Friday, May 26, 2017

50 years ago: The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles

image from beatlestrade.narod.ru


Released: May 26, 1967


Peak: 115 US, 128 UK, 1 CN, 130 AU


Sales (in millions): 11.0 US, 5.1 UK, 32.0 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: classic psychedelic rock


Tracks:

Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

You can check out the Beatles’ complete singles discography here.

  1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band [2:02] (9/16/78, 78 US, 63 UK)
  2. With a Little Help from My Friends [2:44] (9/16/78, 78 US, 63 UK)
  3. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds [3:28]
  4. Getting Better [2:47]
  5. Fixing a Hole [2:36]
  6. She’s Leaving Home [3:35]
  7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite [2:37]
  8. Within You, Without You (Harrison) [5:05]
  9. When I’m Sixty-Four [2:37]
  10. Lovely Rita [2:42]
  11. Good Morning, Good Morning [2:41]
  12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) [1:18]
  13. A Day in the Life [5:33] (9/16/78, B-side of “Sgt. Pepper’s…/With a Little Help…”)

Songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney unless noted otherwise.


Total Running Time: 39:36


The Players:

  • John Lennon (vocals, guitar)
  • Paul McCartney (vocals, bass)
  • George Harrison (guitar, vocals)
  • Ringo Starr (drums, vocals)

Rating:

4.565 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings)


Quotable: “The single most influential album in the history of pop” – Chris Speicher, The Review


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

“The Beatles were undoubtedly the most successful and significant rock group in history” NRR and Sgt. Pepper was their masterwork. It is “one of the most influential albums of all time,” BA “the album that many regard as having changed the course of popular music forever” CDU and that “revolutionized rock & roll.” RS’87 “When Sgt. Pepper’s dropped, everything about it – its ambition, conceptual unity, drug references, elaborate cover art, bizarre sound effects - made an immediate, incalculable impact.” RS’97

“Critics [say] that this is the most experimental, the most groundbreaking album ever produced by rock, after which inspired listeners go and put on Freak Out! or The Piper at the Gates of Dawn or, well, even The Velvet Underground & Nico and say: ‘THAT was experimentation? C’mon, that was just a bunch of pretty pop songs!” GS

However, “the songs are breathtaking,” TL “each masterfully arranged.” NRR “The musicianship [is] unparalleled, the production [is] perfect.” TL “The songs embrace a myriad of divergent styles yet, through the collective genius of these musicians, they are melded into a cohesive whole. The album makes use of novel studio techniques in creating an enchanting musical experience which transcends genre.” NRR “There has never been another band that could do so many different things – [the] songs…cover more ground than you get in most rock careers.” TL

“It was this album, and not any other, that led serious music lovers, many ‘classical snobs’ included, to finally recognize rock music” GS “as actual art.” BA While Frank Zappa was too ‘crazy’ to be considered ‘worthy’, the Beach Boys spoiled all the fun with their Hollywood arrangements, and Bob Dylan was still primarily a lyricist, the Beatles did it exactly the right way, and nobody can get away from the fact.” GS

“It is the peak of the Beatles’ recorded output, representing their last truly collaborative effort. Sgt. Pepper was also one of the finest albums conceived as a complete listening experience. Previously popular albums were generally a couple of hit singles patched together with some album tracks and some filler to create the necessary minutes for two LP sides. The Beatles changed all of that forever by releasing this very psychedelic work at the peak of the summer of love, influencing hundreds of up-and-coming musicians.” TM

In 1966, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album “created a new landmark in ambition and beauty in rock” BW while the Beatles cranked out their own music-altering masterpiece with Revolver, “reaching a previously unheard-of level of sophistication and fearless experimentation.” STE “With Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles completely altered the face of popular music for the second time.” RS’97

Studio Magic

“Weary of performing in stadiums full of screaming teeny-boppers,” RS’97 The Beatles permanently retreated from stage to studio, leading to the creation of what “is regarded by many music critics and fans alike as not only the climax of the Beatles career, but also one the finest albums ever recorded.” RM “…removed, essentially for the first time, from the nonstop hoopla of Beatlemania, they also had time to question their identity as Beatles. A chasm had begun to open between their growing musical sophistication and the public’s perception of them as lovable mop tops. The magnitude of the Beatles phenomenon was starting to encroach on the band – and their experience with psychedelic drugs made that phenomenon seem increasingly surreal. Already trapped, in their early twenties, the Beatles had to find a way out…” RS’87

The subsequent 700 hours of studio time RM and “four meticulous months spent putting the album together were like an aural experiment in some laboratory. The Beatles used the studio as an instrument: changing tape speeds, experimenting with microphone placement, using unconventional instruments…etc.” TM “The 129 days it took…to complete Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are sometimes referred to as the most creative 129 days in music history.” CS

“Inspired by Eastern influences, classical music, Pet Sounds and mind-altering substances, The Beatles pushed the envelope of recording capabilities,” CS experimenting “with music that was too complex …to perform onstage.” RS’97 They “consciously synthesized such disparate influences as psychedelia, art-song, classical music, rock & roll, and music hall, often in the course of one song. Not once does the diversity seem forced.” STESgt. Pepper was the most breathtaking and innovative piece of modern music the world had ever heard.” LS

“This four-track recording is still a masterpiece.” CL “The musical experimentation was dynamic and fresh, several tracks were edited to create seamless transitions, and even the visual design was more elaborate than anything previously attempted.” VH1

George Martin “was the chemist who made their crazy ideas work. He shaped their glorious songs and fantasmagorical lyrics with melody and harmony, pushing recording technique into unknown waters.” CL “Martin and The Beatles searched for new sounds and studio effects. They added crowd sounds and animal cries from sound-effects recordings, sped up Paul McCartney’s vocals in ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ (to make him sound younger), and sustained a single piano chord for 40 seconds to end ‘A Day in the Life.’ The orchestrations, scored by Martin, were hailed by critics as bridging the gap between pop and classical music, and many people who had never bought a rock record bought Sgt. Pepper’s.” VH1

Concept Album?

“The project was to be a song cycle based on the Beatles’ lives starting with ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane.’ However, the recording process became expensive and behind schedule, so the two songs were released as a single and the song cycle was dropped. The Lonely Hearts concept joined the individual songs together,” TM “cutting and bending [them] until they created a perfect, seamless album” CS and “cohesive package.” TM

While the original concept was dropped, a new idea sprang forth. Paul McCartney suggested, “‘Why don’t we just make up some incredible alter egos and think, ‘Now how would he sing it? How would he approach this track?’ And it freed us. It was a very liberating thing to do.’” RS’87

However, “apart from some relatively modest touches - the colorful uniforms, the opening theme song, the reprise near the end and Ringo’s entertaining turn as ‘the one and only Billy Shears’ in ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ – the alter egos make no discernible appearances on the album. But one look at the cover of Sgt. Pepper – festooned with the band’s wildly eclectic gallery of heroes and…wax figures of the youthful Fab Four standing next to their far more…serious-looking real-life counterparts - eloquently tells how greatly removed the group had grown from what they were.” RS’87 “The Fab Four wax statues fossilized the formerly frivolous pop sensations, or the Ghost of Beatles Past.” LS “Under the guise of alter egos the Beatles had finally allowed their real selves to emerge.” RS’87

Consquently, “even though this isn’t a concept album as such it remains the very first concept album in popular public consciousness.” AD “It is the first Beatles album conceived as an album, not just a bunch of songs (their first released identically in the US and the UK), and the first rock album where the songs blend into each other with no breaks.” DBW

“The preponderance of whimsy and self-conscious art gives the impression that Paul McCartney is the leader...He dominates the album in terms of compositions, setting the tone for the album with his unabashed melodicism and deviously clever arrangements.” STE “There’s McCartney’s effortless mastery of all manner of pop styles, including…the ballad ‘She’s Leaving Home,’” the rock-classic title song, and “the music-hall cameo” BW of the “vaudevillian ‘When I’m 64’ [which] seems like a logical extension of ‘Within You Without You’ and how it provides a gateway to the chiming guitars of ‘Lovely Rita.’” STE

“In comparison, Lennon’s contributions seem fewer…but his major statements are stunning,” STE including his “wild excursions into psychedelia” BW and the evocative word/sound pictures [of] the trippy ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ [or] the carnival-like ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.’” BA

There are also the “sly inside jokes…take, for example, the dog whistle – which humans can’t hear – buried on the album’s second side. “We’re sitting around the studio, and one of the engineers starts talking about wavelengths, wave forms and stuff, kilohertz,” McCartney recalls…‘We were all saying, ‘Wow, man. Hey, wow…We gotta have it on! There’s going to be one dog and his owner, and I’d just love to be there when his ears prick up.’” RS’87

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

With its “cool guitar solo and the trombone-led band anthem.” GS “the introductory title track immediately sets Sgt. Pepper apart…George Harrison’s distorted guitar couples with classical horns before John Lennon informs listeners ‘It was 20 years ago today / Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.’” CS This song and the reprise at the end of the album before the epic “A Day in the Life,” are “almost a Cavern-style throwback as if to remind you who exactly you are listening to” AD and “are actually two of the least interesting things here.” AD Jimi Hendrix famously covered the song just days after its release.

“With a Little Help from My Friends”

The title cut flows into With a Little Help from My Friends, with an introduction of “the one and only Billy Shears,” in what is really the only other attempt to hang on to the we’re-another-band idea. The song “was the last track to be recorded for the album. It was included…as it was felt by the group that a happy sing-along tune was all that was missing from the finished product.” RM It is the ideal Ringo tune, a rolling, friendly pop song that hides genuine Lennon anguish, ala ‘Help!.’” STE The song is “possibly Ringo’s finest ever Beatles vocal” AD showcasing his “steady drumming and his timeless, everyman vocals.” BW Joe Cocker recorded a version in 1969 which became one of his signature hits.

“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds remains one of the touchstones of British psychedelia.” STE The song “was said to have been written with Alice in Wonderland in mind and was not a reference to the drug culture at the time, despite the ‘coincedental’ LSD of the shortened title.” RM It has been widely reported that John Lennon named the song after a drawing by his son Julian. GS Elton John took his cover version of the song to #1.

“Getting Better”

“The guitar riff that opens” AD the “giddy ‘60s anthem” JA Getting Better “sets the tone for a straightforward pop/rock song,” AD an “optimistic and uptight Paul rocker.” GS “McCartney is most noticeable with the extremely melodic bass lines that push the song forwards. The handclaps are attention to detail. Nothing is missed for what is essentially a simple song” AD “said to have been written after a remark McCartney made to a friend one spring day whilst out walking his dog.” RM

“Fixing a Hole”

The introspective Fixing a Hole “benefits from McCartney’s melodic bass lines, and the harmonies [which are] perfectly and subtly placed but always in exactly the right places.” AD Accusations that it was “influenced by drugs…were denied by McCartney, who claimed that the song was actually about ‘the hole in your personal make-up’ and also about himself “examining his own thoughts.’” RM

“She’s Leaving Home”

The “beautiful” AD She’s Leaving Home, “certainly Paul’s most gorgeous ballad ever,” GS is “written around a newspaper story about a girl who runs away from home to find excitement.” RM The song “could have been a chamber piece done centuries before.” LS It is “the four at their most wise.” BL

“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”

This is supposedly John Lennon’s lyrical transformation of an 1843 circus advertising poster. RM The song is “a very visual track” RM with a “great Lennon vocal” AD and a “swirly sounding steam organ.” RM The song also “experiment[ed] with backwards tapes as well as a silly but groovy experiment with cutting up tapes and stitching them again in random order.” GS The song was covered in Julie Taymor’s 2007 movie musical tribute to the Beatles, Across the Universe.

“Within You Without You”

George Harrison was “engulfed in Indian Mysticism” RM when he wrote the “dramatic sitar composition Within You Without YouBW that is filled with “Indian-influenced pearls of wisdom” JA and “the paradoxical wisdom of Eastern religious philosophy.” RS’87 While “many people seem to hate” the song, Harrison “manages to fit into the Indian pattern and make a catchy melody at the same time.” GS

“When I’m 64”

When I’m 64 is a “happy sing-along type of song” RM with a “stupidly happy base line [and] and English music hall feel” AD that McCartney wrote “as a tribute to his father,” RM supposedly about ten years before. GS In 1982, the song was used as the intro for the Robin Williams’ movie The World According to Garp.

“Lovely Rita”

Another McCartney composition, this one “is said to have been influenced by a chance meeting with a London traffic warden, although the finished song leans towards the seduction of a woman in uniform.” RM The “vocal apes Lennon, the bass rises and falls, the lyrics are a storytelling humorous delight, and then these wonderful harmonies come in.” AD

“Good Morning, Good Morning”

Next up is one of John Lennon’s “abrasive, slice-of-life rockers” JA “is all about being tired of the same old routine, day after day.” RM It “is the only real rock song here, with some cooking guitar solos and lots of wailing animals in the end.” GS

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)/A Day in the Life”

After a reprise of the title track, the album closes with the “avant-garde mini-suite” BA A Day in the Life, “a haunting number” STE and “standout track on the album.” BL The song disects “the sterile absurdity of mainstream values” RS’87 and “skillfully blends Lennon’s verse and chorus with McCartney’s bridge.” STE “This is pure Lennon and McCartney genius and is without doubt the highlight track on the album.” RM It “may be the most ambitious song ever recorded, veering in unexpected directions and pushing the boundaries of experimentation.” CS “It would be worth buying the album just for this track alone.” RM Lennon’s “soulful vocals” LS sound “weary as the song begins, with his Everyman describing the suicide of a member of the House of Lords. ‘And though the news was rather sad,’ he sings, ‘I just had to laugh / Having seen the photograph.’” CS

“The simple phrase ‘I’d love to turn you on’ sends the song swirling until it emerges into McCartney’s version of his morning” CS and then one last blast from Lennon. The song then tumbles into a “musical orgasm of the whole orchestra building up a terrific crescendo” GS that makes the song seem to “teeter on the edge of a musical abyss until a thundering piano chord” CS ends what is “arguably rock music’s most empathetic, sublime creation: a suicide, a ringing alarm clock, and the chord to end all chords.” BW

“Quite how producer George Martin squeezes so much sound into this track is incredible, especially when you consider the equipment available to him at the time.” RM With its “complex orchestration,” JA the song “sounds like the end of the world with the noise and the strings and everything else…a more than impressive production” AD to end “the single most influential album in the history of pop.” CS

“Inner Groove”

Of course, from a completely technical standpoint, the album isn’t over. There’s still “the famous Inner Groove – the snippet of pointless conversation that sticks in the album’s run-out groove… – has [a]…zany genesis…McCartney explains, ‘a lot of record players didn’t have auto-change. You would play an album and it would go, ‘Tick, tick, tick,’ in the run-out groove - it would just stay there endlessly…We said, ‘What if…every time it did that, it said something?’ So we put a little loop of conversation on.’” RS’87

Concluding Thoughts

“It’s possible to argue that there are better Beatles albums, yet no album is as historically important as this. After Sgt. Pepper, there were no rules to follow – rock and pop bands could try anything, for better or worse.” STE “This one album revolutionized, altered, and reinvented the boundaries of 20th century popular music, style, and graphic art.” CLSgt. Pepper captures the British sixties atmosphere to perfection, probably better than any other album from the era…Along with Revolver, Abbey Road and The White Album, Sgt. Pepper should be in everyone’s album collection.” RM “A splendid time is still guaranteed for all.” TL


Notes: --

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Other Related DMDB Pages:


First posted 2/15/2008; last updated 8/21/2021.

100 years ago: “For Me and My Gal” charted for the first time

For Me and My Gal

Van & Schenck

Writer(s): George Meyer (music), Edgar Leslie and E. Ray Goetz (words) (see lyrics here)


First Charted: May 26, 1917


Peak: 13 US, 112 GA, 112 SM (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 3.0 (sheet music)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

For Me and My Gal

Judy Garland & Gene Kelly


First Charted: January 24, 1942


Peak: 3 US, 6 GA, 8 HP, 12 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 3.0 (sheet music)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards (Van & Schenck):

Click on award for more details.


Awards (Garland/Kelly):

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

George W. Meyer was a composer born in Boston in 1884. He had hits spanning many years, including “”My Song of the Nile,” “Lonesome,” “My Mother’s Rosary” and the great novelty song “Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go with Friday on Saturday Night?” PS However, his biggest hit was probably “For Me and My Gal.” He wrote the music and came up with the title and then tapped Edgar Leslie and E. Ray Goetz to write the lyrics. TY2 When Meyer died, his wife had the song title inscribed on his tombstone. RCG

The song “was a forerunner of the jazz age.” RCG Its lyrics about “bells ringing and birds singing as two turtle doves go off to their wedding” RCG showed that in 1917, even as Americans were consumed by World War I, they still relished love songs.

The popular vaudeville team of Van & Schenck recorded the song and took it #1. Others to sing it on vaudeville included Belle Baker, Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker. 1917 saw three more chart version in addition to Van & Schenck’s – Prince’s Orchestra (#5), Henry Burr & Albert Campbell (#7), and Billy Murray (#9). PM The sheet music moved three million copies.

The song “was still on pianos all over America” RCG In 1942 when Gene Kelly and Judy Garland sang the song in the movie of the same name. The movie celebrated vaudeville and other hits from the World War I era. Their recording was a #3 hit featuring Garland’s then-husband David Rose and His Orchestra. DJ Guy Lombardo also charted with a version of the song in 1943, reaching #17.


Resources:


Related Links:


First posted 5/26/2012; last updated 3/31/2023.