Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band
On this day in music history: March 30, 1967 - The album cover photos for The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” are staged and photographed in London. With the “concept of Sgt. Pepper” set, the next issue is what to put on the album cover. The main idea comes from Paul McCartney, who initially sketches some pictures of The Beatles in uniform receiving keys to the city by the mayor flanked by a group of famous people behind them. McCartney discusses his ideas with his friend, art dealer Robert Fraser who puts him in touch with graphic artist Peter Blake and photographer Michael Cooper. Once the wheels are set in motion, Blake gets right to work on the project. He asks the band what persons they would like to be in the collage behind them. They make their choices along with Blake. The bands roadies Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall go to various libraries around town and find prints of the various people in books, which Blake has blow ups made of, and then hand tints each one. A few of the subjects including Adolf Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi are not included in the final product. It will take Peter Blake and his wife Jann Haworth eight days to assemble the collage and other props for the actual photo shoot. The photo session takes place at Chelsea Manor Studios at 1-11 Flood Street in the Chelsea district of London. With The Beatles wearing their satin military styled band uniforms (designed by British theatrical costumers M. Berman, Ltd. of London), the photos for the cover, center spread and back cover are taken by photographer Michael Cooper. The cost of the staging and photo session comes to £3,000 (approximately $10,643.00 USD today), which in 1967 is considered an extravagant amount since EMI normally would budget album cover art at the time at around £50 (approx. $76.00). Upon its release, the album cover becomes an instant pop cultural icon, and among one of the most copied and parodied of all time. In 1968, Peter Blake and Jann Haworth win the Grammy Award for Best Album Cover Graphic Arts.
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| Jann Howarth |
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| Peter Blake and Jann Howarth with a Jann sculpture |
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| Artist Jann Howarth |
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| Peter Blake and Jann Howarth working on Pepper cover figures |
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| Pepper photo shoot with Mike Cooper |
1. Sri Yukteswar (guru) 2. Aleister Crowley (occultist and author) 3. Mae West (actor) 4. Lenny Bruce (comedian) 5. Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer) 6. W.C. Fields (comedian) 7. Carl Jung (psychiatrist) 8. Edgar Allan Poe (author) 9. Fred Astaire (actor) 10. Richard Merkin (artist) 11. Alberto Vargas pin-up girl 12. Huntz Hall (actor) 13. Simon Rodia (artist) 14. Bob Dylan (musician) 15. Aubrey Beardsley (artist) 16. Sir Robert Peel (British statesman) 17. Aldous Huxley (author) 18. Dylan Thomas (poet) 19. Terry Southern (author) 20. Dion (pop singer) 21. Tony Curtis (actor) 22. Wallace Berman (artist) 23. Tommy Handley (comedian) 24. Marilyn Monroe (actor) 25. William S. Burroughs (author) 26. Mahavatar Babaji (yogi) 27. Stan Laurel (actor) 28. Richard Lindner (artist) 29. Oliver Hardy (actor) 30. Karl Marx (philosopher) 31. H.G. Wells (author) 32. Paramahansa Yogananda (guru) 33. Stuart Sutcliffe (original Beatle) 34. Anonymous 35. Max Müller ( philologist) 36. George Petty pin-up girl 37. Marlon Brando (actor) 38. Tom Mix (actor) 39. Oscar Wilde (author) 40. Tyrone Power (actor) 41. Larry Bell (artist) 42. Dr. David Livingstone (explorer) 43. Johnny Weissmuller (actor) 44. Stephen Crane (author) 45. Issy Bonn (comedian) 46. George Bernard Shaw (playwright) 47. H.C. Westermann (artist) 48. Albert Stubbins (footballer) 49. Lahiri Mahasaya (guru) 50. Lewis Carroll (author) 51. T.E. Lawrence (...of Arabia) 52. Sonny Liston (boxer) 53-56. The Beatles (wax figures) 57. Albert Einstein (physicist) 58. Bobby Breen (singer) 59. Marlene Dietrich (actor) 60. Diana Dors (actor) 61. Shirley Temple (actor)
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