Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th Anniversary Reissue.

It was 50 Years Ago Today: The Sgt. Pepper Reissue for the 50th Anniversary of the album.

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is considered by many to be the Beatles' greatest album of all time. Indeed, the greatest album of all time by any band.

Pepper was released at a time when the world had no idea what had happened to the Beatles. Other bands of the teenybopper years of 1963 - 66 had broken up and the press were keen to apply the same label to the Beatles. Indeed, since August 1966, very little had been seen of them save for a single release in February 1967 (Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane) which in their native UK, had been pipped to the number one spot in the charts by Englebert Humperdinck and 'Please Release Me'.

So, with the months going by, the Press decided to sound the death knell of the Beatles and began to ponder the future without them. Then, in June 1967 they were back and the press loved them. The album going down in history as the greatest they had ever made.

50 years later and the Beatles are at it again, but this time going for a full blown three deluxe edition set which will feature unreleased complete takes of all 13 songs. The complete list as reported by Rolling Stone will be:


Super Deluxe [4CD/DVD/Blu-ray box set]

CD 1

Sgt. Pepper 2017 Stereo Mix

CD 2 (Complete early takes from the sessions, sequenced in chronological order of their first recording dates)

1. "Strawberry Fields Forever" [Take 1]
2. "Strawberry Fields Forever" [Take 4]
3. "Strawberry Fields Forever" [Take 7]
4. "Strawberry Fields Forever" [Take 26]
5. "Strawberry Fields Forever" [Stereo Mix - 2015]
6. "When I'm Sixty-Four" [Take 2]
7. "Penny Lane" [Take 6 – Instrumental]
8. "Penny Lane" [Vocal Overdubs And Speech]
9. "Penny Lane" [Stereo Mix - 2017]
10. "A Day In The Life" [Take 1]
11. "A Day In The Life" [Take 2]
12. "A Day In The Life" [Orchestra Overdub]
13. "A Day In The Life" (Hummed Last Chord) [Takes 8, 9, 10 and 11]
14. "A Day In The Life" (The Last Chord)
15. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" [Take 1 – Instrumental]
16. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" [Take 9 And Speech]
17. "Good Morning Good Morning" [Take 1 - Instrumental, Breakdown]
18. "Good Morning Good Morning" [Take 8]

CD 3 (Complete early takes from the sessions, sequenced in chronological order of their first recording dates)

1. "Fixing A Hole" [Take 1]
2. "Fixing A Hole" [Speech And Take 3]
3. "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" [Speech From Before Take 1; Take 4 And Speech At End]
4. "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" [Take 7]
5. "Lovely Rita" [Speech And Take 9]
6. "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" [Take 1 And Speech At The End]
7. "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" [Speech, False Start And Take 5]
8. "Getting Better" [Take 1 - Instrumental And Speech At The End]
9. "Getting Better" [Take 12]
10. "Within You Without You" [Take 1 - Indian Instruments Only]
11. "Within You Without You" [George Coaching The Musicians]
12. "She's Leaving Home" [Take 1 – Instrumental]
13. "She's Leaving Home" [Take 6 – Instrumental]
14. "With A Little Help From My Friends" [Take 1 - False Start And Take 2 – Instrumental]
15. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" [Speech And Take 8]

CD 4 (Sgt. Pepper and bonus tracks in Mono)

1-13: 2017 Direct Transfer of Sgt. Pepper Original Mono Mix
14. "Strawberry Fields Forever" [Original Mono Mix]
15. "Penny Lane" [Original Mono Mix]
16. "A Day In The Life" [Unreleased First Mono Mix]
17. "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" [Unreleased Mono Mix - No. 11]
18. "She's Leaving Home" [Unreleased First Mono Mix]
19. "Penny Lane" [Capitol Records U.S. Promo Single - Mono Mix]

DISCS 5 & 6 (Blu-ray & DVD)

Audio Features (both discs):
- New 5.1 Surround Audio mixes of 'Sgt. Pepper’ album and “Penny Lane,” plus 2015 5.1 Surround mix of “Strawberry Fields Forever” (Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby True HD 5.1 / DVD: DTS Dolby Digital 5.1)
- High Resolution Audio versions of 2017 'Sgt. Pepper’ stereo mix and 2017 “Penny Lane” stereo mix, plus 2015 “Strawberry Fields Forever” hi res stereo mix (Blu-ray: LPCM Stereo 96KHz/24bit / DVD: LPCM Stereo)
Video Features (both discs):
- The Making of Sgt. Pepper [restored 1992 documentary film, previously unreleased]
- Promotional Films: "A Day In The Life;" "Strawberry Fields Forever;" "Penny Lane" [4K restored]

As superb as the 2017 Stereo mix of the original album will be, it's all the extra stuff that is getting me excited. The studio chatter and instrumentals of the classic tracks look to be a goldmine for the fans and for the fans of mono mixes, the Super Deluxe will be perfect for them too. (I'm all about the Stereo mixes, personally!)

All these reissue packages are released May 26th and are available by clicking on the picture below.

Take A Look Inside Abbey Road Studios Courtesy of Google.

Step Inside: Google Presents 'Inside Abbey Road: A Virtual Tour'.

This is possibly the coolest thing that Google has done with its street view webcam technology. Of course, the whole taking pictures of every street in the world is pretty cool too as well as enormously helpful, both to stalkers and lost people. They might be the same thing, we may never know.

Studio One: Famous film scores from Star Wars to Harry Potter have been recorded in this room.

Google has effectively mapped out in pictures the most famous studio in the world, Abbey Road Studios in St. John's Wood, London. People who have never been inside can now see the interior of Studio One (which is the BIG one that's normally used for scoring films with large orchestras), Studio Two (Perhaps the most famous studio in the world) & Studio Three (Which is perfect for the more intimate recordings. Great for solo artists who only work with a couple of instruments).

Studio Two: This is the room where most artists want to record in. All because of four guys from Liverpool.

You also get to explore the Mastering suite where so many legendary recordings were and still are transferred from tape to disc and where final alterations could be made before the record was released to the public.

Studio Three: This is the smallest of the 3 studios in the building, perfect for an intimate recording session.

Mastering Suite: Where the finishing touches are put to the albums before the public can hear them! Is that a copy of 'Abbey Road' I spy on the table?

For anyone who's been inside the studios, you'll know that they are not just any studios, they are THE studios. Abbey Road was officially opened by EMI in 1931 by Sir Edward Elgar and in Studio One is where he recorded 'Land Of Hope & Glory' (That's the 'Graduation Theme' for anyone who grew up Stateside). Back then it was just any old recording studio until the late 50s when Cliff Richard and The Shadows started to record there.


It was in June 1962 when a van rolled up in the car park, after driving 200 miles from up north in Liverpool, that the studios destiny was about to be irrevocably changed. The Beatles and George Martin first met on that day and went on to make all their music (bar the Let It Be album) in these studios, including their final recorded album in summer 1969 which, if the studios weren't already famous enough, the album made sure they were for all time. The 'Abbey Road' album has the distinctive cover of George, Paul, Ringo and John walking across the pelican crossing just outside the studio. To this day, fans and tourists alike flock to this site to have their photo taken doing the same thing, much to the annoyance of motorists.

Nobody puts the Hofner in the corner...

Explore Abbey Road Studios for yourself here:

https://insideabbeyroad.withgoogle.com/en