One of the most iconic album covers in history was taken by Iain Macmillan for The Beatles' album Abbey Road. The album cover was originally supposed to be shot near Mount Everest but as the band eagerly wanted to finish the album, McCartney suggested they just go outside and take it. The collection of photographs by Macmillan were taken in August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. The photos had to be taken in only ten minutes as a policeman was holding up traffic behind the camera, six photos were taken that morning which McCartney examined before deciding on the famous cover. Their label was first against the idea of not including neither the name of the album or the band on the album cover. One member of the creative team behind designing the album cover, Kosh, said that they should just have the picture on the cover with no artist or album name. Many others said that the record would not sell well without this information; Kosh later said "they didn't need the band's name on there...they were the biggest band in the world". On the original cover McCartney is carrying a cigarette, however many US companies photo-shopped the cigarette out without McCartney's or Apple's permission.The band does not have their band's name on the front cover, they do also not have the album's name either. This does not follow regular codes and conventions of other media texts but due to the enormity and success of the band, they were able to do this effectively and not suffer from loss of sales.
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