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18 awesome facts on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band released 48 years ago today

14:23, 1 JUNE 2015
BY PETER GUY

Beatles classic was released on June 1 - do you know these obscure bits of trivia?

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The Beatles' 1967 masterpiece Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released 48 years ago today.

Regarded by many as revolutionising pop music and culture, the album defined the late 60s spending an incredible 27 weeks at the top of the album chart.

The concept album was loosely based around Paul McCartney's idea that the music centre around the fictional Sgt. Pepper band and contained seminal classic tracks including Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, A Day In The Life and the memorable psychedelic title track.

The album is also notable for George Harrison's Indian-influenced Within You Without You, the Ringo-led With a Little Help from My Friends and the timeless cover art work designed by Peter Blake featuring 57 photographs and nine waxworks of figures from pop culture history.

With sales of 5.1 million copies, Sgt. Pepper is the third-best-selling album in UK chart history and in 2003 Rolling Stone made it number one in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Here's 18 Fab Sgt Pepper Facts

1. More than 700 hours were spent recording the album.

2. A TV commercial for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes inspired Lennon's Good Morning Good Morning.

3. When I'm Sixty-Four was originally intended to be the B-side to Strawberry Fields. However McCartney then produced a substitute - that song was Penny Lane.

4. The lyrics were printed in full on the back cover - the first time this had been done on a rock LP

5. The most played track at The Beatles’ Pepper press launch was Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale - issued the week before Pepper. Lennon played the song non-stop on his Rolls Royce record player all the way to the party.

Press launch of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' at Brian Epstein's house at 24 Chapel St. Belgravia London 19 May 1967. Beatles standing left to right: Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison with John Lennon (crouching) — Press launch of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' at Brian Epstein's house

6. Among the people considered for the cover art but left off were Jesus Christ, Adolf Hitler and actor Leo Gorcey - the latter demanded a fee of $400.

7. Mae West initially refused to have her image on the cover but relented after The Beatles personally wrote her a letter asking her permission.

8. Closing track A Day in the Life includes a high-frequency noise, added by John Lennon to annoy dogs!

The song also includes backwards laughter with Lennon heard saying, 'been so high' followed by McCartney adding, 'never could be any other way.'

9. The title track was originally going to be split into two parts, opening and closing the album. However, George Martin said the final chord of A Day in the Life was so final that, "it was obvious nothing else could follow it."

The Beatles cover of the album Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

10. George Harrison’s Only a Northern Song, was intended for inclusion right up to the moment that McCartney decided to reprise the title track.

11. Jimi Hendrix loved the title track so much he opened his show with it - as he would throughout the remainder of 1967.

12. While the BBC thought Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is a reference to LSD; John insisted that it was from a pastel drawing by his four-year-old son, Julian.

13. In 2008 the bass drum skin used on the front cover sold at auction for €670,000.

14. Producer George Martin plays a harpsichord on Fixing a Hole.

15. Ringo said, "The biggest memory I have of Sgt. Pepper is I learning to play chess."

Reckon you know your Beatles trivia? Take our Beatles lyrics quiz

16. Paul wanted to use 90 musicians but EMI would only agree to a 40-piece orchestra. As a result, McCartney and George Martin transferred each of the four takes to one of the four tape-tracks then available, so there are in fact ‘160’ musicians playing.

17. NME’s critics voted Sgt Pepper the joint best album of all time in 1974 but by 2006 it did not make the paper’s 100 best British albums.

18. When Paul was asked why Elvis Presley was not on the album cover he said: “Elvis was too important and too far above the rest even to mention- he was more than merely a pop singer, he was Elvis the King.”

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