Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Consequence of Sound | |
| The Daily Telegraph | |
| MSN Music | |
| Pitchfork Media | (10/10) |
| PopMatters | (favourable) |
| Rolling Stone | (favourable) |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| The Rolling Stone Record Guide | |
| Sputnikmusic | |
Abbey Road became one of the most successful Beatles albums ever. In the UK the album debuted straight at number 1. Abbey Road spent its first 11 weeks in the UK charts at number 1, before being displaced to number 2 for one week by the Rolling Stones debuting at the top with Let It Bleed. However, the following week—which was the week of Christmas—Abbey Road returned to the top for another 6 weeks, completing 17 weeks at the top. In all it spent 92 weeks inside the UK Top 75, and 16 years later on 31 October 1987, when it was released worldwide on CD, it reached number 30. In the UK Abbey Road was the best-selling album of 1969 and the fourth best-selling of the entire 1960s, and the eighth best-selling album of 1970.
Reaction in the US was similar. The album debuted at number 178, then moved to number 4 and in its third week to number 1, spending 11 non-consecutive weeks at the top. Abbey Road spent a total of 129 weeks in the Billboard 200, re-entering the chart at number 69 on 14 November 1987. It was the NARM best selling album of 1969 and was number 4 on Billboard magazine's top LPs of 1970 year-end chart. Abbey Road was certified 12x platinum by the RIAA in 2001.
In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that US sales of Abbey Road were about 5 million. When the Beatles disbanded, Abbey Road had sold over 7 million copies worldwide. According to EMI, its worldwide sales reached 7.6 million copies in October 1972. This was also the first Beatles' album to reach the 10-million mark in worldwide sales, in 1980.
It achieved high placings in several 'best albums in history' polls carried out between 1997 and 2006 in the US, the UK, and Australia.
In 2012, Abbey Road was voted 14th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Read more about this topic: Abbey Road
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