Interactive Abbey Road: A click into rock history
Abbey Road has become a Mecca for music fans all over the world. It's where they come to follow in the footsteps of the Beatles, and make their own mark on the studio where the Beatles made their mark on history.
Now, one of themost famous landmarks in music is finding a new voice. Fans of the Beatles and other recording greats now have an "all-access pass" to Abbey Road Studios -- online -- reports CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata.
In 1969, it was one album in particular that put Abbey Road on the map, and journalist and author Andrew Mueller says things might have been very different had the band not been nearing the end of their long and winding road.
"The album was going to be called 'Everest,' and their idea was that they would do the cover on the foothills of the great mountain," Mueller said. "And then somebody suggested that flying all the way to Nepal to do a photo was a bit of a schlep. So why don't we just go outside, take a picture on the crossing, and call the album Abbey Road and be done with it. I really, really hope it's true. There is a great famous image and title because the Beatles couldn't be bothered to get on a plane at that point."
Over the years, thousands, if not millions of fans have made the pilgrimage to the most famous crosswalk in rock and roll -- and that is where their journey came to an end, until now.
Thanks to a new collaboration with Google, Abbey Road Studios has opened its doors for the very first time. The virtual mystery tour that is "Inside Abbey Road" offers 360-degree views, games and gadgets -- a fully interactive Abbey Road experience.
It is meant to sound live, as if you were standing there when the Beatles brought 190 songs to the world.
The real Abbey Road isn't open to the public or the press because it is still a fully operational recording studio.
"If you start playing around with the floor or walls you're going to change the sound," chief sound engineer Mirek Stiles said. "And at the end of the day we don't want to change the sound, we love the sound."
Abbey Road still has thousands of microphones that are used almost every day by everyone from Pink Floyd to Sam Smith. It's where Amy Winehouse's last recording session happened with Tony Bennett, just four months before she died.
It's is the studio's rich history that lends it such soul. Its Steinway piano has been in use for more than 60 years and was used by the Beatles to record "Penny Lane" and "Lady Madonna."
While the virtual tour might not be the same quite the real thing, it does open the doors to a world most have never seen -- and it may help to keep some of the devoted, and their pens, away.
"Maybe they are thinking that people can sit at home in front of their computers and their phones can click their way through the building and they won't come down here and draw on our fence," Mueller wondered.