That album changed nearly everything.

Just like their first appearance on American TV. Sullivan happened to at Heathrow when a crowd of screaming teens were greeting the Beatles AND Walter Cronkite decided that 6 months after JFK was assassinated that it "was time for America to have some fun again".

on The Ed Sullivan Show not even 3 months after JFK assassination.

I was waiting for orders for Vietnam when this album debuted. In my opinion, this was the beginning of what we now call the "60's revolution". This was when drugs became more commonplace, as well as radicalism and protest. If we had to pick a day that symbolized the Sixties, this would be it.

And with summer coming and no school, more times to listen. I had older brothers who bought Beatle albums. I was only 6, but I remember. Over and over again.

a great song by almost any standard, right up there with "Eleanor Rigby" and "Norwegian Wood".

the collaborative nature of the song. Lennon's observations culled from a newspaper, followed by McCartney's rush to catch the bus, and the eventual build-up to the single sustained note at the end.

Also a fan of the other songs you mentioned. They all instantly take me back to middle and high school.

the words of a sermon that no one will hear." That line sums up perfectly my 7 years of graduate school and explains why I finally dropped out (or, as William Hurt in The Big Chill puts it, 'chose not to continue"

Hmm... Now that's it June again, I need to listen to it all the way through once more...

Released May 16, 1966

John&Paul and Brian Wilson each would take the other's albums into seclusion for days to figure out what the other did and how to top it.

Both are always on the Top 10 lists. Musician types I have met tend to go with Pet Sounds but they are all Americans.


I personally would go with "Lolita Nation" by Game Theory or "OK Computer" by Radiohead .... or any REM.

spine when I hear it.

instead of Brian freaking out for years, it would have been one hell of a showdown, judging by the completed Smile Brian released about ten years ago. Lennon and McCartney tried to top Brian and Brian tried to top them back. Such is the nature of supreme genius.

Looking at the Beatles discography I had no idea that they relevated so many great albums in such a short amount of time

Sgt Pepper 6/1/67
Magical mystery tour 11/2/67
The Beatles 11/22/68
Yellow Submarine 2 months later 1/17/69
Abbey Road 8 months later 9/26/69
Let it Be 5/8/70

6 albums in 3 years

If memory serves Let It Be was actually recorded before Abbey Road.

You could move the dial with your thumb...and the volume...

It wasn't a GE, probably some off-brand, and it was white. But it did have the thumb dial. I scrimped and saved a half year's worth of allowance money, which amounted to about $4.25, and headed off to Wal-Mart Discount City, where I also bought 9-volt batteries for it for 9 cents each, in 1967. And those batteries could be recharged a few times.

mind blowing for me - esp Day in the Life.

I was 11 years old. The days before video, you tended to remember the first time hearing a song/album by where you were or what you were doing-I remember sitting on the floor of my bedroom reading Life magazine and the article about Stalin's daughter, Svetlana defecting. I always equate that with hearing "Fixing A Hole" on the record player. I looked at the cover for hours, not knowing that Stuart Sutcliffe (the Beatle who died at 21) was one of the figures.

I was thinking I was 11 or 12. Hi, fellow boomer.

Since it was 20 years ago today.

And I feel old.

A little village in upstate New York. My buddy and I had flown to Toronto to see The Beatles in Maple Leaf Gardens the summer before.

We'd fixed up the top floor of a barn with carpeting, bar, kegs, TV, fridge, and phonograph. I'd turned an old Sunbeam Mixmaster into a strobe light. We still tell stories about those days . . .

But I did get to see the Beatles play at Dodger Stadium when I was in high school.

He was thrilled to get my albums.. all the way from Ferrante & Teischer/Mantovani/Brasil 66 to Jimi Hendrix.. and everything in-between..

I've always had eclectic tastes

Played the whole album, both sides.

Then everyone wanted to talk about what the songs meant.

Can imagine that happening today with One Direction or Justin Bibers latest white noise?

And you kids....get off my lawn!

and we (then boyfriend, now husband) drove to Walla Walla that weekend... for some reason.

We bought Sgt.Peppers at a record store there and sat on the curb by the car and listened
to the whole album on that little phonograph.

Still have that album to this day.


Tikki

I was at Fort Sill, OK, waiting on orders for Nam...

I remember when the 45 Strawberry Fields/ Penny Lane came out; it had a very different jacket, and sound. I suppose there had been hints on Revolver that they were changing. But that 45, followed by Sgt Peppers, changed everything.

There are some obscure ones among the big names.

over time because I played it so much. Then 8track, then cassette, then CD lol!

While this is the general consensus, I think Magical Mystery Tour contains more great songs ...

While A Day In The Life is considered by many to be the greatest Beatles song ever (of which I agree), I think I Am The Walrus is Lennon's best composition, ever ...

Add Hello Goodbye, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Baby You're A Rich Man, Fool On The Hill, All You Need Is Love, and Blue Jay Way, and THAT is the track listing for the best Beatles album of all time ! (IMHO)

Sgt Pepper was groundbreaking ... It set the standard for rock music ever since, and was hugely influential within the Psychedelic Rock genre, but I loved MMT slightly more ...

Wow ... just thinking about the White Album and Abbey Road ... Both are sublime and amazing works of art .... What a great run they had ...

The drone underneath many tracks like Blue Jay Way took psychedelic music beyond its Pet Sounds and surf guitar roots. They seemed to push multitracking to the limits of the Abbey Road studio which fostered a kind of over-stimulation, more layers than the ear can easily dissect. And McCartney's selection of drone noises added a warmth and life to many compositions. Like the hiss of a pipe organ or the harmonic from bagpipes, many of their songs from this period have a seductively hypnotic 'breath' that flowed from their experimentation with the newest gear.

For all the focus and attention that SPLHCB gets I really think that album embraces a sound and some techniques that they used earlier in songs like Revolver's "Tomorrow Never Knows"

is outstanding for so many reasons, including that it is a classic example of John and Paul combining two "unfinished" songs to make a classic.

I knew I was already old decades ago when I mentioned Glenn Yarbrough to a young person and the response was "WHO?"

A friend of mine was performing along with a lot of others, including Yarbrough. Even after Glenn gave up his music career for a sailing life he still did charity concerts, including the annual CF benefit in Maryland. That was in the late '80s and it was a real treat to hear him perform 'Baby The Rain Must Fall' again. What a great voice!

I'm just glad they both LOVE music.

And I'm still old ....

We listened to the album over and over all that summer. I finally smoked my first joint in October. I didn't start shooting heroin in November, contrary to what I had been told growing up. LOL.

Sgt Pepper came out. I was in the Thunderbird when I first heard it, I know exactly where I bought it, and I still have it.

Probably from WLS in Chicago since they were a flame throwing clear channel station back then. After sundown, you could pick them up all the way to the gulf coast.

I remember him from sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s. WLS must have hit about 25-30 states back then, and they always were one of the first for the latest releases.

It was our favorite station as a teenager.

Top Volume...no one could believe it. It's like remembering where you were when Kennedy was shot, the Challenger blew up etc.

Where does the time go?

Of course I said that when every one of their records came out.

nt

I ever bought. Listened to the hell out of it.

... I think, however, they've pretty well stayed in style since then.

-- Mal

My first thought was, "They don't write 'em like that anymore." It was followed immediately by, "Hell, they didn't even write 'em like that then!" It's a terrific, lyrical story-song, moody and atmospheric, describing a near-universal societal and familial construct.

I attended a lecture there given by the authors of "Recording the Beatles" on my 48th birthday. It was mind-blowing being in that room. I was only 2 when Sgt. Peppers came out, but my older brothers (10 and 12 years older) bought it and I listened to it over and over all throughout my childhood. The imagery of the music just took me places, the lyrics made my imagination run.

"A Day in the Life" was it for me. Everything about it just affected me like nothing else at the time, and I especially liked the final chord. The kicker to my visit to Abbey Road was I told one of the authors before the lecture that it was my birthday, and he told me to sit near the pianos (they had all 3 pianos that were used on the recordings there on display). At one point they asked for volunteers, and he asked, "Where's the birthday boy?" My hand shot up. He put me on the Mrs. Mills piano and on its keys they had affixed little blue stickers to show how to play the final chord, and on the count of three myself and 2 other gob-smacked attendees on the other 2 pianos banged it out just as it had been done. Probably the high water mark of my life so far.

One sticks a toe into psychedelia, the other is up to its hairy, funky ass in it.

I love the Beatles, but... Just sayin'

The White Album.

and the White Album (European edition)
Rubber Soul

album and playing it nonstop! We loved it!