Right Now 50 Years Ago

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (AM10)

Artist: The Beatles

Recorded: 6 December 1966 - 21 April 1967
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Adrian Ibbetson, Malcolm Addey, Ken Townsend, Peter Vince

Cover Art: Peter Blake

Released: 1 June 1967 (UK), 2 June 1967 (US)

Players: John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, Hammond organ, cowbell; Paul McCartney: vocals, electric guitar, bass, piano, Lowery organ; George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, tambura, sitar, maracas; Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, harmonica, tambourine, maracas, congas, bongos, chimes; George Martin: Hammond organ, Lowery organ, piano, pianette, harpsichord, harmonium, glockenspiel; Mal Evans: harmonica, Hammond organ, piano, alarm clock; Neil Aspinall: harmonica, tambura; Erich Gruenberg, Derek Jacobs, Trevor Williams, José Luis Garcia, Alan Loveday, Julien Gaillard, Paul Scherman, Ralph Elman, David Wolfsthal, Jack Rothstein, Jack Greene, Granville Jones, Bill Monro, Jurgen Hess, Hans Geiger, D Bradley, Lionel Bentley, David McCallum, Donald Weekes, Henry Datyner, Sidney Sax, Ernest Scott: violins; John Underwood, Stephen Shingles, Gwynne Edwards, Bernard Davis, John Meek: viola; Dennis Vigay, Alan Dalziel, Reginald Kilbey, Allen Ford, Peter Beavan, Francisco Gabarro, Alex Nifosi: cello; Cyril MacArthur, Gordon Pearce: double bass Sheila Bromberg, John Marston: harp; Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie, Frank Reidy, Basil Tschaikov, Jack Brymer: clarinet; Roger Lord: oboe; N Fawcett, Alfred Waters: bassoon Clifford Seville, David Sanderman: flute; Barrie Cameron, David Glyde, Alan Holmes: saxophone; David Mason, Monty Montgomery, Harold Jackson: trumpet; Raymond Brown, Raymond Premru, T Moore, John Lee: trombone; Alan Civil, Neil Sanders, James W Buck, Tony Randall, John Burden, Tom (surname unknown): French horn; Michael Barnes: tuba Tristan Fry: timpani, percussion; Marijke Koger: tambourine; Unknown musicians: dilruba, svarmandal, tabla, tambura

The recording of Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band spanned 129 days, perhaps the most inspired 129 days in rock 'n' roll history, though there are those contrarians who insist instead that Sgt. Pepper was not simply the beginning of the end of rock 'n' roll, but the end of the end as well. The AM10 of 10s, needs no review from us, despite the detractors, yet like a great poem by Yeats, the work seemed to come with ease despite the 700+ hours of labor. Here, rather than review, are simply outtakes from the original photo sessions, March 30, 1967, with only one FYI below the fold:

The sequence of songs on Pepper is famous in itself, being - on the vinyl version - two continuous sides of music, without pauses between songs, or 'banding', to use recording parlance. But the line-up of side one, as first conceived, was different from how it finally evolved, and was as follows: 'Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'; 'With a Little Help From My Friends'; 'Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!'; 'Fixing a Hole'; 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'; 'Getting Better'; 'She's Leaving Home'.