| "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the song's sheet music | |
| Song bythe Beatles | |
| from the albumSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | |
| Released | 26 May 1967 (1967-05-26)[1] |
| Recorded | 1 February – 6 March 1967 |
| Studio | EMI, London |
| Genre | |
| Length | 1:59 |
| Label | |
| Songwriter | Lennon–McCartney |
| Producer | George Martin |
| Audio sample | |
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" | |
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a song by the Englishrock bandthe Beatles, written byPaul McCartney, credited toLennon–McCartney, and released in 1967 on thealbum of the same name. The song appears twice on the album: as the opening track (segueing into "With a Little Help from My Friends"), and as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)", the penultimate track (segueing into "A Day in the Life"). As the title song, the lyrics introduce the fictional band that performs on the album.
Since its original album release, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has also been released on various Beatles singles and compilation albums. The song has also been performed by several other artists, includingJimi Hendrix andU2.
In November 1966, on the flight back to England after a holiday in Kenya, McCartney conceived an idea in which an entire album would be role-played, with each ofthe Beatles assuming an alter-ego in the "Lonely Hearts Club Band", which would then perform a concert in front of an audience.The inspiration is said to have come when roadieMal Evans asked McCartney what the letters "S" and "P" stood for on the pots on their in-flight meal trays, and McCartney explained it was for salt and pepper. This then led to theSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, as well as the song.[4][5]
The group's road manager,Neil Aspinall, suggested the idea of Sgt. Pepper being thecompère, as well as the reprise at the end of the album.[6] According to his diaries, Evans may have alsocontributed to the song.John Lennon attributed the idea for Sgt. Pepper to McCartney, although the song is officially credited toLennon–McCartney.[7] The Beatles recorded the track in Abbey Road's studio 2, withGeorge Martin producing, andGeoff Emerick engineering. Work on the song started on 1 February 1967, and after three further sessions the recording was completed on 6 March 1967.[8]
On theSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, the song opens to the sound of a chattering audience, and an orchestra tuning up, which was taken from the 10 February orchestra session for "A Day in the Life".[9] The crowd sounds edited into the song were recorded in the early 1960s by Martin, during a live recording of the stage showBeyond the Fringe. The band is then introduced by name.[10] The song's structure is:
The song is in G major, with a4
4 meter. Ahornquartet was used to fill out the instrumental sections.[8]
| "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" | |
|---|---|
| Song bythe Beatles | |
| from the albumSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | |
| Released | 26 May 1967 |
| Recorded | 1 April 1967 |
| Studio | EMI, London |
| Genre | Hard rock[11] |
| Length | 1:18 |
| Label | |
| Songwriter | Lennon–McCartney |
| Producer | George Martin |
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" is a modifiedrepeat of the opening song at a faster tempo and with heavier instrumentation. The track opens with McCartney's count-in; between 2 and 3, Lennon jokingly interjects "Bye!"[12]Ringo Starr starts the song proper by playing the drum part unaccompanied for four bars, at the end of which a brief bass glissando from McCartney cues the full ensemble of twodistorted electric guitars (played byGeorge Harrison and Lennon),[13] bass, drums and overdubbed percussion.[14] In addition, McCartney overdubbed aHammond organ part onto the track.[13]
While the first version of the song had stayed largely in the key of G major (except for transient modulation to F and perhaps C in the bridges), the reprise starts in F and features amodulation, to G.[15] The mono and stereo mixes of the song differ slightly: the former has a fractionally different transition from the previous song, and includes crowd noise and laughter in the opening bars that are absent from the stereo mix.
The idea for a reprise was Aspinall's, who thought that, as there was a "welcome song", there should also be a "goodbye song".[16][17] The song contains broadly the same melody as the opening version, but with different lyrics and omitting the"It's wonderful to be here" section. At 1:18, it is one of the Beatles' shorter songs (the shortest is "Her Majesty" at 0:23). The reprise was recorded on 1 April 1967, two months after the version that opens the album.[18] At the end of the track, Martin's applause sample segues into the final track of the album, "A Day in the Life". A run-through of the reprise is included on the outtakes albumAnthology 2 (1996).
In 2006, the reprise was re-released on the albumLove, which was a theatrical production byCirque du Soleil. The updated version is a remix featuringsamples of other Beatles' songs and fades out before thecross-fade into "A Day in the Life".
It was originally released in the UK on 26 May 1967, and in the US on 2 June 1967 on theSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP.[8]
When the Beatles' recording contract withEMI expired in 1976, EMI were free to re-release music from the Beatles' catalogue, and in 1978 issued "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With a Little Help from My Friends" as theA-side of a single, with "A Day in the Life" as theB-side. The single was released onCapitol in the US on 14 August (closely following the release there of theSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film), reaching number 71 on 30 September 1978 where it stayed for two weeks. The single was issued onParlophone in the UK in September.[19][20]
| Country | Chart | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| UK | Music Week | 63[21] |
| US | Billboard Hot 100 | 71[22] |
| US | Cash Box | 92[23] |
| US | Record World | 103[24] |
The original recording of the song is included on the Beatles compilation albums1967–1970 (1973) andYellow Submarine Songtrack (1999).
The notebook used by McCartney containing the lyrics for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and other songs was put up for sale in 1998.[25]
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was never performed live by the Beatles. It was performed by three of the former band members (McCartney, Harrison and Starr) plusEric Clapton on 19 May 1979, at Clapton's wedding party.[26]
Paul McCartney played the song live on the1989–90 Paul McCartney World Tour.[27] On subsequent tours he would play the reprise version and use that as a segue into "The End". When the performance is released, it usually is listed as "Sgt. Pepper's/The End", shortening the name of the song. When McCartney performs it, he usually adds the count-inafter the drum part begins, as opposed to McCartney's count-in preceding the drum opening.[28]
| "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single byPaul McCartney andU2 | ||||
| Released | 2005 | |||
| Recorded | 2005 | |||
| Label | iTunes | |||
| Songwriter | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Paul McCartney singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| U2 singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
McCartney andU2 played the song at the start of theLive 8 concert in London'sHyde Park on 2 July 2005.[29] The song, starting with"It was twenty years ago, today", was chosen among others to commemorate that Live 8 took place approximately twenty years afterLive Aid.[30] The single was released for charity oniTunes, hitting number 48 on theBillboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the UK Downloads chart, setting a world record for the fastest-selling online song of all time.[31]
On 4 April 2009, McCartney performed the song during a benefit concert at New York'sRadio City Music Hall and segued it into "With a Little Help From My Friends", sung by Starr.[32]
On 9 February 2014, during a tribute show commemorating the Beatles' first appearance onThe Ed Sullivan Show, 50 years earlier, McCartney again sang "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and Starr sang "With a Little Help from My Friends".
According toIan MacDonald,Mark Lewisohn and Olivier Julien:[33][34][35]
Full version
| Reprise
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[37] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
In 1967,Jimi Hendrix played the song live at theSaville Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, which was leased byBrian Epstein, only three days after it had been released on record, with McCartney and Harrison in the audience.[38][39] Another live version by Hendrix recorded at theIsle of Wight Festival was included on a posthumous live album,Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight.
In 1988,hair metal bandZinatra played the song at an arena tour inEurope where they opened for then-formerVan Halen frontmanDavid Lee Roth.[40] Zinatra also covered part of the song under the title "Peppermania" on the band's 2004 version of their self-titled debut album.[41]
In 2007,Bryan Adams andStereophonics recorded the album's two versions of the song forIt Was 40 Years Ago Today, a television film with contemporary acts recording the album's songs using the same studio, technicians and recording techniques as the original.[42]
In 2009,Cheap Trick released alive album andDVD calledSgt. Pepper Live, which is a live performance of the entire original album, including the title song and reprise.
In 2011,Robbie Williams performed the song onTake That's Progress tour, replacing "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with "Robbie Williams and the Take That Band", and "Mr Martin told the Band to play" – a reference to Take That's manager in the 1990s,Nigel Martin-Smith.
In 2013, the song was performed byRyder Lynn (Blake Jenner),Marley Rose (Melissa Benoist),Jake Puckerman (Jacob Artist), andWade "Unique" Adams (Alex Newell) in theGlee episode "Tina in the Sky with Diamonds".
The Flaming Lips recorded the song on their track-for-track tribute albumWith a Little Help from My Fwends, released on 27 October 2014.
Glim Spanky recorded a cover of the song forHello Goodbye, a 2016 tribute album to the Beatles.[43]
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