The Beatles Album Covers – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Fans might be surprised to learn that the total cost for the theatrical, vibrant cover of the Beatles‘ eighth studio album came to nearly ₤3,000, or the equivalent of ₤40,606 today. (That was quite a bit of money when you consider the fact that album covers at that time averaged around ₤50.)   

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in June of 1967, features an elaborate, colorful collage of cardboard models that represent approximately sixty famous writers, musicians, film stars, and per George Harrison’s request, Indian gurus. Just a few of the famous faces include Marilyn Monroe, Carl Jung, James Dean, Bob Dylan, Sigmund Freud, Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Marlon Brando, and even the late Stuart Sutcliffe, the original Beatles’ bassist and the so-called “fifth Beatle.” (John Lennon requested that Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ be included, but they were left out of the final cut.)   

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.   

The Beatles Album Covers – Help

The Beatles Album Covers – Help

It seems reasonable to assume that the Beatles’ arm positions on the front cover of their 1965 album Help! actually spell out HELP — but this is not, in fact, the case. Photographer Robert Freeman knew he wanted to use flag semaphore positions, which is a system of conveying information at a distance that is mostly used in the maritime world. However, he did not find the semaphore for HELP to be aesthetically-pleasing enough for the front of an album, so he decided to improvise.

The Beatles‘ arms actually spell out the nonsense word NUJV on the UK release and NVUJ on the U.S. release, because Capitol Records also decided to rearrange the letters slightly. Believers in the “Paul is Dead” conspiracy theory thought that NUJV stood for “New Unknown James Vocalist,” because James is Paul McCartney’s actual first name.

The Beatles Album Covers – Magical Mystery Tour

The Beatles Album Covers – Magical Mystery Tour   

The Beatles‘ 1967 double LP Magical Mystery Tour features an eccentric, colorful, psychedelic cover designed by American pop artist John Van Hamersveld, who also created covers for the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Kiss, and Blondie, among others.   

In a style reminiscent of Willy Wonka, the Wizard of Oz, and Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, yellow stars spell out the word “Beatles,” and the tracklist is displayed in red, curved text, beginning with “The Fool on the Hill” and ending with “All You Need Is Love.” John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr stand on top of rainbow-colored bubble letters that spell out the words “Magical Mystery Tour.” With arms outstretched, they sport furry animal costumes and masks that obscure their faces, in keeping with the psychedelic theme.   

The Beatles Albums – Please Please Me

The Beatles Albums – Please Please Me   

No one ever thought that the destiny of Rock n Roll and all things good could spawn from the ashes of a Northern English city called Liverpool. It started rather innocuously with four boys hankering around Hamburg and the Cavern with guitars on their back, playing exhaustive sets and injecting a little love back into a barren musical landscape. The fat cats in London showbiz blinkered a blind eye to Mersey beat as pop producers Decca turned down the fab four and Parlaphone swooped in for the kill.   

You could say the release of the band’s debut album was rushed to cash in on the number one success from the title single released only a month earlier. With George Martin behind the desk, scrimping on a measly 400 pound budget and with only three days to spare, it didn’t take long to piece together what was essentially an amalgamation of the bands live set.   

The Beatles Albums – Magical Mystery Tour

The Beatles Albums – Magical Mystery Tour   

In 1967 The Beatles manager Brian Epstein was found dead at his home at the age of 32, it seemed he had overdosed on sleeping pills. It was a blow to the band that had cherished him both as a friend and business associate. Yet with heavy hearts they began filming for the low key film project; Magical Mystery Tour. The movie was set to be the bands take on Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, yet like the Merry Pranksters, the effect was rather ramshackle and misguided.   

The film itself wasn’t much to write home about; in fact it has been dubbed rather critically as The Beatles one true disaster despite 15 million people tuning in to watch the Boxing Day special. Since then critics have tirelessly tossed the film back and forth debating whether it was without direction or whether it should be compared to Buñuel!   

The Beatles Albums, The Beatles Live at the BBC

The Beatles Albums – The Beatles Live at the BBC   

Released in 1994 by Apple Records (in cooperation with BBC Enterprises, Ltd.), The Beatles, Live at the BBC is a digitally-remastered compilation album featuring a selection of “live-in-the-studio” Beatles performances originally aired on various BBC Light Programme radio shows between 1963 and 1965.  (The Light Programme radio station broadcast mainstream “light” entertainment and music from 1945 to 1967, when it became BBC Radio 2.)  Initially available on LP, cassette, and CD, this collection consists of 56 songs—30 never released by The Beatles–and 13 tracks of on-air chit-chat and banter.   

A veritable goldmine of forgotten studio sessions, lost performances, and home recordings of BBC broadcasts, Live at the BBC lets fans share in the music that first brought the Beatles to international attention.  (This collection is of particular interest to American fans not familiar with Beatles’ music prior to release of their original material.)  And while this is not the first such collection of Beatles BBC recordings to reach the public (one of the most popular, the 1971 bootleg Yellow Matter Custard), all earlier releases were low-quality, tinny, third-generation copies of home recordings.