The Beatles Reportedly Correcting ‘A Truly Terrible Mistake’ With Expanded ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Reissue
On June 1, 2017, the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band will celebrate its 50th anniversary. While there has been no official word on what they have in store, rumors are spreading that they are planning a reissue that puts the two songs that kicked off that era of their career on the album.
Earlier today, the Beatles and George Harrison uploaded a four-color image to their Twitter feeds, and the Beatles also added it to their Facebook page. We noticed that both the color scheme and the placement corresponded directly with the outfits the four Beatles are wearing on the record's iconic cover.
Further inspection turned up in the Times, which reported that a reissue was in the works. The piece cites anonymous sources within the Beatles' Apple Corps organization as saying the reissue will place "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" somewhere on the record.
Beatles producer George Martin was once quoted as saying that the decision to put out the two songs as a double A-sided single in February of 1967 -- four months before the release of Sgt. Pepper -- instead of placing them on the album itself was “a truly terrible mistake”.
“Many Beatles fans have added the two tracks to their own Sgt Pepper playlist, which allows you to hear the album as it so nearly ended up being," Dan Cairns, rock critic of the Sunday Times, said. "So it’s nice to hear that Apple are finally catching up.”
The Times noted that the reissue has the full cooperation and participation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.
A Who's Who on the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' Cover