A half-century ago, one album shook the music world

Fifty years ago, today, the Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” to many critics, the best album ever.

Whatever that judgment, the album had a large impact on folks like me.

I was 14 years old when the first Beatles album, “Meet the Beatles,” arrived in the U.S. Like so many young teens, I was enthralled and played the album smooth. But like the Beatles themselves, I was put off by the teeny-bopper girls who screamed to stupor at the band’s U.S. performances.

Is this music serious? Does it really matter?

At age 16, I moved to Kentucky and became involved (as a roadie, not a player) with a series of regional bands that focused on soul, rhythm and blues, and roots music. We followed Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Don Covay, Solomon Burke and Wilson Pickett. These artists were “authentic,” trying to “say something,” indifferent to the missing adulation of vast audiences.

But there was a tension then. Gregg and Duane Allman were living in Daytona Beach, Florida, as the Beatles emerged, forming bands. As Gregg later recalled, you either played surfer music or soul music. They chose the latter, uncharacteristic of white Southern boys. The Kentucky high school girl I wanted preferred “Surfer Girl” by the Beach Boys. I preferred Little Anthony’s “Going Out of My Head.” We never happened.

Then it was 1966. The Beatles had stopped touring, uncomfortable with the pace, the demands, and the screaming. They sheltered in a recording studio for five months — unheard of at the time — and recorded Pepper’s.

It changed everything. Bands I was involved with, no longer disdainful, bowed down. We were on the road when it came out. We found a music shop, crowded into a listening booth, stayed there for an hour. The band was covering one or more songs at the next gig.

Others changed. The Beach Boys released “Pet Sounds.” The Rolling Stones released “Aftermath.” The Byrds released “Eight Miles High.”

And, Pepper’s changed me. It’s not that I liked the album as much as others. But, I became open to the idea that popular music was changing. Genres no longer mattered as they did. All of us could revel in the new, experimental, eclectic musical forms.

If the Beatles could change, and remain #1, all of popular music could do so, too. No more touring. Just the albums. No more screaming.

And, 50 years along, it’s what we’ve got – lots of musical change. We are richer for it, and let us remember on this anniversary of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” where a chief impulse began. Here’s to John, George, Ringo and Paul – and producer George Martin.

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 4:19 PM with the headline "A half-century ago, one album shook the music world."