Product Description

One of the most famous albums in the world and definitely the most famous album sleeve, 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' ushered in the psychedelic era and the 'Summer of Love' and remains the pinnacle of British psychedelia. From the whimsy of 'When I'm 64' to the stunning orchestration of 'A Day In The Life', the melancholia of 'She's Leaving Home'to Ringo's solo spot 'With A Little Help From My Friends' the album is a true pop masterpiece.

Track Listing

1. Sergeant 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
8. Within You Without You
9. When I'm Sixty Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning
12. Day In The Life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #294 in Music
• Released on: 1992-06-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Before Sgt. Pepper's, no one seriously thought of rock music as actual art. That all changed in 1967, though, when John, Paul, George and Ringo (with "A Little Help" from their friend, producer George Martin) created an undeniable work of art which remains, after 3-plus decades, one of the most influential albums of all time. From Lennon's evocative word/sound pictures (the trippy "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", the carnival-like "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite") and McCartney's music hall-styled "When I'm 64", to Harrison's Eastern-leaning "Within You Without You", and the avant-garde mini-suite, "A Day in the Life", Sgt. Pepper's was a milestone for both 1960s music and popular culture in general. --Billy Altman

Customer Reviews

Height of their powers?
First things first. Sgt Pepper is not a concept or themed album. 3 of the 13 songs are vaguely based on the theme of the Beatles "playing" at being an old time band (including a reprise of the title song) and some of the music is continuous between songs. The rest of the songs are unrelated so why is the album so often described as groundbreaking? Listen to it and you will find out. The band and producer George Martin produced a remarkable album that at times is unashamedly experimental.

It is probably best summed up in "A Day in the Life", where they really throw the kitchen sink at it. In the middle and at the end of the song an orchestra builds a wall of sound for what seems like forever, until a crescendo is reached. It sounds remarkable now, it must have blown minds when it was released. And all this from songwriters in their twenties, though undoubtedly greatly influenced and encouraged by Martin.

"She's Leaving Home" deserves special mention. The lyrics beautifully describe the angst felt by a teenager who feels she has been "living alone" with her parents for too long. Along with the gorgeous music this song never fails to resonate with me.

"When I'm 64" shows Paul at his most playful music wise but again the lyrics are spot on. John contributes the classic "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". George demonstrates his experimental work with Indian music in "Within You Without You".

And I haven't even mentioned "With a Little Help from my Friends" and the title song, both classics in their own right.

Not every song is a classic. "Getting Better" and "Fixing a Hole" aren't up to the standard of the more famous songs though they do show how willing the band were to try new things, especially lyrically.

The best Beatles album? Quite possibly. I never tire of listening to it.

Sorry, I just don't get it
I really want to like it. It's ingenious and marvellous and at the time I'm sure it was groundbreaking. But though I love Abbey Road, I can't say the same for this. I was genuinely disappointed.

Beautiful, mad, silly, cheerful, philosophical, alarming
I don't know why I think that this is the best album by the best band that ever was. I may as well admit that the Beatles are my favourite band, but it's not like every single song here is a solid gold classic. "Revolver" has more really great songs than "Pepper", so why does "Revolver" just feel like a great album while "Pepper" feels like a great album that is also a major work of art?

It has something to do with the idea, something to do with the sequencing, something to do with the spirit of the whole thing. "Revolver", like most of the Beatles' albums, was put together as one album like any other, with everyone throwing in their best songs. "Pepper" was conceived as an experiment, with the most famous band in the world pretending to be some unknown bunch of guys dressed as a brass band. Most Beatles albums have pictures of the Beatles on the cover. So does this one, but it also has a gallery of their heroes. It's the Beatles' most ambitious album, but also their most emotionally generous one.

Consider that it puts Ringo in the top spot, singing one of the best songs on the album. Many of the songs are about trying to recover from emotional distress or damage; even George, who was usually either preachy or sulky in his songs, is here reflective and thoughtful. Lennon's snarling "Good Morning, Good Morning" is done as cantankerous comedy, not as serious disgust. McCartney's "Lovely Rita" is a love song to an authority figure; as the late Ian Macdonald pointed out, an American band would have depicted Rita as an uptight pig, but the Beatles decided that it'd be better to love her. Elsewhere, "Getting Better" is ruefully realistic ("It can't get much worse"). "She's Leaving Home" lets the parents realise what it was that they'd done wrong and in that respect is far more hopeful than the brilliant but chilling "Eleanor Rigby". Yes, "Eleanor Rigby" is a better song, but "She's Leaving Home" is better integrated into this album than "Rigby" is integrated into "Revolver".

"A Day in the Life" is the ultimate answer to people who think that this album is frothy or frivolous. Epic, melancholy and unnerving, it's the greatest single track the Beatles ever did and a fittingly ambiguous finale to a great album, perhaps the only Beatles album that is truly more than the sum of its parts. It's also, I think, the only Beatles album where if you put it on, you have to listen to the whole thing from start to finish. So who cares if it inspired art-rock? If without "Sgt Pepper" we wouldn't have had King Crimson, then that to me is just another point in its favour. The Beatles' best music is so good that you realise that valuing bands on the basis of how "authentic" or "dangerous" they are is just childish; what matters is what the music can do to you.

I have grown up on the Beatles. They were the first band I ever listened to and the first band I ever liked, even though they had split up before I was born. They never grow stale. More rubbish has been talked about them than any other popular culture figures except Dylan. Clear your mind of the rubbish and give this mysteriously inspiring album a listen.