Rare Behind the Scenes Photos of The Beatles During Their Photo Shoot for Sgt. Pepper's Album Cover in 1967

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the Beatles. Released on 1 June 1967, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, spending 22 weeks at the top of the albums chart in the United Kingdom and 15 weeks at number one in the United States.

Sgt. Pepper's Grammy Award-winning album cover was designed by the pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth from an ink drawing by McCartney. It was art-directed by Robert Fraser and photographed by Michael Cooper.

"We all just chose oddball things from everywhere and put them together. We all chose our own colours and our own materials: 'You can't have that, he's having it..." - Paul

The front of the LP included a colorful collage featuring the Beatles in costume as the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, standing with a group of life-sized cardboard cut-outs of famous people. The heavy mostaches worn by the group reflected the growing influence of hippie style trends, while their clothing "spoofed the vogue in Britain for military fashions", writes the Beatles biographer Jonathan Gould.

The centre of the cover depicts the Beatles standing behind a drum skin, on which the fairground artist Joe Ephgrave painted the words of the album's title. In front of the drum skin is an arrangement of flowers that spell out "Beatles". The group were dressed in satin day-glo-colored military-style uniforms that were manufactured by the theatrical costumer M. Berman Ltd. in London.

The album's lyrics were printed in full on the back cover, the first time this had been done on a rock LP.

Diana Dors

The boy in this photograph is Adam Cooper, the son of Michael Cooper - the album cover photographer

Preparing to shoot the "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover

Inkpots

George, As A Member Of The Lonely Hearts Club Band

Figures And Figure Heads

Getting The Shot Ready

John, Ringo and Mal Evans

Arranging

Arranging

The Final Cover Sleeve

The Beatles And The Lonely Hearts Club Band

(via thebeatles.com)