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One Rubber Soul Abbey Road
With The Beatles A Hard Day's Night Help!
Let It Be Magical Mystery Tour Sgt. Pepper's
Please Please Me White Album Revolver
 

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Sgt. Pepper Cover

I have found the story of the cover and also worked on putting up a list of names of who is on the cover with a code so you can see who is where. If you own this album and would like to frame the cover, please check out the frames page.

The album cover
Code for Names

CODE FOR PEOPLE ON COVER:
(if the above images are too small, please click on them to be sent to a larger version)

1 -Sri Yukteswar Giri (guru) 31 - Karl Marx (philosopher/ socialist) 61 -Albert Einstein (physicist)
2 -Aleistar Crowley 32 -H.G. Wells (writer) 62 -John Lennon holding a French Horn
3 -Mae West (actress) 33 -Sri Parahamansa Yogananda (guru) 63 -Ringo Starr holding a trumpet
4 -Lenny Bruce (comic) 34 -wax hairdresser's dummy 64 -Paul McCartney holding a cor anglais
5 -Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer) 35 -Stuart Sutcliff (former Beatle) 65 -George Harrison holding a flute
6 -W.C. Fields (comic) 36 -wax hairdresser's dummy 66 -Bobby Breen (singer)
7 -Carl Gustav Jung (psychologist) 37 -Max Miller (comic) 67 -Merlene Dietrich (actress)
8 -Edgar Allen Poe (writer) 38 -The Petty Girl (by artist George Petty) #68 -Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi (Indian leader)#
9 -Fred Astaire (actor) 39 -Marlon Brando (actor) 69 -Legionnaire from Order of the Buffalos
10 -Richard Merkin (artist) 40 -Tom Mix (actor) 70 -Diana Dors (actress)
11 -The Varga Girl (by artist Alberto Vargas) 41 -Oscar Wilde (writer) 71 -Shirley Temple (shil actress)
*12 -Leo Gorcey (actor)* 42 -Tyrone Power (actor) 72 -Cloth grandmother figure by Jann Haworth
13 -Huntz Hall (actor) 43 -Larry Bell (artist) 73 -Cloth figure of Shirley Temple by Haworth
14 -Simon Rodia (creator of Watts Towers) 44 -Dr. David Livingstone (missionary) 74 -Mexican candlestick
15 -Bob Dylan (musician) 45 -Johnny Weissmuller (swimmer/actor) 75 -Television Set
16 -Aubrey Beardsley (illustrator) 46 -Stephen Crane (writer) 76 -Stone figure of a girl
17 -Sir Robert Peel (politician) 47 -Issy Bonn (comic) 77 -Stone figure
18 -Aldous Huxley (writer) 48 -George Bernard Shaw (writer) 78 -Statue from John Lennon's house
19 -Dylan Thomas (poet) 49 -H.C. Westermann (sculptor) 79 -Trophy
20 - Terry Southern (writer) 50 -Albert Stubbins (soccer player) 80 -Four armed Indian doll
21 -Dion di Mucci (singer) 51 -Sri Lahiri Mahasaya (guru) 81 -Drum-skin designed by Joe Ephgrave
22 -Tony Curtis (actor) 52 -Lewis Carroll (writer) 82 -Hookah (water tobacco pipe)
23 -Wallace Berman (artist) 53 -T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) 83 -Velvet Snake
24 -Tommy Handley (comic) 54 -Sonny Liston (boxer) 84 -Japanese Stone Figure
25 -Marilyn Monroe (actress) 55 -The Petty Girl 85 -Stone Figure of Snow White
26 -William Burroughs (writer) 56 -Wax model of George Harrison 86 -Garden gnome
27 -Sri Mahavatara Babaji (guru) 57 -Wax model of John Lennon 87 -Tuba
28 -Stan Laurel (comic) 58 -Shirley Temple (child actress)  
29 -Richard Lindner (artist) 59 -Wax model of Ringo Starr  
30 -Oliver Hardy (comic) 60 -Wax model of Paul McCartney  

* painted out because a fee was requested
# painted out at the request of EMI

 

The Story Behind the Cover
(as told by Peter Blake)
The Beatles already had a cover designed by a Dutch group called the Fool, but my gallery dealer, Robert Fraser, said to Paul, "Why don't you use a 'fine artist', a professional, to do the cover instead?" Paul rather liked the idea and I was asked to do it. The concept of the album had already evolved: it would be as though the Beatles were another band, performing a concert, perhaps in a park. I then thought that we could have a crowd standing behind them, and this developed into the collage idea.
I asked them to make lists of people they'd most like to have in the audience at this imaginary concert. John's was interesting because it included Jesus and Ghandi and, more cynically, Hitler. But this was just a few months after the US furor about his 'Jesus' statement, so they were all left out. George's list was all gurus. Ringo said, "Whatever the others say is fine by me", because he didn't really want to be bothered. Robert Fraser and I also made lists. We then got all the photographs together and had life-size cut-outs made onto hardboard.
EMI realized that because many of the people we were depicting were still alive, we might be sued for not seeking their permission. So the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, who was very wary of all the complications in the first place, had his assistant write to everyone. Mae West replied, "No, I won't be in it. What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" So the Beatles wrote her a personal letter and she changed her mind.
Robert Fraser was a business partner of Micheal Cooper, an excellent photographer, so he was commissioned to do the shoot. I worked in his studio for a fortnight constructing the collage, fixing the top row to the back wall and putting the next about six inches in front and so on, so that we got a tiered effect. Then we put in the palm tree and the other little objects. I wanted to have the waxworks of the Beatles because I thought they might be looking at Sgt. Pepper's band too. The boy who delivered the floral display asked if he could contribute by making a guitar out of hyacinths, and the little girl wearing the 'Welcome the Rolling Stones, Good Guys' sweatshirt was a cloth figure of Shirley Temple, the shirt coming from Michael Cooper's young son Adam. The Beatles arrived during the evening of March 30. We had a drink, they got dressed and we did the session. It took about three hours in all, including the shots for the center fold and back cover. I'm not sure how much it all cost. One reads exaggerated figures. I think Robert Fraser was paid 1500 pounds by EMI, and I got about 200 pounds. People say to me, "You must have made a lot of money on it" but I didn't because Robert signed away the copyright. But it has never mattered too much because it was such a wonderful thing to have done.
© Colin Hawkes