Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a Beatles album released in 1967. It was a major turning point not only for the group, but for all of popular music. The album is considered to be the first-ever concept album. It helped introduce both psychedelic music and Indian music to pop music listeners.

"Rolling Stone" magazine listed "Sgt. Pepper's" as the greatest album of all time in their 2003 list of the 500 greatest songs. Rolling Stone: Sgt. Pepper (November 1, 2003), saying this: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most important rock & roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology by the greatest rock & roll group of all time. From the title song's regal blasts of brass and fuzz guitar to the orchestral seizure and long, dying piano chord at the end of 'A Day in the Life,' the thirteen tracks on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band are the pinnacle of the Beatles' eight years as recording artists. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were never more fearless and unified in their pursuit of magic and transcendence."

Many changes were being made in the Beatles' career in the time leading up to the creation and release of Sgt. Pepper's. The most significant change was that they had stopped touring. Their song were beginning to feature more and more overdubs, making them impossible to play live. The last album from which tracks were played live was Rubber SoulManiac World: Maniac World, but the group continued touring even after the release of Revolver, a year after Rubber Soul. Since they had stopped touring, they felt freer to use as many overdubs as they needed, which would lead to the unique sound of Sgt. Pepper's.
The original concept behind the album was to make it sound live, but that idea was dropped by every member of the group soon into production. Knowing that they wouldn't need to play the songs from Sgt. Pepper's live, the songs on the album feature many session musicians. Harrison's composition "Within You Without You" features a complete Indian orchestra, McCartney's composition "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" features a horn section, and Lennon's song "A Day in the Life" features a forty piece orchestra.

Back row: Sri Yukteswar Giri, Aleister Crowley, Mae West, Lenny Bruce, Karlheinz Stockhausen, W. C. Fields, Carl Gustav Jung, Edgar Allen Poe, Fred Astaire, Richard Merkin, The Vargas Girl, Huntz Hall, Simon Rodia, Bob Dylan.
Second from the back: Aubrey Beardsley, Sir Robert Peel, Aldous Huxley, Dylan Thomas, Terry Southern, Dion, Tony Curtis, Wallace Berman, Tommy Handley, Marilyn Monroe, William S. Burroughs, Sri Mahavatar Babaji, Stan Laurel, Richard Lindner, Oliver Hardy, Karl Marx, H. G. Wells, Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, Sigmund Freud, wax dummy.
Third from the back: Stu Sutcliffe, wax dummy, Max Miller, Petty Girl, Marlon Brando, Tom Mix, Oscar Wilde, Tyrone Power, Larry Bell, David Livingstone, Johnny Weissmuller, Stephen Crane, Issy Bonn, George Bernard Shaw, H. C. Westermann, Albert Stubbins, Sri Lahiri Mahasaya, Lewis Carroll, T. E. Lawrence.
Front row: Sonny Liston (wax), Petty Girl, George Harrison (wax), John Lennon (wax), Shirley Temple, Ringo Starr (wax), Paul McCartney (wax), Albert Einstein, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Bobby Breen, Marlene Dietrich, Diana Dors, Shirley Temple (again).Oxford: Interactive Sgt Pepper Cover (June 1, 2007)

The cover of "Sgt. Pepper's" helped spur many rumors claiming that Paul McCartney had died and had been replaced by a look-alike named "Billy Shears" - who is introduced to the listener at the beginning of "With A Little Help from my Friends." Here are some of the rumors:

• Everyone on the album cover appears to be standing in front of a fresh grave.
  
• A left-handed bass made of flowers sits beside the supposed grave. McCartney was the bass player. Some people believe that, if you look closely, the flowers appear to spell out "PAUL".
  
• A statue of the Hindu god Shiva - known as "The Destroyer" - appears to be pointing at McCartney.
  
• A hand appears above McCartney's head, which in many cultures symbolizes death.
  

The story of McCartney's supposed death can be chronicled in the lyrics of some of the songs from the album. Apparently he was driving down a road at 5:00 A. M. ("She's Leaving Home") and was distracted by an attractive woman on the side of the road ("Lovely Rita"). He continued driving after a street-light had turned red and he was struck by an oncoming vehicle ("A Day in the Life").Paul is Dead: Paul is Dead
It should be noted that the most people do not believe that Paul was actually killed, but a small group of people do maintain that McCartney was replaced by William Campbell (a. k. a. Billy Shears) in 1966 and everything done by who we know as Paul McCartney has actually been the work of an impostor.