10 Things You Never Knew About The Cult Classic 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'

By | September 10, 2022

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Left: Billy Preston as Sgt. Pepper. Right: The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton as the band. Sources: Getty Images / Moviepix / Michael Ochs; IMDB

After the Beatles had retired from touring in the mid-'60s, Paul McCartney came up with "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band," a new song about an Edwardian era military band. The song became an entire album. Sgt. Pepper, the 1967 Beatles LP, is considered one of the greatest rock albums of all time. The movie based on it, featuring a cast of then-popular musicians, was a flop at the box office and remains notorious as one of the great fiascos of cinema.

"Like a box of candy left on the beach, this movie is a gooey, sugary mess," wrote a TV Guide reviewer in 1978.

The Story Behind The Beatles' Album

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The Beatles made the decision to stop touring in 1966 because they felt they needed a reprieve from Beatlemania including the never ending public expectations, screaming fans and not having any down time. They were just utterly exhausted. The fab four had reportedly lost interest in being “The Beatles.” Making the Sgt. Pepper’s album would allow them to take some creative liberties not normally associated with the group. The album allowed the Beatles to hide behind an alter ego and it actually turned out to be a great way to channel their frustration. The movie, was released in 1978, starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees as the band, and the plot of the story was derived of songs from the 1967 title album as well as the Beatles’ subsequent 1969 album, Abbey Road