Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: 50th Anniversary Edition

• 1. Introduction

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  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: 50th Anniversary Edition arrived on the 26th of May 2017. The release came exactly fifty years after the original album first appeared. The occasion brought with it a story that cut to the heart of how the record had been heard. Richard Goldstein reviewed the original album for The New York Times in 1967. He was one of the very few critics to dissent when the record received unprecedented acclaim. That verdict stood for fifty years. Then The Washington Post's Geoff Edgers sought Goldstein out in 2017. Edgers revealed that the left-hand speaker Goldstein had heard the record through was broken. After listening to the album again, Goldstein acknowledged the faulty speaker would have shaped his original experience. He stood by his broader verdict. The exchange raised a pointed question: had this album, in any of its forms, ever been heard as its makers intended? At the center of the reissue's answer was a new stereo mix by Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin. Whether the version Martin delivered was the one the original album had always deserved was for every listener to decide.

• 2. First-Generation Tapes

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  Giles Martin began work on the new stereo mix in December 2016. His co-engineer was Sam Okell, who had previously contributed to other Beatles legacy projects. The key decision was where to start in the archives. Rather than working from the mixdowns that had fed earlier releases, Martin and Okell went back to first-generation tapes. Those original recordings produced a cleaner and more spacious sound than previous versions had achieved. They also allowed the 2017 mix to retain more of the idiosyncrasies specific to the original mono version of the record. Those qualities had not survived into earlier stereo releases. Both modern and vintage technology played roles in the reconstruction. A mix built this way, from closer to the source, invited direct comparison with every version that had come before.

• 3. Two Formats, Six Discs

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  Disc one of both editions carries Martin's stereo mix. The two-disc version pairs it with alternate takes of the album's songs. It adds stereo mixes of two non-album singles: "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane." The six-disc Super Deluxe Edition extends the offering considerably. Its four audio CDs cover further studio outtakes and monaural mixes, with 5.1 surround sound mixes on both DVD and Blu-ray. Among the Super Deluxe's archival highlights is George Martin's 1992 television documentary "The Making of Sgt. Pepper." A physical book completes the package, containing liner notes alongside essays on psychedelic culture and the politics of the 1960s. The essays examine the atmosphere inside the Beatles at a particular turning point. In late 1966, the band had decided to retire from live performance and focus entirely on the recording studio. One track stands apart in the credits. "Within You Without You," written by George Harrison, is the only song not credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. Kevin Howlett, who contributed liner notes and research, sequenced the session highlights on discs two and three in chronological order of first recording dates. Before any of this reached listeners, a preview of the mix was held at a location with its own Sgt. Pepper history.

• 4. Abbey Road to Times Square

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  Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios is where the Beatles recorded most of Sgt. Pepper. Apple Corps and Universal Music chose that same room for a press preview of the new stereo mix. The event took place on the 10th of April 2017. The studio had been known as EMI Studios when the Beatles worked there in 1967. Around 100 journalists attended the preview, six weeks before the official release. Apple Corps also produced a documentary to accompany the reissue, titled "Sgt. Pepper's Musical Revolution." Howard Goodall wrote and presented it. The film aired on the BBC, PBS, and Arte. The anniversary was further marked by posters and billboards at notable locations across the world. One of those was a billboard in New York's Times Square. The NME celebrated the occasion with a reader poll asking which Beatle its audience loved most. George Harrison won first place, ahead of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr.

• 5. Universal Acclaim

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  On Metacritic, the reissue earned a score of 100 out of 100 from thirteen professional reviews, a rating the site categorizes as "universal acclaim." The UK Albums Chart placed it at number one, with the same peak in Scotland and Belgium. In the United States, it reached number 3 on the Billboard 200. Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph found a visual analogy for what the remix offered. He wrote that hearing it was like seeing a favourite movie again in high definition. He added: "It doesn't replace the original, it enhances it." Rolling Stone's Mikal Gilmore called the effect "a long overdue epiphany." He described the record as "popular music's most elaborate and intricate creation" and argued that something which helped end the mono era was never intended to be heard in stereo. Danny Eccleston of Mojo gave particular attention to Ringo Starr's drums in the new mix. He wrote that the voices felt properly balanced and positioned. Where the original had tended toward whimsy, solid drums and central voices ironed it out. Eccleston called that tendency the "bete noire of most Pepper agnostics." Michael Bonner in Uncut wrote that the boxset captured "the fun, intense, playful ferment; the triumph, in other words." He noted that the Beatles never worked with such unified purpose again. David Quantick in Classic Rock acknowledged that purists might resist some of Giles Martin's choices. Those included splitting and panning drum parts and backing vocals. Quantick argued that Martin had "clearly acted in the interests of the material" and was not claiming a definitive version of the album. In Portugal and Spain, the reissue peaked at number 3. In New Zealand, it reached number 4. In Italy, number 6. In Mexico, number 18. Across those territories, fifty years had not run out the album's reach.