The Accidental Icons

Abbey Road
One of the Beatles' last albums, 1969's Abbey Road has one of the most famous LP covers ever. Paul McCartney came up with the concept, and the photographer, Iain MacMillan, had 15 minutes to get the shot while the band took a break from recording on August 8, 1969. Although in later years MacMillan (who died in 2006) often worked with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, his best-known shot was caught in those few serendipitous minutes.

It's one of the most copied and parodied photos of all time -- homages to it have shown up everywhere from a Red Hot Chili Peppers album to The Simpsons. It even gave rise to a legend that the shot offered "proof" that Paul McCartney was dead. (He spoofed the picture himself with his 1993 album Paul is Live.)

"It's taken on a life beyond what we imagined," says May Pang, a friend of MacMillan's from their Lennon/Ono days. "It's the accessibility of people being able to recognize it. They know that studio where the Beatles recorded. And here's the street they actually walked on."

MacMillan, she says, never made a big deal about his enduring image. "When you've got 15 minutes, and it turns out to be your most famous photograph...I don't think he ever thought about it," she says, "that's how unassuming he was."