1967 – The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Music Monday isn’t always about discovering something new. It’s just something you should hear. And if you grew up like I did, you heard a lot of The Beatles. And if you’re father is like mine, track 11 on this album will be etched in your 8 AM memory like no other song in history.

I, like most teenaged computer geeks, stayed up too late and slept in whenever I could. But 8 AM when my dad (Red) wanted to wake me up, we would pop this disc in, skip to 11, and crank it… to 11. A rooster crows, the band kicks in, “Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning-a!” Many people call this the album where The Beatles sold out – their style changed, it was too accessible.

I disagree, because prior to this, they were pop-gold! Songs like HELP!, and even on Revolver, just prior to Sgt. Pepper, Got to Get You in to My Life – the songs were love songs. It wasn’t until the follow up to Sgt. Pepper, fall ’67’s Magical Mystery Tour that the flop top good boys from across the pond really started to “off the deep end” and starting putting out more and more psychedelic songs.

You get a taste of that on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in the song A Day in the Life, which really takes you on a journey and tells a story. But from beginning to end, I still love this album, and it holds a special place in my memory. Songs like Fixing a Hole, and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds might’ve been a precursor of things to come, while songs like When I’m Sixty Four are just simple sweet love songs. It was a great album when The Beatles were at a crossroads, and when the boys from Liverpool were growing up the only way 1960’s rock stars knew how.