List of images on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has a widely recognized album cover that depicts several dozen celebrities and other images. The image was made by posing the Beatles in front of life-sized, black-and-white photographs pasted onto hardboard and hand-tinted.

Concept

The cover image was created by Jann Haworth and Peter Blake, who in 1967 won the Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts, for their work on it. Blake has said that the intention was to show a new band surrounded by fans after a performance.

I suggested that they had just played a concert in the park. They were posing for a photograph and the crowd behind them was a crowd of fans who had been at the concert. Having decided on this, then, by making cut-outs, the fans could be anybody, dead or alive, real or fictitious. If we wanted Hansel and Gretel, I could paint them and they could be photographed and blown up. I asked the four Beatles for a list and I did one myself. Robert Fraser did a list and I can't remember whether Brian Epstein did one or not. The way that worked out was fascinating. John gave me a list and so did Paul. George suggested only Indian gurus, about six of them, and Ringo said, "Whatever the others say is fine by me" and didn't suggest anyone. It's an insight into their characters. All kinds of people were suggested. Hitler was there; he is actually in the set-up, but he is covered by the Beatles themselves as we felt he was too controversial. The same applied to Jesus. There were only two of their contemporaries on the cover. Bob Dylan was suggested by John and I put on Dion because he is a great favourite of mine.

People

Identification chart
With the Beatles and most of the wax statues removed

Top row

Second row

Third row

Front row

Props

  • A hookah (water pipe)
  • A Fukusuke, Japanese figure associated with good luck
  • A stone figure of Snow White
  • A baritone horn
  • A drumhead, designed by fairground artist Joe Ephgrave
  • An idol of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi
  • A trophy
  • An antique stone bust of a Victorian man brought over from John Lennon's house (which provided the basis for the album's cutout portrait of Sgt. Pepper)
  • A 9-inch (23 cm) Sony television set, apparently owned by Paul McCartney (though claimed by Blake to have been Lennon's); the receipt, bearing McCartney's signature, is owned by a curator of a museum dedicated to the Beatles in Japan.
  • A stone figure of a girl
  • A ceramic Mexican craft known as a Tree of Life from Metepec, substituted at the request of Germán Valdés, who had been asked to give consent for his image to appear.[citation needed]
  • Cloth grandmother-figure by Jann Haworth
  • Cloth doll by Haworth of Shirley Temple wearing a sweater that reads "Welcome The Rolling Stones Good Guys" – third and last appearance on the cover
  • A three-stringed flower guitar
  • Another stone figure
  • A garden gnome
  • A cloth snake
  • Flowers

Excluded and obscured people

  • (12) Leo Gorcey – was modelled and originally included to the left of Huntz Hall, but he was subsequently removed when a fee of $400 ($3,548 in 2020 terms) was requested for the use of the actor's likeness.
  • (45C) Adolf Hitler – was requested by Lennon and modelled behind the band (to the right of Larry Bell), but was moved out of frame (being "too controversial", according to Blake) and replaced by Johnny Weissmuller. Blake uniquely insists that Hitler was hidden behind the band during the final shoot.
  • (54A) Unidentified laughing figure – barely visible
  • (56A) Sophia Loren (actress) – behind the Beatles' waxworks
  • (58A) Marcello Mastroianni (actor) – behind the Beatles' waxworks, only the top of the hat is slightly visible
  • (65B) Timothy Carey (actor) – was modelled and originally included but largely obscured by George Harrison in the final picture
  • (68) Mahatma Gandhi – was modelled and originally included to the right of Lewis Carroll, but was subsequently removed. According to McCartney, "Gandhi also had to go because the head of EMI, Sir Joe Lockwood, said that in India they wouldn't allow the record to be printed".
  • Jesus Christ – was requested by Lennon, but he was not modelled because the LP would be released just over a year after Lennon's controversial statement that the band was "more popular than Jesus".

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-02-25 07:15 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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