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It was 42 years ago today that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play.

I know that's not quite true, but it was 42 tears ago last month that this LP was released, a quick check on the calculator will tell you that's 1967.

According to most articles the recordings started in January '67 ready for a summer release but I'm not sure if that's quite correct.

After not seeing each other for 40 years I have recently met up with my first serious girlfriend (she says childhood sweetheart) and we spent a whole day reaccounting things from our times together (Feb'65 to Dec'66). Most of what we remembered differed slightly but we do clearly remember buying a copy of Sgt Pepper at a summer fair in Litchfield, this must have been a bootleg copy as I remember the album had at that time not been released, both of us recall that this was in May '66. This one thing is all we could totally agree on during out day together. COULD I BE RIGHT AND ALL THE ARTICLES BE WRONG?

I know I lost a few years in my early twenties and if I'm wrong I must have lost my 16th year as well.

May 67 it was released

The album was released in June 1967. Recording started in December 1966 with Strawberry Fields Forever, then When I'm Sixty-Four, Penny Lane & A Day In The Life.

No Tracks recorded for Pepper were recorded before December 1966 so you couldn't have bought an early bootleg copy. In fact the band would have been just mixing Revolver for release in July 1966!

Wasnt really keen on it apart from Lucy/A Day In The Life i bought a french copy in 74

Penny Lane wasnt on it

he meant they were the first tracks recorded for a proposed new album in December 1966 along with A Day In The Life and When I'm 64. Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields were released as a single in Feb 67 and later the band decided not to include them on the album. The album was released on June 1st 1967. The Beatles wanted it to be a completely seperate thing altogether without tracks being taken off it for singles hence the way most of the tracks segue into each other. In May 1966 the Beatles were recording the Revolver album so maybe you heard early tracks from this.

Thank You Lucifer,

you've answered those questions for me. The Pepper Sessions began with Strawberry Fields & also included Penny Lane, though both were removed from the album by George Martin at the insistence of Capitol Records who demanded a brand new single. With Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane being the best they had recorded so far it was decided that they should be released as a Double A single. With British recording Protocol being that no singles should appear on albums so as fans would get value for money the decision was taken to remove them from Pepper. Because the Beatles specifically recorded the album to be a seperate entity and to be regarded as a whole, the album was released by Capitol in the same format and track listing as the British Version a first for an American album, so the tracks were left off it in The States as well. The only other track recorded during the sessions that didn't appear on the album was 'Only A Northern Song' which was left off but was later released on The Yellow Submarine Soundtrack album.

Fascinating. Mrs JJ is a major fan and was heartily intrigued by
these esoterica : -)