It was 45 years ago today...

[vienna]

...the group was big enough to call their own shots.

You would think so, but the Sgt. Pepper album was the last straw for the Beatles who then took it upon themselves to launch Apple Records becuase of all the hassles they had making Sgt. Pepper. There was argument and interference from the labels over content, the album cover, and musical direction. The Beatles won the battle over not releasing any of the album cuts as singles, but they were stymied at almost all the other points. Remember, back then a record label almost "owned" their artists. If the Beatles weren't the money-making machine they were at the time, the album may never have seen the light of day in the form it was released. In the US, previous Beatles albums were routinely edited and songs were cut by Capitol Record without regard to the wishes of the Beatles. One good thing did come out of the labels' interference: the story goes the Beatless (particularly John) wanted to release the album in a rather non-traditional packaging of just a brown paper sleeve; they lost the battle, so the Beatles went the other way and made a very elaborate cover. The inclusion of the lyrics being printed on the back of the cover did not go well with the labels (who had an interest in the sale of sheet music and "lyric" magazines like "Song Hits"), but to the rest of us, this was a graet treat...

"When I'm 64"...? Just a coulpe of more years for me...

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