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Tracklist
Side A
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (2:02)
- With A Little Help From My Friends (2:44)
- Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (3:28)
- Getting Better (2:47)
- Fixing A Hole (2:37)
- She's Leaving Home (3:23)
- Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite ! (2:35)
Side B
- Within You Without You (5:06)
- When I'm Sixty-Four (2:38)
- Lovely Rita (2:44)
- Good Morning Good Morning (2:36)
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (1:19)
- A Day In The Life (5:02)
Labels & dead wax
Visual reference for this specific pressing. Click any image to enlarge.
Mono pressing
Stereo pressing
How to authenticate this pressing
Specific verification cues for this exact variant.
MONO
The song "A Day In The Life" on the side 2 of the label was printed while in second pressing it was was omitted. It is one of the quickest way to recognize the 1st mono pressing.
"SOLD IN U.K. SUBJECT TO RESALE PRICE CONDITIONS, SEE PRICE LISTS." statement was printed at the center of the label (removed from the 3rd press onwards).
The first mono pressings have the tax code "KT" stamped (not printed) in the center of the side 1 label, between the last track and the center hole. "KT" is the British purchase tax code, in effect from April 1967 to the end of July 1967. The presence of "KT" clearly dates the pressing to the period from the release date (June 1, 1967) to approximately August 1967, i.e., during the first two months of distribution. Copies with the "KT" code are a minority even among the first pressings.
The first pressings have the XEX 637-1 and XEX 638-1 stamps (the "XEX" prefix indicates mono, as opposed to "YEX" for the stereo version of the PCS 7027). The "-1" stamper code indicates the first master from the first varnish, meaning the earliest pressings.
First pressings include the original red and white "psychedelic" sleeve designed by the Dutch art group The Fool (Simon Posthuma, Marijke Koger, Josje Leeger, Barry Finch). This sleeve appears only on records from the first pressing from June 1967 - from the second pressing (1968) onwards it is replaced by a standard white EMI sleeve. Along with this sleeve, the album must also include a card with cut-outs (a greenish, one-sidedly printed card with Sgt. Pepper's mustache, patches, military insignia and a photo of the Beatles). A copy without these two elements is the first incomplete pressing, whose market value decreases by approximately 40-50%.
Historical context & other notes
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.
