--- title: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: 50th Anniversary description: On the 50th anniversary of the classic album from The Beatles, TIME revisits a 1967 cover story about what made the album work. canonical: https://time.com/4712761/sgt-peppers-50th-anniversary/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-01T13:30:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:14.800Z article:section: History og:title: How The Beatles Made 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' Work og:description: "Once we'd written the main bit of the music, we thought, now look, there's a little gap there; and we said oh, how about an orchestra?" og:url: https://time.com/4712761/sgt-peppers-50th-anniversary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb1f0bd94f58e711/6988bfdfcd1bbaf6d7704725/beatles.jpg?branch=production&width=1095&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1095 og:image:height: 616 og:image:alt: beatles og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How The Beatles Made 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' Work twitter:description: "Once we'd written the main bit of the music, we thought, now look, there's a little gap there; and we said oh, how about an orchestra?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb1f0bd94f58e711/6988bfdfcd1bbaf6d7704725/beatles.jpg?branch=production&width=1095&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How The Beatles Made _Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band_ Work > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 1, 2017 1:30 PM UTC  TIME  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 1, 2017 1:30 PM UTC When the album _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_ hit stores 50 years ago, on June 1, 1967, the record with the [quirky cover photo](http://time.com/4713080/sgt-peppers-album-photo/) represented a big change in tone for [The Beatles ](http://time.com/4588308/moment-by-moment-john-loengard/)— and, in doing so, captured the changing spirit of a radical time. The group was “leading an evolution in which the best of current post-rock sounds are becoming something that pop music has never been before: an art form,” TIME wrote in a Sep. 22, 1967, [cover story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-09-22/page/78/) on the state of pop music.”‘Serious musicians’ are listening to them and marking their work as a historic departure in the progress of music — any music.” Here’s the magazine’s description of how the album came together: --- > “” --- All that work paid off artistically. Composer Ned Rorem told TIME that it made The Beatles “colleagues” of his, “speaking the same language with different accents,” and conductor Leonard Bernstein compared it to the classical work of Robert Schumann. It also paid off literally: according to TIME’s original report, the album sold 2.5 million copies in its first three months. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4712761/sgt-peppers-50th-anniversary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4712761/sgt-peppers-50th-anniversary/"},"headline":"How The Beatles Made Sgt. 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