“It Was Fifty Years Ago Today..The Beatles Sgt. Pepper And Beyond”  arrived on movie screens worldwide yesterday on exactly the date and day of the album’s release–June 1, 1967.

Of course, there’s the simultaneous release of DVDs full of extras, and special collector editions of books.  Both mass media and the entertainment trades are reporting the event.

Memory Lane
When we Boomers wanted to buy the “Sgt. Pepper’s…” album we go to a a brick and mortar record store, where album bins grouped the artists by genre and listed them alphabetically– right up front were the Beach Boys, followed by The Beatles, and here we are, 50 years later, and both the Beach Boys and Beatles are the subject of Hollywood movies.

Last year it was the release of the Beach Boys “Making Of Pet Sounds” and now of “The Making of Sgt Pepper …”–the album that Rolling Stone has ranked the number one album of all time.

We hope you enjoy the show!

For Boomer Beatlemaniacs: 

Tomorrow night (6/3) PBS is airing “Sgt. Pepper’s Musical Revolution”—a look back at the creation and influence of the album.  It’s at 8 PM on the West coast.

Rolling Stone wrote a juicy piece: “Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Artwork: 10 Things You Didn’t Know” with such details as which band members were high during the cover shoot, why the packaging was the most expensive to date and more on the 1967 album’s legendary visuals

A new stereo mix of the album will be available as a single CD and as part of every other package. An expanded deluxe edition will be released digitally, as a two-CD set or two-LP vinyl package.  A super deluxe six-disc box set will also be available.  All three deluxe editions of Sgt. Pepper will boast previously unreleased complete takes of all 13 album tracks.

The deluxe CD and digital versions will also include new stereo mixes: a previously unreleased instrumental take of “Penny Lane” and two unreleased takes of “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

The super deluxe box set come with all of the aforementioned CDs, plus 33 more recordings from the Sgt. Pepper sessions, most of which have never been released and were newly mixed from the four-track session tapes.

A fourth disc will include early, unreleased mono mixes of several songs and a direct transfer of the album’s original mono mix. Discs five and six will boast surround-sound audio mixes of the album on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as promo films for several tracks and a restored version of the rare 1992 documentary, The Making of Sgt. Pepper.

The super deluxe package will also come with a 144-page hardcover book featuring a new introduction from Paul McCartney and producer Giles Martin, who newly mixed the reissue with Sam Okell.

The book will explore every facet of Sgt. Pepper, from its songs and legendary cover art to musical innovations and historical context. Beatles historian Kevin Howlett, composer and musicologist Howard Goodall, producer Joe Boyd and journalists Ed Vulliamy and Jeff Slate all contributed to the book.

A 50-page abridged booklet will be available in the two-CD deluxe edition.