Beatles Photograph from ‘Abbey Road’ Shoot Sells for $25,000 at Auction

The cover of the Beatles' 'Abbey Road' album is one of the most imitated in rock history. Every day Beatles fans from all over the world flock to the intersection of Abbey Road and Grove End Road in London to re-create the famous shot by Iain Macmillain. A print of an outtake from that photo shoot of August 8, 1969 sold today (May 22) for approximately $25,000 (16,000 pounds) at an auction.

The shot is very similar to the one we all know and love, with a couple of exceptions. For starters, Paul McCartney is wearing sandals instead of going barefoot. This, of course, was later considered to be a clue in the "Paul is Dead" hoax of that year. But the main difference is that the Beatles are walking in the opposite direction, towards Abbey Road Studios.

According to the Beatles Bible website, the photo used for the cover was the fifth of the six pictures Macmillain took that day because it was the only one in which the group walked in time. The second shot, the only one in which McCartney is walking from right-to-left while wearing sandals, is the one that sold. The entire shoot took ten minutes while a policeman held up traffic.

Watch a Representative from Bloomsbury Auctions Discuss the 'Abbey Road' Outtake