Beatles producer George Martin says he wasn't surprised when it all ended. "Nobody knew that Abbey Road was going to be the last album - but everyone felt it was.
"The Beatles had gone through so much and for such a long time. They'd been incarcerated together for nearly a decade, and I was surprised that they lasted as long as they did."
The fans didn't feel that way when the news broke in 1970. It was a shock. There was "worldwide reaction and genuine dismay," recalls the group's former publicist, Derek Taylor.
The world seemed a duller, greyer place without the Beatles.
It wasn't as if they were running out of creative steam. Many consider the music of Abbey Road among their best.
But, as the third extract from their autobiographical Anthology shows, tensions between the four had made "divorce" inevitable.
As with our previous extracts, part three will remain online for one day only.
Winners of the Herald's Beatles Anthology competition:
R. Andrew, Awanui
P. Dunn, Auckland
W. Blackman, Rotorua
Kathy Shepherd, Auckland
I. L. French, Pakuranga
Books will be delivered next week.
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