US album release: Abbey Road

Five days after its UK release, The Beatles’ last-recorded LP, Abbey Road, was issued in the United States on this day. The catalog number was Apple SO 383.

The album made its Billboard 200 debut at number 178, before climbing to number 4 the following week. In its third week on sale it reached the top of the charts, where it remained for 11 consecutive weeks, although it was not the highest-selling album in the 1969 Christmas week.

Abbey Road spent 129 weeks on the chart. It was the fourth best-selling album of 1970 in the US, and was eventually certified 12x platinum by the RIAA. It also won a Grammy for Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording.

In its first six weeks on sale, Abbey Road sold four million copies worldwide. By the time the group had officially disbanded in 1970, it had sold more than 7 million copies.