It was 50 years ago today, the Beatles decided not to play. Specifically, on April 10, 1970, the band’s Paul McCartney issued a statement announcing, “I have no future plans to record or appear with the Beatles again, or to write any music with John [Lennon].” The Fab Four’s official breakup ushered in the end of an era — and, in some ways, the end of the ‘60s ideal.

Abbey Road wasn’t the last Beatles album to see a commercial release — that would be the problematic, Phil Spector-produced Let It Be, which came out about a month after the band’s split. But Abbey Road, which got the deluxe boxed-set reissue treatment last year for its 50th anniversary, was their final recorded studio LP — and, it could easily be argued, their grandest achievement. All four band members were at the peak of their powers, with George Harrison contributing two of the greatest Beatles songs of all time, and Ringo Starr penning his best Beatles track, “Octopus’s Garden.”

It might be assumed that — following the chaos of the White Album sessions and acrimony of the Let It Be experience, and with the Beatles’ breakup imminent — the Abbey Road sessions were troubled and bitter. But the son of late Beatles producer Sir George Martin, Giles Martin (who oversaw the Abbey Road box, as well as the recent Sgt. Pepper and White Album reissues), says that absolutely wasn’t the case. He even believes the Beatles could have continued in some capacity.

“It always sounds a bit like fluff to say this, but the sessions are incredibly happy,” says the younger Martin, who spent untold hours reviewing all of the Abbey Road archival recordings, when asked for his insight into the band members’ collective headspace in their final months. Martin’s comments are also in line with preview footage screened by Yahoo Entertainment from Peter Jackson’s forthcoming Let It Be documentary, out Sept. 4, which depicts the band members joking around in the studio and getting along famously — despite the fact that McCartney once described that experience as “hell” and “the most miserable sessions on earth.”

“I think the Beatles always, always enjoyed being in the studio. I think that they enjoyed being in studios more than they enjoyed being Beatles, funny enough,” says Martin. “I think a bit like a teenager wanting to leave home, they wanted to find their own sense of identity. I don't think they wanted to be known as a ‘Beatle’ anymore. They'd grown up, to a certain extent. They started off in a way — bizarrely, when I think about this — being in a boy band, really. They lived that life. What I got from listening to the tapes is actually synergy and compassion. All of the music on Abbey Road is played together as a band. And you can't really do that if there's huge [rift].”

It’s tempting to wonder what might have been, if the Beatles had another great album or two in them. Martin looks at the impressive solo careers of all four former “boy band” members and can’t help speculating himself. “Well, we'll never know. But I think it could have been more of a situation of them doing their solo work with the [other] Beatles playing on it,” he muses. “The Beatles had a sound to what they did which was unique, and the one thing that the Beatles would all agree on is they made each one of their records better. They played the right parts. They had a complete empathy with each other. So, you'd probably could’ve had [McCartney’s] ‘Maybe I'm Amazed’ with the Beatles on it, or John [Lennon] singing backgrounds or whatever. You imagine how it would be to have [Harrison’s] ‘All Things Must Pass”’ with Paul playing a much more complex bassline.

“But it's all going back to that teenager thing: I think that they wanted to be recognized outside of the Beatles,” Martin continues. “On [Abbey Road], George proved what a magnificent songwriter he was, and what a sensitive songwriter he was. And you actually wonder if the Beatles could have sustained themselves with three songwriters like that in the band. I mean, it's very unusual to have one good songwriter in a band. Can you imagine having a band with John Lennon and Paul McCartney in it? And then you add George Harrison and his sudden ability to write beautiful, beautiful songs.”

But as the man fortunate enough to get to spend some much time digging through all the Beatles archives, Martin is mainly happy with the legacy they capped off with Abbey Road. “They all gave us so much. … I'm so lucky that I can walk into Abbey Road Studios and I can put a tape in the tape machine, and I can hear the Beatles — and they don't sound old. And they sound like they're in the next-door room. I'm so privileged to have that. It's nepotism rules,” he says with a laugh. “But the more I can get other people to be able to experience that, the more I feel like I'm doing my job in the right way. We live in a world where people hear and don't really listen to anymore, and I think if I can get people to hear, then that's a good thing, because it's what touches your heart.”