On The Beatles’ final US tour in 1966, Paul McCartney was struck by the inventiveness of the West Coast hippy groups, with names such as Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and the Holding Company. In November that year, on a post-holiday flight from Nairobi to England, he came up with the idea of an alter-ego for the band, which would perform an entire album before an audience.
Sgt Pepper is Paul, after a trip to America and the whole West Coast, long-named group thing was coming in. You know, when people were no longer The Beatles or The Crickets – they were suddenly Fred and His Incredible Shrinking Grateful Airplanes, right? So I think he got influenced by that and came up with this idea for The Beatles. As I read the other day, he said in one of his ‘fanzine’ interviews that he was trying to put some distance between The Beatles and the public – and so there was this identity of Sgt Pepper. Intellectually, that’s the same thing he did by writing ‘He loves you’ instead of ‘I love you.’ That’s just his way of working. Sgt Pepper is called the first concept album, but it doesn’t go anywhere. All my contributions to the album have absolutely nothing to do with the idea of Sgt Pepper and his band; but it works ’cause we said it worked, and that’s how the album appeared. But it was not as put together as it sounds, except for Sgt Pepper introducing Billy Shears and the so-called reprise. Every other song could have been on any other album.
Some versions of events hold that Mal Evans came up with the name Sgt Pepper. It is believed to have been inspired by Evans asking McCartney what the letters S and P stood for on the salt and pepper sachets on their in-flight meal trays.
I used to share a flat in Sloane Street with Mal. One day in February Paul called, saying that he was writing a song and asking if he and Mal could come over. That song was the start of ‘Sgt Pepper’.At my place he carried on writing and the song developed. At the end of every Beatles show, Paul used to say, ‘It’s time to go. We’re going to go to bed, and this is our last number’. Then they’d play the last number and leave. Just then Mal went to the bathroom, and I said to Paul, ‘Why don’t you have Sgt Pepper as the compère of the album? He comes on at the beginning of the show and introduces the band, and at the end he closes it. A bit later, Paul told John about it in the studio, and John came up to me and said, ‘Nobody likes a smart-arse, Neil’.
Switching between straightforward rock verses and instrumental bridges featuring a French horn quartet, punctuated by three-part harmonies from McCartney, Lennon and Harrison, the song is more of an introduction to the Sgt Pepper concept than a rounded song.
I thought it would be nice to lose our identities, to submerge ourselves in the persona of a fake group. We could make up all the culture around it and collect all our heroes in one place.
On the album it segued into ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, and was reprised ahead of the finale, ‘A Day In The Life’.
In the studio
The song ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was recorded over four days. On 1 February 1967 The Beatles taped nine takes of the rhythm track, though only the first and last of these were complete. They recorded drums, bass and two guitars – the latter played by Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
The next day McCartney recorded his lead vocals, and he, Harrison and John Lennon taped their harmonies. The song was then left for over a month, until the French horns were overdubbed on 3 March. McCartney also recorded a lead guitar solo, leaving the song almost complete.
On 6 March they added the sounds of the imaginary audience and the noise of an orchestra tuning up, a combination of crowd noise from a 1961 recording of the comedy show Beyond The Fringe and out-takes from the 10 February 1967 orchestral overdub session for ‘A Day In The Life’.
For the segue into ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, meanwhile, they inserted screams of Beatlemaniacs from the recordings of The Beatles live at the Hollywood Bowl.
There is no mention of John singing by himself that small part that starts with “It’s wonderful to be here….
That’s because John didn’t.
The man who played John in Yellow Submarine did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYwXANmvjD8
Here’s the vocal track, and it can be heard how John and someone else (probably Paul) unisono sing the lead line, with probably George doing a second line (third deeper) and a “joke” vocal doing a third line (low octave).
Esa parte de ” es maravilloso estar…” lo canta y compuso John, se escucha otra voz porque Lennon esta duplicando su voz, el Sgt Peppers es una autentica Lennon-McCartney.
The same as Getting Better and She’s Leaving Home. This is a Lennon/McCartney album with outstanding songs from John: With a Little Help From My Friends/Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds/Benefit of Mr. Kite and Good morning good morning.
Sgt. Peppers/Getting Better/She’s Leaving Home are fifth essence of Lennon/McCartney. No need to talk about A Day in the Life, a definitive statement on rock music, by John and Paul.
You don’t need to read anybody’s comments, if you listen carefully you will realize.
Yes Paul was on fire, but the mastermind globally speaking and in the millions of details (please note his work on Lovely Rita with the chorus…) is Mr. Lennon.
Just listen to the music
Come on! The Beatles were God mode for this album. Actually, they had been in God mode since the very beginning and they will remain until the end of times.
Ringo sings vocals during the bridge
Joseph says: There is no mention of John singing by himself that small part that starts with “It’s wonderful to be here….
answer: because that part was sung by paul, john and george in unison (according to mark lewishon, Ian Mccadonald, Allan Pollack and other beatles experts).
Excuse me Sebastian, but after investigating the aforementioned Beatle experts I beg to differ on your comment as regard to your sources.
First of all, the late Ian Macdonald (NOT Mccadonald as you have spelled it) has been shown to be a great writer in Revolution In The Head but some of his info on recordings and line-up assertions has been disputed, including here on this website.
Second of all, Mark Lewishon’s Recording Sessions does not provide specific info as to who did what and where when he mentions “group backing vocals” for this particular song.
Last and most important, Alan Pollack’s description of the vocals for this song are as follows–
“The vocal arrangement is quite vintage, with Macca screaming single-tracked solo in the voices with a chorus of the others, in which the timbre of John’s voice figures prominently, for the refrain and the second bridge.”
So although John does not apparently sing by himself as I thought, nonetheless he stands out in this section of the song.
And who are the other Beatles experts?
Walter Everett’s two-volume The Beatles As Musicians (Quarry Men to Rubber Soul, and Revolver to Anthology) is supposed to be a very illuminating guide to each of the songs, from a more musicological perspective than Macdonald’s. I’m getting both books soon, and will update the site accordingly when I’ve read them. He refuted a lot of the claims made by Macdonald, dissecting the recordings and analysing each member’s contribution.
The first book is available on Google Books, and looks fascinating – though perhaps hard-going for non-musicians. The second book is listed on Google Books too, though the page seems to show a non-related book.
The ear test tells me that John’s voice is more upfront on the vocal “It’s wonderful to be here”. Sometimes, even those who were in the studio at the time(book authors), their memories do not always serve them accurate especially with so much happening during a recording. They couldn’t document everything at the time, except perhaps in the Mark Lewisohn text.
It sounds like the first line or two is just John alone
BUT if those three people above say it was all done in unison then so be it.
And who are the other Beatles experts?
are you talking about when he sing by himself in the Yellow submarine movie? That’s the only one where he’s singing by himself in that song.
If they are singing in unison during that part, then John must be the closest one standing to the mike!
Hey Joseph, I know is Macdonald not Mccadonald (I made a mistake during the typing process, so what, big deal, I’m not writing an article for Rolling Stone). I took a second look to the Lewisohn’s book, it’s true that he didn’t mention anything specific about the vocals of the middle part of the pepper track, but he said in his book the Beatles Recording Sessions that Paul McCartney is the only lead vocalist in that song and the others (Harrison and lennon) sing BACKING VOCALS- check the page 96, when Lewishon talks about the recording session of thursday 2 february 1967. Most of the beatles experts and most of the beatles websites also say or said that paul is the only the lead vocalist in that track, so is very strange that if lennon really sung that part alone, why almost no one give or gave him the co-lead vocal credit. (Lewisohn also said in the official cd booklet of sgt pepper – the 1987 version- that paul is the only lead singer in the title track).
Who are that other beatles experts? William Holding, Ian MacDonald (Joe you said “some of his info on recordings and line-up assertions has been disputed”; yeah, that happens with almost any other beatle book , but that doesn’t mean he is wrong in this particular case, even the Lewisohn’s books had some mistakes, but that doesn’t make them a bunch of pure lies and inaccuracies) or Jordi Fabbra -a Spanish writer-, are some examples.
Like you said in one of your recent comments, Allan Pollack’s analysis about the song shows that john doesn’t sing ALONE the middle part (though his voice is the more prominent in that section; yeah, but you could say, for example, the same thing about Paul’s voice in some of the verses of Mean Mr. Mustard or in the middle section of I don’t want to spoil the party, but that doesn’t mean he sings SOLO that particular segments).
In fact, in my opinion, in the middle section of the Sgt pepper’s title track, Paul and John share the lead vocal (with George joining them in the last two lines “ we like to take.. home”), singing in unison, with McCartney using his nasal “hello goodbye/penny lane” type of voice which is somewhat similar to john`s “normal” voice(which is very nasal), making very difficult to know if it’s Paul and John singing together or John double tracked ( Macdonald mentioned this difficulty in his review of eight days a week).
You can hear this dual unison/ nasal kind of vocals in tracks like Misery, From me to you and I want to hold your hand. In Misery( and in the middle section of the pepper ‘s title track too ,I think) , for example, the match and fusion of paul and john’s voices is so perfect, that they sound, for most of the song, like only one singer(sounding a bit more like john than paul, but this happens because Paul tried sometimes to emulate john’s voice, taking a more nasal approach in the vocals( Let me roll it, it’s a very good example of this), but john rarely wanted to imitate Paul´s standard sweet voice” (though I think lennon tries that a little bit when he sings, in unison with McCartney, the I’ll follow the Sun verses and the Tell me what you see’s middle section (“ look into these eyes now..”).
Please forgive me if I have any grammatical errors, my native language is Spanish.
Your English is admirable for it being your second language.
First of all, I am not talking about the lead vocalist for the entire song. I am talking about the vocals of one small section of the song.
Second of all, the correct spelling of names such as Alan Pollack (NOT Allan as you have spelled it on several occasions), is important if you want your comments to be taken seriously.
Third and last of all, this discussion is about the title track of Sgt. Pepper and not a long-winded list of other songs for comparison.
Please stay on topic.
I don’t think everyone needs to have perfect spelling – I don’t think it detracts from the validity of their opinions. Equally, I’m happy for discussions here to be fairly wide-ranging (although if people are tempted to go way off-topic please consider the forum instead). That said, I moderate the comments on this site, and those that appear are the ones that I’m happy to display.
And… I think you are wrong. Spelling matters because it is communication – the purpose (ostensibly) for you writing in the first place. The easier something is to read, the better chance readers will linger, think, comment and contribute – isn’t that the purpose of having comment boards in the first place?
I beg to differ. Message boards are meant to share ideas and information. Perfect spelling would be nice but why shy away from creating a comment if you can’t spell the exact word you need to state your thought precisely? This is a message board not the Scripps Spelling Bee.
I agree that spelling and grammar matter in ALL cases. But be friendly about errors – they dint affect the writer’s message at all. Make the correction just for a matter of record (no pun intended) and not as a recriminations.
For instance, you make a very common grammatical mistake in “..the purpose of YOU writing..” should actually be “..the purpose of YOUR writing..”. Almost everyone makes this grammatical mistake. That’s just for the record. And also for the record, I find your posts very interesting.
Maybe you shouldn’t write “Mark Lewishon” then, when his name is Lewisohn. Come on!
Hey Joseph Brush, I think you didn’t read carefully my last comment, because I talked about others songs to illustrate why I believe john didn’t sing alone that small part in the Pepper’s title track. I don’t think the spelling of names have to be perfect (most of my spelling mistakes came from typing too fast). The most important thing is the arguments (and it seems you don’t have too many, apart from my bad spelling (typing) of names). Whatever, this discussion is going nowhere, believe whatever you want, and I believe whatever I want. I don’t believe that john sing that part alone ¿why?:
“Like you said in one of your recent comments, Alan ( hey Joseph ¿now is more valid for you?) Pollack’s analysis about the song shows that john doesn’t sing ALONE the middle part (though his voice is the more prominent in that section; yeah, but you could say, for example, the same thing about Paul’s voice in some of the verses of Mean Mr. Mustard or in the middle section of I don’t want to spoil the party, but that doesn’t mean he sings SOLO that particular segments).
In fact, in my opinion, IN THE MIDDLE SECTION OF THE SGT PEPPER’S TITLE TRACK, Paul and John share the lead vocal (with George joining them in the last two lines “we’d like to take you home”), singing in unison, with McCartney using his nasal “hello goodbye/penny lane” type of voice which is somewhat similar to john`s “normal” voice (which is very nasal), making very difficult to know if it’s Paul and John singing together or John double tracked (Macdonald mentioned this difficulty in his review of eight days a week).
You can hear this dual unison/ nasal kind of vocals in tracks like Misery, From me to you and I want to hold your hand. In Misery (and in the middle section of the Pepper title track too, I think), for example, the match and fusion of paul and john’s voices is so perfect, that they sound, for most of the song, like only one singer(sounding a bit more like john than paul, but this happens because Paul tried sometimes to emulate john’s voice, taking a more nasal approach in the vocals( Let me roll it, it’s a very good example of this), but john rarely wanted to imitate Paul´s standard sweet voice”.
Please read carefully, and you’ll see that I’m on the topic.
Sebastian, eight years late, sorry, but reading this thread, I really appreciated how you tried to explain your position with dignity against the pretty spiteful tone of Mr Brush. Thank you for your detailed analysis.
If you listen to the Yellow Submarine Songtrack version in headphones it’s quite clear that “it’s wonderful to be here” is a group effort. I hear John & George for sure.
Like was stated earlier, they ALL sing that part in unison. It’s just John is the closest one standing to the microphone, which makes his voice more prominent. *Good Example* Ringo’s voice in the chorus to “Carry That Weight” & “Flying”. They ALL are singing in unison but Ringo is the closest one standing to the microphone. Jees…it’s like some of you have never stepped in front of a mic before! 😛
I just had a listen to the isolated vocal reduction (track 4 from the 4-track E63022 master tape) and that section is clearly John Lennon’s leading voice with harmony from Paul and George. Sounds like ADT has been applied and some echo.
It’s obvious that john lennon wrote this section of the song. That’s why Paul leaves it out in his live shows.
It is also obvious that Paul really wrote Something and Give Peace a Chance. That’s why Paul includes them in his live shows.
Which section?
“It’s obvious that john lennon wrote this section of the song. That’s why Paul leaves it out in his live shows”.
That´s not true.
These are two links of Paul performing sgt pepper (with that section included).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12WFVihMxcA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjKkUHUa9SM
plus, Lennon said in several interviews that sgt pepper (the song ) was paul’s completely.
In his 1972 interview in the Hit Parader, Lennon described sgt pepper’s (the song) authorship with only one word: “Paul”
In his 1980 playboy interview lennon said this about that song:’Sgt. Pepper’ is Paul after a trip to America and the whole West Coast long-named group thing was coming in. You know, when people were no longer the Beatles or the Crickets– they were suddenly Fred And His Incredible Shrinking Grateful Airplanes.
McCartney said to Barry Miles in his autobiography Many years from now, that sgt pepper was his song, with very little or no help from lennon.
Is very clear that section was written by paul, and sung by him with lennon and harrison, like it or not.
Can someone explain why I’m hearing 3 guitars on this song? I know there’s paul’s lead on top, and then george’s underneith, but I’m also hearing a sort of electric rhythm guitar underneith that. Did someone play rhythm on this song?
Hi bj
according to George Martin’s book “The Making of Sgt. Pepper (With a Little Help from my Friends), Paul asks John if he wouldn’t mind if he(meaning Paul) played the rhythm guitar on this track because Paul knew exactly what he wanted. Now whether that was just during the rehearsal or on the backing track, it didn’t say. So I would say that there are at least 3 guitars going counting the lead guitar overdub that Paul provides.
There are indeed 3 guitars on this song : John played , probably, because it´s the same style as She Said She Said and Doctor Robert, , the low-tuned guitar, George a more treble rhythm one, and Paul overdubbed the solo one .
I came across what was titled as a”Rare Studio Outtake of this title song on Utube. There was no history or comments behind it. It starts off like the master version but the audience and the bass seemed to be turned up. Also, the bars where the french horns play are replaced by a few bars of stabbing lead guitar. Apprently George initially recorded a solo for the song. I’m wondering if this could be it, or does that track not exist? Anyways the take finishes without the Billy Shears intro , but continues with the band going on a bit longer with more audience, and you can faintly hear the horns playing in the backround. Does anyone have some insight on this? Has this one been around for a long time and I’m just late to the party?
Hi, I read about this “rare studio outtake” with some additional lead guitar parts during the horns overdub.
However, with the release of the super deluxe edition it’s very hard to find that video on YouTube (there’s tons of rare outtakes out there now!).
Does anybody know what that was? I’m really curious to hear it!
“The Beatles taped nine takes of the rhythm track, though only the first and last of these were complete. They recorded drums, bass and two guitars – the latter played by McCartney and Harrison.”
So if George and Paul were initially playing electric guitars, who was playing bass guitar during the backing track recording – John? Did Paul overdub the bass guitar track later?
If you check the line-up at the top of the page, you’ll see that Lennon didn’t play any instruments on the track. If you click through to the session information for 1 February 1967 you’ll see that McCartney overdubbed his bass guitar after the guitars and drums were recorded. HTH.
Got it. I had thought all the backing track was done as a whole group all at once. Thanks for the Feb 1 link – that provides some key (well okay key for me) context to the lineup listing and that sentence. Still, it does make me wonder why John didn’t really play any instruments on the track.
John probably played bass on the rhythm track but Paul overdubbed it later and erased John’s bass. They did this a lot on tracks.
Just listened to the backing track and there are definitely two guitars. One playing standard rhythm with one more of a lead role. The obvious lead parts plus the crunchy guitar is an overdub, probably by Paul. We can assume Lennon played the thick rhythm part that is barely audible on the released version. The bass in the backing track is identical to the released version, so I am assuming it’s Paul playing.
There are 3 guitars. One is the lead guitar solo in the intro, very distorted. The other is a rhythimc guitar more treble tuned. And there is the third which is low-tuned , accompanying the bass notes.
There’s actually a whole lot of guitars on this one. The lead guitar solo in the intro was played by Harrison (who plays rhythm, right channel).
The lead guitar in the left in the intro, barely audible, is definitely Paul. There’s a third guitar, played by Paul, playing rhythm throughout the song (mixed between the middle and left channel).
There’s some lead guitar overdubs, by McCartney, and finally, Lennon appears to be playing rhythm as well (only heard on some isolated tracks).
They could have used a Fender Bass VI.
You’ve got it! According to Emerick, John played bass in the rhythm track.
(Just like they did with Fixing a Hole – which originally had John on bass, George on maracas, Paul and G. Martin on the harpsichord and Ringo on drums).
Geoff Emerick’s suggestion of John playing bass on the basic track is not only ludicrous, but also unrealistic, because a) John would have flatly refused to swap guitar and bass roles with Paul and b) he absolutely did not like playing bass.
With the idea of three guitars, it’s possible that George, John and Paul were all on guitars and Ringo was on drums, but Paul most definitely would have overdubbed his bass.
Don’t forget that Geoff himself stated in a 1979 interview and on many other occasions that he was unable to remember much about his work on the band’s recording sessions, so this must’ve been a fabrication for his book.
The Beatles from their inception were a British Intelligence asset. John Arthur Reed Pepper was “Sgt. Pepper”. He was in reality the head of British Security Coordination, the MI6 cover organization run by The British Passport Control Office in New York City. It was part of Winston Churchill’s and US plan to “to mobilize pro-British opinion in the US.” The CIA and British Intelligence were in control of EMI records in the US and Britain. They used these pop groups to spread bourgeois mass culture and divert people and angry anti-war protesters, especially Communists/Socialists, away from social action and towards self gratification, individual concerns, personal stories about love and Solipsism (Buddhism).
John Lennon wanted out so he and the CIA/British Intelligence and the media faked his death. Lennon is alive, most likely in Ontario. They made a film called Let Him Be, produced by the CIA, because he blew his cover. But it backfired.
I always played around with the idea that Sgt Pepper started off as ‘salt and pepper’, which became ‘sultan pepper’, and morphed into sergeant pepper.
The Beatles most overrated album. The reason why it became so famous is this, as I see it. The establishment and the elder generation didn´t discover The Beatles when they made their breakthrough in 1963.It was the youth. The Beatle music was too bluesy or expressive for the elder. The establishment and the elder generation preferred pop music resembling Irwing Berlin´s songs in the 1930s. But then came McCartney´s Yesterday 1965, a song without drums, and with strings. Now the establishment and the elder generation “discovered” The Beatles. They – not the youth — controled the media and got the prerogative. The establishment didn´t know that Lennon was the dominant composer 1963-1965, and judged McCartney to the “Composer in The Beatles”. After Yesterday the establishment followed the Beatles albums with more and more interest. But actually, they only understood the ballads in the albums. So it was a natural development that the establishment´s interest was very high, when the album Sgt Pepper was released 1 June 1967. And the critics or the establishment became so enthusiastic! Or, they believed they must be enthusiastic?
But the critic Richard Goldstein in New York Times was not impressed, it´s “ a soft and messy piece of work” and “there is nothing beautiful on Sgt. Pepper”.
I think there are too many mediocre McCartney compositions, and too few exciting or daring Lennon compositions, even though Lennon´s compositions here are the best – most of A Day In The Life, Being For Mr. Kite and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Two songs are among the worst songs Beatles have ever made: The title track, and Lovely Rita. When the work with the album was almost finished, they recorded a Harrison composition It´s All Too Much, very good. It would have been much better as the title song. The problem with McCartney´s compositions is that they cannot age, opposed to Lennon´s music that always is growing. And that despite McCartney´s and George Martin´s ever PR for the album. In the book The Mammut Book Of The Beatles, from the year 2000, Sean Egan writes about Sgt Pepper: The album has fallen down the esteem scale, in recent years.
I think the melodies in the album A Hard Day´s Night from 1964 are both more innovative and powerful, without symphony orchestra. 10 of the 13 songs are composed by Lennon.
Johan – Could you please name one song, song fragment, or any other thing related to the Beatles that was Paul McCartney’s creation that you like? I’m just curious. You don’t like Yesterday, you think Hey Jude and Let It Be are boring, and you comment in virtually every song about how the good parts must have been John’s contribution.
The song (which this page is about) is a nice little song, with a great lead part and a nice rock and roll vocal. Personal opinion, of course.
And I’m not a stalker, but sometimes it’s hard to read certain things and just grin and bear it.
Actually, I’d really prefer it if this discussion could be kept to Sgt Pepper, rather than discussing one person’s opinions on McCartney. Otherwise this comments section risks going even more off-topic than it already has. Thanks.
Sorry Joe. Request withdrawn. You are absolutely correct. My apologies.
Darren-You nailed it! Thanks.
I recently heard Jimi Hendrix’s “Love or Confusion” from the BBC album, and it was broadcast before SPLHCB. The Beatles took his riff and changed it a little
George Martin is playing organ on this song. 0:22-0:42 for example. It’s sort of whacking along with the bassline, but in the left-middle channel. It drops out during the orchestral break and returns afterwards. Also, the last chord (1:58–)
This is the REAL story of how the Beatles got the name Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart’s Club Band–from the L.A. Radio legend Dave Hull—AKA ‘5th Beatle’ (a nickname he never liked). Check out this video and his story about this specifically starts at about the 4 minute mark. Enjoy!
Apple Records said…? In 1965? To paraphrase from above, getting the facts straight is important if you want your comments to be taken seriously.
That said, I also heard that it was originally called Dr. Pepper’s LHCB, but that the band had NEVER EVEN HEARD of the American drink and it was changed to avoid legal trouble. Chances are, neither story is right.
Do the Beatles sing “cheese” in the bridge to “Little Help”?
It certainly sounds like “cheese” to me. Anyone else know for sure?
Actually, they are singing “cheese and onions” . No question about it.
They are singing the name Billy Shears, stretching it out and singing a note higher with each syllable: Billlllllllll…..Leeeeeeee….Sheaaaaars!
For years I made the “cheese” mistake as well. Except I thought they were saluting Billy as he was introduced by singing “Cheers, cheers, cheers!”
Reprise intro 1 2 3 4 voice…. ‘5’ John?
Clearly Paul.
Sorry – if you’re referring specifically to the “5”, that’s John saying (apparently) “Bye”.
Shouldn’t this question be in the comments section on the SPLHCB Reprise page?
John says Byeee! meaning goodbye during Paul’s count in.
I wonder why Paul asked Mal and Neil over as he was writing a song and not John?