The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album turned 50 on Thursday, having been released on June 1, 1967, as the band's eighth studio album.
The album has been re-released in original and re-mixed, remastered versions to commemorate the anniversary, and includes outtakes, video clips from 1967, and a documentary about making the album that was made for the 25th anniversary, The New York Times reported. It also includes the songs "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane," which were recorded at the same time and released before, but not on, the album.
Over the 50 years it has been on the music scene, it has been loved, hated and ignored, the Times pointed out. When it was released, it represented a new and revolutionary musical evolution, incorporating Indian instruments and a psychedelic sound. It was released during the Summer of Love and became a diversion from conflicts like the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.
Rolling Stone named the album the best of all time in 2012, and the cover art, which cost nearly 50 times more than a typical LP cover of the time, won a Grammy for Best Album Cover that year, the Mirror reported.
The album was said to combine youthful innocence with traditional elements like the historical figures that graced its cover. Although some of the sounds of the album were exotic, the Times reported, the lyrical subject matter was mostly British-based, even though The Beatles had by that time traveled the world.
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