The album that ushered in the Summer of Love. It would not be an understatement to say this completely changed the music industry. They were less than five years removed from "Love Me Do" and "yeah yeah yeah" but once again, the Beatles didn't just break the rules, they wrote new ones for everybody else to follow. Released on June 1, 1967 in the UK and the next day in America, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was totally unlike anything else up to that point. At a time when acts were expected to crank out two or three LP's per year, the Fab Four went an unheard-of 10 months between albums. No singles were released from the LP until the 70's. "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were intended for "Pepper" but instead were issued as a stand-alone single. George Martin said in hindsight that omitting those tracks from the finished album was a huge mistake. Part way through, Paul came up with the concept that since they would never perform the songs live, why not develop alter egos (as part of a psuedo-military band complete with pastel uniforms) and use as many musical styles as possible? From there, the idea took on a life of its own. The front and back cover art, printed lyrics, the photographs inside - we take all that for granted now, but those things were groundbreaking in 1967. This was the band's first LP to finally have the same running order in the US and UK. We shall touch on each track over the next few months. The title song segues seamlessly into Ringo's vocal on "With A Little Help From My Friends." No one had ever tied album tracks together without leaving a pause between the grooves. It wasn't a true concept album, but the songs had enough common threads. And they did it all on a four-track console! Our video is from the 2014 50th anniversary tribute to the Beatles' first appearance on Ed Sullivan in 1964 and featured Paul and Ringo, the two surviving members.
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