There's no doubt
Sgt. Pepper is a landmark album. The music, the writing, the instrumentation, the cover, the concept, the studio trickery - all these elements combined to usher in a new era of album as more than just a collection of songs. And while
Sgt. Pepper is still rightly considered to be a brilliantly conceived and constructed piece of art, some have questioned what could have been.
Many of us are familiar with the artwork created for this album by
The Fool which was ultimately rejected in favour of
Peter Blake's iconic masterpiece. And, of course, there are alternative shots from Blake's photo session featuring the lads in varying poses. Some of these photos still include extra characters such as
Mahatma Gandhi in the background, who were later airbrushed out at EMI's insistence. But what about potential variations of
Sgt. Pepper that includes different tracks and running orders?
During the past 30 years I've seen a number of alternative tracklists, either actual possibilities that may have been considered by
The Beatles and
George Martin at some point, or fanciful suggestions from fans. The first time I became aware of any of these was probably in the liner notes to the 1987 CD release, where it was suggested
George Martin
had, at some point, considered the following:
Side 1:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Fixing A Hole
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
She's Leaving Home
Side 2:
Within You Without You
When I'm 64
Lovely Rita
Good Morning Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
A Day In The Life
I can see how this might work, although I particularly like
With A Little Help From My Friends leading straight into the psychedelic opening of
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Separating
Getting Better and
Fixing A Hole, both
McCartney songs,
makes some sense, since they have more rhythmic and tonal similarities than contrast. Having re-created this disc for my own listening pleasure, I find it doesn't flow as well as the actual release. This, however, could simply be my own prejudices from being so familiar with the original song order after all these years.
George Martin gave
Strawberry Fields Forever and
Penny Lane to EMI for single release, something he has since stated he regrets doing. The first two tracks recorded for the
Sgt. Pepper sessions, they were deemed ineligible for inclusion as they had previously been released. There are quotes from George Martin and the band suggesting they felt it was unfair to fans to sell them the same product twice. Apparently they had forgotten
Love Me Do, Please Please Me and other songs which had earlier appeared on both singles and albums. And Sir Paul most definitely ignored this sentiment in the 90s when he released multiple versions of the same single from
Off The Ground, each with different bonus tracks. The only other track recorded during these sessions to be considered for
Sgt. Pepper was
Harrison's Only A Northern Song which the rest of the band felt was sub-standard, despite the amount of effort they put into its creation. (There were further tracks recorded during this time period, such as
Carnival of Light, but they were always intended for other specific purposes.)
Some fans have suggested the possibility of a double album, although this would never have been seriously considered at this stage of their career. EMI was quite concerned at the mounting expense. No other album in history had ever consumed five months of studio time, and they were actively pushing for the band to release anything. Soon. If they had continued recording for many more months to create four sides, tracks such as
All You Need Is Love, Hello Goodbye, Baby You're A Rich Man, and
The Fool On The Hill would surely have forced their way in. Although they commenced recording some of these only weeks after the
Sgt. Pepper sessions ended, none were on tape in time for the 1st June, 1967 release date. While it's tempting to imagine a double album, I fear the result would have been a sprawling mess.
Everyone has their least favourite tracks on
Sgt. Pepper. And I've seen suggestions which drop various combinations of
She's Leaving Home, Getting Better, Within You Without You, Lovely Rita and When I'm 64 to fit all or some of these other songs. Altering
Sgt. Pepper is a delicate operation, calling for precise planning and thought. The record could have lost more than it gained by losing any of these tracks, all of which added light and shade to the album's flow.
In an article published in 2007, on the eve of the album's 40th anniversary, one reporter claims to have received the inside story on Martin's
preferred lineup.
Getting Better would have been dropped for
Penny Lane, while
Within You Without You, which Martin
has publicly stated is too long, would have been shortened to make room for
Strawberry Fields Forever. Now this is an interesting tracklisting
. (Of course we don't know whether Martin would have changed the running order.)
Side 1:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Penny Lane
Fixing A Hole
She's Leaving Home
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Side 2:
Within You Without You (edited)
Strawberry Fields Forever
When I'm 64
Lovely Rita
Good Morning Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
A Day In The Life
One of the major problems with this suggested order is that suddenly side one becomes very Paul heavy. The Doc, one half of the team here at
The Rowboat Syndicate, has created his own tracklist to counter this. He most certainly believes that omitting
Strawberry Fields Forever and
Penny Lane was a huge mistake. Alongside
A Day In The Life, they are the best compositions from the 1966-67
Sgt. Pepper era
in terms of lyrics, arrangements and performances. They all push the
envelope in recorded music, and they still amaze almost fifty years later. A shortened
Within You Without You and the removal of
Lovely Rita permits room for their inclusion. While he would be happy for
Lovely Rita to have remained, in his opinion it feels like a throwaway compared to weightier songs.
The Doc would retain side one as it is.
Within You Without You (removing the instrumental break) would open side two, and be followed by a surreal visit to Liverpool's past and The Beatles' childhood through
Strawberry Fields Forever. Harrison's
song is philosophical, but also reflective and looks inward.
Lennon's is just as reflective though in a far more personal way.
The outro of George's
song fades and
Strawberry Fields Forever immediately cuts in, making these two songs feel seamless.
Penny Lane, being more upbeat and faster in tempo, continues the build from the slower, introspective pieces. And the two tracks belong together. They're two sides of the coin. Maintaining the Liverpool flashback,
When I'm 64, their homage to English music hall, dovetails beautifully behind
Strawberry Fields Forever and
Penny Lane. It works. It's organic. The
contrast in feeling is perfect.
With the final notes of
When I'm 64 fading, The Doc suggests a return to the official sequence of the album. The transition to
Good Morning, Good Morning again feels seamless, and it's good to bounce
back to a John song after enjoying back-to-back Paul
songs.
The Reprise leading into
A Day In The Life is as close to a perfect conclusion as we could have.
Sgt. Pepper in its released form is more lopsided than other Beatles' albums like
Rubber Soul and
Revolver. Including the Liverpool songs adds far more muscle to a weaker side two and balances the album. It also elevates a very good album into a true masterpiece. One more subtle, but essential improvement:
Sgt. Pepper is no longer dominated by
Paul's voice but more equally weighted with
John's. The Doc prefers
Revolver, Rubber Soul and
The White Album, simply because of that balance between John and Paul, and that is something he misses with
Sgt. Pepper.
Doc's tracklisting:
Side 1:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Fixing A Hole
She's Leaving Home
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Side 2:
Within You Without You (edited)
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
When I'm 64
Good Morning Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
A Day In The Life
Besides the above hypothetical exercises, there were legitimate variations of
Sgt. Pepper released. The nature of 8-track cartridges meant each of the four programs (similar to vinyl sides) were most effective when they were of approximately the same length. For this reason the song order for the 8-track version underwent some shuffling.
A Day In The Life no longer closes the album. That honour goes to
Sgt. Pepper's (reprise), which has also been edited to artificially extend it by ten seconds.
Program 1
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
A Little Help From My Friends (sic)
Fixing A Hole
Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite
Program 2
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
She's Leaving Home
Program 3
Within You Without You
A Day In The Life
Program 4
When I'm Sixty-Four
Lovely Rita
Good Morning Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
There are two legitimate
Sgt. Pepper oddities that require mentioning. Both were Asian releases.
Malaysia and Hong Kong, like the BBC, banned three songs for supposed drug references. And so the Far Eastern version of this record was unique, and obviously created several months after the album's initial release. I've never heard an actual copy of this, so I have no idea on
whether the tracks have different edits. I suspect not. For my own
enjoyment I re-created this record on CD, taking the time to crossfade
Sgt. Pepper into
The Fool On The Hill, and the
Pepper (reprise) into
I Am The Walrus.
And while I would never replace my regular copy of the album with this
version, it is one that I find charming and listen to from time to time.
(If anyone can supply me with a needledrop of this record, please
contact me.) The rear cover of the album was altered to reflect the unusual tracklist.
Side 1:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Fool On The Hill
Baby You're A Rich Man
Getting Better
Fixing A Hole
She's Leaving Home
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Side 2:
Within You Without You
When I'm 64
Lovely Rita
Good Morning Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
I'm The Walrus (sic)
In 1977 South Korea issued a version of
Sgt. Pepper which completely removed
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and
A Day In The Life. Neither track was replaced, which must make for a very short and incomplete listening experience. The artwork on both the front and rear were drastically altered as well. As McCartney
sang, very strange.
Side 1:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Getting Better
Fixing A Hole
She's Leaving Home
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Side 2:
Within You Without You
When I'm 64
Lovely Rita
Good Morning Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
But let's return to the possible inclusion of
Only A Northern Song on the album.
I have yet to see any alternative listing with this track that I find satisfying. I thought I saw one suggested by
Mark Lewisohn many years ago.
Now, however, I can't find it, and can't recall from where he may have sourced
that information. Of course my mind may be playing tricks, it might not
exist and it's possible I imagined the whole thing.
I really quite like
Only A Northern Song, Harrison's
first full-on attempt at psychedelia. (Mind you, I also have a soft spot for
It's All Too Much.) My gut feeling is it would never really fit properly. It's big, brassy and loud, and would need to be placed exactly so, should it be included. The Doc agrees. While he also likes
Only A Northern Song and has sequenced
It's All Too Much into his
Sgt. Pepper mix
a few times, neither fits. The former is too weak a song and the latter
takes the album on a tangent with its freakout feedback, which he
actually likes. Both tracks, however, disrupt the flow, whereas
Strawberry Fields Forever and
Penny Lane meld into the overall mix organically. Think of it this way: each song on
Sgt. Pepper is
like a sequence in a film. Each song must occur at the right place for
the whole album to flow, for songs to contrast each other in feeling and
idea and complement each other when needed.
As we know,
Only A Northern Song was not included on
Sgt. Pepper. In fact it was rejected from the album so early that on April 20, 1967 Martin played it for the producers of the
Yellow Submarine cartoon, informing them it was the first song for their forthcoming movie soundtrack. This was prior to the song's final mixes and while the
Sgt. Pepper sessions were still underway. Obviously there was never any real intent to include
Only A Northern Song on the album. At least the filmmakers made sure it received a stunning animation sequence.
Are there any other ideas out there? Any variations I've missed? I'd certainly be thrilled if anyone could source further alternative tracklistings. Your personal suggestions are also most welcome in the comments.
Remember,
Sgt. Pepper was originally released in the days of vinyl and neither side would have extended much beyond 22 minutes or so.
For further information on
Sgt. Pepper,
I recommend this page at
The Beatles Internet Album.
