Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

As work on the album neared the finish line, a decision was made to bring Sgt. Pepper's band back to close out the show.  Most accounts have assistant Neil Aspinall coming up with this idea, though producer George Martin has also received credit for it.  The reprise of the title song would not end the album, however, as A Day in the Life would have that honor, serving as a sort of encore.

On April 1st, 1967, the group reported to the vast studio one at EMI's Abbey Road Studios.  They usually recorded in the cozy confines of studio two, but it had already been booked for the day.  Engineer Geoff Emerick had as many screens as were available set up around the band and their instruments to limit the amount of echo in the large room.  Paul played Hammond organ, leading the others through nine takes of the harder, faster version of the Sgt. Pepper theme.

Anthology 2 allows us to hear take five.  As with every other take, Paul provides an energetic guide vocal, driving the brisk, stripped-down backing track.  The same is true of take eight, which appears on the 50th anniversary editions of the album.  With take nine as the keeper, Paul overdubbed his bass guitar part, maracas and tambourine were also added, all four Beatles sang the group harmony vocals, and the bulk of the album was officially in the can.

The mono mix of the song was made at the end of this all-night session, featuring some different audience overdubs than those most of us would recognize.  The slightly more subtle audience sounds were added on April 20th as part of the stereo mix.  Also on this night, the perfect matching of the squawking hen at the end of Good Morning Good Morning and George's guitar at the start of this number was achieved, an effect that is not quite as good on the mono mix.

By effectively bookending the album with the two versions of the title song, the Beatles completed the conceit of a performance by Sgt. Pepper's band, and legitimized the idea of the concept album, even though most of the songs on this album actually have nothing to do with each other.  To paraphrase John Lennon, it worked because the Beatles said it worked, and we bought it.