Collect this irreplaceable Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band CD insert, hand-signed by the creator of the Grammy Award-winning album cover art, Peter Blake!
The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band featured an internationally famous, iconic cover created by the design team of Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, for which they were awarded the 1967 Grammy Award for Best Album Cover. The album cover art portrayed the Beatles surrounded by images of dozens of personages spanning history and culture. The image was made by posing the Beatles in front of life-sized, black-and-white photographs pasted onto hardboard and hand tinted.
Peter Blake describes that the intention when creating the cover for the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club album was to show a new band surrounded by fans after a performance:
“I suggested that they had just played a concert in the park. They were posing for a photograph and the crowd behind them was a crowd of fans who had been at the concert. Having decided on this, then, by making cut-outs, the fans could be anybody, dead or alive, real or fictitious. If we wanted Hansel and Gretel, I could paint them and they could be photographed and blown up. I asked the four Beatles for a list and I did one myself. Robert Fraser did a list and I can't remember whether Brian Epstein did one or not. The way that worked out was fascinating. John gave me a list and so did Paul. George suggested only Indian gurus, about six of them, and Ringo said, "Whatever the others say is fine by me" and didn’t suggest anyone. It's an insight into their characters. All kinds of people were suggested. Hitler was there; he is actually in the set-up, but he is covered by the Beatles themselves as we felt he was too controversial. The same applied to Jesus. There were only two of their contemporaries on the cover. Bob Dylan was suggested by John and I put on Dion because he is a great favourite of mine.”
Peter Blake's signature on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band CD insert has been examined and authenticated by PSA/DNA Authentication Services, and the item has been placed in a protective archival sleeve, encased within a clear PSA/DNA authentication case. The case is inclusive of certification information, and serves to authenticate Peter Blake's signature.
The figures on the album cover are:
Sri Yukteswar Giri (Hindu guru), Aleister Crowley (occultist), Mae West (actress), Lenny Bruce (comedian), Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer), W. C. Fields (comedian/actor), Carl Jung (psychiatrist), Edgar Allan Poe (writer), Fred Astaire (actor/dancer), Richard Merkin (artist), The Vargas Girl (by artist Alberto Vargas), Leo Gorcey (image was removed from cover, but a space remains), Huntz Hall (actor), Simon Rodia (designer and builder of the Watts Towers), Bob Dylan (singer/songwriter), Aubrey Beardsley (illustrator), Sir Robert Peel (19th century British Prime Minister), Aldous Huxley (writer), Dylan Thomas (poet), Terry Southern (writer), Dion DiMucci (singer/songwriter), Tony Curtis (actor), Wallace Berman (artist), Tommy Handley (comedian), Marilyn Monroe (actress), William S. Burroughs (writer), Sri Mahavatar Babaji (Hindu guru), Stan Laurel (actor/comedian), Richard Lindner (artist), Oliver Hardy (actor/comedian), Karl Marx (political philosopher), H. G. Wells (writer), Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (Hindu guru), James Joyce (Irish poet and novelist) – barely visible below Bob Dylan, Anonymous (hairdresser's wax dummy), Stuart Sutcliffe (artist/former Beatle), Anonymous (hairdresser's wax dummy), Max Miller (comedian), A "Petty Girl" (by artist George Petty), Marlon Brando (actor), Tom Mix (actor), Oscar Wilde (writer), Tyrone Power (actor), Larry Bell (artist), David Livingstone (missionary/explorer), Johnny Weissmuller (Olympic swimmer/Tarzan actor), Stephen Crane (writer) – barely visible between Issy Bonn's head and raised arm, Issy Bonn (comedian), George Bernard Shaw (playwright), H. C. Westermann (sculptor), Albert Stubbins (English footballer), Sri Lahiri Mahasaya (guru), Lewis Carroll (writer), T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia”), Wax model of Sonny Liston (boxer), A "Petty Girl" (by George Petty), Wax model of George Harrison, Wax model of John Lennon, Shirley Temple (actress) – barely visible behind the wax models of John and Ringo, first of three appearances on the cover, Wax model of Ringo Starr, Wax model of Paul McCartney, Albert Einstein (physicist) – largely obscured, John Lennon holding a French horn, Ringo Starr holding a trumpet, Paul McCartney holding a cor anglais, George Harrison holding a piccolo, Bette Davis (actress) – hair barely visible on top of George's shoulder, Bobby Breen (singer), Marlene Dietrich (actress/singer), Mahatma Gandhi was planned for this position, but was deleted prior to publication, An American legionnaire, Wax model of Diana Dors (actress), and Shirley Temple (actress– second appearance on the cover)
Artist Bio:
An important figure in the pop art movement, some of Blake’s other best-known works include two album covers for The Who, the cover of the Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", the Live Aid concert poster, and the cover for Eric Clapton’s 2016 studio album "I Still Do".
Blake became a Royal Academician in 1981. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1983 Birthday Honours and Knight Bachelor in the 2002 Birthday Honours for his services to art. Blake was knighted by Prince Charles in an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Retrospectives of Blake's work were held at the Tate in 1983 and Tate Liverpool in 2008. In 2005, the Sir Peter Blake Music Art Gallery, located in the School of Music at the University of Leeds, was opened. The permanent exhibition features 20 examples of Blake's album sleeve art, including the only public showing of a signed print of his Sgt. Pepper's artwork.
In 2011, Blake was awarded an honorary DMus from the University of Leeds, and marked by the public unveiling of his artwork for the Boogie For Stu album. In 2011, Blake was awarded an honorary degree for Doctor of Art from Nottingham Trent University. In 2014 he was made an honorary academician at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol.