Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (50th Anniversary Edition)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the band's eighth album, was released on June 1, 1967 and became the soundtrack to the "Summer of Love," but its appeal is timeless. Work on the recording had begun in late 1966 and at one stage it was thought that both Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever would be included, but when these were released as singles in February, this idea was abandoned. Revolver was finished just in time before the band left for another tour. Now that the tour was behind them, more time could be spent writing and recording. Between November 1966 and April 1967 they spent over 400 hours in the studio - a big difference from the Please Please Me days. Of course, the music was more complex and now that touring was over, there was no need to think about what to play in front of a live audience. In the studio, the Beatles encouraged George Martin to achieve "the impossible" and in turn George and the engineers found innovative ways to make it happen, even though they were still only using four-track equipment. Not only was the music different, exciting and colorful, but so was the way it was presented. The glossy double sleeve featured the guys in their Pepper uniforms surrounded by pictures of people they either admired or cared about, while the back of the sleeve featured the lyrics to all the songs. On the back of the sleeve were the lyrics to all the songs. Inside each side of the sleeve were further surprises, a card with various cut-outs and, at least on the first pressings, the paper inner sleeve had a psychedelic design. In the UK, the album reached number one and spent a total of 27 weeks at the top of the charts between June 1967 and February 1968, with an initial run of 148 weeks. And all this despite a BBC ban of "A Day In The Life". The anniversary edition of the Beatles classic On June 1, 2017, it was 50 years ago that The Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - surprised and delighted the world in equal measure and provided the perfect soundtrack to the "Summer Of Love" with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". This album is considered a groundbreaking masterpiece that became the most widely recognized pop album. To properly commemorate the 50th anniversary of this release, The Beatles are now releasing a series of high profile anniversary editions of "Sgt. Pepper". The album has been remixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio (only in the super deluxe edition with 4 CDs, Blu-ray and DVD) and expanded and enriched with a total of 34 studio takes or pre-recorded versions of the final album tracks. "It's absolutely crazy that we look back on this project 50 years later with so much pleasure - and also some amazement at how four guys and a great producer and his engineers could create such a classic," says Paul McCartney in his newly written introduction to the "Sgt. Pepper" anniversary edition. "'Sgt. Pepper' just seemed to capture the social mood of 1967 in a musical way and to inspire people," Ringo Starr recalls in the book accompanying the anniversary edition (part of the Super Deluxe Edition; see below for details). Now "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has been remixed for the first time and provided with additional studio material. It is the first remixed Beatles reissue with additional tracks since the release of "Let It Be ... Naked" in 2003. For the new "Sgt. Pepper" mixes in stereo and 5.1 surround audio, producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okwell worked with a specialist team of sound engineers and sound restorers at Abbey Road Studios in London. All the tracks on the four anniversary formats were remixed in stereo. Martin used the original four-track recordings that his father (and producer at the time) George Martin had recorded in mono at the Beatles' request. Including the new "Sgt. Pepper" stereo mix, complete with the original UK album "Edit for LP End" 'run-out groove'.