Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
February 1, 1967: Nine takes of the rhythm track were recorded, consisting of echoed drums, bass, and guitars. Paul played his bass directly into the console instead of through an amp. Geoff Emerick recalled, "John came up to the control room one day and asked if we could possibly inject his voice directly into the console. George [Martin] replied, 'Yes, if you go and have an operation. It means sticking a jackplug into your neck!'"
February 2, 1967: Overdubbing of Paul's lead vocal and John's and George's backing vocals.
March 3, 1967: A guitar solo by George and French horns were overdubbed.
March 6, 1967: Sounds of applause and laughter from Abbey Road's archives were overdubbed.

Musicians and Instruments
Paul McCartney - lead vocal, bass
John Lennon - backing vocal, lead guitar
George Harrison - backing vocal, lead guitar
Ringo Starr - drums
George Martin - organ
Session musicians - French horns

Paul: "We were fed up with being Beatles. We really hated that four little moptop boys approach. We were not boys. We were men. It was all gone, all that boy shit, all that screaming, we didn't want anymore, plus we'd now got turned on to pot and thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers, then suddenly on the plane I got this idea. I thought, 'Let's not be ourselves. Let's develop alter egos so we're not having to project an image which we know. It would be much more free'."

Paul: "I started thinking about what we would be with names like 'Laughing Joe and His Medicine Band' or 'Colonel Tucker's Medicinal Brew and Compound,' all that old Western going-round-on-wagons stuff, with the long rambling names. And so, in the same way that in 'I Am the Walrus' John would throw together 'choking smokers' and 'elementary penguin,' I threw those words together: 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'."

George: "I felt we were just in the studio to make the next record, and Paul was going on about this idea of some fictitious band. That side of it didn't really interest me, other than the title song and the album cover."

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
March 29, 1967: Ten takes of the song were recorded. Take 10 was considered the best.
March 30, 1967: Guitar, tambourine, bass, and backing vocals were overdubbed.
March 31, 1967: Fifteen mono remixes were made.
April 7, 1967: Stereo remixing.

Musicians and Instruments
Ringo Starr - lead vocal, drums
Paul McCartney - backing vocal, bass, piano
John Lennon - backing vocal, cowbell
George Harrison - guitar, tambourine
George Martin - Hammond organ

Paul: "This was written at John's house in Weybridge for Ringo. I think that was probably the best of our songs we wrote for Ringo actually. I remember giggling with John as we wrote the lines, 'What do you see when you turn out the light?/I can't tell you but I know it's mine.' It could have been him playing with his willie under the covers, or it could have been taken on a deeper level. This is what it meant, but it was a nice way to say it - a very non-specific way to say it. I always liked that."

Ringo: "You know I'm not very good at singing because I haven't got a great range. So they write songs for me that are pretty low and not too hard."

Interesting Facts
- The crowd noise at the beginning of this was from the Beatles' concert at the Hollywood Bowl on August 23, 1964. George Martin had recorded their performance, and it was released in 1977 as The Beatles at Hollywood Bowl LP.
- The working title of the song was "Badfinger Boogie." John had an injured finger while the Beatles were working on it.
- The first line of the song was originally: "What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?" Ringo refused to sing it because he remembered back when they used to tour and fans threw things at them on stage. The line was changed.

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
February 28, 1967: The Beatles rehearsed and reworked the song for eight hours, but no proper recordings were made.
March 1, 1967: Seven takes were recorded, focusing on the rhythm track of the piano, guitar, Hammond organ, drums, and maracas. Paul played the opening of the song on a Hammond, which was taped with a special organ on stop so it would sound like a celesta. A tamboura was introduced on Take 7.
March 2, 1967: Vocal overdubs, bass, and lead guitar were recorded. Then eleven mono remixes were made.
March 3, 1967: Four mono remixes were made.
April 7, 1967: Five stereo remixes were made.

Musicians and Instruments
John Lennon - lead vocal, lead guitar
Paul McCartney - harmony vocal, bass, Hammond organ
George Harrison - harmony vocal, lead guitar, sitar
Ringo Starr- drums, maracas(?)

John: "My son, Julian, came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.' Simple. It was purely unconscious that it came out to be LSD. Until somebody pointed it out, I never even thought it. I mean, who would bother to look at initials of a title? It's not an acid song. The imagery was the image of this female who would come and save me - this secret love that was going to come one day. It turned out to be Yoko, and I hadn't met Yoko then, but she was my imaginary girl that we all have."

Interesting Facts
- This song was banned from airplay because the initials of the song spelled out LSD, so everyone thought it was a drug song.
- John got some of his ideas for the song from the British comedy radio show The Goon Show. Spike Milligan, one of the show's writers, said, "We used to talk about 'plasticine ties' in The Goon Show and this crept up in Lucy as 'plasticine porters with looking-glass ties.' I knew Lennon quite well. He used to talk a lot about comedy. He was a Goon Show freak. It all stopped when he married Yoko. Everything stopped."
- The animated Yellow Submarine filmed started out as a two-minute pilot film for "Lucy."

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
March 9, 1967: Seven takes of the basic rhythm track were recorded. It consisted of guitars, bass, drums, and George Martin hitting piano strings. A reduction mis took everything town to one track.
March 10, 1967: Bass, drums, and George Martin playing tamboura were overdubbed onto the three remaining tracks.
March 21, 1967: Lead and backing vocals were overdubbed.
March 23, 1967: A vocal overdub was re-recorded. Bongos were overdubbed, and then three mono remixes were made.
April 17, 1967: Stereo remixing.

Musicians and Instruments
Paul McCartney - lead vocal, backing vocal, bass
John Lennon - backing vocal, lead guitar
George Harrison - backing vocal, lead guitar, tamboura
Ringo Starr - drums, bongos
George Martin - piano strings

Hunter Davies: "I was walking around Primrose Hill with Paul and his dog, Martha. It was bright and sunny - the first spring-like morning we'd had that year. Thinking about the weather, Paul said, 'It's getting better.' He was meaning that spring was here, but he started laughing, and when I asked him why, he told me that it reminded him of something. After every concert, John and Paul would go up to Jimmy Nicol* and ask him how he was getting on. All that Jimmy would ever say was, 'It's getting better.' That was the only comment they could get out of him. It ended up becoming a joke phrase and whenever the boys thought of Jimmy they thought of 'it's getting better'."

*Jimmy Nicol was the drummer that filled in temporarily for Ringo on the World Tour of 1964 when he was ill.

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Locations: Regent Sound Studios; Abbey Road Studios, London
February 9, 1967: (Regent Sound Studios) Six unofficial rehearsal takes, followed by three takes of the full song, were recorded.
February 21, 1967: A reduction mix of the Regent take was made. Overdubs were recorded, but the records don't indicate what was overdubbed. Then mono mixing and editing was done.
April 7, 1967: Stereo mixing.

Musicians and Instruments
Paul McCartney - lead vocal, bass, harpsichord, lead guitar
John Lennon - backing vocal, maracas
George Harrison - lead guitar and solo
Ringo Starr - drums

Paul: "It's really about the fans who hang around outside your door day and night. 'See the people standing there/They worry me and never win/And wonder why they don't get in my door.' I actually do enjoy having them in. I used to do it more, but I don't as much now because I invited one in once and the next day she was in The Daily Mirror saying we were going to get married."

Paul: "I liked that one. Strange story, though. The night we went to record that, a guy turned up at my house who announced himself as Jesus. So I took him to the session - you know, couldn't harm, I thought. Introduced Jesus to the guys. Quite reasonable about it. But that was it. Last we ever saw of Jesus."

Interesting Facts
- Paul wrote this after repairing the roof of his Scottish farmhouse.
- The Beatles' roadie, Mal Evans, helped write this song. He was paid for his help, but not given official credit.

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
March 17, 1967: George Martin conducted session musicians and produced the session, even though he didn't write the score. Six takes were recorded of the strings. Paul probably was not present at this session.
March 20, 1967: A tape reduction was made, and Paul's vocal and John's backing vocal were overdubbed. Each vocal track was recoded twice so it sounded like four voices. Six mono remixes were made.
April 17, 1967: Stereo mixing and editing.

Musicians and Instruments
Paul McCartney - lead vocal, backing vocal
John Lennon - lead vocal, backing vocal
Sheila Bromberg - harp
Session musicians - violins, violas, cellos, double bass

Paul: "I wrote that. My kind of ballad from that period. One of my daughters likes that. The other thing I remember is that George Martin was offended that I used another arranger. He was busy and I was itching to get on with it. I was inspired. I think George had a lot of difficulty forgiving me for that. It hurt him. I didn't mean to."

Interesting Facts
- The original mono version of "She's Leaving Home" is in the key of F major. For the 1967 stereo release of Sgt. Pepper, the song was slowed down enough to drop it down to E major.
- The string arrangement was written by Mike Leander because George Martin was busy with a Cilla Black session. Martin later admitted he was hurt by Paul's decision, even though Paul had never wanted to hurt him by it.
- Sheila Bromberg, the harpist, was the first woman to perform on a Beatles record.

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
February 17, 1967: Seven takes of the rhythm track were recorded, made up of bass, drums, and harmonium. The first proper vocal was dubbed onto Take 7. Then a reduction mix was made, onto which John re-recorded his lead vocal. A rough mono mix was also made.
February 20, 1967: John had wanted a manually playable calliope for the song, but George Martin wasn't able to find one, so this was the day the group worked on assembling tape loops of steam organs for the song's background wash.
March 28, 1967: Overdubs of George, Ringo, Mal Evans, and Neil Aspinall playing harmonicas, plus John on organ and Paul's guitar solo.
March 29, 1967: Overdubs of the spliced organ as well as a new swirling organ part played by George Martin and more harmonicas by George and John.
March 31, 1967: Overdubs of organ and glockenspiel. Mono mixing.
April 7, 1967: Stereo mixing.

Musicians and Instruments
John Lennon - lead vocal, Hammond organ
Paul McCartney - lead guitar, bass
George Harrison - harmonica
Ringo Starr - drums, harmonica
George Martin - Wurlitzer organ, harmonium, piano
Mal Evans - harmonica
Neil Aspinall - harmonica

John: "The whole song is from a Victorian poster which I bought in a junk shop. It is so cosmically beautiful. It's a poster for a fair that must have happened in the 1800s."

Interesting Facts
- People thought "Henry the Horse" mentioned in the song was a reference to heroin. John denied that: "I had never seen heroin in that period. No, it's all just from that poster. The song is pure, like a painting, a pure watercolor."

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
March 15, 1967: One take was recorded, with Indian musicians from the Eastern Music Circle in north London. At this time, the song had no title.
March 22, 1967: Overdubbing of dilrubas. Reduction mix and mono mixing.
April 3, 1967: An unknown number of string parts were recorded, and George also recorded his lead vocal and, according to Mark Lewisohn, acoustic guitar. Mono mixing went on from 3 to 6 am.
April 4, 1967: Mono and stereo mixing and editing. A few seconds of laughter was edited onto the end of both mixes.

Musicians and Instruments
George Harrison - lead vocal, tamboura, swordmandel
Neil Aspinall - tamboura
Indian musicians - dilrubas, tamboura, tabla, swordmandel
Session musicians - violins and cellos

George: "This was during the Sgt. Pepper period and after I had been taking sitar lessons with Ravi Shankar for some time, so I was getting a bit better on the instrument. That's why around this time I couldn't help writing tunes like this which were based upon unusual scales."

George: "'Within You Without You' was written after dinner one night at Klaus Voorman's house. He had a harmonium, which I hadn't played before. I was doodling on it when the tune started to come. The first sentence came out of what we'd been doing that evening - 'We were talking.' I finished the rest of the words later at home."

John: "George has done a great Indian one. We came along one night, and he had about four hundred Indian fellas playing there, and it was a great swinging evening, as they say."

Interesting Facts
- The line "life goes on within you and without you" was given to George by Jenny Boyd, his former sister-in-law, who found it in a book she was reading called Karma and Rebirth by Christmas Humphreys.

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
December 6, 1966
December 8, 1966
December 20, 1966
December 21, 1966
April 17, 1967

Musicians and Instruments
Paul McCartney - lead vocal, backing vocal, bass, piano
John Lennon - backing vocal, guitar
George Harrison - backing vocal
Ringo Starr - drums, chimes
Session musicians - clarinets

Paul: "I wrote the tune when I was about fifteen, I think, on the piano at home, before I moved to Liverpool. It was kind of a cabaret tune. Then, years later, I put words to it."

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
February 23, 1967: Out of the number of takes recorded this day, Take 8 was considered the best. A reduction mix into Take 9 with all the instruments sharing one track was created.
February 24, 1967: Paul's lead vocal was recorded. After further reduction mixes, Take 9 became Take 10 and 11.
March 7, 1967: A reduction mix, now called Take 11, was recorded on which John sang backing vocal, heavily echoed. They also recorded the sound of a comb and toilet paper.
March 21, 1967: This was the day that John accidentally took acid in the atudio and George Martin took him on the roof to get some fresh air. The piano solo for "Rita" was recorded.

Musicians and Instruments
Paul McCartney - lead and backing vocal, bass, piano, comb and paper
John Lennon - backing vocal, acoustic guitar, comb and paper
George Harrison - backing vocal, acoustic guitar, comb and paper
Ringo Starr - drums
George Martin - piano

Paul: "It was based on the American meter maid. The idea of a parking meter attendant's being sexy was tongue in cheek at the time."

Interesting Facts
- The reaction to the line "When are you free to take some tea with me?" was that Paul was talking about marijuana. Paul denied that: "Tea, not pot. It's like saying, 'Come and cut the grass,' and then realizing that could be pot, or the old teapot could be something about pot. But I don't mind pot, and I leave the words in. They're not consciously introduced just to say pot and be clever."

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
February 8, 1967: Eight takes were recorded of the basic rhythm track, but only four weere complete.
February 16, 1967: Vocals and bass guitar were overdubbed onto the rhythm track, and a reduction mix was made.
February 20, 1967: Demo remix (mono).
March 13, 1967: Brass overdubs were recorded.
March 28, 1967: John's lead vocal was overdubbed, and the reduction mix was bumped down to two tracks. Paul's lead guitar solo was also overdubbed, as well as the backing vocals by John and Paul. The lead vocal was double-tracked in remixing. Sound effects were assembled, but not yet added to the song.
March 29, 1967: Animal sounds were overdubbed onto the song.
April 6, 1967: Mono and stereo mixing.
April 19, 1967: Mono mixing.

Musicians and Instruments
John Lennon - lead and backing vocal
Paul McCartney - backing vocal, bass, lead guitar
George Harrison - lead vocal
Ringo Starr - drums
Sounds Incorporated - saxophones, trombones, French horn

John: "I often sit at the piano, working at songs with the telly on low in the background. If I'm a bit low and not getting much done then the words on the telly come through. That's when I heard 'Good Morning Good Morning'... it was a Corn Flakes advertisement."

First released: June 1, 1967 on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
April 1, 1967: Nine takes of the rhythm track were recorded, with Paul on guide vocal. Take 9 was the best, and then John, Paul, and George did lead vocals on an overdub. Mono mixing.
April 20, 1967: Stereo mixing.

Musicians and Instruments
Paul McCartney - lead vocal, bass
John Lennon - lead vocal, lead guitar, maracas
George Harrison - lead vocal, lead guitar
Ringo Starr - drums

Geoff Emerick: "I think the reprise version of the song is more exciting than the first cut of 'Sgt. Pepper.' There's a nice quality about it."

First released: June 1, 1967, on the UK LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Recording Information
Location: Abbey Road Studios, London
January 19, 1967: Four takes were recorded with John singing and playing guitar and Paul playing piano. At this time, they knew something should go in the middle of the song but didn't know what yet. Mal Evans's echoing voice counted out the bars, from 1 to 24, accompanied by a tinkling piano with notes ascending in pitch in tandem with the numbers. An alarm clock sound was put at the end. Take 4 consisted of John's vocal overdubs on two tracks.
January 20, 1967: More takes were recorded, and Take 6 was marked the best. Paul's vocal in the middle was recorded. Paul would re-record the vocal on February 3, because this day's work was only a rough guide, and he swore at the end as he flubbed his line.
January 30, 1967: George Martin worked at EMI Studios from 7 to 8:30 pm producing a rough mono mix so acetate discs could be cut. This was the day that the Beatles were out recording the promo videos for "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever."
February 3, 1967: Overdubbing onto Take 6. Paul re-recorded his middle vocal and a new bass part. Ringo decided to wipe his original drum track in favori of a new tom-tom sound.
February 10, 1967: The orchestra was brought in to play the instrumental buildup to fill the twenty-four-bar gap in the song between the John and Paul sections. Forty musicians (the Beatles had wanted ninety) were intructed to play from a preselected low note to the highest note their instrument could reach. The orchestra cost EMI £367, and George Martin and Paul took turns conducting. The recording session ran from 8 pm to 1 am and was a big event. After the orchestra left, the Beatles and friends stayed at EMI to record the final chord, a long "hummm" sound, which would remain the songs ending until February 22.
February 13, 1967: Four new mono mixes were prepared.
February 22, 1967: The Beatles decided to choir of humming voices was not a good ending for the song, and John, Paul, Ringo, and Mal Evans, sharing three pianos, simultaneously struck an E major chord to replace the choir. It took nine takes before they all hit the chord at the right time. Take 9 was overdubbed three times, and then George Martin added a harmonium until all four tracks were filled.
February 23, 1967: Geoff Emerick prepared a stereo master.
March 1, 1967: A new piano track was added to Take 6, but this overdub ended up never being used.
April 21, 1967: The Beatles recorded gibberish and funny noises and put it onto the track. They also recorded a high-frequency sound that only dogs can hear.

Musicians and Instruments
John Lennon - lead vocal, lead guitar, piano
Paul McCartney - lead vocal, piano, bass
George Harrison - maracas(?)
Ringo Starr - drums, piano, bongos, maracas, timpani
George Martin - harmonium, piano
Mal Evans - alarm clock, piano
Orchestra - violins, violas, cellos, double basses, harp, oboe, flutes, trumpets, trombones, tuba, clarinets, bassoons, horns

John: "Just as it sounds - I was reading the paper one day and noticed two stories. One was the Guiness heir who killed himself in a car. That was the main story. He died in London in a car crash. On the next page was a story about four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. In the streets, that is. They were going to fill them all. Paul's contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song 'I'd love to turn you on.' I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn't use for anything. I thought it was a damn good piece of work."

Interesting Facts
- The working title of this was "In the Life Of..."
- The song and promotional video for this were banned by the BBC because of the line "Went upstairs and had a smoke," which they thought was a reference to marijuana.