The Making of Sgt Pepper´s Lonely Hearts Club Band - Part 1

Released on June 1st, 1967, in a now-iconic gatefold cover by artist Peter Blake and photographer Michael Cooper, Sgt. Pepper immediately electrified the world.

The Beatles recorded almost every note of Sgt. Pepper in one room, Abbey Road's humble, white-walled Studio Two.

"John was the smart one, Paul the cute one, George the quiet one, and Ringowell, Ringo was just Ringo. Together these four dramatically different men made up one of the most famous and acclaimed bands in the history of rock and roll.

On Friday, February 10th, 1967, the Beatles threw a party at EMI Studios on Abbey Road in northwest London. The occasion: the recording of twenty-four bars of improvised crescendo, played by a forty-piece orchestra, for "A Day in the Life," the climax of the band's then-in-progress masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Special guests included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Donovan and the Monkees' Michael Nesmith. At the Beatles' request, the orchestra members wore formal evening dress with funny hats, clown noses, fake nipples and, in the case of the lead violinist, a gorilla's paw on his bowing hand. Engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Townsend taped the musical chaos on a pair of linked four-track machines, making this the first-ever eight-track recording date in Britain. "It only took three quarters of an hour to get [the machines] in sync," Townsend says. "The hardest part was hauling them upstairs to the control room."
The entire evening produced only thirty seconds of music (used twice in the final song). But the session was typical of the flamboyance and nerve that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr put into the creation of Sgt. Pepper. "We were fed up with being Beatles," McCartney has said, referring to the matching suits and screaming girls they left behind after retiring from live concerts, at the end of August 1966. "We were not boys, we were men. . . artists, not performers." Sgt. Pepper was the willfully extravagant proof, a landmark achievement in technicolor sound, unifying concept and songwriting ambition.

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[Koolkitties]

I'm tired of people calling this album so "sixties".

It's timeless! TIMELESS!

[Oglenthorne]

The Beatles recorded almost every note of Sgt. Pepper in one room, Abbey Road's humble, white-walled Studio Two.

Together these four dramatically different men made up one of the most famous and acclaimed bands in the history of rock

and roll.

[samgub]

@davidgbarron thanks, mybe one day they'll release it, i've just started re-watching again the anthologies on dvd, such a joy

[davidgbarron]

@samgub I guess it is because ownership of the programme belongs to ITV/LWT/Melvyn Bragg and Apple Corps, as at the same time the programme was being made, they were making The Beatles Anthology.

[davidgbarron]

Basically the format of this programme what became five years after became the Classic Albums strand.

[MegaObserver1]

Paul actually was in L.A. for a while prior to recording Pepper, hanging out with Brian Wilson and other American rock stars he'd met while on tour. It was there where he heard an early pressing of Pet Sounds and was knocked out by it. He told George Martin "We've GOT to find some way to top this!"

[MegaObserver1]

@Oglenthorne "She's Leaving Home' was recorded at a different London studio. This song had a full orchestra and they wanted to use 8 tracks. Abbey Road only had 4 track recording at the time. The orchestra in "Day In The Life" was overdubbed after the recording on a "bounce" (2nd generation) tape, so they could get by with only 4 tracks.

[EVHfan5001]

HOLY CRAP. George Martin looks like Clint!!!

[samgub]

Why this has never been officially released as a dvd astonishes me , i used to have it on video but some idiot taped over it, oops that could have been me. Absolutely fantastic documentary, wish they'd do one on Revolver

[THECLARENCES]

Amazing!

xoxo

The Clarences

[BeatleFloydZeppelin]

Noo Ringo was the FUNNY one!! He had a title too!!!

[CHAPAPA96]

Amen