Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | The Beatles

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | The Beatles | Beatles Phase 2

popular music:

Sgt. Pepper's Lone...

	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Beatles Capitol, 1987 average customer review:based on 1182 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Always a good listen

I purchased this album when it first came out, but somehow it wandered, I think my younger sister has it and never returned it. I have recently been buying some of the earlier Beatles albums, and wanted to add this, so I could listen to it on headphones. Apparently George Martin was still only using 4 track recorders at this point, so what he achieved was pretty amazing. The album still sounds as good as ever. I have my favourite tracks but it's all good stuff. Listening to all the earlier Beatles albums reminds me how far they were ahead of the other bands at the time, especially with the quality of their original songs. I think only Brian Wilson was doing stuff as good or better than the Beatles/George Martin combination.

for more information click here

Beatles Phase 2

Phase 1 would be the "Mop-Top" "I Wanna Hold your Hand" part of their reign. Phase 2 really begins with RUBBER SOUL, continues thru REVOLVER and hits a zenith with this album. "Within You, Without You" has never been a favorite of mine (not crazy about sitars) but this album was supposedly a theme album but the actual interconnection only really last through the first three songs (the title song, "With A Little Help from my Friends" & "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"). Not that I'm complaining this is a solid effort by a band that had, at this point, really honed their skills to a new level. The same cannot really be said about the albums that follow (THE WHITE ALBUM has moments, LET IT BE was never able to reach the level of the vision that launched it and MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR is more a complilation of things not included on SGT PEPPER than anything else.) except for ABBY ROAD.

for more information click here

Pop music's first opera

The final two minutes of Sgt. Pepper is far and away the greatest finale in rock history. After John's lazy proclamation that he loves to turn you on (albeit facetiously), the band carouses into a whirlwind of cacophony with reckless drums and horns and noises into the climax, a sustained piano drone keyed by all the members, followed by a bunch of nonsense chatter by the band (it sounds like "never-oozy-awsa-ohna-wa"). In the history of rock music, there has never been anything like it before or since. As far as the rest of the album goes, it just about lives up to the hype. In the expansive oeuvre of the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper is not the best, but it is certainly the most famous album of them all and with good reason. The no-pause method between songs was a first. The album reached for being more than a collection of songs, but rather one contained unit, which remains vastly influential to this day (Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet being an example). The Beatles aimed for originality on Sgt. Pepper and they succeeded in spades. In songs like "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!" and "Good Morning Good Morning", they employed sound effects to serve the song rather than to show off, unlike some psychedelic bands of the time. The songs remained simple, but the concept did not, since the Beatles wanted to expand on the inventiveness of the previous year's Pet Sounds, which remains Paul's favorite album. Brian Wilson wanted to outdo Rubber Soul and Paul wanted to outdo Pet Sounds is how Sgt. Pepper came to fruition. Although John was the band's genius, Paul deserves the majority of the credit for Sgt. Pepper. It's as if a light bulb went on in Paul's head after he heard Pet Sounds. The basic theme of the album is that they are playing at a concert, until the riveting closing studio extravaganza of "A Day in the Life", which ranks second only to Revolver's "Tomorrow Never Knows" as the Beatles' most extraordinary album closer. The songs flow together cohesively and the album has actually aged very well. The reason Sgt. Pepper holds up is because of Sir George Martin's pristine, cutting-edge production, which amazes to this day. It ranks as one of the all-time great production jobs, rivaling Pet Sounds and the works of Phil Spector. Sgt. Pepper is not perfect however. All of the Beatles' albums have duds and on here the dud is "She's Leaving Home", masterfully conceived, played, and written, but sounds like a boring snooze-a-thon. Everything else is golden. Sgt. Pepper is a landmark album that changed the game forever. Legendary. A

for more information click here

buying this CD is good for "fixing a hole"in your collection!

this is the very first beatles album i bought. i like most every song on it and i didnt live through the 60s. a must have for rock'n'rollers everywhere!

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

products you might be interested in