Sir George Martin had only just started at EMI’s Parlophone label two years before and was working hard to contribute to the future direction of the label and its position against the other EMI subsidiaries Columbia and HMV. He dedicated a lot of his time to seeking out quirky records, focusing on comedy and alternatives from the mainstream.

One of his efforts was Max Bygraves’ Cowpuncher’s Cantana, which became Abbey Road’s first official chart entry reaching number six. Max Bygraves was a popular comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. The title track of the album Cowpuncher's Cantata was a medley of his comedy interpretations of popular records of the time, such as Frankie Laine's Mule Train and Cry of the Wild Goose, (Ghost) Riders in the Sky and Jezebel.

Producer Wally Ridley also worked on the recording, recounting how Max had problems with the lyrics and pacing, as told in the book Abbey Road: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Recording Studios: "Max Bygraves' first record was a thing called 'Cowpuncher's Cantata' which was an odd shaped piece of music and we had great difficulty in getting Maxie to come in on the beat because there were long gaps in between the vocal lines. He had trouble finding when to enter and in the end I had to stand next to him and squeeze his arm when he had to come in. It all worked out fine in the end and we had a big success."

Cowpuncher’s Cantana would mark the start of Abbey Road’s long running relationship with the charts and popular music.

Two years later, Abbey Road had its first number one with trumpeter Eddie Calvert’s Oh Mein Papa, a nostalgic German song suggested as a cover for Calvert by Columbia producer Norrie Paramour. And within the next decade, in 1963, 15 of the 19 UK number ones had been recorded at Abbey Road. The successful year kicked off with The Shadows’ Dance On in January followed by Frank Ifield The Wayward Wind and then The Beatles’ Please Please Me. EMI went on to hold the number one spot for 43 weeks that year.