Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, for youths who might be unaware, is an album by 1960s rock band The Beatles. Not just any album, but the one which fully solidified the band’s shift toward being a studio-bound entity, committed to psychedelic experimentation and ever-more-ambitious arrangements. A new set of deluxe reissues will herald the album’s 50th anniversary, featuring unreleased alternate studio takes of every song. You can also look forward to some bonus tracks featuring non-Pepper singles from the same time period: two unreleased takes on “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and a never-before-heard instrumental “Penny Lane.”
The six-disc “super deluxe” version of the set, which will run you $150, will include a set of 15 other studio outtakes, the majority of which are also unreleased. There, you’ll also find the audiophile trappings–mono, stereo, and surround sound mixes of the album–plus refurbished versions of a 1992 documentary about the making of the album and the promo films for “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Oh yes–there’s also a 144-page book about the album featuring new introductory essays from Paul McCartney and Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin who worked on mixing and assembling the release.
The Sgt. Pepper’s reissues are due out on May 26 through Apple Corps/Capitol/UMe.
Pepper‘s 50th anniversary is also being celebrated with a brand new documentary, It Was 50 Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt Pepper & Beyond, which is set to open in the UK in May. The Guardian premiered the film’s first trailer, which you can watch below.
