The Making of Sgt Pepper´s Lonely Hearts Club Band - Part 2

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.

Category:

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• Lonely
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[tyleryesta1]

I love George Martin... he's like the proud father.

[ForeverBeatlesCom]

@tyleryesta1 Isn't it adorable? They're like a big, happy family!

[Escagedo3rd]

thank you for the video.

[ForeverBeatlesCom]

@Escagedo3rd You're very welcome :)

[TackyRackyComixNEO]

That was rather interesting to hear all the different incarnations of Strawberry Fields Forever and how they were mixed.

[nickeax]

George isn't one of those people who bangs on about how "I did that!" or "I suggested doing it this way!". He almost makes out he had nothing to do with the sessions and production. Those in the know understand exactly how important his influence was though.

[BitOveRate]

love it

[MegaObserver1]

George Martin likes to take songs apart track by track. He amazed Brian Wilson many years later when he took 'God Only Knows" apart track by track. Martin knew more about how the song was made than Brian did!

[edyken77]

Backwards cymbal FTW

[edyken77]

George Martin all up in da studio droppin trax like Diddy & Timbaland.

[LedZeppelin4509]

man it would be awesome having george martin as a record producer.

[Lennonfan1010]

This is amazing! George Martin is like the 5th Beatle!