What we learn from David Hepworth’s nearly 400-page Abbey Road: The Inside Story Of The World’s Most Famous Recording Studio, is that The Beatles were merely a small (albeit the most famous) part of this renowned UK recording studio’s story. Hepworth manages a true deep dive of the studio’s history, from when it was first built (actually even before, as ‘modern’ recording began in earnest in England), exploring the emergence of the microphone and ‘crooners,’ further inventions and the culture impact of what was happening as the studio grew and the record business changed.
Myths aren’t as much dispelled here as stories are explored, from the artists as much as the recording engineers. What I especially liked, though, was learning who Al Bowlly, Hazel Yarwood, and Jacqueline du Pre’ were alongside wonderful insights into such notables like George Martin, Pink Floyd, and, yes, the most famous ‘beat group’ of all time, The Beatles.
Paul McCartney manages a forward here that is, sorry to say, a little too flaccid for a book this substantial. But a more famous musician connected with Abbey Road, Hepworth is not likely to find. Plenty of books have been written about the famous EMI/Abbey Road Studios. Meticulously researched tomes on specific world-shattering albums made in studios 1, 2 or 3, as much as scores of histories of The Beatles. We have even had some wonderful and sometimes dishy in-studio memoirs written by engineers who worked in the famous studios and for equally famous bands.
Starting from the beginning as Hepworth does here, and fine-tooth-combing through each era of recording technology and how it relates to what was happening at the studio, with their performers and the rest of the record business, is what makes Abbey Road: The Inside Story Of The World’s Most Famous Recording Studio really special.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
