Little Known Facts about Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Think you know all there is to know about The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper?
There is no really rhyme or reason behind this blog. I have missed the 40 year anniversary by 3 years, but listening via podcast to the stupidly hard trivia question given out on The Steve Merchant Show on 6 Music in the U.K, a question came up which stumped me as well as everyone else i asked, including my Dad who is a Beatle fan from way back.
“How many times does Shirley Temple appear on the cover?” Hmmm, apparently the answer is 3 times, twice as a figure and once included as a cloth doll. Bit of a tricky one.
Some more things you may not know about one of the greatest albums of all time!
The concept behind the album cover collage was the burial of the old I-Want-to-Hold-Your-Hand Beatles. The celebrities looking over the flower bouquet Beatles logo are mourners.
This was the first album to have song lyrics printed on the back cover.
Non-U.S. pressings of the album end with a 15-kilohertz high-frequency tone (put on the album at Lennon’s suggestion and said to be “especially intended to annoy your dog”), followed by an endless loop of laughter and gibberish made by the runout groove looping back into itself.
According to George Martin, McCartney had been listening to avant-garde music and hoped to create a spiraling ascent of sound’ separating the verses from the bridge. Paul wanted to use 90 musicians; EMI would only agree to a 40-piece orchestra. As a result, McCartney and Martin transferred each of the four ‘takes’ to one of the four tape-tracks then available, so there are in fact ’160′ musicians playing.
On 1 April, McCartney flew to the States to see his girlfriend, Jane Asher. There, he played ‘A Day in the Life’ to the Beach Boys. According to one gossip column, Brian Wilson was ‘so knocked out that he has retired to live in a sauna bath’.
On 4 June, topping the bill at the Saville Theatre, and with all four Beatles in attendance, Jimi Hendrix, decided to open the show with ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, as he would throughout the remainder of 1967.
Jesus and Adolf Hitler were originally intended to be on the cover.
It’s title is Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, NOT Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
A mono version of the album with a very different final mix was released with the stereo version.
“Paul is dead” clues proliferate on the cover and in song lyrics.
A mint condition pressing of the original mono version of the album on the Parlaphone label fetches about £100.
The album was No. 1 for 15 weeks in the U.S. and 27 weeks in the U.K. It received three Grammy awards.
Tired of touring, the Beatles saw the album as in effect touring for them, and some of the fictional characters on it represent band members. “Billy Shears,” for example, is Ringo Starr.
There are 9 Beatles on the cover including EX Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe
As of the 30th of June 2008, The Beatles have 5 Guinness World Records:
The biggest-selling original album on the UK chart is Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, with a reported 4.8 million sales since its release in June 1967.
The Beatles album titled 1,released on November 13, 2000, sold a record 13.5 million copies around the world in its first month, 3.6 million of which on its first day alone.
Can’t Buy Me Love by The Beatles, sold 2.7 million worldwide before it was released on 21 March 1964.
The record for the most albums on the US Top 200 at the same time is seven, held jointly by The Beatles, The Monkees and U2.
The most consecutive No. 1’s is held by The Beatles, who had 11 in a row between 1963 and 1966 (from ‘From Me to You’ through to ‘Yellow Submarine’).
Michael Jackson owns around 50% of The Beatles tracks and buying them is the smartest thing he has ever done!
Want to know who’s on the cover?
This simple little WIKI will stop all of the world disputes including: “Elvis is on the cover!!” and “The Boxer is Muhammad Ali!”, i showed both those people who’s boss! Elvis in his original form is NOT on the cover, though his re-incarnated self is and the boxer is Sonny Liston. BANG! In your face Mrs Murphy, next time we play church trivia and you question my integrity, your Zimmer frame won’t be the only thing broken! haha
