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Overview |
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Release Date: June 1, 1967
Running Time: 39:42
Sales: Thirty million worldwide, eleven million of those being in the U.S. alone.
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Tracklist
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help from My Friends
3. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You Without You
9. When I'm Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
13. A Day in the Life
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“We were fed up with being Beatles,” Paul McCartney has said regarding the band’s decision (in August 1966) to stop touring. This led to the idea of creating alter egos to represent them, on a record that would, in essence, tour for them. Thus, the characters of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band were born.
The collection is commonly considered to be a concept album, although any story or strict theme was abandoned early on in the 129-day recording period.
A variety of sounds not typically associated with pop and rock found their way onto the album—Types of instruments including brass, woodwind, harpsichord, glockenspiel, Mellotron, electric and upright piano were featured. Also, George Harrison had recently taken a trip to India, “(I) had fallen under the spell of the country and music”) which inspired him to play citar and tambura in addition to guitar. His composition, “Within You, Without You,” was recorded with a backing band of Indian musicians in a studio-turned-meditation room.
The Beatles took full advantage of the latest technology available at Abbey Road Studios for the recording. A technique called “automatic double tracking” was invented (specifically for John Lennon) so that vocals would not need to be recorded twice. Many songs feature varispeeding in the production, which involves the same music played simultaneously at different speeds. Multi-track technology was replicated by recording over four tracks, and then dubbing down to a single track. McCartney describes Sgt. Pepper’s as “a landmark achievement in technicolor sound, unifying concept and songwriting ambition.”
For the album cover, art director Robert Fraser used McCartney as a consultant. After talking the bassist out of using a psychedelic painting by the group known as The Fool, Peter Blake and his wife were hired for the job (although a design by The Fool did appear on the inner sleeve of the original pressings). The final cover image is entitled “People We Like,” and features over seventy cardboard cutouts of different celebrities. Mae West initially refused inclusion, but agreed after receiving a personal letter from the band. John Lennon reportedly requested that a depiction of Adolf Hitler be featured, but it did not appear in the final product.
Also featured on the colourful, Grammy-winning cover, which cost roughly one hundred times as much as the average cover in those days, are The Beatles themselves as the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The four are pictured in day-glo dyed, military-style uniforms, marking the last time that The Beatles would share a “look.” Interestingly, wax figures of the band as they appeared in the early days of their career are also present on the album cover.
Sgt. Pepper’s was intended to be a double album, which is why the initial pressing came in an inappropriately-sized gatefold. Inside The gatefold is another picture of the four Peppers. The back cover features complete lyrics, the first of its kind to do so. A page of Sgt. Pepper’s-themed cut-outs were included, as the original idea of including small Sgt. Pepper’s-themed items was deemed too expensive.
The record was a success even before its release, reaching the #8 spot in the U.K.. It hit the top spot once it hit shelves, and stayed there for 23 weeks in a row. Including the CD versions, Sgt. Pepper’s has spent 192 weeks on the U.K. chart.
The album won three Grammy awards, including album of the year (the first rock record to hold that honour), and was nominated for an additional three. Since then, Sgt. Pepper’s has been named the #1 album in the Music of the Millenium Poll, the Rolling Stone greatest album of the last twenty years (1967), and the Rolling Stone 500 greatest albums of all time list (2003).
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Song Spotlights |
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“With a Little Help From My Friends” is sung by drummer Ringo Starr under his Sgt. Pepper’s alias Billy Shears—Shears is introduced at the end of the previous, album-opening track. The song, which was written with Starr’s limited vocal range (in comparison to Lennon or McCartney) in mind, is sung as a sort of conversation in parts, with the rest of the band responding to Ringo’s lines. Strangely, the original version of “With a Little Help From My Friends” is not one of the three interpretations of the song to be a #1 single.
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” became a huge hit, thanks to its psychedelic sound, singalong chorus, and John Lennon’s simple vocal melody.
The song was banned by the BBC, who claimed that its title was a reference to LSD. The band denied this, claiming that the title came from a drawing made at school by John’s son Julian. John explained, “I asked him who the person was. He answered me: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Julian himself confirms this, adding on that he “obviously had an affection for (classmate) Lucy at that age.” Although McCartney later admitted that the verses were inspired by acid intake, John always insisted that his inspiration was the imagery in the Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass. Whatever the case, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” with its three key changes, double-tracked lead vocals, and McCartney’s Lowrey organ, might be one of the quintessential psychedelic song from The Beatles’ catalogue.
“A Day in the Life” has an interesting structure, with an interesting story behind it. It is made up of parts written by Lennon and McCartney, respectively, with orchestral crescendos bridging the gaps. Paul and George Martin conducted a forty-piece orchestra for the segues, after instructing them to improvise the empty space in the score. Martin recalls that “(The orchestra) all looked at me as though I were completely mad.”
Lyrically, Lennon’s sections address articles read in the Daily Mail newspaper, while McCartney reminisces about commuting to school when he was younger. “A Day in the Life” was also banned by the BBC, due to the lyric “I’d love to turn you on” being interpreted as a drug reference.
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Trivia |
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Before the album was released, Beatles producer George Martin was being pressured to provide new material. Consequently, he decided to put the songs “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane” on a single for immediate release. Martin says that it was “the biggest mistake of (his) career)” to leave those songs off of Sgt. Peppers.
Also produced during the Sgt. Pepper’s recording sessions were “Only a Northern Song,” which would not appear on record until the 1969 Yellow Submarine soundtrack, and a sound collage created by Paul McCartney entitled “Carnival of Light,” which was commissioned and used by a London rave of the same name in early 1967.
A video for “A Day in the Life” can be seen in The Beatles Anthology Series and Imagine: John Lennon. This was the only completed product in the plan to shoot a video for every song on the album.
After the last song, random noises and recordings of band members speaking in the studio are heard. Some fragments are played forwards and some are played backwards. Three syllables are on the very last groove of the record, which cause the album to loop endlessly.
There are significant differences between the mono and stereo mixes of Sgt. Pepper’s. No band members were present for the stereo mixing process.
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You said: |
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"I get what it represents, which is a great landmark & supreme innovation...BUT - It's by far my least favourite Beatles album, aside from A Day In the Life Give me Rubber Soul, For Sale, Revolver, The White Album, pretty much anything but Peppers - sorry to be so negative - It doesn't do anything for me." -Dwayne Jessome
"I've been a fan of Floyd since 1967. In my humble opinion they will be regarded as classical music in the next century as Beethoven is regarded now." - John
"It isn't quite my favourite album by the Beatles, but this is definately a legendary and quintessential album. I love the title track and its reprise and Fixing A Hole, Good Morning Good Morning and She's Leaving Home." -Theresa
"I think this album really made an impact as all of the Beatles did.But there are 1 or 2 others that I would prefer. cheers deb" - debbie m/over 25yr lsitner
"Hearing some bootlehg material from those recording sessions is even more magical, listening to the raw tracks gives insight to where The Beatles were as far as technology in the studio. It will live on for many future generations, like a valued painting or piece or art." - Mike
"An essential masterpiece. It seems to be de rigueur to say that this album isn't close to the Beatles' best. Of course, this talk is eminently subjective (yes, I suppose I prefer Revolver and White Album), but Sgt. Pepper's is a great work in its own right and the songs/stories behind them are legendary. I was lucky enough to attend a talk given by George Martin at the Winter Garden last year . . . his reminiscences were fascinating. And he made a point of puffing up Ringo's contribs." - chauncey gardener
"A Great Album that shows The Beatles Intelligent and Revolutionary minds. It Changed music writting from then on and inspired many other bands. That is what makes all The Beatles albums great they are intellegent Revolutionary and inspiring." - JT
"the mono version is, by far, the superior version. even though this isn't the best beatles record; it's still pretty darn good." - jake mooney
"Is there any truth to the rumor that if sargent pepper's is plaid bacwards you hear "Paul is dead"? Does paul have an OPP crest on his costume and if so how did he get it?" - Steve Brightman
"While I get that this was a ground breaking album, the more sophisticated & clearly ahead of it's time, Abbey Road, should be on this list." - CEW
"Brilliant album that broke down all of the barriers. -- The OPP badge was given to Paul when the Beatles performed at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1966." - Ben Taylor
"Paul is Dead" is actually "Cran-berry-Sauce" Oh no! that's "I buried Paul" Paul got the OPP crest from Cam Wooly." - gord
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