Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Album, the Beatles, and the World in 1967

by Brian Southall, Johnny Heller (Narrator)

A carefully crafted and collectible volume celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of a legendary and groundbreaking Beatles album. Expert Brian Southall's unique edition recounts the story behind the music and the cultural climate of 1967 when Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band debuted. The "A-side" of this coolly curated title is all about the Beatles, the music on the album, the recording process, how the disc was received at the time, and how it has been acknowledged as one of the greatest albums ever recorded. The "B-side" looks at the state of the world in 1967, from the Summer of Love to anti-war protests to the launch of Rolling Stone magazine to Jimi Hendrix's first U.K. tour as a solo artist-and so much, much more.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

Audio CD

Published August 22, 2017

About the author

Brian Southall worked as a journalist with Music Business Weekly, Melody Maker and Disc before joining A&M Records. He moved to EMI Records and EMI Music, where, during a 15 year career, he served in press, promotion, marketing, artist development and corporate communications. From 1989 he was a consultant to Warner Music International, HMV Group and both the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the International Federation of the phonographic Industry (IFPI). Among other books, he has written are the official history of Abbey Road Studios and the Story of Northern Songs, both published by Omnibus Press.

Reviews

[Rodney · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an attractively-designed coffee table book with the remit of a basic overview, the expectations are perhaps not on the same level as Southall’s well-researched The Rise & Fall of EMI Records , but the immediate impression this book leaves is that there was no budget for an editor nor a proofreader. You can’t even just look at the pictures when given that the subject is the fiftieth anniversary of 1967, every LP is shown as a 1970s reissue (e.g. Pet Sounds in its Brother/Reprise sleeve, mid-1970s Canadian pressing of Pepper. Much of the information covered in the historical “B-side” section is choppy and superficial. After a while, the interior layout works against the book—the images and copy do not coalesce the way they should. This is not the book that could have been and not what I had expected from Southall, and I’d hesitate recommending it to anyone familiar with the era.

[Jay French · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I see a book about one album, I expect the book to really be dedicated to that album, providing a lot of behind-the-scenes info that wasn’t common knowledge. You get some of that here, but it amounts to about a quarter of the book. The rest of the book is about the Beatles in general, from beginnings to the end of the group and beyond, with a lot of band member bio mixed in. Also mixed in was a lot on the times - basic pop history of the sixties. I have read a few books about the Beatles over the years, so I found most of this very basic Beatles lore. I could see if a person hadn’t heard much about the Beatles, this would be of interest, but c’mon…

I listened to this on audio. I understand from other reviews that the paper book has illustrations that make it more interesting. You don’t get those with the audio. While the book may well be better, I’d recommend skipping the audio version, and will rank the audio version low.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The B-side is kind of weak. The A-side, about how the album was made, is excellent, but the B-side, about history, has more of a puff-piece feel, with only a sentence or two about each topic. It's heavily focused on the music industry, with The Rolling Stones, The Monkees, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Electric Prunes, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Peter and Gordon, The Hollies, and Big Brother and the Holding Company getting some of the most repeated mentions. Probably the most covered story in the historical section that isn't focused on the Beatles is the prison sentence of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for possession or barbiturates, which the Times of London condemned, and bands like The Beatles and The Who were very vocal in solidarity with The Rolling Stones, even as The Beatles themselves, particularly Harrison, were moving away from drugs, and Pink Floyd wanted nothing to do with them.

The A-side, though, is pretty dense for what looks like a coffee table book, and well worth the read (not that the latter part isn't, but it's more like a very brief survey, and primarily focused on England and the United States, unless a war is involved). Southall breaks down the album track by track, mentions the guest musicians (which are not on the album credits of the CD edition I own, which is the jewel case release) The structure of the book is such that Brian Epstein's death (which happened in 1967, the year of the book's focus) keeps getting mentioned all over the place, whereas the deaths of John Lennon, George Harrison, and George Martin, which happened later, are mentioned only in their respective biographical sections.

Southall's journalistic approach to people's attitudes toward the album is pretty commendable. Many of the people he interviewed were not Beatles fans, and he doesn't cast a negative light on them, including Keith Richards and one of the album cover's designers. Southall notes the poor quality of the cardboard used to make album covers at the time, using the same grade of cardboard used to make toilet paper rolls. This isn't something I've ever seen mentioned, although one of my parents' old records, Teen-Age Dance Party from the 1950s, I noticed at a young age has a cover on much poorer stock than later records in the collection. I remember the Beatles Anthology documentary in 1995, which first sparked my interest in The Beatles (my parents got me Sgt. Pepper on CD for my 20th birthday the next year, and it was only the second Beatles album I owned, the first being Rubber Soul) showing some animation based on the album cover. It illustrated some commentary and didn't get commented on itself, so I'm not sure if it was a vintage promotional film or created much later. I wish there had been some commentary about that in this book. there is a pretty large section talking about the creation of the iconic cover, its reception, and its imitators. The original artists weren't happy with the final result, believing the image quality could have been better and the colors should have popped more than they do.

There is a chapter on 1966 and a chapter on 1968, roughly the same length as Southall's coverage of each month of 1967, and the latter concludes the book, but it isn't much of a wrap-up so much as a stop. I think that may impact my feeling that the book deserves only three stars, although I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This is surely not the best Beatles book available, although it may be the best lavishly illustrated Beatles book available that has some substance to the text. the book was rushed out to press in order to be available prior to the 50th anniversary of the album's release, and is riddled with typos, many that definitely should have been caught by spell check, including a word pluralized with a double-s. This even carries over into the index in which Mary Hopkin's name is spelled Mary Hopkins. I assume the former is correct because it's mentioned several times in the 1968 chapter, although almost always in the possessive.

In short, this is an above average coffee table book worth the read for anyone with an interest in the topic.

On an additional note, page 9 has the photograph referred to in Jerry Lembcke's The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam in which protesters put flowers in soldiers' rifles.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am done with books like this. There really is nothing new in them, just people from this time period getting old and attempting to write down their memories before the end. This book is supposedly about the Beatles album and 1967 but it is really about the Beatles and the 60's. The first portion is about the bands formation and cessation- about a quarter of the book. Then a quarter of the book is about Sgt. Peppers. The last half is about music in 1966 and 1967.

Next year it will be a bunch of books about 1969 and I'll probably read 5 of them before I get over it. I am done with Beatles focused books though. I don't even like the Beatles that much.

[JJ Lehmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty awful book. First off, if one is reading a book about a particular album from the most well-known groups of all time, you don't need a chapter about each Beatle. Just talk about the album! Yes, some context is needed, but not that much. Again, most people who are reading this book know about the '60s and the "summer of love."
The worst part was even when he discussed the album it was mostly about how other artists and important people felt about it.
Don't waste your time... I've already wasted too much just on this review. Ugh...

[Amy Hesterman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure there is a lot of new information here that I haven’t already learned in other books. The photographs are interesting, depicting what was going on in the world in ‘67 when Sgt. Pepper became such a part of the culture. It just not an easy read organization wise. In an attempt to make the book cover the size and look of an album cover, the book isn’t comfortable to hold and read either. I was just expecting more.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was 20 years ago today...but more like 50. This book details the making of the album of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The book talks about what the songs are really about as well as the times that the album was written. The book is very well done and contains a lot of good information about the Beatles. The historical section in part 2 was a lot less interesting to me.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fascinating! I really enjoyed reading about The Beatles and this time period. And I also enjoyed finding out interesting and little known facts about bands I like. Reading about how the world was influencing song lyrics and the bands made me listen to some of the songs mentioned again. Anyone who likes the music from this time period should read this book!

[Shaun Mazerall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently this is a coffee table book, so the fact that I'm less impressed with it because I listened to it as an audiobook makes sense. However, when you pick up a book about a particular album, you hope to learn a lot about that particular album. This simply was not the case. This was not a good coffee table audiobook. Luckily, it was short.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loses a great deal as an audiobook (the photos in the coffee table print edition aren’t included.) The American narrator is terrible, frankly.

It’s essentially ephemeral, one of many books by Southall jotting down his memories and thoughts of the British music industry, particularly EMI, and often focused on the Beatles. This has nothing new to say.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, you’re writing the history of a single album, and it’s one of the most famous by one of the most famous bands ever, and you start with a single chapter about each of the members, introducing them like we’ve never heard of them before. So much padding in this, for no reason beyond filling a word count.

[Greg Schott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad but a good bit of the book focuses on 1967 and not as much on the Beatles. If you have already read a fair amount on the making of Pepper then there is not going to be much you haven't read before.

[Emily Purcell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really nice tribute to the epic album on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. Nice design, pretty pictures, just enough background. Fun, but if you were looking for a scholarly take-- this isn't it.

[Harry Burnside · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed it perhaps because I lived through that decade as a teenager and it brought many memories for me. I was also very pleased that it used many Beatles photographs that seemed new to me.
A concise and mostly accurate review of 1967 in particular and other 60's years in general.

[Luke Held · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you'd like a time line of events of 1968, this is a good book. If you'd like to know about the recording of Sgt. Pepper... well, there is a very little bit about each track, but nothing groundbreaking, or unknown. I don't think this is the book I thought it would be.

[jaydro · Rating 4 out of 5]

About half of a really good book. Great photos throughout, but the second half's chronology of events of 1967 seems like a lot of filler. There's actually a rundown of the hours that DJ's worked on BBC 1's first day.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, but I really didn’t know much about 1967 or the alums influence. Helped me to understand my parents better though. Maybe I liked this better than other reviewers since this was all new to me.

[Chris Mays · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing how much happened in '67, and the creativity of the Beatles.

[Seth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.2

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A snapshot of the Beatles and the world at the height of their creativity.

[Bruce Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A music trivia smorgasbord of information about the Beatles, music and society in the mid to late sixties. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I will probably listen to it again.

[David Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has some interesting music and Beatles history in it, though a lot of it feels randomly thrown together.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets an extra star for the photographs only.
I wanted more about the Beatles and less about what was happening at the time.

[Greg Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

No new insight here and worse, a lot of inaccuracies. Can’t recommend for Beatles nerds nor new fans.

[Malcolm Frawley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the in-depth evaluation I was hoping for but still of interest.

[Mike DC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too abrupt to be comprehensive, this doesn’t cover enough about the album or enough about the year 67 to be very useful or interesting

[David Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost completely uninteresting.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just what it says in the title - a snapshot of the era and lots of fun info. Narration by Johnny Heller is excellent!

[Lori]

Not rating because I did not read it all. I just read the part about the actual making of the album, which by the way, is one of my all time favorites.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new here.