'Sgt. Pepper's' Marks 50th Anniversary With Special Edition Releases

'Sgt. Pepper's 50th Anniversary

It was 50 years ago this JUNE 1st when THE BEATLES' epic "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" was released during the fabled SUMMER OF LOVE. To salute the occasion, THE BEAT,LES will release a series of lavish ANNIVERSARY EDITION packages on MAY 26th through APPLE CORPS and CAPITOL/UMe. The album is newly mixed by GILES MARTIN and SAM OKELL in stereo and 5.1 surround audio and expanded with early takes from the studio sessions, including 34 previously unreleased recordings.

Commented PAUL McCARTNEY in a newly penned introduction for the ANNIVERSARY EDITION, “It’s crazy to think that 50 years later we are looking back on this project with such fondness and a little bit of amazement at how four guys, a great producer and his engineers could make such a lasting piece of art.” 

Recalls RINGO STARR in the book accompanying the album, “‘Sgt. Pepper’ seemed to capture the mood of that year, and it also allowed a lot of other people to kick off from there and to really go for it,” 

For RECORD STORE DAY on APRIL 22nd, an exclusive, limited edition seven-inch vinyl single of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane" will be made available. Recorded during the "Sgt. Pepper's" sessions, rather than being held for inclusion on the album, the two songs were released as a double A-sided single in FEBRUARY 1967, in between the "Revolver" album, released in AUGUST 1966, and ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ which followed 10 months later.

This is the first time "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings, and it is the first BEATLES album to be remixed and expanded since the 2003 release of "Let It Be… Naked." All of the ANNIVERSARY EDITION releases include GILES MARTIN’s new stereo mix of the album, which was sourced directly from the original four-track session tapes and guided by the original, BEATLES-preferred mono mix produced by his father, GEORGE MARTIN.

"Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ANNIVERSARY EDITION" releases include:

-- A CD featuring the new ‘Sgt. Pepper’ stereo mix, complete with the original U.K. album’s “Edit for LP End” run-out groove.

-- DELUXE:  Expanded two-CD and digital package features the new stereo album mix on the first CD and adds a second CD of 18 tracks, including previously unreleased complete takes of the album’s 13 songs, newly mixed in stereo and sequenced in the same order as the album. The second CD also includes a new stereo mix and a previously unreleased instrumental take of “Penny Lane” and the 2015 stereo mix and two previously unreleased complete takes of “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

-- DELUXE VINYL:  Expanded 180-gram two-LP vinyl package features the new stereo album mix on the first LP and adds a second LP with previously unreleased complete takes of the album’s 13 songs, newly mixed in stereo and sequenced in the same order as the album.

-- SUPER DELUXE:  The comprehensive six-disc boxed set features:

+CD 1:  New stereo album mix

+CDs 2 and 3: 33 additional recordings from the studio sessions, most previously unreleased and mixed for the first time from the four-track session tapes, sequenced in chronological order of their recording dates

+A new stereo mix of “Penny Lane” and the 2015 stereo mix of “Strawberry Fields Forever”
CD 4:

+Direct transfers of the album’s original mono mix and the “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” singles

+CAPITOL RECORDS' U.S. promotional mono single mix of “Penny Lane”

+Previously unreleased early mono mixes of “She’s Leaving Home,” “A Day In The Life,” and “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” (a mix thought to have been erased from a tape in 1967, but discovered during archive research for the anniversary edition)

Discs 5 & 6 (Blu-ray and DVD):

+New 5.1 surround audio mixes of the album and “Penny Lane” by GILES MARTIN and SAM OKELL, plus their 2015 5.1 surround mix of “Strawberry Fields Forever”

+High resolution audio versions of the new stereo mixes of the album and “Penny Lane” and of the 2015 stereo mix of “Strawberry Fields Forever”

+Video features:  4K restored original promotional films for “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Penny Lane,” and “A Day In The Life;” plus "The Making of Sgt. Pepper," a restored, previously unreleased documentary film (broadcast in 1992), featuring interviews with PAUL, GEORGE and RINGO, and in-studio footage introduced by GEORGE MARTIN.

The album’s iconic artwork is showcased across the suite of ANNIVERSARY EDITION releases, including the album’s pull-out sheet of cutouts. Housed in a 12-inch by 12-inch box with lenticular artwork and two bonus posters, the six-disc SUPER DELUXE set is presented with a 144-page hardcover book, featuring new introductions by PAUL McCARTNEY and GILES MARTIN, and chapters covering comprehensive song-by-song details and recording information, the design of the cover, the album’s musical innovations and its historical context by BEATLES historian, author and radio producer KEVIN HOWLETT; composer and musicologist HOWARD GOODALL; music producer and writer JOE BOYD; and journalists ED VULLIAMY and JEFF SLATE, illustrated with rare photographs, reproductions of handwritten lyrics, ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS documentation, and original "Sgt. Pepper" print ads. The Deluxe two-CD digipak is slipcased with a 50-page booklet abridged from the box set’s book, and the two-LP Deluxe Vinyl is presented in a faithful reproduction of the album’s original gatefold jacket.

THE BEATLES’ creative wellspring for "Sgt. Pepper" flowed from such myriad sources as THE BEACH BOYS’ "Pet Sounds" album, a VICTORIAN circus poster (“Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!”), a TV commercial for breakfast cereal (“Good Morning Good Morning”), a picture drawn by JOHN’s young son, JULIAN (“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”), a teen runaway reported in the news (“She’s Leaving Home’), and HINDU teachings (“Within You Without You”).

Using the standard four-track tape recording equipment of the day, The Beatles collaborated with producer George Martin to achieve “the impossible,” as they dubbed it, to go as far out as they could with arrangements and new technology to realize their collective vision for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As George Martin described it, “We were into another kind of art form where you were putting something down on tape that could only be done on tape.” The Beatles clocked more than 400 hours in Abbey Road’s Studio 2 to record the album, wrapping sessions in APRIL 1967.

Preorder "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ANNIVERSARY EDITION here.

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