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Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Where the lyrics of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band take you, and where it was really made.

The album's sessions began with two songs that were later pulled from the LP: "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were released as a double A-side single in February 1967 and left off the album.

Key places

Where the sessions began (1966)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — Sessions for the album began on 24 November 1966 in Studio Two at EMI Studios, which was later renamed Abbey Road Studios. The place is listed here at building level. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• Eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles
• Released in the UK on 26 May 1967
• Regarded by musicologists as an early concept album
• Considered one of the first art rock LPs and a progenitor to progressive rock
• Cover designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth

Background

• End of August 1966: the Beatles permanently retired from touring
• Pursued individual interests for the next three months
• November 1966: Paul McCartney had an idea for a song involving an Edwardian military band, which became the impetus of the concept
• Album loosely conceptualised as a performance by the fictional Sgt. Pepper band
• The fictional band idea was conceived after the recording of the title track

Recording

• Sessions began on 24 November 1966 in Studio Two at EMI Studios
• No absolute deadline for completion; open-ended sessions began at 7 pm
• "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were released as a double A-side single in February 1967 and left off the LP
• Producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick assisted with sound effects and tape manipulation
• Four-track equipment was used for the recording
• Recording was completed on 21 April 1967

Cover

• The Beatles pose in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures
• Photographed by Michael Cooper and art-directed by Robert Fraser
• The album's lyrics were printed in full on the back cover

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960
• Grew out of Lennon's earlier band the Quarrymen
• Built its reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg
• Starr officially joined in 1962

Members

• John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr

Career

• Manager Brian Epstein shaped them into a professional act
• Producer George Martin developed their recordings after they signed with EMI
• First hit Love Me Do came in late 1962
• By early 1964 they were international stars
• Part of the British Invasion of the US pop market
• Retired from live performance in 1966
• Turned to more sophisticated studio albums: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album and Abbey Road
• Founded Apple Corps in 1968
• Broke up in 1970

Around this album

• Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together
• On 20 September 1969, six days before release, Lennon told McCartney, Starr and manager Allen Klein that he wanted a divorce from the group
• No public announcement of the split came until McCartney announced he was leaving in April 1970

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Tom Phillips in The Village Voice called the LP "the most ambitious and most successful record album ever issued" (as cited by Nicholas Schaffner)
• William Mann in The Times described it as a "pop music master-class"
• Jack Kroll in Newsweek called it a "masterpiece"
• Richard Goldstein in The New York Times wrote a negative review, calling it an album of special effects, dazzling but ultimately fraudulent
• Peter Clayton in Gramophone praised the combination of imagination, cheek and skill
• Most contemporary reviews were positive

Reappraisal

• Rob Sheffield in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) described it as a masterwork of sonics, not songwriting
• Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph described it as a wonky, colourful and wildly improbable pop classic, a little slighter and less cohesive than it may have seemed at the time
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said the diversity of styles never seemed forced
• Mark Kemp in Paste called it one of rock's most overrated albums
• Critics of the 1980s and later often reassessed Goldstein's critique

Records

• Topped the Record Retailer chart (now UK Albums Chart) for 23 consecutive weeks from 10 June 1967, plus four more weeks through February 1968
• Topped the Billboard Top LPs chart in the US for 15 weeks, from 1 July to 13 October 1967
• Sold 250,000 copies in the UK in its first seven days on sale
• 2.5 million copies sold within three months of release
• Won four Grammy Awards in 1968, including Album of the Year
• Certified sales of 5.1 million copies in the UK as of April 2019
• More than 32 million copies sold worldwide as of 2011

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The Beatles took an acetate disc of the completed album to the flat of American singer Cass Elliot in Chelsea and played it at full volume at six in the morning.
• The album was the first pop album to be mastered without the momentary gaps usually placed between tracks.
• Recording the album took about 700 hours, more than 30 times that of the band's first album, Please Please Me.
• The final cost of the album was approximately £25,000.
• The album was launched at a party at Brian Epstein's house in Belgravia, described as the first "listen-in" for music journalists.
• The album's first commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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