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

The Recording:
“The Beatles insisted that everything on Sgt. Pepper had to be different,” says Geoff Emerick, an engineer at Abbey Road Studios. And everything was. This album changed the world. It defined a whole generation. “So,” he says, “everything was either distorted, heavily compressed, or treated with excessive equalization.”

They turned headphones into bass mics, put mics down in the bells of the brass section, sent echoes through a Hammond organ circuitry, and even used oscillating fans to fuck stuff up. You know how you talk in a fan and you sound like Darth Vader? Well, the Beatles did that too.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a ground-breaking piece of music. The very end of the album epitomizes the high-tech (of the day) studio trickery applied throughout the album. After the last crashing piano chord of “A Day in the Life”, there are a few seconds of 15 kilocycle tone put there (at the special request of John Lennon) especially to annoy your dog. Then there’s a bunch of Beatlechatter, as I say: taped chatter that’s been cut and put back again backwards and upside down, and stuck together at random. No, there’s no hidden message. People took a lot of drugs back then.

The recording of Sgt. Pepper took 129 days. “Probably the most creative 129 days in the history of rock music” says Emerick. The Beatles experimented with a multitude of instruments, from a smorgasbord of Indian instruments (“Within You Without You”) to a bass harmonica (“Mr. Kite!”) to a comb and paper (“Lovely Rita”). Also notable is a steam organ and a rooster.

The Songs:

When I’m Sixty-Four
Abbey Road Studio Two, December 6, 1966.
Writer and Vocal: Paul McCartney

A Day In the Life
Abbey Road Studio Two, January 19, 1967
Working Title: “In The Life of…”
Writer and Vocal: John Lennon, with Paul

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Abbey Road Studio Two, February 1, 1967
Writer and Vocal: Paul

Good Morning, Good Morning
Abbey Road Studio Two, February 8, 1967
Writer and Vocal: John

Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Abbey Road Studio Two, February 17, 1967
Writer and Vocal: John

Fixing a Hole
Regent Sound Studio, London, February 21, 1967, later completed at Abbey Road
Writer and Vocal: Paul

Lovely Rita
Abbey Road Studio Two, February 23, 1967
Writer and Vocal: Paul

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Abbey Road Studio Two, March 1, 1967
Writer and Vocal: John

Getting Better
Abbey Road Studio Two, March 9, 1967
Writer and Vocal: Paul

She’s Leaving Home
Abbey Road Studio Two, March 17, 1967
Writer: Paul, with John
Vocal: Paul, with John

Within You Without You
Abbey Road Studio Two, March 22, 1967
Writer and Vocal: George Harrison

With a Little Help From My Friends
Abbey Road Studio Two, March 29, 1967
Working Title: “Bad Finger Boogie”
Writer: John and Paul
Vocal: Ringo Starr

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
Abbey Road Studio One, April 1, 1967
Writer: Paul
Vocal: Paul, John and George.

Three other songs were recorded during these sessions: “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Penny Lane”, and “Only a Northern Song”. “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” were released as a double A-Side, and “Only a Northern Song” appeared on the Yellow Submarine> soundtrack.

Recording Info for those songs are as follows:
Strawberry Fields Forever
Abbey Road Studio Two, November 24, 1966
Writer and Vocal: John

Penny Lane
Abbey Road Studio Two, December 29, 1966
Writer and Vocal: Paul

Only a Northern Song
Abbey Road Studio Two, February 13, 1967
Writer and Vocal: George

The sequence of songs on the album were originally different, because initially, Sgt. Pepper was supposed to have a medley (think Abbey Road). The original sequence is as follows:

Side one:
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help From My Friends
3. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
4. Fixing a Hole
5. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
6. Getting Better
7. She’s Leaving Home

Of course, this was changed to:
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!

The Cover:
This is pretty much already noded, but, some extra info… The cover of Sgt. Pepper is probably the most recognized one in rock music. It was designed by Peter Blake for 200 pounds. The Beatles already had a cover designed by Dutch art Group called the Fool, but Paul suggested that the idea of The Beatles playing as another band…and the cover was changed. The photo session for the cover was the most elaborate ever, requiring legal releases from the celebrities in the “audience” from Bob Dylan to Marlon Brando, and the Beatles themselves.

The Theme:
The Beatles found inspiration everywhere- in the innocence of childhood to the phantasmagoria of LSD, to a leaky roof, and anything and everything in-between. “Mr. Kite” is derived from an 1843 circus flyer, “Fixing a Hole” was born upon the McCartney roof, and “Lucy in the Sky” is the soundtrack to a painting by the four-year-old Julian Lennon…or so John says. After taping the song “Sgt. Pepper”, Paul came across the idea of making a theme album, “as though Sgt. Pepper was making the recording.” The Cover portrait portrays the band in…a park maybe, after the concert with the audience in the background.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released June 1, 1967.