3 Beatles Songs From ‘Sgt. Pepper’ That Every Fan Should Know

The Beatles fronted 1967’s Summer of Love with their album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was released that spring. This album is often considered an early example of art rock and was heavily influenced by the group’s use of psychedelic drugs at the time. It’s a bit of everything, but we love it all the same. Here are three iconic songs from Sgt. Pepper.

“With A Little Help From My Friends”

This song was actually written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney specifically for Ringo Starr. However, when the song was written, there was one line the Beatle refused to sing.

“The song ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ was written specifically for me, but they had one line that I wouldn’t sing,” he told The Anthology. “It was ‘What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?’ I said, ‘There’s not a chance in hell am I going to sing this line,’ because we still had lots of really deep memories of the kids throwing jelly beans and toys on stage…”

“A Day In The Life”

“A Day In The Life” is a bit of a mundane song. The narrator sings about going about his day, which involves reading the news, seeing a film, and other activities. As Lennon told Rolling Stone, the writing chemistry on this one between him and McCartney was strong.

‘”A Day In The Life’ – that was something. I dug it. It was a good piece of work between Paul and me,” he shared. “I had the ‘I read the news today’ bit, and it turned Paul on. Now and then we really turn each other on with a bit of song, and he just said ‘yeah’ – bang, bang, like that. It just sort of happened beautifully.”

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

If you’re looking for a peek into the world of Sgt. Pepper, look no further than its title track. McCartney was the one who had the idea to give The Beatles an alternate identity through Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“I thought it would be nice to lose our identities, to submerge ourselves in the persona of a fake group. We could make up all the culture around it and collect all our heroes in one place,” McCartney once explained.

Photo by: John Downing/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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