On 26 September 1980, the Beatles released the eleventh studio album, "Abbey Road". Abbey Road was the final Beatles album to be recorded but not their last to be released. Let It Be, though mainly recorded in January, 1969 was finally released in May, 1970 alongside the film of the same name. The album's cover, featuring the group walking across a zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios, has become one of the most famous and imitated in the history of recorded music.
Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.