Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Cinnamon/Mint/Parsley/Pepper/Rosemary/Sage/Salt/Thyme.”

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In August 1966, the Beatles permanently retired from touring and began a three-month holiday. During a return flight to London in November, Paul McCartney had an idea for a song involving an Edwardian military band that formed the impetus of the Sgt. Pepper concept. The inspiration is said to have come when roadie Mal Evans innocently asked McCartney what the letters “S” and “P” stood for on the pots on their in-flight meal trays, and McCartney explained it was for salt and pepper. This then led to the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, as well as the song.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band appears twice on the 1967 album of the same name–as the opening track (segueing into With a Little Help from My Friends), and as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), the penultimate track (segueing into A Day in the Life). As the title song, the lyrics introduce the fictional band that performs on the album.

While the single enjoyed only moderate success until a resurgence in the 70s and 80s, the album was wildly popular. It spent fifteen weeks in the number one spot on Billboards Top LPs, and won four Grammy Awards in 1968, including Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honour. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has been recorded numerous times over the years by A-list bands and performers.

FUN FACTS:

• Three days after the album came out, Jimi Hendrix opened a concert with the song. McCartney and Harrison were both there, and were very impressed that Hendrix learned it so quickly.
• There really is an apostrophe in this song’s title, although on the album cover, it is rendered without. Since the Lonely Hearts Club Band belongs to Sgt. Pepper, it is possessive, thus “Sgt. Pepper’s.”
• The album was heavily produced and took 129 days and about 700 hours to complete. The Beatles first album, Please Please Me, was recorded in less than 10 hours.
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was never performed live by the Beatles. It was performed by three of the former band members (McCartney, Harrison and Starr) plus Eric Clapton on May 19, 1979, at Clapton’s wedding party.
• The Sgt. Pepper mythology was re-imagined for the plot of the 1969 animated film Yellow Submarine. In the film, the Beatles travel to Pepperland and rescue Sgt. Pepper’s band from evildoers, the Blue Meanies.

McCartney acts as the master of ceremonies near the end of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band track, introducing Starr as an alter ego named Billy Shears. The song then segues into With a Little Help from My Friends amid a moment of crowd cheer.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.