8 SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND TURNS 50
On June 1, 1967, John, Paul, George and Ringo changed the world when they released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of the greatest albums of all time. Now, for its 50th anniversary, the band’s label is putting out a massive reissue featuring two discs of out-takes. Giles Martin, the son of late Beatles producer George Martin, who helped oversee the effort, and Jann Haworth, co-designer of the iconic album art, take us through it. (Out now)
PAUL AND RINGO WERE HEAVILY INVOLVED
“Paul has to be happy and Ringo has to be happy,” says Martin of creating his immersive stereo remix. “I had a huge safety net, and the safety net is them.”
EVEN THE WORLD’S BEST BAND STUFFED UP SOMETIMES
Sure, every note of Sgt. Pepper’s is perfect —but that’s because some weird ideas were cut, Martin reveals. “What’s reassuring is that even on an album full of good ideas, they came up with bad ones—which is heartening for us mere mortals. Their willingness to try things shows how they got to where they got.”
PAUL AND JOHN WERE A SYMBIOTIC UNIT IN THE STUDIO
While their creative partnership would be strained after Sgt. Pepper’s— the Beatles announced their break-up three years later— the pair were still in tandem for these sessions. “You hear them giving each other guidance,” says Martin about the out-takes. “The album is the sum of their parts.”
MISSING LINKS
The Beatles began these sessions by recording “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane”, but those tracks didn’t make it onto the LP and were instead released as one 7-inch single. “It was a sea change for the way things were recorded. They wanted to paint pictures with sound and create a world that they couldn’t perform live,” says Martin.
FAMOUS FIGURES WERE CUT FROM THE COVER
The Beatles tapped pop artists Peter Blake and Haworth to help create the iconic image, which showed the band surrounded by cutouts of 58 historical figures. John had lobbied to include Hitler, Ghandi and Jesus—but those were nixed. “It would’ve been a disaster [if Hitler were included],” says Haworth. “He was not infallible, our John.”
GRAMMARIANS, TAKE NOTE: THERE IS AN APOSTROPHE
It’s a question long debated by Beatlemaniacs: is it Sgt. Peppers or Sgt. Pepper’s? The cover art’s bass drum famously omitted an apostrophe, but Haworth is setting the record straight. “It was a mistake. Sgt. Pepper is the man—and the band belongs to him.” — Eric Renner Brown