by the Beatles (1967)
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The song “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” opens the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and it does, too, when properly understood, open up the rest of the album to a better understanding of its quality. The album, after all, is widely regarded as an early example — if not the premier example — of a concept album, but that recognition often misses the precise nature of the concept in this case. The album, as this title track makes clear, is supposed to represent a live performance of a fictional band, but it also more subtly makes clear that the performance in question is that of a variety show, not just a band on stage with their instruments. This feature of the album is particularly noticeable in songs such as “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” and “Within You Without You,” which outright indicate the visual element of the show that we are hearing, but the entire album, when properly considered, shows this fact that what we are hearing is supposed to be the kind of circus-infused, for-the-whole-family variety show that could be taped and aired on television in the early 1960s.