On Sept. 27, 1992, cable TV's the Disney Channel did something that certainly wasn't Mickey Mouse. It aired a show about the Beatles called "The Making of Sgt. Pepper."
It was a surprise move for a channel basically known for young people's programming. But for Beatle fans, it was incredible. They got the real story of the album's creation directly from the three surviving Beatles and Sir George Martin, plus comments from friends like Brian Wilson, Sir Peter Blake and Phil Collins.
Even better, the show featured an amazing highlight with Sir George playing around with the control knobs on songs like "Within You, Without You," "Good Morning, Good Morning" and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" and revealing special effects and isolated vocals. An early broadcast even had a stereo soundtrack.
The most riveting moment was Sir George revealing John Lennon's count-in on the rehearsal take of "A Day in the Life" of "sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy." "Even in this early take, he has a voice that sends shivers down the spine," Martin says.
The reaction to the show was through the roof -- fans, especially collectors, loved it and wanted more. It wasn't until 1995 that the Beatles went through their whole history with "The Beatles Anthology," complete with outtakes from all parts of their career.
There's no doubt, though, that the "Pepper" TV show showed the world was ready for it. At the conclusion of the show, Paul McCartney talks about the press before "Pepper" was released complaining that the group showed little signs of creativity and had dried up. "And I was just sitting there saying, 'You just wait,'" he said.
Maybe, in a very subtle way, it was a clue about the "Anthology," even if no one knew it at the time.
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Comments
It also paved the way for the show "Classic Albums" too.
Speaking of which, when will it come out on Classic Albums BluRay and DVD?
Sir George also took the show on the road, doing the presentation live. I attended in NJ and it was mind-blowing !
The part that impressed me the most was George Harrison's mentioning of how recordings are really period pieces "it's how the valves (tubes) sounded on that day" etc. Putting sound recordings in the same place as works of art. A very honest way of looking at recorded sound that I never thought about until hearing it from George Harrison in this TV special.
Thanks for reminding me about this show I need to transfer it from S-VHS to DVD for safe keepings.
This is so true, George really nailed it.
I absolutely loved that show and wish I had kept it on tape. Unfortunately, I erased it.
And what's a real shame about that is that something was changed in the soundtrack for the parts of it that are shown now.
I speak of the section where George Martin is playing the early take of "A Day In the Life" where John counts in with "Sugar Plum Fairy..." The vocal, as Sir George says, is, "haunting." But the vocal we hear now is not the early take, but rather the final album take dubbed in. Why?
I remember the "It Was Twenty Years Ago Today" special on Pepper that came out in '87...did they reuse footage from that in this show?
I saw this for the very first time online about a year ago and was amazed that I had never seen (or even heard) of it until that time. As avid of a Beatles fan as I am, I just couldn't believe that I had never heard of it. And yes I was amazed at how much it was like the Anthology, almost seems like it was practice or something. And a lot of the things said in that are actually in the Anthology.
I've watched the entire thing on Youtube, it might still be there.
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