The Beatles "ABBEY ROAD", RARE Second Pressing with Shrink 1969 Original

$

25

Abbey Road
Apple SO 383
Released 10/1/69

SHORT HISTORY OF THE 3 ABBEY ROAD COVER VARIATIONS

Abbey Road (released October 1, 1969) was the first Beatles album in America packaged with print-on-board covers. These covers involved the process of printing the cover image directly onto white posterboard, which is then folded and glued to form the album jacket. The previous Beatles album covers were constructed by affixing separately printed slicks to cardboard jackets. The new print-on-board covers were a superior looking package. Another advantage was that these covers were manufactured by one company, whereas the older style covers involved both a printer and an album fabricator. Capitol documents indicate that the album's artwork was shipped on September 11,1969.

COVER # 1 : FIRST BATCH
The first batch of covers (SC1A, Spizer) do not list Her Majesty on the back cover track listing. The front cover has more of the crosswalk at the bottom edge of the cover, and includes a portion of a square road sewer positioned on the bottom edge of the cover, beneath Ringo and John's feet.

COVER # 2 : SECOND BATCH
Prior to the album going on sale, Capitol had the film for the back cover revised to list the song Her Majesty after The End. By the time the new artwork was sent out on September 24, many covers had been printed. Thus, the SECOND BATCH of jacket covers listing Her Majesty (SC1B, Spizer) are less common and rarer than the covers not listing the song. The front cover image has the exact characteristics of Cover # 1 : more of the crosswalk at the bottom edge of the cover, and includes a portion of a square road sewer positioned on the bottom edge of the cover, beneath Ringo and John's feet.

COVER # 3 : THIRD BATCH
Abbey Road ended up being the only Beatles album to have print-on-board covers upon its initial release. Although Capitol was pleased with the print-on-board jackets, future decisions regarding the mastering, packaging and advertising of Apple releases were handled directly by Apple by very loyal individuals who had a long-standing relationship with Queens Litho and selected them again to be the primary printer of cover slicks for future Beatles albums starting with Hey Jude. When Capitol's pressing plants ran out of the print-on-board covers, Apple hired Queens Litho to print slicks for additional Abbey Road jackets. These THIRD (and final) BATCH Covers (SC2A, Spizer) used slicks printed by Queens Litho and Bert-Co and were manufactured by Imperial and/or Modern Album. The back cover slicks were made from the album's original artwork and accordingly do not list Her Majesty on the back cover. The front cover image was enlarged to allow for the front slick to be wrapped around to the back cover. Thus, the picture on the front shows less of the trees and crosswalk (the square sewer in the road is missing) and has a larger image of the Beatles.

This Abbey Road LP is from the Second Batch Printing.  So, it is a first press with the second variant jacket cover listing "Her Majesty" on the back cover with the original "sewer lid" on the front cover.

Comes in the Original Shrink Wrap with the Dept. Store Lettering used by stores like Sears and Two Guys in the Northeast of USA.