Anatomy of an Album: "Sgt. Pepper" Quiz

Answer: Style

Track 1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was written by Paul McCartney but credited to Lennon McCartney.

Paul sings:

"It was 20 years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play
They've been going in and out of style but they're guaranteed to raise a smile
So may I introduce to you the act you've known for all these years
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

The "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album was number one for 27 weeks in 1967 and spent 149 weeks on the UK album chart. It was number one for 15 weeks in 1967 and spent 63 weeks on the Billboard album chart. In the 1994 book "All Time Top 1000 Albums" it was ranked number one. In the 2005 "Rolling Stone" list, The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time it was ranked number one. As of 2012 the album has sold more than 5,000,000 copies in the UK, more than 11,000,000 copies in the US and in excess of 32,000,000 copies world wide.

Answer: Joe Cocker

Joe Cocker had a number one hit for one week with "With A Little Help From My Friends" on the UK chart in 1968. It reached number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 the same year.

As track 1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" ends it leads straight into "With A Little Help From My Friends" with the line "So let me introduce to you the one and only Billy Shears, and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band yeah, Billy Shears". Which is of course, Ringo's only song on the album.

I have no idea who Billy Shears is or was so don't ask, unless it is yet another theory that has something to do with the rumours of Paul's death in the '60s and replacement with a Paul McCartney look alike. The only time Paul McCartney died was at the 2012 Olympics when he sang "Hey Jude". The game is up Paul.

Young Idea had a number 10 hit on the UK chart with "With A Little Help From My Friends" in 1967. It did not chart in the US.
Joe Brown had a number 32 hit on the UK chart with "With A Little Help From My Friends" in 1967. It did not chart in the US.
Wet Wet Wet had a number one hit for four weeks on the UK chart with "With A Little Help From My Friends" in 1988. It did not chart in the US.

"With A Little Help From My Friends" was the first Beatles song to become number one in two different versions. The Beatles version did make the singles chart when "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-With A Little Help From My Friends" reached number 63 on the UK chart in 1978. It reached number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 the same year.

Answer: Leo Gorcey

The agent of Leo Gorcey wanted $400 for the use of his image on the "Sgt. Pepper" album but was turned down and his image was not used on the final photograph.

Actor Leo Gorcey should have been in position 12 in the crowd, between the Varga girl in position 11 and fellow "Bowery Boys" actor Huntz Hall in position 13. Another person not used in the crowd assembled photograph on the cover of The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. His image was deleted at the request of the EMI company.

While researching for this album I found a photograph of the crowd without The Beatles standing in front and found two other faces behind the position that George Harrison takes on the album cover. They are just visible on the album cover but have no name or number. One looks like actress Bette Davis in the part of Queen Elizabeth I, I cannot identify the other one next to her.

Answer: Fixing A Hole

"Fixing A Hole" was track 5. on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. It was written by Paul McCartney but credited to Lennon/McCartney.

In an interview in 1967 Paul McCartney said that the following lyrics from the song were about fans who hung around outside his home day and night and whose actions he found off-putting.

"See the people standing there
Who disagree and never win
And wonder why they don't get in my door"

For the first time The Beatles used another studio for recording a song on the Parlophone record label. Early in February 1967 Abbey Road studios were not available so they used the Regent Sound Studio and Guitar Shop in Denmark Street, London, for two recording sessions. Their record producer George Martin played the Harpsichord on this recording.

Answer: Bishopsgate

Written and sung by John Lennon but credited to Lennon/McCartney.

John sings:

"The celebrated Mr. K. performs his feat on Saturday, at Bishopsgate
The Henderson's will dance and sing as Mr. Kite flies through the ring don't be late
Messrs. K. and H. assure the public their production will be second to none
And of course Henry the horse dances the waltz"

While filming a video for "Strawberry Fields Forever" in Sevenoaks, Kent, UK, in 1967, John Lennon found a poster in an antique shop advertising a performance of Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal in Rochdale, Lancashire, UK, in 1843. It inspired him to write "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" although it is credited to Lennon/McCartney. The celebrated Mr. W. Kite along with Mr. J. Henderson were performing in the circus owned by Pablo Fanque.

Pablo Fanque (born William Darby in Norwich, UK, in 1796 or 1810) was the first black circus owner in the UK. He died of bronchitis in Stockport, UK, in 1871. His burial site, Woodhouse Lane cemetery, was relocated and the land is now part of the University of Leeds campus. The Leeds University Union unveiled a blue plaque commemorating Pablo Fanque's final resting place in 2010. It is unknown what happened to Henry the horse but his real name was Zanthus.

Answer: Within You Without You

This was George Harrison's only contribution to the "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" album and none of the other Beatles played on it.

This is my least favourite track on all of The Beatles albums. While writing this quiz and playing the album it is the first time I have listened to it since the '60s. Here is what Alan W. Pollack, a musicologist who is best known for having musically analysed every Beatles song released had to say about the song.

Quote, "So what about the laughing at the end? I'm aware of at least two schools of thought on the matter:

The xenophobic audience (remember there's an underlying element in the Sgt. Pepper "concept" that at least indirectly connotes a Victorian/Edwardian-era outlook of supercilious Empirialism(sic)) is letting off a little tension of this perceived confrontation with pagan elements.

The bedazzled composer, in an endearingly sincere nanosecond of acknowledgement of the apparent existential absurdity of the son-of-a-Liverpudlian bus driver espousing such otherworldly beliefs and sentiments, is letting off a bit of his own self-deprecating steam in reaction to the level of true courage expended by him in order to come out of the uneasily-anti-materialistic closet.

But, don't you think it's a combination of the two? End quote.

Alan W. Pollack holds a B.A. in Music from Brooklyn College and an M.A. and PhD from University of Pennsylvania in Music Theory and Composition. He was an instructor of music theory and composition at Yale University from 1975 to 1977.

He sounds like a clever guy but I have no idea what he is talking about and I suspect neither would George Harrison. Where do they get this stuff from? Chill out and just listen to the music.

Answer: Three

Another song written by Paul McCartney credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Paul sings:

"If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?"

The song was mooted as the B-side for "Penny Lane" or "Strawberry Fields Forever" but when those two songs were released as a double A-sided disc "When I'm Sixty-Four" was added to the "Sgt. Pepper" album. The voice of Paul McCartney (who wrote the song when he was a teenager) was speeded up because he wanted his voice to sound younger for better effect on the song.

Answer: Lovely Rita

Yet another Paul McCartney song credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Paul sings:

"Lovely Rita meter maid
May I inquire discreetly
When are you free to take some tea with me?
Rita!"

Meter Maid is an American term for a Parking Attendant but known in the UK among other things not printable on a family site as a Traffic Warden. Paul McCartney may have been inspired to write the song after being issued with a parking ticket outside Abbey Road studios by Traffic Warden Meta Davies.

Answer: No

The wax model Beatles positions are from left to right, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. The Real Beatles positions from left to right are, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

The wax Beatles and the real Beatles are standing between Sonny Liston, World Heavyweight Champion 1962-1964 and actress Marlene Dietrich, star of movies such as "The Blue Angel" (1930), "Destry Rides Again" (1939) and "Touch Of Evil" (1958).

Answer: Blackburn

"A Day In The Life" was written by Lennon/McCartney but as two separate and independent sections.

John Sings:

"I read the news today oh boy, 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall".

These are some of my favourite Beatles lyrics. In 1967 when the song was written, Blackburn, Blackpool, Liverpool and Manchester were all part of the county of Lancashire. In 1974 new boundary lines and metropolitan counties were created. Only Blackburn and Blackpool now remain part of the ceremonial county of Lancashire. Liverpool is part of the metropolitan county of Merseyside and Manchester is part of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.