BEATLES’ “ABBEY ROAD” HEADING FOR Nº1 ON THIS WEEK

Abbey Road has a lead of 12,000 chart sales over last week’s chart-topper Why Me? Why Not. from Liam Gallagher. A newly released 50th anniversary edition of the album on CD and vinyl, featuring previously unheard material from the recording sessions, are driving its sales this week. New versions of the 1969 album, released on September 27 in a variety of formats, instantly rose to the top of the Amazon sales charts in the U.S. and U.K.

A book titled Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles (October 2019) from author Kenneth Womack, he offers the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road. The 296-page, hardcover Solid State, with a foreword by Alan Parsons, is available now for order in the U.S. here and the U.K. here.

Solid State is described on Womack’s website as “the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road.” The 1969 album, the author writes, “introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to the group’s sound.
Womack’s colorful retelling of how this landmark album was written and recorded is a treat for fans of the Beatles. Introduced with a foreword by renowned engineer, producer, and musician Alan Parsons, Solid State takes readers back to 1969 and into EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, which featured an advanced solid-state transistor mixing desk. Womack focuses on the dynamics between John, Paul, George, Ringo and producer George Martin and his team of engineers.
“As Womack shows, Abbey Road was the culmination of the instrumental skills, recording equipment and artistic vision that the band and George Martin had developed since their early days in the very same studio seven years earlier. A testament to the group’s unparalleled creativity and their producer’s ingenuity, Solid State is required reading for all fans of the Beatles and the history of rock ’n’ roll.”