When it came to naming their albums, The Beatles favoured the funny or straightforward over the obscure. Aside from the back-to-back pun work of Rubber Soul and Revolver, virtually all of the band’s album titles either feature their name or are based on a self-explanatory song title on the tracklist. All of them, that is, except for one.
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band broke the mould for album titles across rock music, confounding even those who’d come to terms with the record’s extraordinary musical innovations. Who was this mysterious band, whose members appear to be represented by the four Beatles dressed in colourful military regalia on the album’s front cover? And more to the point, who was Sgt Pepper?
The titular character sounds like something straight out of a wartime comic book, and that’s not far off from where The Beatles actually drew their inspiration. Paul McCartney based the fictional Sgt Pepper on the real-life Lieutenant General James Melvin Babington, who was a leader of the British Army during World War One. The band’s choice of attire for the cover photo is based on Babington’s own army uniform, and an actual headshot of him appears among the famous faces behind them.
Yet Babington’s appearance and military record do nothing to explain the name behind arguably The Beatles’ most celebrated LP. Babington’s backstory might have contributed to the album’s concept and visual imagery, but it doesn’t enlighten as to the identity of the more junior officer Pepper.
So, where did the name come from?
As with many historic works of art that break new ground, the idea for Sgt Pepper arose as a complete accident. It was during a mundane conversation McCartney was having with Beatles roadie Mal Evans that the name came about. The two were sitting next to each other on the plane journey back from the group’s last ever tour of the United States in August 1966, enjoying the best lunch that transatlantic air travel had to offer.
However, the meal had too little seasoning for Evans’ taste. According to McCartney’s version of the story on Howard Stern’s radio show in 2020, Evans told him, “Pass the salt and pepper”. Unable to hear him over the sound of the plane’s jet engines, McCartney asked him to repeat what he’d said. “Salt and pepper,” Evans replied more loudly.
“And I thought he said ‘Sgt Pepper’,” McCartney recalled. Even after Evans clarified that he definitely wasn’t asking for an as-yet unborn fictional character to be sprinkled onto his food, the name stuck with McCartney. “So that was the idea planted.”
Excited by where this so-called sergeant might lead his imagination, the Beatle began to dream up a personal story to fit the name. Before long, he’d arrived at the concept of an old-fashioned marching band whose members could serve as alter egos for each of the Fab Four.
For the first time, the group would build an entire album out of a narrative through-line, elevating rock music to the level of supposedly higher art forms such as opera. And all because Mal Evans felt his lunch lacked flavour. Thank goodness for plane food.
