Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band By The Beatles: The Greatest Album-cover Ever

The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band has a widely-recognized album cover which depicts several dozen celebrities and other images.

This album cover was created by Jann Haworth and Peter Blake. They won the Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts in 1968 for their work on this cover.

The celebrities and items featured on the front cover are (by row, left to right):

Top row:

*Sri Yukteswar Giri (Hindu guru)

*Aleister Crowley (occultist)

*Mae West (actress)

*Lenny Bruce (comedian)

*Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer)

*W. C. Fields (comedian/actor)

*Carl Gustav Jung (psychologist)

*Edgar Allan Poe (writer)

*Fred Astaire (actor/dancer)

*Richard Merkin (artist)

*The Vargas Girl (by artist Alberto Vargas)

*Huntz Hall (actor)

*Simon Rodia (designer and builder of the Watts Towers)

*Bob Dylan (singer/songwriter)

Second row:

*Aubrey Beardsley (illustrator)

*Sir Robert Peel (19th century British Prime Minister)

*Aldous Huxley (writer)

*Dylan Thomas (poet)

*Terry Southern (writer)

*Dion (singer)

*Tony Curtis (actor)

*Wallace Berman (artist)

*Tommy Handley (comedian)

*Marilyn Monroe (actress)

*William S. Burroughs (writer)

*Sri Mahavatar Babaji (Hindu guru)

*Stan Laurel (actor/comedian)

*Richard Lindner (artist)

*Oliver Hardy (actor/comedian)

*Karl Marx (political philosopher)

*H. G. Wells (writer)

*Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (Hindu guru)

*Sigmund Freud (psychiatrist) - barely visible below Bob Dylan

*Anonymous (hairdressers wax dummy)

Third row:

*Stuart Sutcliffe (artist/former Beatle)

*Anonymous (hairdresser's wax dummy)

*Max Miller (comedian)

*A "Petty Girl" (by artist George Petty)

*Marlon Brando (actor)

*Tom Mix (actor)

*Oscar Wilde (writer)

*Tyrone Power (actor)

*Larry Bell (artist)

*Dr. David Livingstone (missionary/explorer)

*Johnny Weissmuller (Olympic swimmer/Tarzan actor)

*Stephen Crane (writer) - barely visible between Issy Bonn's head and raised arm

*Issy Bonn (comedian)

*George Bernard Shaw (playwright)

*H. C. Westermann (sculptor)

*Albert Stubbins (soccer player)

*Sri Lahiri Mahasaya (guru)

*Lewis Carroll (writer)

*T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia")

Front row:

*Wax model of Sonny Liston (boxer)

*A "Petty Girl" (by George Petty)

*Wax model of George Harrison

*Wax model of John Lennon

*Shirley Temple (child actress) - barely visible, first of three appearances on the cover

*Wax model of Ringo Starr

*Wax model of Paul McCartney

*Albert Einstein (physicist) - largely obscured

*John Lennon holding a Wagner tuba

*Ringo Starr holding a trumpet

*Paul McCartney holding a cor anglais

*George Harrison holding a flute

*Bobby Breen (singer)

*Marlene Dietrich (actress/singer)

*An American legionnaire

*Diana Dors (actress)

*Shirley Temple (child actress) - second appearance on the cover

Other objects within the group include:

*Cloth grandmother-figure by Jann Haworth

*Cloth doll by Haworth of Shirley Temple wearing a sweater that reads "Welcome The Rolling Stones"

*A ceramic Mexican candlestick known as a Tree of Life from Metepec

*A television set

*A stone figure of a girl

*Another stone figure

*A statue brought over from John Lennon's house

*A trophy

*A doll of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi

*A drum skin, designed by fairground artist Joe Ephgrave

*A hookah (water pipe)

*A velvet snake

*A Fukusuke, Japanese china figure

*A stone figure of Snow White

*A garden gnome

*A euphonium/baritone horn

People who were originally intended for the front cover but were ultimately excluded:

*Leo Gorcey - was modelled and originally included to the left of Huntz Hall, but was subsequently removed when a fee of $400 was requested for the use of the actor's likeness.

*Mohandas 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 not modelled because the LP would be released only a few months after Lennon's Jesus statement.

*Adolf Hitler - was modelled and was visible in early photographs of the montage, positioned to the right of Larry Bell, but was eventually obscured by Johnny Weissmuller in the final image.

*Tin-Tan - Mexican actor. He requested that Ringo swap him for a Mexican Tree, and he did.

'''Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band''' is the eighth studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released in June 1967. Recorded over a 129-day period beginning in December 1966, Sgt. Pepper sees the band exploring further the experimentation of their previous album, Revolver (1966). Making use of orchestras, hired musicians and innovative production techniques, the album incorporates elements of genres such as music hall, jazz, rock and roll, western classical and traditional Indian music; its lyrics deal particularly with themes of childhood and everyday life. Sgt. Pepper is a loose concept album that sees The Beatles performing as the fictitious band of the albums title. The cover art, depicting the band posing in front of a collage of famous individuals, has itself been widely acclaimed and imitated.

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was a commercial success, spending a total of 27 weeks at the top of the UK Album Chart and 15 weeks at number one on the American Billboard 200. A defining album in the emerging psychedelic rock style, Sgt. Pepper was critically acclaimed upon release and won four Grammy awards in 1968. Often recognised by prominent critics and publications as one of the most influential albums of all time, Sgt. Pepper'' frequently ranks at or near the top of published lists of the greatest albums of all time.