So much is said about The Beatles legendary 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band but I think too much of what is said is about it’s historical significance and the like. Not enough attention is paid to the music itself. And that’s why with this article I’m focusing entirely on the music, one song at a time.

01. “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” – The album starts off with this brilliant Paul McCartney rocker (he wrote it, sang lead, and even played the lead guitar part) which really sets the mood (and the “concept”) for the entire album. I love how the song intersperses pretty heavy rock with the somewhat ridiculous horn sections. The imagination displayed in this music is really overwhelming. I can imagine people who have grown up listening to the drab obvious music of “rock bands” like Nickelback being very confused by what’s going on in this music as they’ve never really been introduced to imagination or creativity in music before. But if they can get over that initial confusion, I think they will begin to understand the possibilities of what music can be.

02. “With a Little Help from my Friends” – The perfect song for Ringo Starr to sing. John Lennon & Paul McCartney wrote this song together specifically for Ringo to sing which I think makes the great lyrics all that much greater (think of them in that context.)

03. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” – This psychedelic journey through the mind of John Lennon remains one of the band’s most famous songs. I love how it goes from the visions of the verse to the exciting sing along of the chorus.

04. “Getting Better” – The “it couldn’t get much worse” lyric that Lennon added to this McCartney song is such a great example of the way that Lennon and McCartney made each others songs better even when they weren’t righting them “eyeball to eyeball” like in the early days.

05. “Fixing a Hole” – I love this kind of more subtle psychedelia. And yes, this is a very psychedelic song. And how about those lyrics? Anyone who doesn’t think McCartney could write lyrics should pay close attention to these.

06. “She’s Leaving Home” – More great lyrics from Paul McCartney. What a gorgeous song too. Paul was definitely at the top of his game in 1967.

07. “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” – How brilliant is it that these lyrics were taken entirely from an 1800s circus poster that Lennon came across? I believe a big part of real genius is being able to be inspired by things that most people wouldn’t notice. This is a good example of that.

08. “Within You Without You” – This is a song that gets a lot of hate by a lot of people and that makes me sad. It makes me feel like they don’t really “get it.” This song is an essential part of what makes this album so brilliant.

09. “When I’m 64″ – Check out this song sequencing. We went from a 1800s circus to India to do some meditating and now we’re enjoying ourselves this very tongue in cheek music hall number. So many differnet styles of music are explored on this album, and they are all done brilliantly.

10. “Lovely Rita” – In an album filled with stand-out tracks, this one is probably somewhat forgettable in comparison. Of course it’s still a great song.

11. “Good Morning Good Morning” – There’s some interesting time changes in this one. I also love the Jimi Hendrix style guitar leads by Paul McCartney.

12. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” – This song, of course, ties together the whole album by linking us back to the first song. It gives the impression that everything we’ve been hearing (even though it’s all of these wildly different styles) has been a part of one big performance by this fictional band.

13. “A Day in the Life” – In my opinion this is the best song ever written. An absolutely epic way to end the album.

The Beatles In Mono Box Set includes the original mono mix of Sgt. Pepper’s. The Beatles In Stereo includes all of The Beatles albums in remastered stereo.