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

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"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
Song
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
Song

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a song credited to Lennon/McCartney, and first recorded and released in 1967, on the The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album. 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 track, the lyrics introduce the fictional band which performs in the album.

Since its original album release, the song has also been released on singles, on compilation albums, and has been performed by several other artists including Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, and McCartney with U2.

Authorship and recording

In November 1966, on the flight back to England after a holiday, McCartney conceived an idea in which an entire album would be role-played, with each of The 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 roadie Mal Evans innocently 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 the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, as well as the song.[1][2] According to producer George Martin, the song was recorded before the album, but he also said that it started the idea of a concept album based around the main Sgt. Pepper character.[2]

The group's road manager Neil Aspinall suggested the idea of Sergeant Pepper being the compère, as well as the reprise at the end of the album.[2] According to his diaries, Evans may have also contributed to the song. John Lennon attributed the idea for Sgt. Pepper to McCartney, although the song is officially credited to Lennon/McCartney.[3] The song was recorded in Abbey Road's number 2 studio, with Martin producing, and Geoff Emerick engineering. Work on the song started on 1 February 1967, and after three further sessions the recording was complete on 6 March 1967.[4] listenⓘ

Song structure

On the Sgt. 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".[5] The crowd sounds edited into the song were recorded in 1960 by Martin, during live recordings for the Goon Show. When the song itself begins, the band introduces its members.[6] The song's structure is:

  1. Introduction (instrumental)
  2. Verse
  3. Bridge (instrumental)
  4. Refrain
  5. Bridge
  6. Verse
  7. Instrumental bridge and transition into "With a Little Help from My Friends".[4]

The song is in G major, with a 4/4 meter. A French horn quartet was used to fill out the instrumental sections.[4]

Reprise

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" is a repeat of the song at a faster tempo with heavier instrumentation. While the opening track stays 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 modulates back to G. The track opens with a distorted guitar strumming a "Hendrix chord" (dominant 7th sharp 9). McCartney counts 1..2..3..4, and between 2 and 3, Lennon jokingly adds "Bye!"[7]

The idea for a reprise was Aspinall's, who thought that as there was a "welcome song", there should be a "goodbye song".[8][2] The song contains the same melody as the opening version, but with different lyrics. 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.[9][10] At the end of the track, Martin's pre-recorded applause sample segues into the final track of the album, "A Day in the Life".

Releases

It was originally released in the UK on 1 June 1967, and in the US on 2 June, 1967 on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP.[4]

When the Beatles' recording contract with EMI expired in 1976, EMI was free to re-release music from the Beatle catalogue, and in 1978−11 years after the original album release−released "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With a Little Help from My Friends" as the A-side of a single with "A Day in the Life" as the B-side. The single was released on Capitol in the U.S. on 14 August (closely following the U.S. release of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film, and on Parlophone in the UK in September.[11][12]

Country Chart Rank
UK Music Week 63[13]
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 71[14]
U.S. Cash Box 92[15]
U.S. Record World 103[16]

The original recording of the song is included on the following Beatles compilation albums: 1967-1970 (1973), Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999). A run-through of the reprise is included on the outtakes album Anthology 2 (1996). 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.[17]

Live performances

Live 8 in Hyde Park, London, 2005

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was never performed live by The Beatles. It was performed by three of the Beatles (Paul, George and Ringo) plus Eric Clapton on May 19th 1979 at Clapton's wedding party. John Lennon said later that he would have attended the party if he had received an invitation. Paul McCartney played it live on his world tour that began in September 1989, and on subsequent tours.[18] McCartney and U2 played the song at the start of a Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London on July 2, 2005.[19] The song, starting with "It was twenty years ago" was chosen amongst others to commemorate that Live 8 took place approximately twenty years after Live Aid.[20] The single was released for charity on iTunes, and set a world record for the fastest release of a single.[21]

In 1967, Jimi Hendrix played the song live at The Saville Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, which was leased by Brian Epstein, only three days after it had been released on record, with McCartney in the audience.[22][2] Another live version by Hendrix recorded at the Isle of Wight Festival was included on a posthumous live album, Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight. In 2006, the reprise was re-released on the album Love, which was a theatrical production by Cirque du Soleil. The updated version is a remix featuring samples of other Beatles songs.

In 2007, Bryan Adams and Stereophonics recorded the album's two versions of the song for It 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.[23] On May 23 2007, at the American Idol season six finale, Kelly Clarkson and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry performed the song during a Beatles medley.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ Miles (1997), pp303-304.
  2. ^ a b c d e ”The Beatles Anthology” DVD 2003 (Episode 6 - 0:41:54) Harrison talking about McCartney's idea for Sergeant Pepper's. Cite error: The named reference "”TheBeatlesAnthologyDVD”" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Beatles Songwriting & Recording Database". 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  4. ^ a b c d Pollack, Alan W. "Notes on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Soundscape. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  5. ^ Lewisohn (1988), p101.
  6. ^ "Dubbed applause and music-hall overtones". Scotsman.com. 2007-05-25. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  7. ^ "The Beatles Anomalies List". Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  8. ^ Miles (1997), p306.
  9. ^ Lewisohn (1988), p95.
  10. ^ Lewisohn (1988), p107.
  11. ^ "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)". IMDb. Retrieved 2007-03-05.
  12. ^ "The Beatles Singles and EP Discography". Beatle Tracks. Retrieved 2007-03-05.
  13. ^ Harry (2000), p261.
  14. ^ Wallgren (1982), p123.
  15. ^ Harry (2000), p271.
  16. ^ Harry (2000), p273.
  17. ^ "Notebook of lyrics for sale". BBC News. 1998-08-07. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  18. ^ Epstein, Dan. "Review of Tripping the Live Fantastic". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
  19. ^ "London Live 8 performances rated". BBC News. 2005-07-03. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  20. ^ Ansaldo, Michael (2005-07-03). "McCartney, U2 Rock Live 8". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-02-11. the opening line "It was twenty years ago today" -- a celebratory reference to the original Live Aid
  21. ^ "Paul McCartney In The 'Guinness Book of Records'". Softpedia. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
  22. ^ "The night Jimi Hendrix played tribute to The Beatles". NME News. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
  23. ^ "Sergeant Pepper's 40th Anniversary". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  24. ^ ""American Idol" Season 6 Finale - Show". WireImage. 2007-05-23. Retrieved 2007-12-04.

References


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