50 YEARS LATER, THE BEATLES ARE BACK AT No.1 WITH 'SGT. PEPPER's LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND'

Decades after it was first released and took over the world, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is back at No. 1 in the band’s home country. This week in the U.K., Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band moved another 37,000 equivalent units, which is impressive given how many millions of people already own the title. According to the Official Charts Company, the record has now racked up an incredible 28 weeks at the peak of the tally in the U.K., which is one of the longest runs in history. The album can now also claim the longest gap in between its first week at the top and its most recent.

 

 

The incredible charting feat is thanks to a newly-released edition of the record which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. The special event product was offered for sale in four different formats: a single CD, a double CD set, a double vinyl set and a six-disc super deluxe edition. The vinyl performed especially well, as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the top-selling wax record in the U.K. this week. The music was remixed to sound clearer using modern technology by Giles Martin, son of The Beatles' original producer, George Martin, which is something that particularly interested super fans of the quartet.

 

 

When Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was first released back in 1967, it was an immediate commercial and critical success. The album debuted at No. 1 all around the world, and in the decades since, it has reportedly sold over 30 million copies. A 2009 reissue also hit No. 5 in the U.K., proving that people, especially the British people, simply can’t get enough of the Beatles.
Sgt. Pepper's was the eighth chart-topper for The Beatles when it first owned the charts back in 1967 in the U.K. Throughout their career, the pioneering rock/pop band sent 23 different titles to No. 1 in their motherland.

 

 

 

Surprisingly, as far as singles on the charts go, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the least successful records ever released by the band. Despite being chock full of potential smashes (as was every Beatles record), only one proper cut was released as a single. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With a Little Help from My Friends" only made it to No. 71 here in the States, and it also failed to reach the top 40 in the U.K. as well. That’s shocking, given the fact that almost everything the Fab Four ever released made it to the top of the charts.