Flashback: The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album cover shot
It was 40 years ago today (March 30th, 1967) that the Beatles posed for their famous Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. The Beatles, who were sporting psychedelic marching band outfits, had designed the album cover concept with then husband and wife team Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, explaining that they wanted the crowd behind them to include "people they liked."
Blake created the scene of the group being flanked by their audience, using mainly cardboard cut-out photographs of famous people. The final shot, which was photographed by the late Michael Cooper, has gone on to be one of the most revered and copied album covers in rock history.
Among the famous figures that the group's record company EMI flat out rejected were John Lennon's suggestions of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolph Hitler -- although a Hitler cardboard cutout was prepared.
The label made the Beatles write to each of the people appearing on the cover and ask them for permission. Prior to granting approval, Mae West responded by asking, "What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" Only Bowery Boy star Leo Gorcey declined, after requesting $400. (He was eventually blacked out by a painted-on palm tree).
Among the many 72 faces featured in the cover are Lenny Bruce, W.C. Fields, Edgar Allan Poe, psychoanalyst Carl Jung, Dion, Fred Astaire, Bob Dylan, Aldous Huxley, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Karl Marx, original Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, Oscar Wilde, Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich, and Shirley Temple.
Also featured on the cover were figures on loan from Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, of former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston and the Beatles themselves with their earlier "mop-top" look. A wax figure rumored to be the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson has cropped up on several photos from the session. A doll featured in the corner of the cover wore a sweater declaring "Welcome The Rolling Stones" as a nod to the group's good friends and friendly rivals.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on June 1st, 1967.
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Blake created the scene of the group being flanked by their audience, using mainly cardboard cut-out photographs of famous people. The final shot, which was photographed by the late Michael Cooper, has gone on to be one of the most revered and copied album covers in rock history.
Among the famous figures that the group's record company EMI flat out rejected were John Lennon's suggestions of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolph Hitler -- although a Hitler cardboard cutout was prepared.
The label made the Beatles write to each of the people appearing on the cover and ask them for permission. Prior to granting approval, Mae West responded by asking, "What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" Only Bowery Boy star Leo Gorcey declined, after requesting $400. (He was eventually blacked out by a painted-on palm tree).
Among the many 72 faces featured in the cover are Lenny Bruce, W.C. Fields, Edgar Allan Poe, psychoanalyst Carl Jung, Dion, Fred Astaire, Bob Dylan, Aldous Huxley, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Karl Marx, original Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, Oscar Wilde, Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich, and Shirley Temple.
Also featured on the cover were figures on loan from Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, of former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston and the Beatles themselves with their earlier "mop-top" look. A wax figure rumored to be the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson has cropped up on several photos from the session. A doll featured in the corner of the cover wore a sweater declaring "Welcome The Rolling Stones" as a nod to the group's good friends and friendly rivals.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on June 1st, 1967.
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