Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band



Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released in June 1967, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, spending 22 weeks at the top of the UK Albums Chart and 15 weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200. It won four Grammy Awards in 1968, includingAlbum of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honour.

Regarded by musicologists as an early concept album, Sgt. Pepper continued the artistic maturation seen on the Beatles' preceding releases while advancing the use ofextended form in popular music. It has been described as one of the first art rock LPs, aiding the development of progressive rock, and credited with marking the beginning of the album era. An important work of British psychedelia, the multigenre album incorporates diverse stylistic influences, including vaudeville, circus, music hall, avant-garde, Western and Indian classical music. Following the Beatles' August 1966 retirement from touring and the ensuing three-month break from Abbey Road Studios, they endeavoured to improve upon the production quality of their prior releases. The group adopted an experimental approach to composition and the producer George Martin's innovative recording of the album's tracks, such as "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "A Day in the Life", included the liberal application of signal processing and the use of a forty-piece orchestra. The album cover was designed by the English pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworthfrom a sketch by Paul McCartney that depicted the band posing in front of a collage of celebrities and historical figures.

In 2003 the Library of Congress placed Sgt. Pepper in the National Recording Registry, preserving the work as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[1]  In 2005 Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number one in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. As of 2014 it has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling albums of all time. The music scholar David Scott Kastan described it as "the most important and influential rock and roll album ever recorded".[2]



Contents
[hide]  *1 Background  ==Background[edit] == "We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top approach. We were not boys, we were men ... and thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers."[3]
 * 2 Concept and inspiration
 * 3 Recording and production
 * 4 Music and lyrics
 * 4.1 Side one
 * 4.2 Side two
 * 5 Cover artwork
 * 6 Release
 * 7 Reception
 * 8 Legacy
 * 8.1 Recording and cover
 * 8.2 Concept revisited
 * 9 Track listing
 * 10 Personnel
 * 11 Charts
 * 11.1 Weekly charts
 * 11.2 Year-end charts
 * 11.3 Decade-end charts
 * 12 Certifications
 * 13 Notes
 * 14 References
 * 15 Bibliography
 * 16 External links

—Paul McCartneyBy 1966 the Beatles had grown weary of live performance.[4]  In June, just two days after finishing the album Revolver, the group set off for a tour that started in Germany.[5]  While in Hamburg they received an anonymous telegram stating: "Do not go to Tokyo. Your life is in danger".[6]  The threat was taken seriously in light of the controversy surrounding the tour among Japan's religious and conservative groups, with particular opposition to the Beatles' planned performance at the sacred Nippon Budokan arena. As a safety precaution the police transported the group from hotels to concert venues using armoured vehicles.[6]  The polite and restrained Japanese audiences shocked the band – as the absence of screaming fans allowed them to hear how poor their live performances had become. By the time that they arrived in the Philippines, where they were threatened and manhandled for not visiting the First LadyImelda Marcos, the group had grown unhappy with their manager, Brian Epstein, for insisting on what they regarded as an exhausting and demoralising itinerary.[7]  When, having returned to London, George Harrison was asked about their long-term plans, he replied: "We'll take a couple of weeks to recuperate before we go and get beaten up by the Americans."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005213_8-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  His comments would prove to be surprisingly accurate, as soon afterward John Lennon's remarks about the Beatles being "more popular than Jesus" embroiled the band in controversy and protest in America's Bible Belt.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005213_8-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  A public apology eased tensions, but a miserable tour in August that was marked by half-filled stadia and subpar performances proved to be their last.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9]  The author Nicholas Schaffner writes: <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">"To the Beatles, playing such concerts had become a charade so remote from the new directions they were pursing that not a single tune was attempted from the just-released Revolver LP, whose arrangements were for the most part impossible to reproduce with the limitations imposed by their two-guitars-bass-and-drums stage lineup".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchaffner197858.E2.80.9359_10-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Upon the Beatles' return to England, rumours began to circulate that they had decided to break-up.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008b1_11-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]  Harrison informed Epstein that he was leaving the band, but was persuaded to stay on the assurance that there would be no more tours.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005213_8-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  In Lennon's opinion they could "send out four waxworks ... and that would satisfy the crowds. Beatles concerts are nothing to do with music anymore. They're just bloody tribal rites."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThe_Beatles2000229_12-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]  The band subsequently took a seven-week holiday, during which they focused on individual interests. Harrison travelled to India for six weeks to develop his sitar playing at the instruction of Ravi Shankar.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008b2_13-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13]  Paul McCartney and producer George Martin collaborated on the soundtrack for the film The Family Way.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBlaney20078_14-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[14]  Lennon acted in the film How I Won the War and attended art showings, such as one at the Indica Gallerywhere he met his future wife Yoko Ono.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007158.2C_160.E2.80.93161_15-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[15]  Ringo Starr used the break to spend more time with his wife and first child.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[16] ==Concept and inspiration<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In November 1966, during a return flight to London from Kenya, where he had been on holiday with Beatles' tour manager Mal Evans, McCartney had an idea for a song that eventually formed the impetus of the Sgt Pepper concept.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008b2_13-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13]  His idea involved an Edwardian-era military band that Evans invented a name for in the style of contemporary San Francisco-based groups such as Big Brother and the Holding Company andQuicksilver Messenger Service.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007168_17-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[17]  In February 1967 McCartney suggested that the Beatles should record an entire album that would represent a performance by the fictional band.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199720.E2.80.9321_18-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[18]  This alter ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically. He explained: "I thought, let's not be ourselves. Let's develop alter egos."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMiles1997303.E2.80.93304_19-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[19]  Martin remembered: <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">"'Sergeant Pepper' itself didn't appear until halfway through making the album. It was Paul's song, just an ordinary rock number ... but when we had finished it, Paul said, 'Why don't we make the album as though the Pepper band really existed, as though Sergeant Pepper was making the record? We'll dub in effects and things.' I loved the idea, and from that moment on it was as though Pepper had a life of its own".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartin1994202_20-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[20] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In 1966 the American musician Brian Wilson's growing interest in the aesthetics of recording and his admiration for the Beatles' album Rubber Soul resulted in the Pet Sounds LP, which demonstrated his production expertise and his mastery of composition and arrangement.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[21] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 1]  According to the musicologist Thomas MacFarlane, the release was widely influential among musicians of the time, with McCartney in particular singing its praises and drawing inspiration to "expand the focus of the Beatles' work with sounds and textures not usually associated with popular music."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacFarlane200836.E2.80.9337_24-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[23] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 2]  McCartney explained: "I love the orchestra, the arrangements ... the instrumentation ... the way he uses harmonicas ... the way he uses harpsichords ... the way he uses [timpanis] and snare drums, and they're often on odd little patterns ... The writing for the harmonies is brilliant. I love the melodies."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[25]  He later claimed that his constant playing of the album made it difficult for Lennon to "escape the influence", adding: "It's very cleverly done ... so we were inspired by it and nicked a few ideas."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[26]  Martin stated: "Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper never would have happened ... Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-29" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[27] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 3] ==Recording and production<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == Abbey Road Studio Two, where nearly every track on Sgt. Pepper was recorded.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006184.2C_190_32-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[29] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">According to the musicologist Walter Everett, Sgt. Pepper marks the beginning of McCartney's ascendancy as the Beatles' dominant creative force. He wrote more than half of the album's material while asserting increasing control over the recording of his compositions. He would from this point on provide the artistic direction for the group's releases.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett199999_33-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[30] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-36" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 4]  Sessions began on 24 November 1966 in Abbey Road Studio Two, the first time that the Beatles had come together since September.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn198887_37-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[33]  Afforded the luxury of a nearly limitless recording budget, they booked open-ended sessions that allowed them to work as late as they wanted.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005215_38-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[34] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-39" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 5]  They began with three songs that were written with the intention to record an entire album of material that would be thematically linked to their childhoods: "Strawberry Fields Forever", "When I'm Sixty-Four" and "Penny Lane".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-40" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[35]  The first session saw the introduction of a new keyboard instrument called the Mellotron. Acquired by Lennon, the Mellotron's keys triggered one of three tape loops for flutes, strings or choirs, enabling its user to play in those three voices. McCartney performed the introduction to "Strawberry Fields Forever" using the flute setting.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006135.E2.80.93136_41-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[36] The track's complicated production involved the innovative splicing of two takes that were recorded in different tempos and pitches.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005217.E2.80.93220_42-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[37]  The EMI audio engineer, Geoff Emerick, remembers: "Since the days of Revolver, we had gotten used to being asked to do the impossible, and we knew that the word 'no' didn't exist in the Beatles' vocabulary."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006139_43-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[38] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-46" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 6]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">"Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were subsequently released as a double A-side in February 1967 after EMI and Epstein pressured Martin for a single.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199719.E2.80.9320_47-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[41]  When it failed to reach number one in the UK, British press agencies speculated that the group's run of success might have ended, with headlines such as "Beatles Fail to Reach the Top", "First Time in Four Years" and "Has the Bubble Burst?"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarry2002714_48-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[42]  With the release the childhood concept was abandoned in favour of Sgt. Pepper, and at Epstein's insistence the single tracks were not included on the LP.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-49" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[43] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-51" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 7]  Martin later described the decision to drop these two songs as "the biggest mistake of my professional life."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartinPearson199426_52-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[45]  Nonetheless, in his opinion "Strawberry Fields Forever", which he and the band spent an unprecedented 55 hours of studio time recording, "set the agenda for the whole album."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-53" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[46] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-55" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 8]  He explained: "It was going to be a record ... [with songs that] couldn't be performed live: they were designed to be studio productions and that was the difference."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008b6_56-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[48] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-58" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 9]  McCartney's goal was to make the best Beatles album yet, declaring: "Now our performance is that record."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-59" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[50]  Emerick recalls: "Because we knew that the Beatles wouldn't ever have to play the songs live, there were no creative boundaries."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006190_60-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[51]  On 6 December the group began work on "When I'm Sixty-Four", the first track that would be included on Sgt. Pepper.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005220.E2.80.93221_61-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[52]

This Studer J37 four-track tape recorder was used to record Sgt Pepper. The limited number of tracks led George Martin and Emerick to come up with inventive production techniques to achieve the album's sound.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn198829.2C96_62-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[53] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Sgt. Pepper was recorded using four-track equipment.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006176_63-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[54]  Although eight-track tape recorders were available in the US, the first units were not operational in commercial studios in London until late 1967.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn198896_64-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[55] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-65" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 10]  As with previous Beatles albums, the Sgt. Pepper recordings made extensive use of the technique known as reduction mixing, in which a number of tracks were recorded across the four tracks of one recorder, which were then mixed and dubbed down onto one or several tracks of the master four-track machine. This enabled the Abbey Road engineers to give the group a virtual multitrack studio.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn200929_66-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[56]  McCartney tended to play other instruments than his usual bass when recording the backing track, preferring to overdub it later, and "Fixing a Hole" was the only track released on Sgt. Pepper where it was cut live.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005235.E2.80.93235_67-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[57]  To record the orchestra for "A Day In The Life", Martin had to synchronise a four track recorder playing the Beatles' backing track to another one taping the orchestral overdub, which the engineer Ken Townsendachieved by using a 50 Hz control signal between the two machines.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn198896_64-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[55]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">A key feature of Sgt. Pepper is Martin and his engineer's liberal use of signal processing to shape the recording, which included the application of dynamic range compression,reverberation and signal limiting.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKimsey2008133_68-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[58]  Several innovative production techniques feature prominently on the recordings, including direct injection, pitch control andambiophonics.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHannan200862_69-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[59]  Another is automatic double tracking (ADT), a system that uses tape recorders to create a simultaneous doubling of a sound. Although it had long been recognised that using multitrack tape to record doubled lead vocals produced an enhanced sound, before ADT it had been necessary to record such vocal tracks twice, a task that was both tedious and exacting. During the recording sessions for Revolver in 1966, ADT was invented especially for the Beatles by Townsend, who disliked tracking sessions and regularly expressed a desire for a technical solution to the problem. ADT quickly became a near-universal recording practice in popular music.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn198870_70-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[60]  Martin, having fun at Lennon's expense, described the technique: "We take the original image and we split it through a double vibrocated sploshing flange with double negative feedback", to which Lennon responded: "You're pulling my leg aren't you?"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn198870_70-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[60]  Martin replied: "Well, let's flange it again and see", thus originating the term flanging.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn198870_70-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[60]  Another important effect was varispeeding, the technique of recording various tracks on a multi-track tape at slightly different tape speeds, which was used extensively on their vocals in this period. The speeding up of vocals became a widespread technique in pop production. The band also used the effect on portions of their backing tracks – as on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" – where the tape speed dropped from 49 cycles per second to 45, giving them a thicker and more diffuse sound.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn1988101_71-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[61]  Relatively new modular effects units were used, such as running voices and instruments through a Leslie speaker.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006190_60-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[51] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">"Listening to each stage of their recording, once they've done the first couple of tracks, it's often hard to see what they're still looking for, it sounds so complete. Often the final complicated, well-layered version seems to have drowned the initial simple melody. But they know it's not right, even if they can't put it into words. Their dedication is impressive, gnawing away at the same song for stretches of ten hours each."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDavies2009273.E2.80.93274_72-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[62]

—Hunter Davies, 1968<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In an effort to get the right sound, the Beatles attempted numerous re-takes of "Getting Better". When the decision was made to re-record the basic track, Starr was summoned to the studio, but called-off soon afterward as the focus switched from rhythm to vocal tracking.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDavies2009270_73-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[63]  Starr, who after the completion of his basic drum parts saw his participation limited to minor percussion overdubs, later lamented: "The biggest memory I have of Sgt. Pepper ... is I learned to play chess".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999100_74-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[64]  For the album's title track, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", the recording of Starr's drum kit was enhanced by the use of dampingand close-miking, which at the time were new recording techniques that MacDonald credits with creating a "three-dimensional" sound that – along with other Beatles innovations – engineers in the US would soon adopt as standard practice.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005233.E2.80.93234_75-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[65]  The album makes use of several keyboard instruments. McCartney plays a grand piano on "A Day in the Life"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999120_76-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[66]  and a Lowrey organ on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999104_77-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[67]  while Martin played a Hohner Pianet on "Getting Better",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999106_78-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[68]  a harpsichord on "Fixing a Hole",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999107_79-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[69]  and a harmonium on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999110_80-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[70]  Harrison used a tamboura on several tracks, including "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Getting Better".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999104.2C_106_81-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[71]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The UK pressing of Sgt. Pepper was the first pop album to be mastered without rills, the momentary gaps that are typically placed between tracks as a point of demarcation.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007170_82-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[72]  It made use of two crossfades so that songs blended together, giving the impression of a continuous live performance.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-83" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[73] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-85" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 11]  Although both stereo and monaural mixes of the album were prepared, the Beatles were minimally involved in what they regarded as the less important stereo mix sessions, leaving the task to Martin and Emerick.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn1992252_86-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[75]  The recording and production of Sgt. Pepper was completed on 21 April 1967. Emerick estimates that they spent 700 hours on the LP, more than 30 times that of the first Beatles album, Please Please Me, which cost £400.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-87" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[76]  The final cost of Sgt. Pepper was approximately £25,000 – equivalent to £384,202 today.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartinPearson1994168_88-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[77] ==Music and lyrics<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Sgt. Pepper is a multigenre album that is a work of rock and pop.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-89" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[78]  It incorporates the diverse stylistic influences of rock and roll, vaudeville, big band, piano jazz, blues, chamber, circus, music hall, avant-garde,Western and Indian classical music.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-90" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[79]  In the opinion of the author Naphtali Wagner, its music reconciles the "diametrically opposed aesthetic ideals" of classical and psychedelia, achieving a "psycheclassical synthesis" of the two forms.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWagner200876.2C_89.E2.80.9390_91-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[80] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">"When [Martin] was doing his TV programme on Pepper ... he asked me, 'Do you know what caused Pepper?' I said, 'In one word, George, drugs. Pot.' And George said, 'No, no. But you weren't on it all the time.' 'Yes, we were.' Sgt. Pepper was a drug album."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-92" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[81]

—Paul McCartney<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Concerns that some of the lyrics in Sgt. Pepper refer to recreational drug use led to the BBC banning several songs from the radio, such as "A Day in the Life" because of the phrase "I'd love to turn you on", with the BBC claiming that it could "encourage a permissive attitude toward drug-taking."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-93" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[82]  Although Lennon and McCartney denied any drug-related interpretation of the song at the time, McCartney later suggested that the line was deliberately written to ambiguously refer to either illicit drugs or sexual activity.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-94" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[83]  The meaning of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" became the subject of speculation, as many believed that the song's title was code for the hallucinogenic drug LSD.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005240_95-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[84]  The BBC used this as justification for banning the track from British radio.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006174_35-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[32] "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" was also banned by the BBC because of the lyric that mentions "Henry the Horse", a phrase that contains two common slang terms for heroin.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhiteley200818.E2.80.9319_96-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[85]  Fans speculated that Henry the Horse was a drug dealer and that "Fixing a Hole" was a reference to heroin use.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESpitz2005697_97-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[86]  Others noted lyrics such as "I get high" from "With a Little Help from My Friends", "take some tea" – slang for cannabis use – from "Lovely Rita" and "digging the weeds" from "When I'm Sixty-Four".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199760_98-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[87]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In the opinion of the author Sheila Whiteley, Sgt. Pepper ' s underlying philosophy relates not only to the drug culture, but also to metaphysics and the non-violent approach of the flower power movement.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhiteley200815.2C_22_99-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[88]  According to the musicologist Oliver Julien, the album "embodied the social, the musical, and more generally, the cultural changes of the 1960s."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008c166_100-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[89]  The professor Alan F. Moore asserts that its primary value "is that it manages to capture, more vividly than almost anything contemporaneous, its own time and place."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore2008140_101-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[90]  Whiteley agrees, crediting the album with "provid[ing] a historical snapshot of England during the run-up to the Summer of Love".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhiteley200822_102-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[91]  In the opinion of the American psychologist Timothy Leary, the LP "gave a voice to the feeling that the old ways were over ... it came along at the right time" and stressed the need for cultural change based on a peaceful agenda.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhiteley200822_102-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[91]  Several scholars have applied a hermeneutic strategy to their analysis of Sgt. Pepper ' s lyrics, identifying loss of innocence and the dangers of overindulgence in fantasies or illusions as the most prominent themes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199761.E2.80.9362_103-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[92] ===Side one<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Sgt. Pepper opens with the title track, starting with 10 seconds of the combined sounds of a pit orchestra warming-up and an audience waiting for a concert, which introduces the illusion of the album as a live performance.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-105" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[94] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-108" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 12]  The musicologist Kevin Womack argues that, paradoxically, the lyrics "exemplify the mindless rhetoric of rock concert banter" while "mock[ing] the very notion of a pop album's capacity for engendering authentic interconnection between artist and audience".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007169_104-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[93]  In his opinion the mixed message ironically serves to distance the group from their fans while simultaneously "gesturing toward" them as alter egos, an authorial quality that he considers to be "the song's most salient feature."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007169_104-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[93]  He credits the recording's use of a brass ensemble with distorted electric guitars as an early example of rock fusion.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007169_104-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[93]  The musicologist Ian MacDonald agrees, describing the track as an overture rather than a song, and a "shrewd fusion of Edwardian variety orchestra" and contemporary hard rock.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005233_107-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[96] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-110" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 13]  It utilises a rock and roll orientated Lydian mode chord progression during the introduction and verses that is built on parallel sevenths, which Everett describes as "the song's strength".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999101_111-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[98]  The five-bar bridge is filled by an Edwardian horn quartet that Martin arranged from a McCartney vocal melody.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005233_107-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[96]  The track turns to the pentatonic scale for the chorus, where its blues rock progression is augmented by the use of electric guitar power chords played in consecutive fifths.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999101_111-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[98] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-113" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 14]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">McCartney acts as the master of ceremonies near the end of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", introducing Starr as an alter ego named Billy Shears.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007170_82-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[72]  The song then segues into "With a Little Help from My Friends" amidst a moment of crowd cheer that Martin had recorded during a Beatles concert at the Hollywood Bowl.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007170.E2.80.93171_114-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[100]  Womack describes Starr's baritone lead vocals as "charmingly sincere" and he credits them with imparting an element of "earnestness in sharp contrast with the ironic distance of the title track."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007170.E2.80.93171_114-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[100]  Lennon and McCartney's call and response backing vocals ask Starr questions about the meaning of friendship and true love.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007171_115-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[101] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-118" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 15]  In MacDonald's opinion, the track is "at once communal and personal ... [its] touchingly rendered by Starr [and] meant as a gesture of inclusivity; everyone could join in."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005247_119-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[104]  Womack agrees, identifying "necessity of community" as the song's "central ethical tenet", a theme that he ascribes to the album as a whole.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007171_115-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[101]  Everett notes the track's use of a major key double-plagal cadence that would become commonplace in pop music following the release of Sgt. Pepper. He characterises the arrangement as clever, particularly its reversal of the question and answer relationship in the final verse, in which the backing singers ask leading questions and Starr provides unequivocal answers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999103_120-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[105]  The song ends on a vocal high note that McCartney, Harrison and Lennon encouraged Starr to achieve despite his lack of confidence as a singer.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006182.E2.80.93183_121-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[106] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Despite widespread suspicion that the title of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" contained a hidden reference to LSD, Lennon insisted that it was derived from apastel drawing by his four-year-old son Julian. A hallucinatory chapter from Lewis Carroll ' s 1871 novel, Through the Looking-Glass, inspired the song's atmosphere.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-123" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[108]  The lyric begins with what Womack characterises as "an invitation in the form of an imperative" through the line: "Picture yourself in a boat on a river", and continues with imaginative imagery, including "tangerine trees", "rocking horse people" and "newspaper taxis".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007172_124-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[109]  In MacDonald's opinion, "the lyric explicitly recreates the psychedelic experience".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005240_95-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[84]  According to Lennon: "It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are ... in a rowing boat and I was visualizing that. There was also the image of the female who would someday come to save me – a 'girl with kaleidoscope eyes' who would come out of the sky. It turned out to be Yoko ... so maybe it should be 'Yoko in the Sky with Diamonds'."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESheff1981181_125-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[110]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">MacDonald considers "Getting Better" to contain "the most ebullient performance" on Sgt. Pepper.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005241_126-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[111]  In Womack's opinion the track's "driving rock sound" distinguishes it from the album's overtly psychedelic material with lyrics that enliven the listener "to usurp the past by living well and flourishing in the present."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007172_124-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[109]  He cites it as a strong example of Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting, particularly Lennon's addition of the line: "couldn't get much worse", which serves as a "sarcastic rejoinder" to McCartney's chorus: "It's getting better all the time".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007173_127-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[112] McCartney describes Lennon's lyric as "sardonic" and "against the spirit of the song", which he characterises as "typical John."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999106_78-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[68] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-128" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 16]  MacDonald describes the beginning of the track as "blithely unorthodox", with two staccato guitars – one panned left and one right – playing the dominant against the subdominant of an F major ninth chord, with the tonic C resolving as the verse begins. The dominant, which acts as a drone, is reinforced through the use of octaves played on a bass guitar and plucked on piano strings.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005242_129-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[113]  McCartney's bass line accents non-roots on the recording's downbeat.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999106_78-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[68]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In Womack's opinion, the lyrics to "Fixing a Hole" focus on "the speaker's search for identity among the crowd", in particular the "quests for consciousness and connection" that differentiate individuals from society as a whole.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007173_127-4" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[112]  MacDonald characterises it as a "distracted and introverted track", during which McCartney forgoes his "usual smooth design" in favour of "something more preoccupied".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005236_130-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[114]  He cites Harrison's electric guitar solo as serving the track well, capturing its mood by conveying detachment.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005236_130-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[114]  McCartney drew inspiration for the song in part from his work restoring a Scottish farmhouse.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999106.E2.80.93107_131-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[115]  Womack notes his adaptation of the lyric: "a hole in the roof where the rain leaks in" from Elvis Presley's "We're Gonna Move".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007106.E2.80.93107_132-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[116]  The song deals with McCartney's desire to let his mind wander freely and to express his creativity without the burden of self-conscious insecurities.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMiles1997314.E2.80.93315_133-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[117]

A reproduction of the poster forPablo Fanque's Circus Royal from 1843 that inspired ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_for_the_Benefit_of_Mr._Kite! Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!]<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In Everett's opinion the lyrics to "She's Leaving Home" address the problem of alienation "between disagreeing peoples", particularly those distanced from each other by thegeneration gap.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999107_79-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[69]  McCartney's "descriptive narration", which details the plight of a "lonely girl" who escapes the control of her "selfish yet well-meaning parents", was inspired by a piece about teenage runaways published by the Daily Mail.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999108_134-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[118]  Womack describes the song as "a quaint study of a young woman's need to discover a sense of identity and become a conscious participant in the world."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007174_135-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[119]  It is the first track on the album to eschew the use of guitars and drums, featuring a string nonet with a harp and drawing comparison with "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby", which utilise a string quartet and octet respectively.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199737_136-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[120] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-139" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 17]  While Richard Goldstein's 1967 review in The New York Timescharacterises the song as uninspired, MacDonald identifies the track as one of the two best on Sgt. Pepper''. In Moore's opinion, the writers judge the work from "opposing criteria", with Goldstein opining during the dawn of the counterculture of the 1960s whereas MacDonald – writing in 1995 – is "intensely aware of [the movement's] failings."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199737_136-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[120]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Lennon adapted the lyric for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" from an 1843 poster for Pablo Fanque's circus that he purchased at an antique shop in Kent on the day of filming the promotional film for "Strawberry Fields Forever".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005237.E2.80.93238_140-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[123]  Womack praises the track's successful blending of a print source and music: "The interpretive power of the mixed-media application accrues its meaning through the musical production with which the group imbues the Ur-text of the poster."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007175_141-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[124]  According to MacDonald, Lennon requested a "fairground production wherein one could smell the sawdust"; Martin and Emerick created the resulting atmospheric sound collage by collecting recordings of harmoniums, harmonicas and calliopes, which were then cut into strips of various lengths, thrown into a box, mixed up and edited together in random order, creating a loop that was mixed-in during final production.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-142" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[125] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-144" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 18]  In MacDonald's opinion, the song represents "a spontaneous expression of its author's playful hedonism".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005238_145-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[127]  According to Everett, the track's use of Edwardian imagery thematically links it with the album's opening number.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999110_80-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[70] ===Side two<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">After it was decided that "Only a Northern Song" was not good enough for inclusion on Sgt. Pepper, Harrison wrote the Hindustani classical music-inspired "Within You Without You".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-146" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[128]  According to MacDonald, the track is an "ambitious essay in cross-cultural fusion and meditative philosophy" that most commentators dismiss as boring, with critics characterising the music as lacking "harmonic interest" and the lyric as "sanctimonious ... didactic and dated".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005243_147-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[129] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-149" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 19]  In Moore's opinion, the recording's reliance on melody at the expense of harmony is entirely appropriate for the genre. He characterises the critical response as "extremely varied", noting that Goldstein identifies the track as one of the album's highlights. Others see it as an apt summary of the material from the first side.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199745_150-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[131]  MacDonald describes the song as a "distant departure" from the Beatles' sound and a "remarkable achievement" that represents the "conscience" of the LP.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005243.E2.80.93244_151-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[132]  Womack agrees, calling it "quite arguably, the album's ethical soul."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007176_152-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[133]  Maximising the recording's "capacity for expressiveness", the track features a tempo rubato that is without precedent in the Beatles' catalogue.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007176_152-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[133]  The pitch is derived from the easternKhamaj scale, which is akin to the Mixolydian mode in the West.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999112_153-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[134] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-155" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 20]  The song ends with a burst of laughter that some have interpreted as a mockery of Harrison's song, but he explains: "Well, after all that long Indian stuff you want some light relief. It's a release after five minutes of sad music. You haven't got to take it all that seriously, you know. You were supposed to hear the audience anyway, as they listen to Sergeant Pepper's Show. That was the style of the album."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDavies2009321_156-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[136] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-158" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 21] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">MacDonald cites "When I'm Sixty-Four" as an example of the Beatles' versatility. In his opinion the track is "aimed chiefly at parents", borrowing heavily from the English music hall style of George Formby and Donald McGill, with a sparse arrangement that includes clarinet, drums, guitar and bass.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005220.E2.80.93221_61-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[52] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-161" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 22]  McCartney wrote the tune in the late 1950s as an instrumental piece, revisiting the composition in 1966 around the time of his father's sixty-fourth birthday.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999112_153-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[134]  Moore characterises the song as a synthesis of ragtime and pop, noting that its position following "Within You Without You" – a blend of Indian classical music and pop – demonstrates the diversity of the Beatles' material, which he identifies as an important factor in their success.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199747_162-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[140]  Varispeeding was used on the track, raising the music's pitch by a semitone in an attempt to make McCartney sound younger.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006137_163-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[141]  Everett notes that the lyric's protagonist is sometimes associated with the Lonely Hearts Club Band, but in his opinion the song is thematically unconnected to the others on the album.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999113_164-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[142]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Womack characterises "Lovely Rita" as a work of "full-tilt psychedelia" that contrasts sharply with the preceding track.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007177_165-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[143]  He identifies the song as an example of McCartney's talent for "creating imagistic musical portraiture", but considers it to be among the album's weakest offerings, presaging what he describes as the "less effectual compositions" that the Beatles would record post-Sgt. Pepper.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007177_165-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[143]  Inspired by the traffic warden Meta Davis, who had recently given McCartney a parking ticket, in Womack's opinion "the song accomplishes little in the way of advancing the album's journey toward a more expansive human consciousness".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007177_165-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[143]  Despite his reservations, he considers the track to be "irresistibly charming".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007177_165-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[143]  Moore agrees, describing the composition as a "throwaway" while praising what he characterises as its "strong sense of harmonic direction".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199748_166-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[144]  According to MacDonald, the song is a "satire on authority" that is "imbued with an exuberant interest in life that lifts the spirits, dispersing self-absorption".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005239_167-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[145]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Inspired by a television commercial for Kellogg's Corn Flakes, from which Lennon adapted a jingle as the song's refrain, "Good Morning, Good Morning" utilises the bluesy mixolydian mode in A that in Everett's opinion "perfectly expresses Lennon's grievance against complacency."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-168" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[146]  Lennon considered the song "a throwaway piece of garbage" and McCartney viewed it as Lennon's reaction to the frustrations of domestic life.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005234_169-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[147] Womack praises the song's varied time signatures, including 5/4, 3/4 and 4/4, calling it a "masterpiece of electrical energy".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007177.E2.80.93178_170-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[148]  MacDonald notes Starr's "fine performance" and McCartney's "coruscating pseudo-Indian guitar solo", which he credits with delivering the track's climax.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005235_171-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[149]  A series of animal noises are heard during the fade-out that are sequenced – at Lennon's request – so that each successive animal is large enough to devour the preceding one.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005235_171-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[149]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" serves as a bookend for the album and a segue to its finale. The hard-rocking song was written after the Beatles' assistant, Neil Aspinall, suggested that since "Sgt. Pepper" opened the album the fictional band should make an appearance near the end.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005248_172-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[150]  The reprise omits the brass section from the title track and features a faster tempo.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007178_173-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[151]  MacDonald notes the Beatles' apparent excitement, which is tangibly translated during the recording.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005248_172-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[150] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">As the last chord of the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise plays an acoustic guitar strumming offbeat quavers begins, introducing what Moore describes as "one of the most harrowing songs ever written."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199752_175-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[153]  "A Day in the Life" consists of four verses by Lennon, a bridge, two aleatoric orchestral crescendos and an interpolated middle part written and sung by McCartney. The first crescendo serves as a segue between the third verse and the middle part, leading to a bridge known as the "dream sequence", which features Lennon's vocalisations.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199752_175-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[153]  The accompanying brass section loudly indicates the end of the sequence and the start of the fourth and final verse, after which the song enters the last crescendo before finishing with a piano chord that is allowed to fade-out for nearly a minute.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-176" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[154]  The idea to use an orchestra was McCartney's; he drew inspiration from the avant-garde composers John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartinPearson199456_177-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[155]  The 24-bar crescendos feature forty musicians selected from the London and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras and tasked with filling the space with what Womack describes as "the sound of pure apocalypse."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007179_178-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[156]  Martin notes Lennon's request for "a tremendous build-up, from nothing up to something absolutely like the end of the world."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartin1994209_179-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[157]  Lennon recalled drawing inspiration for the lyrics from a newspaper: "I was writing the song with the Daily Mail propped up in front of me at the piano ... there was a paragraph about 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDavies2009275_180-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[158] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-183" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 23]  He strongly disliked the sound of his own voice and often asked for generous amounts of tape echo to be added to his vocal in an effort to bury it deep in the mix. For "A Day in the Life", he wanted his voice to sound like Elvis Presley on "Heartbreak Hotel". Martin and Emerick obliged by adding 90 milliseconds of echo.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartinPearson199452.E2.80.9353_184-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[161]  In Womack's opinion, Starr delivers "one of his most inventive drum parts on record", a part that McCartney encouraged him to attempt despite his protests against "flashy drumming".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007179_178-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[156]  The thunderous piano chord that concludes the track and the album was produced by recording three pianos simultaneously sounding an E major chord; Martin then augmented the sound with a harmonium. On cue, Lennon, Starr, McCartney and Evans simultaneously hammered the keys and sustained the chord, which faded-out for 53 seconds.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007180_185-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[162] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-188" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 24]  MacDonald describes the track as "a song not of disillusionment with life itself, but of disenchantment with the limits of mundane perception".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005229_189-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[165]  According to him, it "remains among the most penetrating and innovative artistic reflections of its era", representing the Beatles' "finest single achievement".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-190" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[166]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">As "A Day in the Life" ends a 15-kilohertz high-frequency tone is heard; it was added at Lennon's suggestion with the intention that it would annoy dogs.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007182_191-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[167] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-193" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 25]  This is followed by the sounds of backwards laughter and random gibberish that was pressed into the record's concentric run-out groove, which loops back into itself endlessly on any record player not equipped with an automatic needle return. Lennon can be heard saying: "been so high", followed by McCartney's response: "never could be any other way".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999122_194-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[169] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-196" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 26]  When the album was re-pressed for LP release in 2012, it took several attempts to successfully reproduce the run-out groove effect.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-197" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[171] ==Cover artwork<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == Further information: List of images on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Sgt. Pepper ' s Grammy Award-winning album cover was designed by the pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth from an ink drawing by McCartney.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-198" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[172]  It was art-directed by Robert Fraser and photographed byMichael Cooper.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200892.E2.80.9395_199-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[173]  The front of the LP included a colourful collage featuring the Beatles in costume as the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, standing with a group of life-sized cardboard cutouts of famous people.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-200" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[174]  According to Beatles biographer Jonathan Gould, the heavy moustaches worn by the group reflected the growing influence of hippie style trends, while their clothing "spoofed the vogue in Britain for military fashions".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-201" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[175]  The centre of the cover depicts the Beatles standing behind a drum skin, on which the fairground artist Joe Ephgrave painted the words of the album's title. In front of the drum skin is a series of flowers that spell out "Beatles".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200895_202-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[176]  The group were dressed in satin day-glo-coloured military-style uniforms that were manufactured by the theatrical costumer M. Berman Ltd. in London.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-203" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[177]  The album's lyrics were printed in full on the back cover, the first time this had been done on a rock LP.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-204" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[178] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-207" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 27]

Sgt. Pepper ' s inner gatefold<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The 30 March 1967 photo session with Cooper also produced the back cover and the inside gatefold, which according to the musicologist Ian Inglis conveys "an obvious and immediate warmth ... which distances it from the sterility and artifice typical of such images."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200895_202-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[176]  McCartney explained: "One of the things we were very much into in those days was eye messages ... So with Michael Cooper's inside photo, we all said, 'Now look into this camera and really say I love you! Really try and feel love; really give love through this! It'll come out; it'll show; it's an attitude.' And that's what that is, if you look at it you'll see the big effort from the eyes."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMiles1997344.E2.80.93345_208-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[181]  The album's inner sleeve featured a design by the Fool that eschewed for the first time the standard white paper in favour of an abstract pattern of waves of maroon, red, pink and white.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200895_202-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[176]  Included with the album as a bonus gift was a sheet of cardboard cut-outs designed by Blake and Haworth, a postcard-sized portrait of Sgt. Pepper based on the statue from Lennon's house that was used on the front cover, a fake moustache, two sets of sergeant stripes, two lapel badges and a stand-up cut-out of the Beatles in their satin uniforms.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200896_209-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[182]  Moore suggested that the inclusion of these items helped fans "pretend to be in the band."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199757_210-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[183]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The collage includes 57 photographs and 9 waxworks that depict a diversity of famous people, including writers, musicians, actors and – at Harrison's request – theSelf-Realization Fellowship gurus Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-211" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[184]  According to Inglis, the "tableau acted as a guidebook to the cultural topography of the decade", demonstrating the increasing democratization of society whereby "traditional barriers between 'high' and 'low' culture were being eroded."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200893_212-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[185] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-213" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 28]  The final grouping included singers such as Bob Dylanand Bobby Breen; the film stars Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe; the artist Aubrey Beardsley and the athletes Sonny Liston and Albert Stubbins. Also included were the comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardyand the authors H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde and Dylan Thomas.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200893_212-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[185] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-215" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 29]  Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ were requested by Lennon, but ultimately rejected.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarry2000412_216-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[187]  When McCartney was asked why the Beatles did not include Elvis Presley, he replied: "Elvis was too important and too far above the rest even to mention ... so we didn't put him on the list because he was more than merely a ... pop singer, he was Elvis the King."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarry2002727_217-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[188] The final cost for the cover art was nearly £3,000 – equivalent to £46,104 today – an extravagant sum for a time when album covers would typically cost around £50.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200896_209-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[182] ==Release<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">After having finished Sgt. Pepper, but prior to its commercial release, the Beatles brought an acetate disc to the American singer Cass Elliot's flat off King's Road in Chelsea, where at six in the morning they played the album at full volume with speakers set in open window frames. Beatles' press agent Derek Taylor remembered that residents of the neighbourhood opened their windows and listened without complaint to what they understood to be an unreleased Beatles album.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005249_218-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[189]  The LP was released on 1 June 1967 in the United Kingdom and on 2 June in the United States.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn1992350.2C_351_219-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[190] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-221" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 30]  It debuted in the UK at number one – where it stayed for 22 consecutive weeks – selling 250,000 copies during the first seven days.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999123_222-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[192]  On 4 June the Jimi Hendrix Experience opened a show at the Saville Theatre in London with their rendition of the title track. Epstein owned the Saville at the time and both Harrison and McCartney attended the performance. McCartney described the moment: "The curtains flew back and [Hendrix] came walking forward playing 'Sgt. Pepper'. It's a pretty major compliment in anyone's book. I put that down as one of the great honours of my career."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-223" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[193]  Rolling Stone magazine's Langdon Winner recalls: <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">"The closest Western Civilization has come to unity since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was the week the Sgt. Pepper album was released. In every city in Europe and America the radio stations played [it] ... and everyone listened ... it was the most amazing thing I've ever heard. For a brief while the irreparable fragmented consciousness of the West was unified, at least in the minds of the young."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERiley1988205_224-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[194] <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In the opinion of the musicologist Tim Riley, Sgt. Pepper "drew people together through the common experience of pop on a larger scale than ever before."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERiley1988205.E2.80.93206_225-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[195]  American radio stations interrupted their regular scheduling, playing the album virtually non-stop – often from start to finish.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-226" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[196]  It occupied the top spot of the Billboard 200 in the US for 15 weeks, from 1 July to 13 October 1967.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERosen199695_227-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[197]  Sgt. Pepper ' s initial commercial success exceeded all previous Beatles albums, selling 2.5 million copies within three months of its release.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESpitz2005697_97-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[86]  None of the album's songs were issued as singles.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn1992260_228-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[198] ==Reception<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Most contemporary reviews were positive, with Sgt. Pepper receiving a widespread critical acclaim that matched its immediate commercial success.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-239" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[209]  The Times ' Kenneth Tynan described it as "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilisation".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005249_218-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[189]  Richard Poirier wrote: "listening to the Sgt. Pepper album one thinks not simply of the history of popular music but the history of this century."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-240" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[210]  Time magazine declared it "a historic departure in the progress of music – any music".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESpitz2005697_97-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[86] Newsweek ' s Jack Kroll called it a "masterpiece", comparing the lyrics with literary works by Edith Sitwell, Harold Pinter and T. S. Eliot, particularly "A Day in the Life", which he compared to Eliot's The Waste Land.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-241" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[211]  The New York Times Book Review characterised Sgt. Pepper as a harbinger of "a new and golden Renaissance of Song" and the New Statesman ' s Wilfrid Mellers praised its elevation of pop music to the level of fine art.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008b9_242-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[212]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">One of the best-known American critics at the time, Richard Goldstein, wrote a scathing contemporary review in The New York Times that described Sgt. Pepper as "spoiled" and "reek[ing]" of "special effects, dazzling but ultimately fraudulent".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-243" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[213]  According to the music journalist Robert Christgau, the Times was subsequently "deluged with letters, many abusive and every last one in disagreement", a backlash he credits as "the largest response to a music review" in the newspaper's history.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChristgau2006117_244-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[214] Goldstein published a defence of his review in which he explained that, although the album was not on-par with the best of the Beatles' previous work, he considered it "better than 80 per cent of the music around", but felt that underneath the production when "the compositions are stripped to their musical and lyrical essentials" the LP is shown to be "an elaboration without improvement" on the group's music.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-245" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[215]  In Christgau's 1967 column for Esquire magazine, he described Sgt. Pepper as "a consolidation, more intricate than Revolver but not more substantial", suggesting that Goldstein had fallen "victim to overanticipation", identifying his primary error as "allow[ing] all the filters and reverbs and orchestral effects and overdubs to deafen him to the stuff underneath, which was pretty nice".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChristgau2006116_246-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[216] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-248" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 31]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">At the 10th Annual Grammy Awards in 1968, Sgt. Pepper won in the categories of Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts, Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical and Best Contemporary Album. It also won Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honour.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-249" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[218] ==Legacy<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">"The Beatles themselves never pretended they were creating art with Sgt. Pepper, or scrabbling after some musical integrity. They just wanted to do something different".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartinPearson19942_250-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[219]

—George Martin<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In the opinion of the musicologist Terence O'Grady, Sgt. Pepper continued the artistic maturation seen on the Beatles' albums Rubber Soul (1965) andRevolver (1966).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEO.27Grady200823_251-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[220]  Moore credits it with aiding the development of progressive rock through its focus on self-conscious lyrics, studio experimentation, and its efforts to expand the barriers of conventional three-minute tracks.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-252" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[221] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-256" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 32]  The author Carys Wyn Jones describes it as one of the first art rock albums and Julien considers it a "masterpiece of British psychedelia".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-257" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[225]  Rolling Stone ' s Andy Greene credits it with marking the beginning of the album era.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-258" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[226] For several years following its release, straightforward rock and roll would be supplanted by a growing interest in extended form, and for the first time in the history of popular music sales of albums outpaced sales of singles.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199772_259-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[227]  Julien credits Sgt. Pepper with contributing toward the evolution of long-playing albums from a "distribution format" to a "creation format".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008c159_260-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[228]  In Moore's opinion, the album assisted "the cultural legitimization of popular music" while providing an important musical representation of its generation.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-261" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[229]  It is regarded as having influenced the development of the counterculture of the 1960s.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-262" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[230]  During the 1970s, glam rock acts co-opted Sgt. Pepper ' s use of alter ego personas and in 1977 the LP won Best British Album at the first Brit Awards.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-263" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[231]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">While gathering material for his 1979 anthology, Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island, the editor Greil Marcus polled the twenty rock critic contributors regarding their choice for the best rock album of all time, and while Rubber Soul was mentioned Sgt. Pepper was not.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarcus2007xxi_264-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[232]  He asserts that by 1968 the album appeared vacuous against the emotional backdrop of the political and social upheavals of American life, describing it as "a triumph of effects", but "a Day-Glo tombstone for its time".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-265" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[233]  He characterises the LP as "playful but contrived" and "less a summing up of its era than a concession to it".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERiley1988205_224-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[194]  In his opinion, the album "strangled on its own conceits" while being "vindicated by world-wide acclaim".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarcus2007248_266-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[234] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-269" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 33]  In 1981 Christgau stated that although few critics agreed with Goldstein at the time of his negative contemporary review, many later came to appreciate his sentiments.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199759_270-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[237]  In the opinion of Lester Bangs – the so-called "godfather" of punk rock journalism, also writing in 1981 – "Goldstein was right in his much-vilified review ... predicting that this record had the power to almost singlehandedly destroy rock and roll."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKimsey2008122_271-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[238] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-273" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 34]  He notes: "In the sixties rock and roll began to think of itself as an 'art form'. Rock and roll is not an 'art form'; rock and roll is a raw wail from the bottom of the guts."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKimsey2008135_274-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[240]  The musicologist John Kimsey cites the preservation of authenticity as a guiding tenet of rock music and suggests that many purists denounce Sgt. Pepper in that respect, accusing the album of "mark[ing] a fall from primal grace into pretense, production and self-consciousness."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKimsey2008122_271-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[238] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-276" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 35]  In his opinion, detractors regard the LP as less a breakthrough and more a "break with all that's good, true and rocking".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKimsey2008122_271-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[238] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-277" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 36]  According to Christgau: "Although Sgt. Pepper is thought of as the most influential of all rock masterpieces, it is really only the most famous. In retrospect it seems peculiarlyapollonian – precise, controlled, even stiff – and it is clearly peripheral to the rock mainstream".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-278" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[242]  In Moore's opinion, "because its cultural impact was so large, it was simply being asked to do too much."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199764_279-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[243]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">With certified sales of 5 million copies, Sgt. Pepper is the second best-selling album in UK chart history behind Queen's Greatest Hits.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-280" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[244] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BPIC_281-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[245]  It is one of the most commercially successful albums in the US, where theRIAA certifies sales of 11 million copies.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-282" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[246]  It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the highest-selling albums of all time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-283" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[247]  In a 1987 review for Q magazine, the music journalist and author Charles Shaar Murray asserted that the album "remains a central pillar of the mythology and iconography of the late '60s."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-qMurray_284-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[248]  That same year Rolling Stone ' s Anthony DeCurtis described it as an "enormous achievement" that "revolutionized rock and roll".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-285" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[249]  In 1994 it was ranked first in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELarkin19948.E2.80.9311_286-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[250]  In the book's second edition – published four years later – Revolver was ranked first andSgt. Pepper second, with Larkin describing it as a "masterpiece ... This one album revolutionized, altered and reinvented the boundaries of 20th century popular music, style and graphic art."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELarkin199810_287-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[251] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-289" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 37]  In theEncyclopedia of Popular Music, Larkin wrote: "[it] turned out to be no mere pop album but a cultural icon, embracing the constituent elements of the 60s' youth culture: pop art, garish fashion, drugs, instant mysticism and freedom from parental control."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Larkin_233-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[203]  In 2003 it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, preserving the album as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-LoC2003_1-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]  In 2005 Rolling Stone placed it at number one in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, describing it as "the pinnacle of the Beatles' eight years as recording artists".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELevy20059_290-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[253]  In 2006 it was chosen by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-291" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[254]  That same year the music scholar David Scott Kastan described Sgt. Pepper as "the most important and influential rock and roll album ever recorded".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKastan2006139_2-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2] ===Recording and cover<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === Abbey Road Studios<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In MacFarlane's opinion, Sgt. Pepper ' s most important musical innovation is its "integration of recording technology into the compositional process."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacFarlane200839_292-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[255] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-294" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 38]  He credits Edgard Varèse's Poème électronique as the piece of music that made this advance feasible, by "expand[ing] the definition of sound recording from archival documentation to the reification of the musical canvass"; MacFarlane identifies "A Day in the Life" as the Sgt. Pepper track that best exemplifies this approach.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacFarlane200839.E2.80.9340_295-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[257] According to Julien, the album represents the "epitome of the transformation of the recording studio into a compositional tool", marking the moment when "popular music entered the era of phonographic composition."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008c166.E2.80.93167_296-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[258]  The musician and producer Alan Parsons asserts that with Sgt. Pepper "people then started thinking that you could spend a year making an album and they began to consider an album as a sound composition and not just a musical composition. The idea was gradually forming of a record being a performance in its own right and not just a reproduction of a live performance."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008c167_297-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[259]  Sgt. Pepper ' s lasting commercial success and critical impact is due in large part to Martin and his engineer's creative use of studio equipment while originating new processes. Although early analog synthesizers were available at the time, none were used during the album's recording, which relied solely on electric and acoustic instruments and field recordings that were available at Abbey Road Studios.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHannan200846_298-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[260]  Artistic experimentation, such as the placement of random gibberish in the run-out groove, is one of the album's defining features.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJulien2008b7_299-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[261]  In the opinion of the Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, Sgt. Pepper represents the group's last unified effort, displaying a cohesion that would begin to fall away immediately following the album's completion and that completely disappeared by the release of The Beatles in 1968.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELewisohn1992237_300-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[262]  Emerick notes the minimal involvement of Harrison and Starr, viewing Sgt. Pepper as a work of Lennon and McCartney that was less a group effort than any of their previous releases.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006141_54-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[47]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">According to Inglis, almost every account of the significance of Sgt. Pepper emphasizes the cover's "unprecedented correspondence between music and art, time and space".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis2008101_301-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[263]  With its release, album sleeves were no longer "a superfluous thing to be discarded during the act of listening, but an integral component of the listening that expanded the musical experience."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis2008101_301-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[263]  The cover helped to elevate album art as a respected topic for critical analysis whereby the "structures and cultures of popular music" could henceforth justify intellectual discourse in a way that – before Sgt. Pepper – would have seemed like "fanciful conceit".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis2008102_302-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[264]  He writes: Sgt. Pepper ' s "cover has been regarded as groundbreaking in its visual and aesthetic properties, congratulated for its innovative and imaginative design, credited with providing an early impetus for the expansion of the graphic design industry into popular music, and perceived as largely responsible for the connections between art and pop to be made explicit."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis2008102_302-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[264]  In the late 1990s the BBC included the cover in its list of British masterpieces of twentieth-century art and design.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEInglis200896_209-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[182]  In July 2008 the iconic bass drum skin used on the front cover sold at auction for €670,000 (US$879,000).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-303" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[265] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-305" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 39] ===Concept revisited<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">According to Womack, with Sgt. Pepper ' s first song "the Beatles manufacture an artificial textual space in which to stage their art."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWomack2007170_82-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[72]  The reprise of the title song appears on side two, just prior to the climactic "A Day in the Life", creating a framing device.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005248_172-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[150]  In Starr's opinion, only the first two songs and the reprise are conceptually connected.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett199999_33-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[30]  Lennon agreed and in 1980 he commented: "Sgt. Pepper is called the first concept album, but it doesn't go anywhere ... it works because we said it worked."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESheff1981197_306-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[267]  He was especially adamant that his contributions to the LP had nothing to do with the Sgt. Pepper concept. Further, he suggested that indeed most of the other songs were equally unconnected, stating: "Except for Sgt. Pepper introducing Billy Shears and the so-called reprise, every other song could have been on any other album".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESheff1981197_306-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[267]  Martin became worried upon the album's completion that its lack of musical unity might draw criticism and accusations of pretentiousness.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199764_279-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[243]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">MacFarlane notes that – despite these concerns – Sgt. Pepper "is widely regarded as the first true concept album in popular music."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacFarlane200833_307-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[268]  In his opinion, the Beatles "chose to employ an overarching thematic concept in an apparent effort to unify individual tracks."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacFarlane200833_307-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[268]  According to Everett, the album's "musical unity results ... from motivic relationships between key areas, particularly involving C, E, and G."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEverett1999122_194-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[169]  Moore argues that the recording's "use of common harmonic patterns and falling melodies" contributes to its overall cohesiveness, which he describes as narrative unity, but not necessarily conceptual unity.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore2008144_308-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[269]  MacFarlane agrees, suggesting that with the exception of the reprise the album lacks the melodic and harmonic continuity that is consistent with cyclic form.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacFarlane200833.2C_37_309-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[270]  In a May 1967 review published by The Times, the music critic William Mannmade a similar observation, indicating a thematic connection between the title track, its reprise and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", while suggesting that – aside from those songs – the album's "unity is slightly specious".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacFarlane200837_310-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[271]  In 1972 the musicologist Richard Middleton suggested that the album was "undercoded", in that listeners could grasp only a general understanding of the material that, in his opinion, was not particularly meaningful.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore199765_311-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[272]  Nonetheless, the author Martina Elicker asserts that Sgt. Pepper ' s release familiarised critics and fans alike with the notion of a "concept and unified structure underlying a pop album", thus originating the term concept album.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEElicker2001231_312-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[273] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-314" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 40] ==Track listing<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Sgt. Pepper was the first Beatles album to be released with identical track listings in the UK and the US.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESounes2010168_315-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[275]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">All songs written and composed by Lennon–McCartney except "Within You Without You", by George Harrison. <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Track list information according to Mark Lewisohn and Ian MacDonald.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-316" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[276] ==Personnel<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">According to Mark Lewisohn and Ian MacDonald:<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-317" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[277]

==Charts<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In the US the album appeared on the Billboard 200 chart for 175 non-consecutive weeks through 1987. It remained at number one in the US for 15 weeks, longer than any other Beatles album in the US.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-327" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[286] ===Weekly charts<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ==Certifications<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.399999618530273px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">BPI certification awarded only for sales since 1994.
 * The Beatles
 * John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; piano and Hammond organ; harmonica, tape loops, sound effects and comb and tissue paper; handclaps, tambourine and maracas
 * Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and bass guitars; piano, Lowrey and Hammond organs; handclaps; vocalisations, tape loops, sound effects and comb and tissue paper
 * George Harrison – lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; sitar; lead, harmony and background vocals; tamboura; harmonica and kazoo; handclaps and maracas
 * Ringo Starr – drums, congas, tambourine, maracas, handclaps and tubular bells; lead vocals; harmonica; final piano E chord
 * Additional musicians and production
 * Sounds Incorporated – the saxophone sextet on "Good Morning, Good Morning"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006176.E2.80.93179_318-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[278]
 * Neil Aspinall – tamboura and harmonica<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005237.2C_243_319-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[279]
 * Geoff Emerick – audio engineering; tape loops and sound effects<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEmerickMassey2006132.E2.80.93192_320-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[280] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-322" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[nb 41]
 * Mal Evans – counting, harmonica, alarm clock and final piano E chord<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005227.E2.80.93232.2C_237_323-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[282]
 * George Martin – producer and mixer; tape loops and sound effects; harpsichord on "Fixing a Hole", harmonium, Lowrey organ and glockenspiel on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", Hammond organ on "With a Little Help from My Friends", and piano on "Getting Better" and the piano solo in "Lovely Rita"; final harmonium chord.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-324" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[283]
 * Session musicians – four French horns on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band": Neil Sanders, James W. Buck, John Burden, Tony Randall,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMacDonald2005232_325-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[284]  arranged and conducted by Martin and McCartney; stringsection and harp on "She's Leaving Home", arranged by Mike Leander and conducted by Martin; harmonium, tabla, sitar, dilruba, eight violins and four cellos on "Within You, Without You", arranged and conducted by Harrison and Martin; clarinet trio on "When I'm Sixty Four": Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie, Frank Reidy, as arranged and conducted by Martin and McCartney; saxophones on "Good Morning, Good Morning", arranged and conducted by Martin and Lennon; and forty-piece orchestra, including strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion on "A Day in the Life", arranged by Martin, Lennon and McCartney and conducted by Martin and McCartney.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-326" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[285]