Happy birthday Sgt. Pepper!!!

[Guy Berger]

I've never liked "With a Little Help from My Friends". This may be part of a generalized Ringo aversion (though I love "Octopus's Garden").

Guy

[Chalupa]

Great album.

IIRC, "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" were recorded for this album but released as a double "A side" single when Pepper's recording sessions dragged on too long.

Edit: from WIKI

Four other tracks were recorded during the timespan of the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions but not incorporated on the album:

* "Strawberry Fields Forever": The first song recorded for the album, written by Lennon with the title referring to a Salvation Army orphanage near where he lived during his childhood in Liverpool.

* "Penny Lane": A McCartney song written as a counterpoint to Lennon's "Strawberry Fields" - it was McCartney's own nostalgic take on the Liverpool of his youth.

Though "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" had originally been intended for the new album, in January 1967 producer George Martin responded to EMI Records' pressure for a new single (the Beatles had not released a single since August 1966) and called the two tracks for issue in February 1967. In common with UK music industry practice at that time, which did not duplicate recent singles on new abums, both tracks were subsequently left off the Sgt. Pepper album. The tracks were issued on the US Magical Mystery Tour album in late 1967 and on a UK compilation album in 1973. Martin later described the decision to extract the two songs from the album as the biggest mistake of his career.[citation needed]

* "Only a Northern Song": A George Harrison song that offered a sarcastic commentary on his music publishing contract with the Beatles' publishing company "Northern Songs". After completing the song, Harrison decided to record another track for the album, "Within You Without You", and that song about spirituality was deemed a more suitable choice for the album. "Only a Northern Song" was shelved and then given to the makers of the animated feature film Yellow Submarine. It was used in the 1968 film and then incorporated on the soundtrack album released the following year.

* "Carnival of Light": A McCartney sound collage reportedly lasting ten to fifteen minutes, the piece was commissioned and recorded for use at a psychedelic London event in early 1967 - the "Carnival of Light Rave" - and expanded on the use of tape loops that the Beatles had explored on "Tomorrow Never Knows".[citation needed] The recording has never seen public release, even on bootlegs.

Edited June 1, 2007 by J.H. Deeley

[porcy62]

  Guy said:

I've never liked "With a Little Help from My Friends". This may be part of a generalized Ringo aversion (though I love "Octopus's Garden").

Guy

But Joe Cocker's performance smokes, so it's not such bad.

[jazzhound]

anyone have a link to the NYTimes review which was negative i hear.

[paul secor]

  brownie said:

I remember buying the album when it came out.

Still have that copy. Haven't listened to it in ages!

Same here. I bought a copy the day it came out, still have it and haven't listened to it in years.

Those were the days. New albums by certain people were major events. Things have changed for most of us. Guess it's only like that these days for certain folk when the new RVGs and Conns are released. That's not a bad thing - tho it's too bad that kind of enthusiasm doesn't carry over to newly recorded music.

[Guy Berger]

Has anybody heard these CDs?

[Shawn]

It's never been one of my favorites (I'm more of an Abbey Road guy myself)...but She's Leaving Home has always really struck me. It's one of those albums you almost have to listen to straight through, which is part of the reason I never played it much...since the "whole" doesn't really hit me.

But I have utmost respect for it as an achievement and a major door-opener to the art of making "albums".

[porcy62]

I am just listening Doctor 3 (Danilo Rea:piano, Enzo Pietropaoli:doble bass, Fabrizio Sferra:drums) playing a jazzy version of Sgt. Pepper, tv broadcasting.