**1967**

January 1
Beatles resume work on SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND;
session ends April 2

January 21
Brian Epstein decides to merge with the Robert Stigwood Organization which controls such bands as The Who, The Merseys and Cream. Brian would retain sole control over the Beatles.

February 13
STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER / PENNY LANE (single) is released (Capitol Records)

Noted Atlanta psychiatrist Tom Leland would lament upon this single and the subsequent album, Sgt. Pepper, by describing Beatles new compositions as "speaking in an existential way about the meaninglessness of actuality."

March 11
446 recorded cover versions of "Yesterday" by various artists - Disc & Music Echo reports.

May 1
EMI publicly announces total world sales of Beatle records, including LP's, singles and EP's, have reached 200 million.

May 15
Paul McCartney meets his future wife, Linda Eastman, at the Bag O'Nails.

May 20
Advanced copies of SGT. PEPPER are sent to the B.B.C. radio service. The B.B.C. decides to ban "A Day In the Life" from broadcast because it contained drug inducement themes in the song.

June 2
SGT. PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (lp) is released (Capitol Records)

Sunday Times reporter Derek Jewel hails Pepper as "a tremendous advance even in the increasingly progress of the Beatles. Some of the words are splendid urban poetry - almost metaphysical..."
(Cost to make Pepper: $100,000; studio time used to record the lp: 700 hours)

The Beatles comment about the album...

Ringo Starr: "The original concept of Sgt. Pepper was that it was going to be stage show - you know, we start with clapping and people shouting and then I come on - and we were going to do it like theater; we'd do it in the studio and simulate it. We didn't in the end. We did it for the first couple of tracks and then it faded into an album - but it still made it a whole concept."

Paul McCartney: "...it doesn't have to be us, it doesn't have to be the kind of song you want to write, it could be the kind of song they might want to write...you could write a song about Lovely Rita, meter maid...Paul McCartney might not have...but these people could, so it was very liberating and that's how we looked at the whole thing."

George Harrison: "Klaus Voorman had a harmonium in his house, which I hadn't played before. I was doodling on it, just playing to amuse myself, when "Within You" started to come. The tune came first, then I got the first sentence. It came out of what we'd been discussing that evening."

John Lennon: "People just have this dream about Sgt. Pepper. It was good for then, but it wasn't that spectacular when you look back on it. I prefer some tracks off the double album and some tracks off Abbey Road . When you think back on Pepper, what do you remember? Just "A Day in the Life." You know, I go for individual songs, not for whole albums."

Beatles record producer, Sir George Martin (excerpt prologue from his book "Summer of Love"): "With Sgt. Pepper the Beatles held up a mirror to the world. And in this looking-class the world saw a brilliant reflection of its kaleidoscopic 1967 self. It saw not the shambolic and often absurd cavortings of the hippie movement, but its perfect image - an elegant ideal; not the sordid gutter land of drug addiction, but the intriguing possibility of creative substance abuse."

June 19
Paul announces to the media he has taken LSD four times. The Daily Mirror quotes Paul as saying: "I don't regret that I've spoken out. I hope my fans will understand..."

June 21
American evangelist Dr. Billy Graham slams Paul's use of drugs: "I am praying for Paul that he finds what he is looking for...he has reached the top of his profession and now he is searching for the true purpose in life. But he will not find it through LSD."

June 25
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE is seen live by satellite by 400 million viewers in 24 different countries, marking the first international satellite broadcast.

July 20
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE / BABY YOU'RE A RICH MAN (single) is released (Capitol Records)

July 24
The Beatles and Brian Epstein all sign their names to a full page advertisement in The Times declaring "the law against marijuana is immoral in principal and unworkable in practice." The list of names also included a variety of authors, painters, and politicians.

July 28
"THE FAMILY WAY" movie premieres in New York with music from Paul McCartney and arranged by George Martin.

August 25
Beatles leave London 's Euston Station and arrive at Bangor , North Wales for mediation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

August 27
Brian Epstein dies in his home on 24 Chapel Street , Belgravia, London , from drug overdose of sleeping pills.
Panic in the band quickly settles in. John Lennon would later lament: "The Beatles were finished when Eppy died. I knew, deep inside me, that that was it. Without him, we'd had it." Paul McCartney, according to Beatles press agent Tony Barrow, felt that the Beatles might not be together and so Paul quickly planned the "Magical Mystery Tour" film project.

September 11
The band begins filming "Magical Mystery Tour"

October 17
Memorial service for Brian Epstein at the New London Synagogue. All four Beatles attend.

October 27
HELLO GOODBYE / I AM THE WALRUS (single) is released (Capitol Records)

November 8
"HOW I WON THE WAR" (movie) premieres in New York , starring John Lennon who plays the part of Private Gripeweed.

November 27
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (lp) is released (Capitol Records)

With Parlophone in England issuing a two disc EP package of Magical Mystery Tour listing all of the tracks especially recorded for the movie, the Capitol release in America not only contained those songs but also the additional hit singles from the band that made up the B-side of the album: "Hello Goodbye," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Penny Lane," "Baby You're A Rich Man," and "All You Need Is Love." Those additional tracks made for a more complete album. It turned out to be a successful marketing strategy in the USA selling 2 million copies of the LP. The success would eventually make Parlophone release the American version in England . Said American Beatle researcher Bruce Spizer: "Nine years after the release of Capitol's Magical Mystery Tour LP, Parlophone issued the same album, even using the same Capitol master tapes, which included duophonic mixes of three of the songs! (When the album was issued on CD, true stereo mixes were used for all of the songs.)" The Capitol LP version was finally issued by Parlophone on November 19, 1976. The CD version was digitally re-mastered and released by Parlophone in 1987.

December 4
"Apple Boutique" opens selling trendy hippie fashions. Shop is managed by former Quarryman Pete Shotton.

December 17
BEATLES CHRISTMAS RECORD: "CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE AGAIN" is issued to fan club members.

December 26
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR , a "made for television" film by the Beatles, is released in England only and is seen by some 15 million Britons on television in monochrome.

A London newspaper slams film in their review as "blatant rubbish" and other pundits viewed it as "chaotic", "appalling", and "a colossal conceit." As a result, the American million dollar deal for broadcast rights was pulled.

GRAMMY AWARDS (1967):
Album of the Year - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, George Martin, producer
Best Contemporary Rock 'n' roll Album - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, George Martin, producer
Best Engineered (non-classical) Recording - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Geoff Emerick, engineer
Best Album Cover - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Peter Blake, John Haworth, art directors.