June 1967 - December 1967: Quite an Ambitious Project

Pictured above: Promotional poster of the movie Merseyside Summers: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Soon after releasing Merseyside Summers and performing All You Need is Love on June 25th during the Our World international television broadcast, United Artists was pressuring The Beatles to work on a new movie to fulfill their three-movie contract, to which Paul McCartney suggested a movie adaptation of Merseyside Summers.

"Sure I'll admit I had the idea in the back of my mind while making the album, but United Artists contacting us to do another movie was really the push I needed. For the script I did most of the work in terms of the story, however, I also got some help from Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Erich Segal. Richard Lester directed most of the movie, although the animation parts were directed by George Dunning. It was quite an ambitious project, especially considering we wanted to combine animation and live-action footage, which was actually Ringo's idea. Whole project cost like 300 hundred thousand pounds. But it sure did pay off in the end, (laughs)."

- Paul McCartney, 1981

The movie closely followed the story of the album, albeit many new tracks were made to flesh out the story, including introducing the concept of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, of which the main character Billy Shears (played by Ringo) would be a part of. The other Beatles played relatively minor roles in the movie otherwise, with John Lennon playing Mr. Kite, Paul McCartney playing the role of a roadie for the band, and George Harrison serving as a spiritual advisor for Billy Shears after the loss of his daughter.

"At first, they were a bit confused, thinking 'How on Earth will it star all four of us if it's about one person?'... Well at first I was gonna do the role of Billy, then we decided to give Ringo a shot, and he fit a lot better for the role. The rest of us played other slightly less important characters in the movie, but we all had at least one full scene with a full song including us."

- Paul McCartney, 1981

Unlike the previous two Beatles movies, the music was the main driving force of the story, with barely any in-between dialogue. The cast of the movie was as follows:

THE BEATLES:
Ringo Starr - Billy Shears Jr.
John Lennon - Mr. Kite
Paul McCartney - Sgt. Pepper's Roadie
George Harrison - Spiritual Adviser

THE SHEARS FAMILY:
Dudley Frankenson - Billy Shears Jr. (childhood scenes)
Victor Spinelli - Billy Shears Sr. (Billy's father)
Jessie Robins - Martha Shears (Billy's mother)
Raquel Welch - Rita Shears (Billy's wife)
Julie Dawn Cole - Lucy Shears (Billy's daughter)

SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND:
Ray Brooks - Pitt the Infant (French Horn/Lead guitar)
Brian Wilson - Winston O'Boogie (Bass)
Michael Crawford - Harry Campbell (Keyboardist and Multi-instrumentalist)

OTHER CHARACTERS:
Peter Cushing - Teacher
Leo McKern - Record Executive
Patrick McGoohan - Mr. Reeds (Strawberry Fields head person)

"I was kind of surprised Paul asked me to play... what was his name again? Winston O'Boogie, in the Merseyside Summers movie. The most acting I did up to that point was music videos. It was really like one huge music video, to be honest. I didn't have that many lines anyways, so it was fine."

- Brian Wilson, 2012

"Truth be told, this was probably the most avant-garde project I have done, and I feel like it wouldn't work any other way."

- Peter Cushing, 1985

"It was George's (Harrison) idea for me to be in the film, believe it or not, him being a big Prisoner fan, he figured that having me in the film would be a treat, and to me, it pretty much was."

- Patrick McGoohan, 1994

"It's funny, most films I was in at that time had me dressed in all sorts of skimpy clothing, yet, this one had me wearing these beautiful dresses, and a pretty stylish meter maid outfit."

- Raquel Welch, 2010

"Merseyside Summers, oh boy. That was my first and only acting gig. I and my parents were quite a fan of The Beatles' music, and when I saw an ad on the paper for them looking for a kid to play a role in The Beatles' latest movie, we jumped on it immediately. I only met Paul and Ringo during recording though, but it was still a really fun experience. I still like the movie to this day and I'm definitely going to show it to my kids soon."

- Dudley Frankenson, 1995

The order of the songs in the movie is as follows, with (*) indicating songs that weren't in the Merseyside Summers album:

• A Beginning / Good Morning Good Morning
• Penny Lane
• Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!
• All Together Now*
• Getting Better
• Fixing a Hole
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (abridged)*
• Lovely Rita
• When I'm Sixty-Four
• Strawberry Fields Forever
• Your Mother Should Know*
• Magical Mystery Tour*
• Hey Bulldog*
• Only a Northern Song*
• She's Leaving Home
• The Fool on The Hill*
• Flying*
• Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
• I Am the Walrus*
• Blue Jay Way
• Within You Without You
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band*
• With a Little Help From My Friends
• It's All Too Much*
• A Day in The Life

"In terms of new songs for the Merseyside Summers movie, some were outtakes from the album, like Only a Northern Song and Sgt. Pepper's, but a lot of them were recorded just for the movie and as singles, like Hey Bulldog, I Am the Walrus and It's All Too Much."

- George Harrison, 1981

After recording about three hours of live-action footage, The Beatles took a backseat overlooking the editing and animation of the film, as well as finishing recording the songs from the movie.

The single Hello, Goodbye, with B-side Hey Bulldog was released on November 24th, 1967. Merseyside Summers: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (often abbreviated as Merseyside Summers) was released on Boxing Day, 1967 in the UK and on January 4th in the US and the rest of the world. The soundtrack album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on the same respective dates, with all the new songs from the movie and an extra track called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise). The album was released on both vinyl and ELP formats.

"I'm gonna be honest, Sgt. Pepper's is more of a soundtrack album than anything. There are some good songs in there, but it's not exactly essential Beatles. The cover is great though, we had the whole cast pose for a group photo as well as a bunch of cardboard cutouts and wax figures of a bunch of different people - actors, sportsmen, scientists, political figures, musicians - George actually requested that the gurus from the Self-Realization Fellowship showed up... and well, I ended up requesting Syd Barrett myself. We kept in touch during the movie's production and he actually visited recording like once or twice."

- John Lennon, 1968

The Sgt. Pepper's cover soon became an iconic part of pop culture, being parodied multiple times, most notably by Frank Zappa's The Mothers of Inventions' 1968 album We're Only In It For The Money.

"I thought the cover was the funniest thing someone has ever done up to that point, made me buy a copy in fact!"

- John Lennon, 1970

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Side A

- 01. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (2:02) [1]

- 02. With a Little Help From My Friends (Movie Version) (2:32) [4]

- 03. All Together Now (2:10) [2]

- 04. Hey Bulldog (3:08) [2]

- 05. Only a Northern Song (3:24) [2]

- 06. Your Mother Should Know (2:30) [3]

- 07. Flying (2:15) [3]

Side B

- 08. Magical Mystery Tour (2:50) [3]

- 09. The Fool on The Hill (3:00) [3]

- 10. I Am The Walrus (4:30) [4]

- 11. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (1:16) [4]

- 12. It's All Too Much (6:24) [4]

Released: December 26th, 1967

Track sources:

[1] - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

[2] - Yellow Submarine, 1969

[3] - Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

[4] - Custom mix by The_Lifehouse 

February 1967 - August 1967: He Seemed a Bit Off

Pictured above: The Beach Boys in the studio, 1967

With recording of SMiLE almost complete on May 18th, 1967, The Beach Boys end up returning to California for final overdubs and mixing.

"Recording in the UK was actually very fun. I got to see Paul (McCartney) a lot which was nice, we kept trading song ideas. I hope I'm able to work on something with him eventually."

- Brian Wilson, 1975

SMiLE was released on June 12th, 1967. Thanks to Merseyside Summers and other musicians already paving the way for the psychedelic movement in music, the album did much better than it's predecessor, Pet Sounds.

SMiLE

Side A

- 01. Heroes and Villains (4:23) [1]

- 02. Vega-Tables (3:43) [1]

- 03. Do You Like Worms? (3:44) [1]

- 04. Child is Father of The Man (2:58) [1]

- 05. The Old Master Painter (1:55) [1]

- 06. Cabin Essence (3:30) [1]

Side B

- 07. Good Vibrations (3:37) [1]

- 08. Wonderful (2:03) [1]

- 09. I'm In Great Shape (2:48) [1]

- 10. Wind Chimes (2:26) [1]

- 11. The Elements (3:37) [1]

- 12. Surf's Up (5:21) [1]

Released: June 12th, 1967

Track sources:

[1] - Custom mix by The_Lifehouse

Pictured above: Pink Floyd, 1967

After the release of A Seat at the Tea Set, Pink Floyd (having recently dropped "The" from their name), started work on recording their sophomore effort called at the time Projection. The songs recorded consisted of essentially two types, lengthy instrumental jams and shorter, for the most part, lyrical songs written by guitarist Syd Barrett (along with one song written by bassist Roger Waters). The album had many unique types of studio experimentation, from unique instruments to great use of reverb and making great use of stereo mixing (most apparent in the re-recording of the song Interstellar Overdrive).

One notable event during recording was Syd Barrett, hearing that The Beatles were recording a new album in Studio Two, visiting them as they worked on the re-recording of Penny Lane.

"So Paul (McCartney) and George (Martin) were busy working on Penny Lane when I saw this guy walk into the studio. He didn't really do or say anything, he was just watching in the corner. Now it wasn't unusual for people to come and go into the studio, but there was something about that guy. He seemed a bit off to be entirely honest. But I wasn't really doing anything else, so I decided to start conversation with him. Next thing I know we were on the rooftop doing Lysergic and just messing around... that's basically how I met Syd."

- John Lennon, 1976

Despite being 5 years older than Barrett and arguably one of the biggest musicians at the time, John Lennon was quick to make friends with the young Floydian, often keeping in touch with each other with the occasional LSD-consumed meetup.

As Projection was nearing it's the conclusion of recording, with it already having been renamed to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, on May 12th Pink Floyd hosted and performed in a concert called Games for May which was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

The album was intended to be released on the ELP, however EMI executives, still not fully on board with the new technology, found a compromise: the album would be released both on ELP and vinyl, with the vinyl version cutting the songs See Emily Play (which was later released as a single on June 12th), Nick's Boogie and Reaction in G.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was released on August 4th, 1967, reaching #5 in the UK Charts.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

- 01. Astronomy Domine (4:12) [1]

- 02. See Emily Play (2:54) [2]

- 03. Nick Boogie (11:43) [3]

- 04. Lucifer Sam (3:07) [1]

- 05. Matilda Mother (3:08) [1]

- 06. Flaming (2:46) [1]

- 07. Reaction in G (7:08) [4]

- 08. Pow R. Toc H. (4:26) [1]

- 09. Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk (3:06) [1]

- 10. Interstellar Overdrive (9:40) [1]

- 11. The Gnome (2:13) [1]

- 12. Chapter 24 (3:42) [1]

- 13. Scarecrow (2:11) [1]

- 14. Bike (3:23) [1]

Released: August 4th, 1967

Track sources:

[1] - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967

[2] - 1965-1967 Cambridge St/ation, 2016

[3] - A Tree Full of Secrets, 1999 - Bootleg, CD 9

[4] - 1967-1972 Continu/ation, 2016 - Crowd cheering edited out

January 1967 - May 1967: This Was a Whole Different Ball Game

Pictured above: The Rolling Stones' Between the Buttons, 1967.

Between the Buttons was released by The Rolling Stones on January 20th, 1967, in both the US and the UK (with the same tracklisting and cover in both regions). It was the last time Andrew Oldham would reprise his role as the band's producer, with Allen Klein becoming their manager as early as 1965. It reached #2 in the US and #3 in the UK.

Despite in album's success, in early 1967 Stones members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones began to be hounded by local authorities due to their recreational drug use, thanks to a three-part feature by tabloid News of the World titled "Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You". The tabloid described alleged parties hosted by the band The Moody Blues attended by top stars such as The Who's Pete Townshend and Cream's Ginger Baker.

The second installment in particular targeted The Rolling Stones, in particular the aforementioned Jagger, Richards and Jones. A reporter who contributed to the story spent an evening at the exclusive London club Blaise's, where a member of the Rolling Stones allegedly took several Benzedrine tablets, displayed a piece of hashish and invited his companions back to his flat for a "smoke". The article claimed this was Mick Jagger, but it happened to be a mistake, with it in fact being Brian Jones.

About a week later, Sussex police, tipped off by the paper, raided a party at Keith Richards' home, Redlands. Despite no arrests being made at the time, Jagger and Richards were charged with drug possession.

"When we got busted at Redlands, it suddenly made us realize that this was a whole different ball game and that was when the fun stopped. Up until then it had been as though London existed in a beautiful space where you could do anything you wanted."

- Keith Richards, 2003

While Jagger, Richards and Jones were waiting for their trials and sentences, The Rolling Stones were occupied with recording their sixth British and eighth American album, called at the time Cosmic Christmas. It was meant to be even more psychedelic and experimental than their previous output, however these sessions would prove to be troublesome.

"The Cosmic Christmas sessions have to be one of, if not, the worst recording sessions I ever had the displeasure to participate in."

- Mick Jagger, 1980

"Every day at the studio it was a lottery as to who would turn up and what – if any – positive contribution they would make when they did. Keith would arrive with anywhere up to ten people, Brian with another half-a-dozen and it was the same for Mick. They were assorted girlfriends and friends. I hated it! Then again, so did Andrew (Oldham) and just gave up on it. There were times when I wish I could have done, too."

- Bill Wyman, 2002

Another factor for the troubled recordings for Cosmic Christmas was Brian Jones' own erratic behavior partially due to his excessive drug use. This culminated during a particularly bad recording session of the song Sing This All Together, in which Brian Jones would constantly interrupt the recording of vocals and blaming Mick Jagger for "singing it wrong". The two men soon got into a fight with Brian Jones walking out, going into a bathroom in the studio and proceeding to wreck it, damaging his hands after punching a mirror.

Pictured above: Cover of the She's a Rainbow single.

After this incident, Andrew Loog Oldman, the band's former manager and producer would finally quit, already fed up with lack of focus and drug busts. With this the band just gave up on working on Cosmic Christmas, deciding to assemble whatever they could and release a single. This single ended up being She's a Rainbow (with B-side 2000 Man). The single was heavily criticized for sounding too much like The Beatles' single Penny Lane (with B-Side Strawberry Fields Forever). After this The Rolling Stones would take some time off doing anything, only regrouping in March of 1968 to record Beggars' Banquet.

Pictured above: The Beatles in studio, 1967

With Merseyside Summers nearing completion on April 12th, 1967, Paul McCartney decided to pay The Beach Boys, who were recording SMiLE in Studio One of EMI Studios a visit.

"So I visited Brian and the guys at Studio One, and Brian showed me this song he was working on, called 'Do You Like Worms?', and it just blew my mind. It was so experimental yet so unique and impressive, I just had to double down on him. We ended up re-recording Penny Lane to give it more of an experimental edge... I was never that satisfied with how Penny Lane turned out in the single version."

- Paul McCartney, 2000

In the end, recording of Merseyside Summers concluded on April 23rd, 1967, released a little over a month later on May 26nd, 1967 to nearly universal critical acclaim.

Merseyside Summers

Side A

- 01. Good Morning Good Morning (3:23) [1]

- 02. Penny Lane (3:12) [2]

- 03. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite! (2:37) [3]

- 04. Getting Better (2:47) [3]

- 05. Fixing a Hole (2:39) [3]

- 06. Lovely Rita (2:45) [3]

- 07. When I'm Sixty-Four (2:40) [3]

- 08. Strawberry Fields Forever (4:04) [4]

Side B

- 09. She's Leaving Home (3:25) [3]

- 10. Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds (3:36) [3]

- 11. Blue Jay Way (3:56) [4]

- 12. Within You Without You (5:09) [3]

- 13. With a Little Help From My Friends (2:45) [5]

- 14. A Day in The Life (5:36) [6]

Released: May 26th, 1967

Track sources:

[1] - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967 - preceeded by A Beginning from Anthology, Vol 3, 1996

[2] - Anthology, Vol. 2

[3] - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

[4] - Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

[5] - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967 - with instrumental intro from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, 2017

[6] - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967 - with intro from LOVE, 2006

Author's comments:

The version of Between the Buttons released internationally is the OTL equivalent of the US version.

November 1966 - February 1967: For The Life of Me

Pictured above: The Beatles in studio, 1967

After quitting touring and taking some time off from working on anything, The Beatles soon regrouped in November of 1966 to work on an album unlike any other they have done before.

"Well, you see, for Merseyside Summers, I was mostly inspired by Pet Sounds and A Quick One. I wanted to tell a story throughout the album of a Liverpudlian everyman called Billy Shears. I had quite a few ideas for the story, including him being part of this band in his teenage years called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but I ended up scrapping that part of the story. Either way I'm quite satisfied with how the story turned out in the end."

- Paul McCartney, 1981

The album followed Billy Shears' life through different phases in each side. Side A following his early childhood in Penny Lane, going to school, growing up, getting a job, finding love with a woman named Rita, and at the end of the side the couple adopting a little girl named Lucy in the Strawberry Field orphanage.

Side B took place years later, with the little girl, now grown up, running away from home. With the man devastated, he looks for comfort through drugs and spirituality. In the end he moves on from the loss of his daughter with help from his friends. The album concludes in an ambiguous note story-wise with A Day in The Life.

Most songs were written primarily by Paul McCartney, however John Lennon chipped in with the songs Good Morning Good Morning, Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite and Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds, while George Harrison chipped in with Blue Jay Way and Within You Without You.

While The Beatles were recording Merseyside Summers in Studio Two of EMI Studios, in Studio One a familiar face from across the Atlantic was working on an innovative album of their own.

Pictured above: The Beach Boys working on SMiLE, 1967

"I don't remember whose idea was it to come to the UK to work on SMiLE... I think it was either Brian or Van. Either way it was a nice change of scenery and it we hadn't done it we'd probably never have completed the album."

- Carl Wilson, 1971

"At first I thought they were crazy with wanting us to record SMiLE in England, we've always had recorded in America and I wasn't a fan of that changing. However I ended up warming up to the idea, and it was nice actually meeting The Beatles in-person working on an album."

- Mike Love, 1971

SMiLE was invisioned by The Beach Boys' primary songwriter and de facto leader Brian Wilson as a "teenage symphony to God", comprising of 12 songs made of different sections in similar style to the band's biggest hit by then, Good Vibrations. Despite having a difficult start at first, with Brian failing to explain the structure of the songs and albums to his fellow bandmates. However this was later facilitated due to Carl Wilson suggesting to his brother to write down the structure of the songs along with songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Van Dyke Parks.

"I remember Brian Wilson coming into Studio Two when we were working on Strawberry Fields Forever. Neither me or anyone else knew he had come to London and Paul in particular was honestly quite surprised to see him there. We showed him the song and asked him what he thought of it. He was actually speechless as he listened to it. And from then on it wasn't unusual for him and Paul would visit each other in studio to share song ideas and what not."

- John Lennon, 1975

Pictured above: The Pink Floyd, early 1967

The Pink Floyd, a band consisting of guitarist Syd Barrett, bassist Roger Waters, keyboardist Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason (previously also rhythm guitarist Rado "Bob" Klose, although he departed in mid 1966 due to pressure from his family and teachers), signed with EMI in January of 1967. Soon enough they got to work on the single Arnold Layne and it's b-side Candy and a Currant Bun (previous titled Let's Roll Another One).

Recording of the single took less than a week and was released on January 30th, 1967, under EMI's Columbia Records label, reaching number 15 in the UK charts. With the moderate success of the single, EMI wanted to rush-release an album to capitalize on said success. Not having any new material yet, the band gave EMI their early recordings from 1966, along with a 15-minute live recording of an instrumental jam called Interstellar Overdrive.

A Seat at the Tea Set 

Side A

- 01. Lucy Leave (2:57) [1]

- 02. Remember Me (2:45) [1]

- 03. Double O Bo (2:56) [1]

- 04. Walk with Me Sydney (3:11) [1]

- 05. Butterfly (3:00) [1]

- 06. Candy and a Currant Bun (2:46) [1]

Side B

- 07. Interstellar Overdrive (14:56) [2]

- 08. Arnold Layne (2:56) [1]

Released: February 2nd, 1967

Track sources:

[1] - 1965-67 Cambridge St/ation, 2016

[2] - The Syd Barrett Tapes - Bootleg, 2014

"Now I do not for the life of me remember who came up with such a bland title as "A Seat at the Tea Set". Sure it's a reference to what we were called back in the old days, but still. Another thing I don't get is why did they choose such an old picture for the cover, when Bob Klose was still around? Like, I get that he did participate in recording like 5 of the songs, but still."

- Roger Waters, 1986

The album is looked back by nearly everyone in the band as their worst output, and critics weren't as much of a fan either, criticizing the band for sounding "too much like The Rolling Stones".

"Yeah... A Seat at the Tea Set wasn't a very good record. It wasn't really Pink Floyd, fortunately we soon enough got our act together and we started work on what we were calling at the time Projection."

- Syd Barrett, 1968

Author's notes:

I know it's been a while since I last posted and I apologize for that. However I was busy for most of the week and only really had time and motivation to write now. This most likely won't be the only post for today, but I just wanted to get this out here to not have posts that are too long or cluttered.

January 1966 - December 1966: I Thought it Was Alien Technology

Pictured above: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, 1966

With the turn of the year in 1966, Sony introduced a new audio format into the industry, called the "Laser Read Music Delivery System". The music industry was hesitant to try the new format, however the classical and jazz industries soon embraced the format for its cleaner sound, longer playback times and the elimination of the need to turn the disc over halfway through. But not before renaming the format to the Extended Long Player or ELP for short.

Despite this, the pop market was slow to use the format due to it's higher cost for the consumer, especially the need to buy a new player for the system. Despite this, one of the first musicians to adopt the new system was none other than Bob Dylan.

"You see, this ELP thing... I thought it was alien technology sent to us humans or something. And the fact that nobody was using it but the classical and jazz industries shocked me. So I eventually decided not only to release Blonde on Blonde as a double LP, but also as an ELP, and that's really when it started picking up."

- Bob Dylan, 1981

Pictured above: The Who's A Quick One, 1966

After the success of their debut album My Generation, The Who departed from the R&B emphasis of their previous album. Part of the marketing for the album was the requirement that each band member wrote at least two songs.

However eventually the band reworked the album, including a nine-minute suite of songs snippets written by Pete Townsend, which tells a story of infidelity and reconciliation which became the name of the album. It was also the band's first foray into an extended form that led into the new way of telling stories through music which would later be called by the press as "rock operas".

"Well, ya know those guys from The Who released an album in 1966 called 'A Quick One', and in this album, there was a track called A Quick One (While He's Away), and... ya know and the idea of telling an whole story through music really peaked my interest, ya know? And that, along with Pet Sounds were really the things that inspired me and the guys to make Merseyside Summers."

- Paul McCartney, 2003

Author's notes:

Sorry for the short post today everyone, I just wanted to get everything from 1966 done before I move onto the next year. Credit goes to Uncle Dan from What If for the concept of the ELP, and for giving me permission to use it in my timeline.

April 1966 - August 1966: I Don't Know Which Will Go First

Pictured above: The Pink Floyd, 1966.

Being the frontman of a minorly successful rhythm and blues rock band called "The Pink Floyd Sound" for almost a year now, the young Syd Barrett (real first name Roger) decided it was about time they finally recorded something in studio. The band's keyboardist, Richard Wright, managed to secure the band some time in a studio in West Hampstead through a friend of his. 

It was in this day-long session where the band would record six songs, five original and one cover. These songs were Lucy Leave, Double O Bo, Remember Me, Walk With Me Sydney, Butterfly, and a cover of the standard I'm a King Bee. Unfortunately this wasn't enough for a full album and the recordings were soon shelved.

Pictured above: The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, 1966.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in California, USA, Brian Wilson was making the final touches on the mixing of The Beach Boys' eleventh studio album, Pet Sounds. It was to be an album unlike anything the group had put forward until then. It was artsy, it was experimental, it was anything unlike the band was previously known for.

"We knew that Pet Sounds was a very special record. And to us, it was more than a record, it was... a new place. It was, ya know, popular music reaching a new level."

- Carl Wilson, 1998

Pet Sounds was released on May 16th, 1966. Compared to previous Beach Boys releases, the album peaked at number 10 in the US, with greatly mixed reviews due to the drastic change in sound and style from previous releases. Despite this when it was released in the UK, it achieved nearly universal acclaim, reaching number 2 in the UK charts. Among many of the people who purchased and listened to the album was none other than Beatle Paul McCartney.

"I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard 'Pet Sounds.' I love the orchestra, the arrangements – it may be going overboard to say it's the classic of the century – but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways. I've often played Pet Sounds and cried."

- Paul McCartney, 2003

It is commonly reported by people involved in the recording of The Beatles' album Revolver and it's follow-up that McCartney would play Pet Sounds non-stop for inspiration.

Pictured above: The Beatles' Yesterday and Today, 1966.

When the time came for Capitol to release a new Beatles album in the United States, they soon realized there wasn't enough material for a full 11-song album, with them pulling songs from the UK versions of Help! and Rubber Soul, as well as the single Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out. 

When asked by EMI for any songs they could use, they contacted The Beatles asking for songs from their new still a work-in-progress album titled at the time Abracadabra. Instead of giving songs for an album that wasn't even released yet, The Beatles ended up giving Capitol the songs from the single Paperback Writer / Rain. 

Still not having enough tracks, Capitol also included the old Beatles song Can't Buy Me Love, with each song respectively becoming the fifth, second and seventh song from the album. Yesterday and Today was then released on June 20th, 1966.

Pictured above: The Beatles' Revolver, 1966

When the time came to release The Beatles' album Revolver in 1966, The Beatles already started controversy in the United States in July, when a statement John Lennon made during an interview in with Bruce Morrow was republished in the US:

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

- John Lennon, 1966

The outcry caused by this statement was unprecedented in Beatles history. Disc jockeys refused to play Beatles songs, records were burnt and in the following weeks before the release of Revolver and the band's US tour in August, their manager Brian Epstein went on full damage control holding a press conference in New York City, which unfortunately didn't help much.

Despite this controversy, The Beatles, tired of how Capitol "butchered" their albums for the US market, pushed for Capitol release Revolver with the same tracklisting internationally.

"You see, we were sick of Capitol doing what they were doing to our albums. With Revolver in particular, we put extra thought into the tracklisting and flow of the album and such. However weren't budging, insisting on how it was "the rules" or whatever. It was until John ended up threating them with us signing to Decca or something along those lines, not entirely sure what he said, but at the end of the day, from that point onwards the idea of having different tracklistings in America and the UK was... ya know, it basically didn't exist anymore, because of Revolver."

- Paul McCartney, 2001

Despite the controversies in America and the drama with Capitol, Revolver was released both in the US and the UK on August 5th, 1966 reaching #1 in both countries. The band went on tour in North America a week later. Unfortunately these shows were plagued with the backlash of the "more popular than Jesus" outcry, death threats and the band's own dissatisfaction with the noise levels in venues and their inability to hear themselves play. 

This culminated with The Beatles announcing they wouldn't tour anymore, devoting all their time to recording in the studio.

"We'd been through every race riot, and every city we went to there was some kind of a jam going on, and police control, and people threatening to do this and that … and [us] being confined to a little room or a plane or a car. We all had each other to dilute the stress, and the sense of humour was very important … But there was a point where enough was enough."

- George Harrison, date unknown