Paul McCartney Described Why The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" Cover Doesn't Include Elvis Presley

Paul McCartney Described Why The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" Cover Doesn't Include Elvis Presley

From the start, it was a revolutionary and influential work, almost changing the pop and rock music landscapes overnight. It was a critical hit as well as a popular one, rocketing to the top of the charts all over the world when it was released at the start of June 1967.

Still, for all of the amazing and innovative music found inside Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, its outside is just as significant. The album's iconic and often imitated cover image has been as much an integral part of pop culture as "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". More than 50 characters populate the colorful cover – from recognizable ones, like the Beatles themselves in two different guises, to a bunch of old black-and-white images of faces that appear from another time altogether.

But, Why The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" Cover Doesn't Include Elvis Presley?
Paul McCartney gave an explanation for this. It's interesting to note that the album cover features a few of the "Hound Dog" singer's peers.

The History Channel claims that Paul provided an explanation for his noticeable absence. Paul remarked, "Elvis was too significant and too high above the rest even to mention." He wasn't just a pop performer, though. He was King Elvis.


Is Paul suggesting that Elvis was more important to him than Dylan and Dion? The choice is up to the fans.

Two years before to Sgt. Pepper's release, in 1965, Elvis first laid eyes on The Beatles. In a 2018 interview, Paul talked about the incident with Wired. "Meeting Elvis was truly like a dream," he remarked. Since we were adolescent, we had fantasies about him, and now he was actually here. Thus, it was fantastic. It was very beautiful.


When Elvis showed off his new, expensive remote control, Paul was taken aback. "Apart from actually meeting him, I think the most amazing thing was that, since they came out that year, he had the first remote television channel changer that we'd ever seen," Paul said. "He was only pointing it at the TV when we saw that the stations were shifting. Whoa! He really is the all-powerful God. He doesn't even need to get near the television to change the channels! Thus, that greatly impressed us.

Naturally, The Beatles were under no obligation to feature Elvis or any other person on that record cover. But looking back, Elvis' omission seems like a lost chance. Honoring his significance in the history of rock 'n' roll would have been achieved by included him on the album with living icons and his peers.

Who knows how Elvis' career may have been affected by such a shout-out? With the release of the record in 1967, The Beatles had the opportunity to return Elvis to the forefront of popular culture prior to the '68 Comeback Special. The King of Rock 'n' Roll never recorded any Sgt. Pepper tracks, but he did cover a few Beatles songs, including "Get Back" and "Hey Jude." If he had been on the album, he most likely would have tried his hand at a Sgt. Pepper song.


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