Press launch of 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. Back row left to right:Ringo Starr, George Harrison. Front row: Paul McCartney and John Lennon in May 1967
Press launch of 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. Back row left to right:Ringo Starr, George Harrison. Front row: Paul McCartney and John Lennon in May 1967
On May 26, 1967, The Beatles released their eighth studio album that was lauded by the critics at the time for its innovations in production, song-writing and graphic design.
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band took the world by storm and spent 27 weeks at the top of theUK album charts and 15 weeks at No 1 in the US. It went on to win four Grammy awards in 1968 including album of the year, the first rock album to achieve that honour.
Sgt Pepper was the brainchild of Paul McCartney, who conceived the album as a show staged by a fictional Edwardian brass band transported through time into the psychedelic age and played by the electronically equipped Beatles. It became the album of The Summer of Love.
When the album was recorded, almost all the conventions of recording and producing albums were thrown out. Sgt Pepper was one of the first albums to have a gatefold sleeve, printed lyrics, decorated inner bag, free gift and a cover designed by a celebrated artist.
During the recording sessions at EMI's Abbey Road studios in November of 1967, the band adopted an experimental approach to recording many of the tracks knowing they would not be performing them live, such as Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite and A Day in the Life.
Many tracks contained orchestral overdubs, sound effects and other methods of tape manipulation that the legendary George Martin came up with.
Recording sessions started at 7pm most evenings and went well into the night. The first song recorded for the album was Strawberry Fields, followed by When I'm 64 and Penny Lane.
Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane were released as a double A-side single in February of 1968 but surprisingly failed to reach the No 1 spot on the charts, which led the British music press to speculate that The Beatles' reign at the top might be over. How wrong they were.
When the album was released it went straight to the Number 1 spot and there it stayed.
Rolling Stone magazine named Sgt Pepper's the No 1 album in its list of the top 500 albums of all time. As of 2018 it has sold more that 32 million copies.
On its 50th anniversary in 2017 a special deluxe edition was released with all the tracks digitally remastered.
