History for the day

The simple idea was first sketched out by Paul McCartney. For the cover (photo) of their eleventh album, the Beatles would be photographed crossing Abbey Road in the St. John's Wood district of London near EMI Studios, where the band recorded its music. Photographer Iain MacMillan had been invited by John Lennon to take the cover photo; Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had introduced them.
On 8 August 1969, MacMillan was given ten minutes to shoot what may be the Beatles' most famous, and widely imitated, album cover. Standing on a stepladder in the middle of the street, as policemen stopped traffic, MacMillan took six shots of the group walking one behind the other in the zebra crossing.
With John followed by Ringo, Paul, and George (all of the shots followed this order), the four men strode ahead for the first photo, but John's head was turned, and Paul and George were off-stride. The second, third and fourth takes all were decent, but at least one of the men was a little off-stride in each. The fifth shot— the only photo in which Paul carried a cigarette— captured three interior decorators returning from lunch in the background and an American tourist. But it was the only photo in which all four men were in perfect stride (Ringo lagged in the sixth photo); thus it became the cover.

Rico says this is where the 'Paul is dead' came from, as he wasn't wearing shoes, but Rico can only hear Leo McKern saying (as Clang, from Help!): Psst! Hey, Be-a-tle! You shall have fun, yes?