Sgt Pepper: 50 facts about the iconic album on the day of his 50th anniversary
Newspaper the Liverpool Echo has published 50 facts about the album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in honor of its 50th anniversary.
1. Sgt Pepper was the eighth Studio album by the Beatles.
2. He spent 27 weeks on the first place of the charts in the United Kingdom.
3. Paul McCartney came up with the concept of Sgt Pepper, back on the plane to London from Kenya in November 1966.
4. He decided he wanted to write a song about the military band of the Edwardian era.
5. When the band began recording the album at the now legendary Abbey Road Studio Two, the first composed songs was Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane.
6. These songs became the title track of the single, released in February 1967, but to take first place in the UK failed.
7. As a result, the Manager Brian Epstein insisted that these songs were not included in the album Sgt Pepper.
8. After recording a single Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band it was decided that the entire album will be written as if if is another group that will allow the Beatles to experiment with sound.
9. The group took almost five months to record the whole album — it was completed on 21 April 1967.
10. One of the artists who participated in the creation of the cover, was sir Peter Blake, who also came up with a cover of Do They Know It’s Christmas for Band Aid and the poster for Live Aid.
11. Another designer was then the wife of Blake Jane Howarth, who became a fighter for women’s rights.
12. The concept of the cover was that the group was dressed in the form of the orchestra at the official ceremony in the Park.
13. Each beatle, as well as Howard, Blake and gallerist Robert Fraser asked which characters they would like to add the cover.
14. Offers John Lennon included Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ — both were rejected.
15. Some wondered why the cover wasn’t Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney said that Elvis was too important and too high above others to even mention.
16. To create the image, Blake and Howard put on a solid cardboard 57 black-and-white images of the heroes cover in full size. Then Howard painted them manually.
17. The cover also includes four wax figures of the Beatles, courtesy of the Museum Madame Tussauds in London.
18. Made composition dolls including Shirley temple doll in a sweater that says Welcome the Rolling Stones.
19. During your stay in India, George Harrison grew a mustache for disguise, and on the album cover mustache have all group members.
20. The inspiration for flower of the inscription served as a municipal floral clock, which Howard saw in London.
21. On the back cover of the album lyrics were printed in full — this LP was made for the first time.
22. Mae West initially wasn’t allowed to use his image for the cover, but relented when the Beatles sent her a letter asking to grant permission.
23. While on the album cover spent an average of £50. The final price covers Sgt Pepper amounted to almost £3 thousand
24. For his work, Blake and Haworth received in 1968 the award “Grammy”.
25. Once Sgt Pepper topped the list of the 500 greatest albums of all time according to Rolling Stone magazine.
26. This was not agreed by all in 1998 Melody Maker interviewed journalists, pop stars and DJs, and the album is recognized as the worst entry in the history.
27. Producer George Martin said that a major influence on Paul McCartney in those days had an album Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys. “Without Pet Sounds, Sgt Pepper wouldn’t have happened”, — he noted.
28. The first track included in the album, was a song When I’m Sixty-Four.
29. George Martin showed their musical talents during the recording of the album — for example, for the song Fixing a Hole, he played the harpsichord, Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite — on the harmonium, and Getting Better — on the electro-mechanical piano, Hohner Pianet.
30. On the first album the Beatles Please Please Me went for £400, the final cost of Sgt Pepper is estimated at £25 thousand
31. Crowd noise between songs Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and With A Little Help From My Friends recorded by George Martin at a concert of the Beatles in concert “Hollywood bowl”.
32. On the radio “Bi-bi-si” has banned several songs from this album, including A Day In The Life because of the words “I’d love to turn you on”.
33. And Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite because of the words “Henry the Horse”.
34. And Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.
35. But John Lennon denied the connection of the song with the abbreviation for an illegal drug. The musician claimed was inspired by a picture his four year old son Julian.
36. In the album there is a high sound that is not perceived by people, but dogs can hear.
37. They say that the song Fixing A Hole Paul McCartney was partially inspired by the time spent for the repair of the farmhouse in Scotland.
38. It was believed that the inspiration for She’s Leaving Home was the article in the Daily Mail newspaper about teenage runaways.
39. And the song Good Morning Good Morning was said to have inspired the is corn flakes Kellogg’s.
40. Sgt Pepper was the first Beatles album, the track listing which was the same in Britain and in the United States.
41. Before the release of the album, the band showed it to my friend, singer Cass Elliot of The Mamas and The Papas, who lived in the apartment on King’s Road. Musicians add sound and completely lost the plate, and it happened at six in the morning, with wide open Windows, and the neighbors allegedly realized that listening to unreleased work of the Beatles, did not complain to the police.
42. The album was released on 1 June 1967.
43. It was the first album ever released simultaneously around the world.
44. Only in the first seven days he has sold 250 thousand copies.
45. In just three months the number of sold worldwide copies has reached 2.5 million.
46. At that time none of the song Sgt Pepper was released as a single.
47. To date, this is the third best-selling album of all time in the UK 5.1 million First place Queen — Greatest Hits (6.1 million), the second — ABBA — Gold: Greatest Hits (5.3 million).
48. All of the album’s songs were written by Lennon and McCartney, except Within You Without You, composed by George Harrison.
49. Sgt Pepper was the biggest selling album in the world in the 1960-ies.
50. To date, he has sold more than 32 million copies.
Translation Beatles.Ru