![]() ![]() The title track itself is fairly popular, despite never making the Top 40 in its own right. MORE: See all the times A Little Help From My Friends charted in the UK ![]() it's the second most downloaded song off the album. More recently, Pop Idol finalists Sam and Mark had a Number 1 with it in 2004. Joe Cocker did it first, in 1968, followed by Wet Wet Wet 20 years later. Even more remarkably, the Beatles' version is not among them. Remarkably, this song has topped the Official Singles Chart THREE times. It's both the most downloaded and the most streamed song off Sgt Pepper. It's been covered a number of times, most notably by Elton John – who took it to Number 10 in 1974. ![]() Long rumoured to be a reference to hallucinogenic drug LSD – which the Beatles were no strangers to, tbh – the inspiration for this classic actually comes from a painting by John's then-young son Julian. That's how embedded into pop culture the album is!ĪRCHIVE: The Beatles' Official Top 50 biggest selling singles (Think the moment when Stop ended Spice Girls' run of Number 1s, but times a million – this was big news.) So some of the biggest tracks on Sgt Pepper, that even the most casual fan of the Beatles would know, were never singles at all. This turned out to be a controversial move – the double-A side missed the Number 1 spot, their first official release to do so in four years, after a string of consecutive chart-toppers. The album's biggest tracks weren't singles.īack in the 1960s, it was more common for singles to be separate entities altogether, so singles wouldn't usually be included on an album – even Number 1s! Although part of the Sgt Pepper sessions, the Beatles' classic hits Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were rush-released as a single when management and the record label got twitchy at there being no Beatles releases in the last five minutes. MORE: Look back at all the Beatles' UK hit singles and albums in their Official Chart archiveģ. So, all in all, a pretty miserable experience for at least two quarters of the Fab Four. Paul assumed creative control, John Lennon felt his own writing wasn't "from the heart" and the band worked into the night at the famous Abbey Road studios. It later emerged that the rest of the band were not massively into this idea – sorry to spoil the magic for any fans – and Ringo claimed his greatest memory of the recording sessions was learning to play chess, as he was so bored. It's a concept album, which the band were not keen on the idea of (except Paul McCartney)Īfter recording the title track, inspired by an Edwardian-era military band, Paul McCartney came up with the concept of presenting the entire album as if that band had performed it. On reconvening, at the end of 1966, John, Paul, George and Ringo realised that freeing themselves from the burden of touring an album meant they could be more experimental, and use instruments and techniques that would be difficult to recreate in the live environment.Ģ. The Beatles weren't in a good place before they recorded the albumĪfter becoming disillusioned with touring - screaming crowds at gigs had masked just how ropey their live performances had become, and on discovering how bad they sounded, they decided to jack it in altogether – the band took a break from each other. With a massive (seriously) re-issue of the record - packed with rarities, demos, remasterings, you name it - out this month to mark its anniversary, we look back at the how the record came together, its most popular songs in the digital age and the impact of this pop cultural landmark with 12 surprising facts.ġ. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was The Beatles' eighth album, and the group had already shown themselves to be a huge influence – but with Sgt Pepper, the stakes were raised considerably. ![]() It's 50 years since the release of the album that some might say changed the face of pop music forever. ![]()
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