The Beatles recorded Penny Lane and *Strawberry Fields Forever *as part of the recording sessions for Sgt. Peppers, but it was decided to release them as singles instead and not to put them on the album. Where do you think they would fit best on the album if you were to include them? In other words, what would the track list look like if you had your choice?
- “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 two
- “Within You Without You”
- “When I’m Sixty-Four”
- "Strawberry Fields Forever"
- "Penny Lane"
- “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
- “A Day in the Life”
That’s exactly where I would put them. I’ve never been too fond of “Lovely Rita” or “Good Morning Good Morning.”
I don’t mean leaving anything out, but this would be good.
Those born after 1967 probably need to be reminded that the reason that the songs were left off the album is that the Beatles wound up taking a whole year! to put out a new album and that was totally unacceptable to the record company, because if bands didn’t put out new material twice a year they would be forgotten.
As a result the greatest double a-side single of them all was not released on an official album until many years later. And as if to prove EMI’s point, the single only went to #2 in Britain, behind Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Release Me.”
No singles were released off of Sgt. Pepper’s. (In fact, it was normal up to that time to release singles separately from albums because British companies didn’t think people would buy songs twice. The American Hey Jude album is a collection of these non-album singles.) But imagine if those songs were on the album and got the push of its incredible success. They might still be #1. They might have replaced “Rule, Britannia!” as the national anthem. They might have made everyone involved tens of millions more pounds. Nobody would ever question Sgt. Pepper’s as the best album ever, as many people including me do today.
The past is a different world.
They would not fit on the album, they would unbalance it. Sgt. Pepper’s fame is largely based upon its being the first true (or at least first successful) “concept album”, not that it really has a concept, but, unlike other LPs that had come before it, it hangs together as a coherent, unified performance, rather than just being a collection of songs. This partly depends on the fact that there is no true stand out song until it climaxes with “A Day in the Life”. It is good, up until then, but nothing to make you go “wow”. Squeezing “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields” onto it, at any point, would break its unity and turn it into just another collection of songs, like Revolver or the White Album.
THe way this material was released got it just right. Don’t try to mess with perfection.
Nice. But then we’d have to debate about which would be better: Sgt Pepper’s with those two songs, or Revolver with Rain and Paperback Writer? I give the edge to Strawberry+Penny Lane as the best double-A singles (but only a little bit!) but overall, would still look at Revolver as the best…IMHO, of course.
I’ve been listening to the album this way lately:
Side one
- “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”
- “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
- “Strawberry Fields Forever”
Side two
- “Penny Lane”
- “When I’m Sixty-Four”
3 “Lovely Rita” - “Good Morning Good Morning”
- “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
- “A Day in the Life”
Completely ignoring what would actually fit on an album side, I’ve removed “She’s Leaving Home” from side one and “Within You Without You” from side two (sorry George for removing your only contribution here). This lineup ends side one and starts side two extremely strong IMO and has a nice flow.
Yes, they were originally thought of as part of the album.
I disagree. The overall sound and feel are perfect for the context of the album.
TL,DR?
I agree the Strawberry has to be the ending of the first side, and Penny to start off the second, but there’s no way the boys would take off Within You.
Here’s what I think:
Side one
- “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
- “With a Little Help from My Friends”
- “Penny Lane”
- “Getting Better”
- “Fixing a Hole”
- “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
- “Strawberry Fields Forever”
Side two
- “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
- “When I’m Sixty-Four”
3 “Lovely Rita” - “Within You and Without You”
- “Good Morning Good Morning”
- “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
- “A Day in the Life”
On second thought…
-
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
-
“With a Little Help from My Friends”
-
“Getting Better”
-
“Penny Lane”
-
“She’s Leaving Home”
-
“Good Morning Good Morning”
-
“Fixing a Hole”
-
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
-
“Within You Without You”
-
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
-
“When I’m Sixty-Four”
-
“Lovely Rita”
-
“Strawberry Fields Forever”
-
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
-
“A Day in the Life”
Here’s the album as it was originally released: -
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” McCartney 2:02
-
“With a Little Help from My Friends” Starr 2:44
-
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” Lennon 3:28
-
“Getting Better” McCartney 2:48
-
“Fixing a Hole” McCartney 2:36
-
“She’s Leaving Home” McCartney[nb 7] 3:35
-
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” Lennon 2:37
-
“Within You Without You” Harrison 5:04
-
“When I’m Sixty-Four” McCartney 2:37
-
“Lovely Rita” McCartney 2:42
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“Good Morning Good Morning” Lennon 2:41
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“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” Lennon, McCartney and Harrison[nb 8] 1:19
-
“A Day in the Life”
I remember that year, and wondered what the hell happened. When SF and PL came out I was floored. But they really belong with Sgt Pepper in terms of musical style.
-
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
-
“With a Little Help from My Friends”
-
“When I’m Sixty-Four”
-
“Penny Lane”
-
“She’s Leaving Home”
-
“Good Morning Good Morning”
-
“Fixing a Hole”
-
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
-
“Getting Better”
-
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
-
“Within You Without You”
-
“Lovely Rita”
-
“Strawberry Fields Forever”
-
“Baby You’re A Rich Man”
-
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
-
“A Day in the Life”
Maybe—I’m not sure whether I agree or not. I like the idea of ending side 1 with SFF and beginning side 2 with PL. But, though it’d be easy enough to do to listen to it that way, I’m not rushing to set up my own playlist or burn my own CD to actually listen to it this way; so maybe that means I think Sgt. Pepper already is the way God intended it. I don’t know…
I’m dubious over your claim that it was the first “concept album” or coherent collection of songs. It may well be the first album of its kind if you define “its kind” narrowly enough, but I don’t think you’ve done so. But I’m at least tempted to agree with the rest of what you said.
The period was a productive and creative one for the Beatles, and one could argue that several of the songs from *Magical Mystery Tour *would easily fit into the Sgt Peppers album thematically. But SFF and PL *were *originally supposed to be included. They were released as singles early in 1967 instead.
What do you think?
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“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
-
“With a Little Help from My Friends”
-
“When I’m Sixty-Four”
-
“Penny Lane”
-
“She’s Leaving Home”
-
“Good Morning Good Morning”
-
“Fixing a Hole”
-
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
-
“Getting Better”
-
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
-
“Within You Without You”
-
“Lovely Rita”
-
“Strawberry Fields Forever”
-
“Baby You’re A Rich Man”
-
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
-
“A Day in the Life”
We think this way because this Sgt. Pepper’s is the only one we know. The songs were not selected because they had coherency but because they happened to be the songs they composed at the time. After Paul came up with the concept the others shrugged and went on with their normal songwriting lives. You cannot say that “Within You Without You” or “A Day in the Life” has any tonal connection to “Mr. Kite” or “Lovely Rita.” I’d argue that any of several of their earlier UK album sets were at least as coherent and probably more so.
If any other set of good songs were put on this album we would consider them to be the “right” coherent whole, accept no substitutes. Ruining an album by replacing poor songs by unquestionably superior songs (or just adding them) is a hard argument to defend.
Yes, the songs are really not that thematically unified. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ could easily replace ‘She’s Leaving Home’ as they are basically the same sort of song with similar pace, instrumentation, and theme. It’s actually a better tune, and I bet everyone would agree. The Sgt Pepper ‘gimmick’ is pretty much worn out by the end of side 1. Side 2 starts off in a completely different vein with Harrison’s number, then When I’m 64 destroys that mood. I really would not have put those two together like that. I might start off side 2 with Lucy.