Beatles' Iconic 'Sgt. Pepper' Art: 10 Things You Didn't Know
It's one thing for an album to come along and press itself so deeply into the culture that little feels the same after its arrival, but what are the chances that that same album would have the most iconic LP artwork of all time?
So it goes with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and its wonderful swirl of visuals, ranging from that most distinguished assembly of personalities on its front cover courtesy of Pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, to some sleeve work by the Dutch design team the Fool, to Michael Cooper's photographs, to the grab-bag of cut-out treasures that accompanied the album. Art dealer Robert Fraser helmed the proceedings as art director, with the most legendary cover-art shoot in rock history transpiring 50th years ago on March 30th. The cover was lavishly pricey to produce, but it solidified the Beatles' mythic status for all time.
Here are 10 things you might not know about the iconic look of Sgt. Pepper.
1. Paul McCartney spearheaded the cover concept. … This was a period when McCartney was asserting himself more and more when it came to the Beatles' career decisions, a trend that would continue for the remainder of their time together. He produced ink drawings of the cover concept and shared them with Blake and his wife Haworth. "I did a lot of drawings of us being presented to the Lord Mayor," Paul explained in Barry Miles' Many Years From Now, "with lots of dignitaries and lots of friends of ours around, and it was to be us in front of a big northern floral clock, and we were to look like a brass band. That developed to become the Peter Blake cover."
By: Colin Fleming
Source: Rolling Stone
