LONDON: Fifty years ago today The Beatles were photographed crossing a leafy street in north London, creating one of the most famous album covers in music history and an image imitated by countless fans ever since.

The picture of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr striding over a zebra crossing on Abbey Road was taken outside the EMI Recording Studios where they made the 1969 album of the same name, and nearly all of their other recordings.

Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan took just six shots of the group on the crossing, with the fifth used as the cover of the band's eleventh studio album, released on Sept. 26 1969.

'Abbey Road', which was voted the best Beatles album by readers of Rolling Stone in 2009, was the only one of the group's original British albums to show neither the band's name nor a title on the cover.