Released by The Beatles in 1967, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is one of the most influential albums of all time. The concept record was made by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, even becoming an inspiration for the evolution of Progressive Rock music.
But what is the origin of the name “Sgt. Pepper”? It was McCartney who came up with that name and he once explained its origin.
How did Paul McCartney come up with the name ‘Sgt. Pepper’
It’s actually quite simple, Paul had the idea after he heard someone saying “salt and pepper”. He recalled that in an interview with Howard Stern in 2020.
“I was listening to a lot of kind of offbeat music … crazy stuff like John Cage. […] I was coming on the plane with our roadie … he said, ‘Pass the salt and pepper’ and I thought he said Sergeant Pepper.”
“The whole concept was for us to pretend to be someone else so that’s why the uniforms … it was just a way to remove ourselves from just being Beatles and not be fed up with being musicians. […] It allowed us to do crazier things than we might otherwise have done. I wasn’t me. I was this guy in this other group – it was freeing,” Paul McCartney said.
Besides the two title-tracks, the famous Beatles album also had songs like “With a Little Help From My Friends”, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, “Getting Better” and “A Day in the Life”. The album peaked at number in several countries at the time. Some of them were Australia, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. The Beatles eight studio record sold an estimated amount of more than 32 million copies all over the world since it was released.
