Vinyl Nostalgia Back to The Beatles discography
Tracklist
Side A
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1:59)
- A Little Help From My Friends (2:46)
- Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (3:25)
- Getting Better (2:47)
- Fixing A Hole (2:33)
- She's Leaving Home (3:24)
- Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! (2:36)
Side B
- Within You Without You (5:03)
- When I'm Sixty-Four (2:38)
- Lovely Rita (2:43)
- Good Morning, Good Morning (2:35)
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (1:20)
- A Day In The Life (5:03)
Labels & dead wax
Visual reference for this specific pressing. Click any image to enlarge.
Why this pressing matters
The first three pressings of the Sgt. Pepper album in Japan were pressed on red vinyl, which is more sought after by collectors than its black counterparts (used from the late batches of the third pressing and into the fourth).
How to authenticate this pressing
Specific verification cues for this exact variant.
The words "MFD. BY TOSHIBA MUSICAL INDUSTRIES LTD. IN JAPAN" was printed at the perimeter on the top of the label.
Cover: Odeon logo, "Toshiba Musical Industries Ltd." and "H ¥2,000" were printed at the bottom of the back cover. Also, catalog number OP-8163 and the word "STEREO" were printed at the upper right corner of the back cover.
In Novemver 1968, that was the date when Apple Corp Ltd. of England and Toshiba came to an agreement on the manufacturing and distribution of the Beatles' records in Japan.
As part of that agreement, Toshiba had to reissue on the Apple label all the records previously issued on the Odeon label. So from the 3rd press onwards the standard Apple Records labels were used.
Historical context & other notes
From the main release
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Sgt. Pepper for short) is the eighth studio album by the British band the Beatles, released on May 26, 1967, in the United Kingdom and June 2, 1967, in the United States. The album was officially scheduled for release on June 1, but EMI decided on a so-called rush release six days earlier, on Friday, May 26. Mark Lewisohn, author of the most authoritative chronological study of the Beatles' career, confirms that single copies appeared in London stores the day before, on May 25, 1967, although the band's official website and Apple Corps still list June 1 as the release date. Under a new contract, which the band enforced after years of dissatisfaction with the policies of EMI's American subsidiary, Capitol Records was obligated to release the album without changes to the track listing and Sgt. Pepper thus became the first Beatles album to be released with an identical track sequence on both sides of the Atlantic.
Sgt. Pepper hit stores just before the so-called Summer of Love. Although the press showered the record with compliments, the BBC banned "A Day in the Life" because of the line "I'd love to turn you on," deeming it likely to "encourage drug use." The ban remained in effect until the late 1970s, although all other radio stations around the world played the song freely. The BBC was the only British national radio broadcaster at the time, so the ban effectively meant that Britons could only listen to "A Day in the Life" from their own records on their own turntables.
The album has sold over 32 million copies worldwide (cumulative figures, according to BPI, RIAA, and IFPI international reports from 2017-2020), placing it among the top ten best-selling albums of all time, just behind Michael Jackson's Thriller (33 million according to the RIAA, although other sources cite higher figures) and alongside Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Fleetwood Mac's Rumors.
Sgt. Pepper is considered one of the first concept albums in popular music and a milestone in the progressive rock genre, although debate as to whether it was truly conceptual in the strict sense (like The Who's later albums Tommy from 1969 or Pink Floyd's The Wall from 1979) has raged among music historians for decades. One thing is certain: in 1967 Sgt. Pepper was the one record to rule them all.
Other releases
This album's releases in other countries, or special editions within the same market. Full per-country chronology lives in each country's hub page.
