Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Lost Discography

Yes, 50 years ago, the great "It was Twenty Years Ago...": Live in London was released, but what about the other Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band albums, on which all those great songs were originally released?

We did some digging, and here's the complete list:

1) The eponymous debut album:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1947) with the band's first hits (and perennial fan favorites):
"Good Morning" (6 weeks on the charts, reaching #2)
"When I'm Sixty-Four" (10 weeks, reaching #1)

The Daily Mail raved, "Wake up, World, post-war Britain is singing the future now!"

2) SPLHCB II (1948)
The sophomore slump personified. No one listened; no one cared.

But the band rebounds (and knows it)!

3) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is Getting Better (1950)
"Getting Better" (8 weeks on the charts, reaching #3)

4) Nine Wholes (1951)
"Fixing a Hole" (5 weeks on the charts, reaching #5)

5) Friends, Lovers, Countrymen... (1954)
Their greatest album, according to conventional wisdom.
"With a Little Help from My Friends" (25 weeks on the charts, reaching #1)
"Lovely Rita" (15 weeks, reaching #1)
"She's Leaving Home" (10 weeks, reaching #5)

On heels of widely successful Friends, Lovers, Countryman... European Tour, frontman (and titular Sergeant) Billy Shears leaves to pursue a film career in the US. After a series of suits and countersuits, the band retains name, undergoes significant changes in personnel, and embarks on various experiments in their sound.

6. Passage to India (1958), also known as "That sitar album."
"Within You, Without You," (2 weeks on the charts, reaching #97)

7. One Word: Plasticene (1961)***
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (4 weeks on the charts, reaching #52)

Billy Shears reunites with the original lineup for:

8. Home Again (1965)
"For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (10 weeks on the charts, reaching #7)

The success of the reunion album sparks a new interest and the famous live album:

9. "It was Twenty Years Ago...": Live in London (1967)

What should have been not just a retrospective but a new beginning ends tragically with Billy's mysterious disappearance in a plane over the English Channel.  The band would never reunite.



***American screenwriter Buck Henry, a huge fan of the band since Friend, Lovers, Countrymen..., would make a punning allusion (which most American filmgoers missed) to this album in Mike Nichols' 1967 The Graduate.