Sgt. Pepper 50th: Re-rank the songs

[cyclones500]

A few days late on this, I had been busy.

50th anniversary release of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" occurred a few days ago.

Mainly for Beatles fanatics: How would you rank the album's 13 tracks today?

 

[matclone]

My favorites are (1) With a Little Help from My Friends and (2) Lovely Rita. My least favorites are (12) Lucy in the Sky and (13) Within You and Without You. Everything in between is pretty darn good. Okay, don't hold my feet to the fire on the middle ones but (3) She's Leaving Home; (4) Fixing a Hole; (5) Getting Better; (6) Day in the Life; (7) Sgt. Pepper; (8) Good Morning: (9) Sgt Pepper Reprise; (10) For the Benefit of Mr. Kite; (11) When I'm 64.

As an album it's one of their best (along with Abbey Road, Revolver, and Rubber Soul). I've grown to like it more over the years (not that I didn't ever not like it).

 

[MeanDean]

1. A Day in the Life
2. With a Little Help From My Friends
3. Sgt Pepper Reprise
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. When I'm 64
7. Lovely Rita
8. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
9. She's Leaving Home
10. Within You Without You
11. Good Morning, Good Morning
12. Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite
13. Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds

I've just never ever really cared for Lucy. Something about the quality of the John's voice and the whole sound of the song. Doesn't appeal to me. I'm sure many people would rank it in their top 2. Generally I like John songs better than Paul songs but not on this one. Maybe one of the reasons I don't rank Sgt P among my favorite Beatles LPs.

 

[Sigmapolis]

This is a hard album to rank because it really does play as a singular experience -- like an opera or cantata, without any obvious singles to extract.

"A Day in the Life" is devastating... this ghostly, surreal, deathly experience that contrasts so much with the carnival and drug-induced fantasy land of the rest of the album.

If I had to go for it, though...

1. "A Day in the Life" - already addressed it above... simply mesmerizing
2. "Sgt. Pepper's (Reprise)" - I wish this was longer... what a groove they got into
3. "Sgt. Pepper's (Intro)" - rarely does music have a better "world-building" moment
4. "With a Little Help from My Friends" - one of their best compositions and melodies
5. "Fixing a Hole" - criminally underrated, an incredible minimalist guitar solo
6. "Getting Better" - catchy as all hell, and one of the few uptempo songs
7. "She's Leaving Home" - this track is a tear-inducing moment to end Side 1... including a song from the perspective of the parents is a bittersweet touch to round out the album
8. "When I'm Sixty-Four" - an obvious classic, bit of a drop in quality after this one
9. "Lovely Rita" - so trippy, though maybe feels like something from Revolver or Rubber Soul
10. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - its reputation exceeds its (still wonderful) reality
11. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" - cool production, but not much of a song there
12. "Within You Without You" - groovy, but inferior to "The Inner Light" as world music goes
13. "Good Morning Good Morning" - not exactly the greatest melody of all-time

I'd slot "Penny Lane" at #1 and "Strawberry Fields Forever" at #4.5 if you wanted to include those songs from the same session as a part of the rankings.

Only the Beatles could have songs like those, "Hey Jude" and "Revolution," and so many others as singles-only yet still have some of the greatest albums of all-time.

"Penny Lane" - Paul's masterpiece, the best "urban poem" in music history
"Strawberry Fields Forever" - another masterpiece, deliciously weird in so many ways

 

[flynnhicks03]

"Fixing a Hole", "Getting Better". I always like "Good Morning, Good Morning". I listened to it on my way to work when I had my first "real" summer job where I had to get up early every morning. It got me going for some reason.

 

[cyclones500]

No doubt about my 1 and 13. Ranking the rest of it, not always so simple.
1. A Day in the Life
2. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
3. Getting Better
4. With A Little Help From My Friends
5. Good Morning, Good Morning
6. Lovely Rita
7. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
8. Sgt. Pepper (reprise) (would rank higher, but being an adaptation of main song, I’ll drop it a little)
9. Fixing a Hole
10. When I’m Sixty-Four
11. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite
12. She’s Leaving Home
13. Within You Without You

 

[matclone]

Generally I like John songs better than Paul songs but not on this one. Maybe one of the reasons I don't rank Sgt P among my favorite Beatles LPs.

Lennon and McCartney's songs are pretty much split down the middle on all Beatles albums except this one (McCartney) and Hard Day's Night (Lennon). I think McCartney was definitely the stronger influence on Sgt. Pepper, both as a songwriter and musician. It amazes me that he was writing these sophisticated songs at age 23. That being said, his music was always much stronger when he was with the Beatles.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

1. A Day in the Life
2. When I'm 64
3. With a Little Help From My Friends
4. She's Leaving Home
5. Lovely Rita
6. Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite
7. Sgt Pepper Reprise
8. Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds
9. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
10. Within You Without You
11. Good Morning, Good Morning
12. Fixing a Hole
13. Getting Better

The last four are pretty much interchangeable. I don't know them well, don't really care for any of them.

 

[Go2Guy]

I was 10 and living in Iowa City when it was released. things were getting weird - this could not be the band that just 3-years earlier was singing, "I Want To Hold Your Hand"...... It was way beyond my level - and for most of my 10-yo friends.
The first buzz talk I caught on the basketball court when a group of friends were excitedly talking about 'Lucy' and how cool the drum break sounded before the chorus. I had to find out what was going on.
Days later, when I accompanied Dad on an errand at a U of Iowa campus store, the college students tending the register had the album blaring in the background and he had this stoner trance like distracted look while staring out the window listening to 'Day in Life'...every head shop in campus town was blaring the album.
Folks, you may hate the Beatles and certainly Pepper isn't my favorite album, but a case can be made that nobody on the planet was making music like this. As I said not my favorite album, but some of my favorite songs. It would have been so much stronger if they included Strawberry Fields / Penny Lane on the album instead of issuing as a single.
You can see from this **** Clark American Bandstand YouTube clip, kids weren't too warm to the new music style (the comment, 'they're worse than the Monkies' lol)...but check out the final reaction of the stoner kid at the end - priceless!

 

[cyclones500]

I've just never ever really cared for Lucy. Something about the quality of the John's voice and the whole sound of the song..

Generally, I think Lucy is overrated, but part of it for me is, I like the Sgt Pepper/Help From My Friends intro and then the album seems to stall when Lucy arrives— maybe Getting Better should've been 3rd, Lucy 4th.

I do like Lucy's 3/4 verse stream-of-consciousness lyrical dabbling --- and segue into 4/4 chorus as "straight rock."

 

[Go2Guy]

I do like Lucy's 3/4 verse stream-of-consciousness lyrical dabbling --- and segue into 4/4 chorus as "straight rock."

you know your music! I like Paul's thumping bass in the 4/4 chorus

 

[matclone]

Folks, you may hate the Beatles and certainly Pepper isn't my favorite album, but a case can be made that nobody on the planet was making music like this. As I said not my favorite album, but some of my favorite songs. It would have been so much stronger if they included Strawberry Fields / Penny Lane on the album instead of issuing as a single.

I'm the same age as you. My first interest in the Beatles was hearing Hey Jude in Nov 68, followed shortly thereafter by Abbey Road and then, by process of discovery, all of the earlier records, including Sgt. Pepper.

I'm pretty sure, for those a little older, who were into music, each new Beatles record was a great new revelation.

 

[Go2Guy]

I'm the same age as you. My first interest in the Beatles was hearing Hey Jude in Nov 68, followed shortly thereafter by Abbey Road and then, by process of discovery, all of the earlier records, including Sgt. Pepper.

I'm pretty sure, for those a little older, who were into music, each new Beatles record was a great new revelation.

7-minutes of slow dancing!!

 

[MeanDean]

I was 10 and living in Iowa City when it was released. things were getting weird - this could not be the band that just 3-years earlier was singing, "I Want To Hold Your Hand"...... It was way beyond my level - and for most of my 10-yo friends.
The first buzz talk I caught on the basketball court when a group of friends were excitedly talking about 'Lucy' and how cool the drum break sounded before the chorus. I had to find out what was going on.
Days later, when I accompanied Dad on an errand at a U of Iowa campus store, the college students tending the register had the album blaring in the background and he had this stoner trance like distracted look while staring out the window listening to 'Day in Life'...every head shop in campus town was blaring the album.
Folks, you may hate the Beatles and certainly Pepper isn't my favorite album, but a case can be made that nobody on the planet was making music like this. As I said not my favorite album, but some of my favorite songs. It would have been so much stronger if they included Strawberry Fields / Penny Lane on the album instead of issuing as a single.
You can see from this **** Clark American Bandstand YouTube clip, kids weren't too warm to the new music style (the comment, 'they're worse than the Monkies' lol)...but check out the final reaction of the stoner kid at the end - priceless!

I was about 11 and remember watching that exact American Bandstand on a Saturday morning on a TV that was, inexplicably, in our attic. My reaction was pretty much the same as the rest of the audience at the time. The video was in Black and White on the broadcast, I'm pretty sure, so lost some of it's effect. I went through a period of not appreciating the Beatles about that time, through Magical Mystery Tour (which I remember being advertised on KAAY Little Rock) at the time. Because of their embracing of the drug culture.

White Album and especially Abbey Road brought me back around.

 

[chuckd4735]

A little off topic, but has anyone else been disappointed with the Beatles channel on Sirius?

 

[SCyclone]

Just as a coda, McCartney has acknowledged that the inspiration to create Sgt. Pepper came from the hugely influential "Pet Sounds" album by the Beach Boys. While totally different in style musically, Brian Wilson was - to me - one of the most creative songwriters ever. His lyricsof course, don't have the depth or influence that the Beatles songs did, but some of Wilson's harmonies and chord progressions are fantastic.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

I went through a period of not appreciating the Beatles about that time, through Magical Mystery Tour (which I remember being advertised on KAAY Little Rock) at the time. Because of their embracing of the drug culture.
White Album and especially Abbey Road brought me back around.

I wasn't really fond of a lot of their stuff that came out during that time either. Pretty much wore out my Abbey Road, though...

 

[Go2Guy]

Just as a coda, McCartney has acknowledged that the inspiration to create Sgt. Pepper came from the hugely influential "Pet Sounds" album by the Beach Boys. While totally different in style musically, Brian Wilson was - to me - one of the most creative songwriters ever. His lyricsof course, don't have the depth or influence that the Beatles songs did, but some of Wilson's harmonies and chord progressions are fantastic.

Wilson and McCartney have a deep mutual respect for each other's songwriting. Keep in mind Wilson has said his inspiration for 'Pet Sounds' came from being 'blown away' by Rubber Soul and Revolver. kinda hard to comprehend in today's terms, In three years, the Beatles released three monumental albums.

 

[cyclones500]

Just as a coda, McCartney has acknowledged that the inspiration to create Sgt. Pepper came from the hugely influential "Pet Sounds" album by the Beach Boys. While totally different in style musically, Brian Wilson was - to me - one of the most creative songwriters ever. His lyricsof course, don't have the depth or influence that the Beatles songs did, but some of Wilson's harmonies and chord progressions are fantastic.

Apparently there was mutual inspiration for a couple of years — Wilson was inspired by "Rubber Soul" for the form of "Pet Sounds" and then McCartney got inspired by that for Revolver & Sgt. Pepper.

 

[Go2Guy]

A little off topic, but has anyone else been disappointed with the Beatles channel on Sirius?

I'm good with it. Maybe not too enthusiastic about other artists' cover versions. I do like the out takes and BBC radio recordings. What has you disappointed?