Cold Open

It’s the spring of 1965 at a home in London.

A group of people gather around a table, eating dinner. On one side of the table is a man named John Riley, a local dentist. On the other side are two of his clients, a pair of famous musicians named George Harrison and John Lennon. The three men sit with their wives and significant others finishing a delicious meal.

When they are done eating, George rises from his chair to help John Riley and his girlfriend clear the table.

While George stacks dishes in the sink, he notices Riley pull out six mugs and busy himself making coffee for the group.

Tired and ready to go home, George quickly walks back to the dining room and gestures discreetly for his wife to grab her coat. Pattie Harrison begins to stand up… but before they can head to the foyer, Riley enters the room with a tray of hot coffees, placing a mug in front of each guest’s place at the table.

Unwilling to appear rude, George and Pattie return to their seats.

George takes a sip of his coffee and, and in an attempt to hurry his departure, drinks the rest of the beverage as fast as he can. 

As George takes his final swig, he sees Riley laugh and whisper something to John.

John leaps up, peering into his own mug, before exclaiming to their host: “How dare you do this to us?”

George is confused and looks to Riley for an answer, but the dentist stays silent.

Instead, George watches as John turns, lets out a frustrated sigh, and says: “George, we’ve had LSD.”

In the 1960s, LSD became a symbol of the era’s counterculture, inspiring a generation to "turn on, tune in, and drop out,” and giving rise to an entire new genre of music: psychedelic rock.

Though unintentional, George and John’s introductory experience with LSD at their dentist’s dinner party will prove transformative for The Beatles, entwining them with the decade’s counterculture movements and changing the direction of their musical careers. Inspired by the experience, George and John will urge the band’s drummer Ringo Starr to try the drug; and in a matter of months, Paul McCartney will follow suit.

The members will explicitly credit the psychedelic for sparking their ensuing musical reinvention, with Paul stating that, “It started to find its way into everything we did…we started to realize there weren't as many frontiers as we’d thought there were. And we realized we could break barriers.”

Eager to redefine themselves as artists, the band will soon dive into the experimental spirit of psychedelic rock, abandoning their polished pop image, transforming their sound, and shocking the world with their release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Clubs Band on June 1st, 1967.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. 

Today is June 1st, 1967: The Beatles Release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Act One: Leaving the Stage

It’s August 29th, 1966 at a stadium in San Francisco, one year after George and John first tried acid in their dentist’s home.

Onstage, George gazes out at a crowd of 25,000 fans passionately singing The Beatles’ lyrics back to them. But in between the screams, George spots swathes of vacant seats. As he scans the stadium, he notices that at least one-fifth of the venue is empty, an occurrence still novel for the biggest band in the world.

Three years ago, Beatlemania began sweeping the globe. And after their breakthrough in the US market, the group’s popularity reached a fever pitch, with the band setting records for concert attendance and revenue generation in America.

But over the last year, controversy has plagued them. Earlier this year, John Lennon angered fans when he told a reporter that The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus,” sparking public protests among Christian Americans. The combination of John’s controversial remark, the group’s opposition to the Vietnam War, and their longtime refusal to play to segregated audiences has left the band members reeling from a US tour filled with death threats, public burnings of their records, and concerts picketed by the KKK.

Already fed up with trying to preserve their polished pop image, exhausted by years of constant touring, and now concerned about their personal safety, the group has privately decided that tonight’s show will conclude The Beatles’ touring career.

And though all members are ready to get off the road, perhaps none are as excited as George. While members like Paul and Ringo have been less eager to give up on touring, George has long wished to escape some of the pandemonium that has come with being a Beatle. Still, tonight George feels as sentimental as the rest of the band as he soaks in their last formal concert of their career.

As the show nears its end, George helps set up a camera on one of the amps on stage. Together, with their backs to the audience, the four band members pose for a photograph to memorialize the night.

And after the concert, George and his band members quickly board a plane home to London. As George relaxes into his seat, he feels lighter than he’s felt in years. Smiling at his bandmates, George makes a gleeful pronouncement: “Well, that’s it. I’m not a Beatle anymore.”

Though hyperbolic, George’s remark will indicate the extent of the band’s newfound freedom. With no more obligation of tour dates on their schedule, the group will finally be able to indulge in a months-long break to recharge their creative batteries. And, by the time the band will reunite in the winter, the musicians will be ready to explore creative possibilities they had never before considered.

***

It’s November 19th, 1966 at an airport in Kenya.

On the tarmac, Paul McCartney boards a private plane alongside The Beatles’ friend and road manager Mal Evans, ready to return home from his safari holiday and get back to work.

After their final concert in San Francisco, the four band members decided to take time apart to pursue their individual passions. Eager to travel without the burden of constant rehearsals and performances, Paul set out to see the world on his own terms, sporting a new mustache that has proved surprisingly effective at keeping his identity under wraps. But now, after three months of vacation, Paul is ready to turn his attention back to The Beatles.

As his plane takes off, Paul grabs a pencil and notepad from his bag and tries to brainstorm ideas for new music. Paul knows he wants the Beatles’ next album to be radically different from anything they’ve produced so far. But making a stark departure from the kind of music that built their fanbase remains a daunting prospect, one that continues to stifle Paul’s creativity.

Unable to escape his writer’s block, Paul sets down his pencil with a sigh, reclines his seat, and closes his eyes instead. Before long, Paul wakes to a flight attendant handing him a meal.

As Paul takes his first bite, Mal taps him on the shoulder and asks Paul to pass him salt and pepper. But, Paul mishears the roadie, mistaking “salt and pepper” for “Sergeant Pepper.” The two men laugh at Paul’s misunderstanding, but as Paul finishes his meal, the eccentric phrase lingers in his mind.

Paul reaches for his pencil and begins to draw an imaginary sergeant, decked out in a colorful Edwardian uniform. In front of the figure, Paul draws a bass drum adorned with the words “Sgt. Pepper.” He then adds three other men to accompany the Sergeant, spontaneously coining them the Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Staring at his doodle, an idea for a concept album strikes Paul. He grows excited as he flirts with composing an entire album from the perspective of a fictional alter-ego, imagining The Beatles transforming into the eclectic group drawn on his notepad.

Back in London, Paul will share his idea with his band members, explaining that, “Everything about the album will be imagined from the perspective of these people, so it doesn’t have to be us, it doesn’t have to be the kind of song you want to write, it could be the kind of song they might want to write.”

Eager for any opportunity to divorce themselves from their commercial image, Paul’s members will agree to the conceit. And, armed with a new concept for their new album, the band will head to the recording studio, ready to find a new sound.

Act Two: Recording Sgt. Pepper

It’s November 24th, 1966 in London, just five days after inspiration struck Paul on his return trip from Kenya.

Headed to The Beatles’ recording studio, John Lennon hurries down Abbey Road, eager to reunite with his band members after their long time apart.

John has kept himself busy over the break by starring in an anti-war film entitled How I Won The War. But, during the film’s shooting in Spain, John found himself feeling lonely and vulnerable without his bandmates by his side. In anticipation of their eventual return to the recording studio, John wrote a song while in Spain with the working title “It’s Not Too Bad.” Today, John is excited to show his creation to the group and get its recording underway.

As John nears the door to the recording studio, he’s greeted by his three bandmates. Immediately, John laughs at their appearances. All of them, John included, have ditched their clean-shaven looks, now sporting a mustache, and hipper, more bohemian clothing. 

Together, the group heads inside the studio, ready to make music that matches their new alter egos. Inside, John plays his new song for the other Beatles on his acoustic guitar. The band quickly approves of the song’s unique structure and dreamy drug-inspired lyrics and gets to work on the arrangement.

Liberated from their obligation to create music that could easily be reproduced in a live setting, the group takes advantage of their newfound creative freedom, injecting the track with extensive instrumentation and experimental vocal effects. And, for five weeks, the Beatles work to perfect their new creation.

Eventually titled, “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the song becomes the band’s most complex recording to date. In total, it takes 45 hours spread over five weeks to record. By contrast, The Beatles recorded their entire first album in just 15 hours.

Released as a double A-side with another new song called “Penny Lane” on February 13th, 1967, the record marks a clear departure from The Beatles’’ previous catalog. With its distinctly psychedelic sound, the group’s producer George Martin will later write that they “could not have produced a better prototype for the future” than “Strawberry Fields Forever.” John himself will consider the song his finest work with The Beatles.

But despite the group’s personal confidence in the record, the double A-side fails to hit number one on the UK’s charts upon its release. Peaking at number 2, the release breaks The Beatles’ four-year run of chart-topping singles. And, amidst the group’s conspicuous absence from the stage, the failure sparks speculation in the media that The Beatles’ run at the top might finally be nearing its end.

Though John and his bandmates simply shrug off the bad press, they realize that the release of “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” does confront the group with a different kind of challenge.

Originally, the band intended to include both tracks on their upcoming album. But, unwilling to stray from their philosophy of omitting previously released singles from albums, their early release forces the group to come up with new tracks to replace what they viewed as two of their project’s strongest songs.

So, the band heads back into the studio with a new rigor, focusing their attention on what Paul will later refer to as a “huge explosion of creative forces” inside the Abbey Road studio.

Decking out with psychedelic lighting, the band turns the recording space into their personal clubhouse for Sgt. Pepper. There, they disregard all established musical rules, indulging in recording sessions the group’s producer George Martin will later label equally “self-indulgent” and “bloody marvelous.”

Striving to inject an atmosphere of celebration into their studio recordings, they host get-togethers with other musicians, recruiting figures such as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones to convene in the studio only to have them participate by humming. 

The group also brings in new instruments, conducting cacophonous orchestral sessions and encouraging the session musicians to don wacky accessories ranging from fake noses to stick-on nipples to clown wigs and party hats. In the group’s final moments in the studio, they record random indecipherable noises, including a high-pitched tone inaudible to humans, but recognizable by dogs.

After five months spent in the studio, the band will finally find themselves satisfied with their project: a thirteen-track album filled with Eastern musical influences, elaborate orchestral scores, screeching dissonances, irregular song structures, and lyrics forming a, sometimes nonsensical, stream of consciousness.

Confident the album will re-establish themselves as musical artists, the group will quickly schedule the album’s release for the summer. But before Sgt. Pepper can even hit shelves, it will become the subject of controversy.

Act Three: Releasing Sgt. Pepper

It’s May 19th, 1967 at the London home of The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein.

Music journalist Ray Coleman joins a large group of reporters in Epstein’s living room eagerly awaiting The Beatles’ first press launch in what feels like forever.

After last year’s world tour, the group ceased all interaction with the media, leaving them in the dark about the group’s future. Many journalists wondered if the band was on the verge of disbanding. But, recently, The Beatles decided to finally let reporters in on their newest project, inviting music critics like Ray to attend a listening party for the band’s upcoming album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Soon, Ray watches as the four band members stream into the house, each adorned in colorful, eccentric clothing. As Ray looks around, he registers the shock on other reporters’ faces as they take in The Beatles’ new bohemian attire and facial hair. Ray smiles in anticipation of the album’s imminent reveal; but, even without hearing a single note, Ray can already sense this album is going to make a splash.

And when Ray and the other journalists do get to hear the record, the shock in the room is palpable. Ray wonders if it's too much, too much change to free. 

The British Broadcasting Company certainly thinks so. Just four days after the media’s listening party, the BBC issues a preemptive ban on the album’s final track, “A Day In The Life,” stating they believe its lyrics encourage a permissive attitude toward drug-taking.

Undeterred by the BBC’s ban, The Beatles refuse to alter their album to make it more palatable for the station or to avoid further controversy. And on June 1st, 1967, the band goes ahead with their release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band only to be met with immediate praise by teenagers and critics alike. Elated by the album’s reception, the Beatles spend the evening having a celebratory “jam session” together in the studio.

For 23 consecutive weeks, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band stays at the top of the UK’s Albums Chart. The band soon finds themselves on top in the US too, occupying the number one position on the Billboard Albums Chart for 15 weeks and remaining in the top 200 spots for over two years.

In the first three months after its release, 2.5 million copies are sold; an initial commercial success that exceeds all previous Beatles albums. Sgt. Pepper will become not only the UK’s best-selling album of the year but the nation’s best-selling album of the decade.

Turning into the soundtrack of 1967’s “Summer of Love,” Sgt. Pepper will quickly evolve from a personal turning point for The Beatles into a cultural landmark. As Rolling Stone journalist Mikal Gilmore will later put it: “Whether the Beatles intended it or not, Sgt. Pepper came to symbolize… the ambitions and longings and fears of a generation”. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is a seminal, transformative album, beloved by fans, new and old, ever since its release on June 1st, 1967.

Outro

Next on History Daily. June 2nd, 1953. Following the unexpected death of her father, twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor is crowned Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Ireland.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Mollie Baack.

Sound design by Derek Behrens.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Alexandra Currie-Buckner.

Executive Producers are Steven Walters for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.