ABSTRACT
The song that inaugurated the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions was a song John Lennon had written during his stay in Spain about a Liverpool Salvation army house named Strawberry Fields. Destined originally to be on Pepper, it set the agenda for the whole album. By 1 February 1967, the idea of a fictitious band whose name would be inspired by the Californian psychedelic scene had finally developed into a song: 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. If 'Strawberry Fields Forever' set the agenda for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band recording sessions, 'All You Need Is Love' does say everything about where the Beatles were in terms of popularity as the 'Summer of Love' was blossoming. The Beatles' participation in Our World says everything about the position they had achieved in popular music and British culture a few weeks after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had come out.
