The 5 Best Songs From The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’
The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is often cited as one of the best albums of all time. Despite this, some songs from the album are better than others. One of the album’s songs begins after a fake ending.
5. ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’
Sgt. Pepper is often cited as a psychedelic album, but it has some great pop songs on it. The best of these songs is “With a Little Help From My Friends.” Love is a constant topic in pop music, but songs about friendship are less common. “With a Little Help From My Friends” is one of the greatest tunes about friendship ever, alongside Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend.”
According to the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul designed the song for Ringo Starr. He’s a perfect fit for the material. His vocal limitations only make the track more endearing.
4. ‘Good Morning Good Morning’
“Good Morning Good Morning” is also interesting because it’s about a relatable subject that’s rarely tackled in music: feeling overwhelmed. There is a lot of hyperbole in the track, with The Beatles using the sounds of numerous animals to create audio chaos. John’s sense of humor and the groove make “Good Morning Good Morning” a lot of fun even if its lyrics revealed an unpleasant state of mind. While the Fab Four weren’t generally a hard-rock band, some of the heavy riffs here are great.
3. ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite’
Circuses can be cheap, gross, and exploitative. In “Being or the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” The Beatles make going to a circus sound like going to Oz or Wonderland. Nearly 60 years later, this track still has one of the best beat drops in the history of music.
According to a 1980 interview from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John said he took the song’s lyrics from a Victorian poster. Hopeful, that Victorian circus was as wonderful as the one described in the song.
2. ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’
So much has been said about “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and its dubious connection to LSD that it threatens to overshadow the song itself. At the end of the day, the tune’s supposed connection to drugs doesn’t matter. In the track, The Beatles created a fantasy world and brought it to life. That’s no small feat.
The song is probably too strange to cover, but it still inspired unconventional renditions by Elton John, William Shatner, and Miley Cyrus. All of those covers are interesting but none compare to the original.
1. ‘A Day in the Life’
The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band appears to end with the reprise of the title track, where the band appears to say good night to the listener. Then, “A Day in the Life” starts up.
At first, it’s low-key. The lyrics are a little ominous. Then that first beat drop hits. I can only imagine how the tune impacted people back in 1967. “A Day in the Life” stands as The Beatles’ crowning achievement and possibly the crowning achievement of progressive rock.
