Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released June 1st in England and June 2nd in the U.S. in 1967. It was a recording breakthrough on many levels--first of all, much of the world was captivated by the Beatles' new songs and especially their groundbreaking means of expressing them. The LP unleashed more unusual sounds and instrumentation than had ever been heard on a rock record before, and it was the event that turned the tide as far as listeners preferring to buy albums rather than singles (an era that is long gone).
It's still chosen--almost routinely--as the greatest album of all time. I think not.
The most positive aspects of Sgt. Pepper's influenced the artists who would make the most memorable records of the era: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Byrds and The Who Sell Out come to mind. There was also the awful Their Satanic Majesties Request by the Rolling Stones, who fell all over themselves trying to echo the Beatles' psychedelic swirl, so much so that even the better songs on that album were tarnished. And then, the dregs: an endless array of hackneyed, "progressive" rock bands indulging in lengthy songs and "suites" way beyond their skills. If it was weird, it was going to be good, they thought.
Thankfully, in spite of a mostly lesser crop of Beatles songs (1966's Revolver had more epic moments), Sgt. Pepper's is still worth listening to. However, the album was weakened by the omission of "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever," and a recent piece in Entertainment Weekly failed to note why: It was because Capitol/EMI was pressuring George Martin and Brian Epstein for a single, when the band was intending for those two tracks to be included on Sgt. Pepper's. A shame.
Underwhelming songs like "Lovely Rita" and "Good Morning Good Morning" typified the album's style over content. Yet when that approach worked--well, "A Day In the Life" worked in stellar fashion. And producer Martin's advice to George Harrison that he could do better than contribute "Only a Northern Song" (which showed up later on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack) yielded something truly astonishing: "Within You Without You." Of course, I didn't get it at my age--like the typical meat and potatoes American kid, I was oblivious to the gap between Eastern and Western cultures, let alone to the way the Beatles helped to lessen the void.
Something funny about Harrison putting a recording of laughing at the end, to ease the seriousness of "Within You Without You": Just a week ago, the engineer of the commercial station where I work was in the control room while I was on the air. He commented on whatever song, kind of dramatic sounding, was playing, saying, "this song needs a laugh track." So I relayed the story about Harrison adding a laugh track to the conclusion of the evocative song that starts side two of Sgt. Pepper's.
I'll still listen to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and find it creative and even revelatory at times. But can you really say it's your first choice when you want to hear the Beatles? It's not the Beatles' finest effort or even the best full-length record from 1967. The Velvet Underground and Nico proved to be more influential. Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You took rock and soul--still considered music solely for the young then--into adulthood. And The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced eclipsed them all; Paul McCartney might agree with that.