Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [Digipak]

Performer: The Beatles
Artist: George Martin
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Includes a 28-page booklet with rare photos, notes on the recording sessions and lyrics. The Beatles: George Harrison (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, sitar, tamboura, harmonica, tambourine, comb & paper); John Lennon (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, piano, Hammond organ, maracas, comb & paper); Paul McCartney (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, piano, harpsichord, Hammond organ, bass, comb & paper); Ringo Starr (vocals, harmonica, piano, drums, bongos). Additional personnel includes: Neil Aspinall (tamboura, harmonica); Mal Evans (harmonica, alarm clock); George Martin (piano, harmonium, Wurlitzer organ, organ); Sounds Incorporated (saxophone, French horn, trombone). Engineers include: Geoff Emerick, Malcolm Addey, Ken Townsend. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios and Regent Sound Studio, London, England between December 6, 1966 and April 21, 1967. Includes liner notes by George Martin, Mark Lewisohn and Peter Blake. This reissue of SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND has been digitally re-mastered. It comes packaged with replicated original U.K. album art, an expanded booklet containing original and newly written liner notes, and rare photos. Limited quantities of the CD are embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Audio Remasterers: Sam Okell; Sean Magee; Steve Rooke; Guy Massey; Paul Hicks. Liner Note Authors: Mike Heatley; Kevin Howlett; Mark Lewisohn. Photographer: Michael Cooper. With Revolver, the Beatles made the Great Leap Forward, reaching a previously unheard-of level of sophistication and fearless experimentation. Sgt. Pepper, in many ways, refines that breakthrough, as the Beatles consciously synthesized such disparate influences as psychedelia, art-song, classical music, rock & roll, and music hall, often in the course of one song. Not once does the diversity seem forced -- the genius of the record is how the vaudevillian "When I'm 64" seems like a logical extension of "Within You Without You" and how it provides a gateway to the chiming guitars of "Lovely Rita." There's no discounting the individual contributions of each member or their producer, George Martin, but the preponderance of whimsy and self-conscious art gives the impression that Paul McCartney is the leader of the Lonely Hearts Club Band. He dominates the album in terms of compositions, setting the tone for the album with his unabashed melodicism and deviously clever arrangements. In comparison, Lennon's contributions seem fewer, and a couple of them are a little slight but his major statements are stunning. "With a Little Help From My Friends" is the ideal Ringo tune, a rolling, friendly pop song that hides genuine Lennon anguish, � la "Help!"; "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" remains one of the touchstones of British psychedelia; and he's the mastermind behind the bulk of "A Day in the Life," a haunting number that skillfully blends Lennon's verse and chorus with McCartney's bridge. It's possible to argue that there are better Beatles albums, yet no album is as historically important as this. After Sgt. Pepper, there were no rules to follow -- rock and pop bands could try anything, for better or worse. Ironically, few tried to achieve the sweeping, all-encompassing embrace of music as the Beatles did here. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine One of the most famous and influential albums ever recorded, SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND had a huge impact on the music world, signaling the beginning of a new era of sophistication and maturity in rock. The musical experimentation was dynamic and fresh, several tracks were edited to create seamless transitions, and even the visual design was more elaborate than anything previously attempted. Producer George Martin and The Beatles searched for new sounds and studio effects. They added crowd sounds and animal cries from sound-effects recordings, sped up Paul McCartney's vocals in "When I'm Sixty-Four" (to make him sound younger), and sustained a single piano chord for 40 seconds to end "A Day In The Life." The orchestrations, scored by Martin, were hailed by critics as bridging the gap between pop and classical music, and many people who had never bought a rock record bought SGT. PEPPER'S.

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.85) - Ranked #1 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...The most important rock & roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology..." Q (6/00, p.80) - Ranked #13 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" - "...It deserves playing, and playing again....[including] one of the Top Five finest vocal performances in all rock: Ringo's 'With A Little Help From My Friends'....do yourself a favor." Mojo (Publisher) (p.52) - Ranked #14 in Mojo's "The 50 Most Out There Albums Of All Time" - "The Beatles build a new universe with every song..." NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #33 in NME's list of the 'Greatest Albums Of All Time.' Paste (magazine) (p.60) - "As a pioneering work of studio wizardry, this loose concept album is amazing..."

No other band has had quite the same impact as the four lads from Liverpool. Over the course of eight years and more than a dozen albums, the Beatles changed popular music and culture forever, spearheading the 1960s British Invasion and shaping rock & roll along the way. Along with their amazing musical output and unprecedented worldwide celebrity, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were responsible for many pop music revolutions, major and minor--writing their own material, pushing the limits of the studio, making films of their music, printing song lyrics on albums--that today are taken for granted. Although the Beatles disbanded in 1970, their artistic legacy is permanently ingrained in the entire world's musical vocabulary.

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