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Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band - Mono
Released: 1st June, 1967.

"Sgt Pepper's" is the album that is the most well known of all the Beatles LP's and continues to sell well today, so far racking up 30 million copies sold worldwide. This album divides opinion on whether it should be heard in mono or stereo. The Beatles themselves were involved in the mono mix whereas the stereo was done by other mixing engineers and George Martin later on. Although to fully appreciate the cutting edge effects and full sonic possibilities in this album the stereo version is probably more desirable.

If you have a label or font variation - no matter how small - that we haven't documented here, please contact us!

Credits:
Labels 1B side 2, 2 and 3A courtesy of forum member Paul

Mono 1st Label, Variation A

The first press label was in use for quite some time from 1967 until 1969. It featured the familiar yellow and black labels with SIUK and 'The Gramophone Co.' rimtext.


Side 1	.....	Side 2

Mono 1st Label, Variation B

At some point (believed to be during 1968) when label printing plates were changed as they wore out, it appears one set of plates were mistakenly altered and the song A Day In The Life on the side 2 label was omitted from the tracklist! A major mistake such as this was obviously soon rectified so very few copies are out there and those which turn up sell for large sums.

This label should technically be classed as a mislabeling or an error press and put in the relevant Gallery section of the website, but it is commonly referred to erroneously as a 2nd pressing label so we insert it here to hopefully try and point out its chronology a bit better.


Side 1	.....	Side 2

Mono 2nd Label

In mid '69 the laws that required EMI to add the 'Sold in UK' statement to their labels was repealed and so for a short time the yellow and black labels appeared without it. Not a very common variation for this album.

All copies known to us at the moment display a continuing 'small-text' band name and album title text like on earlier labels, despite the stereo counterpart beginning to display both small and the later large type - in fact the latter are more common. This is odd as the mono 'one box' labels seem to exclusively use the larger text so it's possible there are a handful of mono large-text 2nd labels out there.


Side 1	.....	Side 2

Mono 3rd Label, Variation A

In late 1969 the familiar Yellow and Black labels were changed to a new 'one box' design in black and silver. As with the equivalent one box stereo labels 'THE BEATLES' and 'SGT. PEPPER'S...' appear in larger, thinner text than on earlier issues such as on the 2nd labels. No small-text copies have yet come to light.

As on all earlier issues, this variation had a space between Kite and the exclamation mark: Kite !

"Sgt Pepper" was one of only three LPs (the other two are "Please Please Me" and "Help!") which appeared on this label design in mono. Very desirable and collectible, but be aware that some copies have appeared which actually have stereo audio - these are determined by the deadwax matrix starting with 'YEX' instead of 'XEX' even though the labels have a mono matrix and catalogue number.


Side 1	.....	Side 2

Mono 3rd Label, Variation B

This variant has one extremely small difference - the exclamation mark of Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite! is now flush up against "Kite!", unlike the earlier labels which had a space between them. This change continued to be produced alongside the spaced type, but it is not yet known which type is more common.


Side 1	.....	Side 2

Mono 4th Label

In 1982 EMI release the Beatles Mono Boxset where each Beatles album was faithfully reprinted in glorious mono. The old 'Parlophone' yellow / black label style was reintroduced for a bit of nostalgia. The easiest way to differentiate these between the original presses is that these copies have the MONO format printed at the top right corner, something that in the 60's was only reserved for the stereo presses.


Side 1	.....	Side 2


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