brainstorming session – but McCartney still thinks that would have been a terrible idea.
He tells Mojo magazine, “It wasn’t that great a title. His ciggies (cigarettes) were just lying on the control room desk, and we went, ‘What about that? Everest! Big mountain on the front – that’d be good’.
“But then we went off the idea and I just said, ‘You know what? We could call it Abbey Road. And it’d be really easy to step outside onto the crossing (for the cover picture).”
The recording of Abbey Road took place at London’s iconic Abbey Road studios 40 years ago.