Bang The Drum All Day: Sgt. Pepper is The Beatles... who knew?

50 years ago, in June 1967, the Beatles released a 'concept album' - before that term was ever used - but that's what it was.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a way of distancing themselves from Beatlemania. This advert, on the front page of the NME, suggests EMI were worried they might have gone too far.

As history shows, Sgt. Pepper was Paul McCartney's idea that the Beatles present themselves as some kind of vaudeville act, as a means of releasing new material that would reflect a broader range of their songwriting skills.

The first release of this new era was the double A-side single of Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane, which was previewed on TV's Juke Box Jury in February 1967.

I can remember seeing the show and, on first listen, being rather baffled by Strawberry Fields Forever. I was only a youngster and, like many people I'm sure, assumed The Beatles would carry on making records we could all hum the tune to.

Strawberry Fields really was unlike anything they - or anyone - had done before, inspired, fairly obviously, by their discovery of LSD. Fans of the Beatles' simple pop tunes would have been writing letters to the editor that very evening - "Beatles go mad!"; "Less of this druggy nonsense lads!"

I remember they showed the Penny Lane promo film but I have no recollection of the one for Strawberry Fields. Maybe they didn't show it or maybe it was just too much for a young boy to process. The surreal promo The Beatles made to accompany it (see below) shows them all clearly off their heads. It's fair to say that people sitting in their living rooms at tea-time on a Saturday evening were not ready for this.

I don't remember whether it was voted a Hit or a Miss by the celebrity jury. You could certainly understand if the panel of judges (never the hippest cats) were unsure what to make of it.

The Beatles had anticipated a hostile reception from many of their fans. While Sgt. Pepper turned out to be massively influential to other musicians and artists, as an extension of the art revolution of the 1960s, traditionalists hated it.

As time went on and people came to realise the Beatles had made a radical and historically influential musical shift, the initial 'shock of the new' created by Strawberry Fields Forever wore off. Nowadays, it is hard for people to appreciate just how pivotal a cultural event this moment was.

Penny Lane was a different matter of course, being a much more traditional song with a strong melody and a jaunty piano-led rhythm. Classic Paul.

Recording sessions for the album concluded in April 1967 and release was planned for June. Anticipation was intense for any new Beatles album, particularly since they had stopped playing live in 1966. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was unveiled at a media launch hosted by their manager Brian Epstein at his London flat. It hit record stores on 1 June.

It was the Summer of Love, peace, hippies and LSD - so not surprisingly, when the band were attending the cover shoot for the album, two of them, John and George, were literally flying.

The Beatles at the Sgt. Pepper launch party

Was anybody really fooled by this masquerade of The Beatles pretending to be someone else?

Well, to judge from EMI's advertising, they must have been worried that people were confused about the band's identity. Otherwise they wouldn't have felt the need to remind people who was behind the album.

"Remember - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is The Beatles"

Oh thanks, I was wondering who it was...

The initial shock, when the most famous band in the world transformed from lovable moptops to psychedelic freaks, has been lost sight of over the intervening years.

That's why, I think, Sgt. Pepper is no longer considered by some as The Beatles' masterpiece. People have forgotten what a dramatic effect it had on popular culture, not just music.

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters said, "Sgt. Pepper freed a whole generation of young English men and women to write songs about real things."

My vintage 1967 mono copy of Sgt. Pepper, with insert cut-outs and inner sleeve

And consider this: When Sgt Pepper was released on 1st June 1967 (their 8th album) Paul McCartney and George Harrison were still only 24 years old.

For the back story to the making of Sgt Pepper, you could do worse than visit this page:
http://www.thebeatles.com/album/sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band

And of course, this week sees release of the 50th anniversary edition of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. We hope you will enjoy the show...