The Beatles Albums – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Inspired by Elvis’s Cadillac going on tour around the world whilst The King sat at home, The Beatles had a revelation! Why not create and release an album that could go on tour whilst the fab four rested easy? Thus the concept for Sgt Pepper’s was born. It took 129 days to record and on its completion Rolling Stone went on to hail it as ‘The Most Important Rock n Roll Album Ever Made’. It was also noted as being the very first concept album in existence; Sgt Peppers was a soundtrack that by definition wasn’t for this world.   

McCartney and Lennon both made scathing remarks towards the industry and were said to be fed up ‘with the four little mop tops approach’ noting that they could send ‘four wax works on tour and that would satisfy the crowds’. Down and out from the endless output, The Beatles were on the verge of breakup. After a 2 month vacation the band reunited with the idea of breathing life into a new concept and sending Sgt Pepper out into the world to save the day.   

At times the record takes on a big top circus feel with songs like ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite’ and the ever famous’ Lucy in the Sky withDiamonds’. Yet the elaborate soundscape manages to transport us both out of this world and back again, with the stark realism of’ She’s Leaving Home’ and ‘When I’m 64’. The album starts with a big bang, on a high note as the marching band plays on with the title track ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, listening to the rest of the tracks can feel like heady combination of times flying and falling. When we get to the resonant end with A Day in the Life we are taken down slowly and left in a surreal and somber world. Arguably, no album comes close to providing the ride that Sgt Peppers does.   

Sgt Peppers changed the world in a way the marketing hype couldn’t ever hope to achieve. It made anything in musical possible, it brought reality to even the most far out, controversial ideas, it popped pop out of the snug little box and stated loud and clear that commercial music didn’t have to follow a formula. Oh how we wish the message had transmitted loud and clear to modern music. As the fab four waved goodbye to world tours, mop tops, and cheeky chappy liverpudlian charisma we were left with something much more human, and a sound more groundbreaking than any album that had preceded it.   

Sgt Pepper has left the music industry with a legacy. This is the album that won number one in the Greatest Album of the Millennium, number one in Rolling Stones Greatest Album of All Time as well as scoring high in every album poll that ever existed. At the time of its release it won four Grammies and became a global hit, even surpassing the iron curtain to make it into the Soviet Union’s black market.   

Suffice to say there has never been an album like it, and yes thank you, we really did enjoy the show.