On this day in 1967, the cover photo for The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was taken

The idea for the photo came from Paul McCartney, who then approached pop artists Jann Haworth and Peter Blake, providing  them with a list of famous names chosen by the band to appear on the cover. This list included fellow musicians like Bob Dylan, writers such as H.G. Wells and William Burroughs, as well as actors, artists, comedians, scientists, friends and even some religious figures. 

Several ideas from the list were deemed too controversial and were cut, but Haworth and Blake still had to hand paint close to sixty cardboard cutouts for the background celebrities. A number of props such as plants, several statues and a candlestick also had to be purchased for the shoot.

On the afternoon of the 30th the band arrived at Chelsea Manor Studios in London to shoot the cover, with the rest of the collage having been assembled in the previous eight days. Director Robert Fraser and photographer Michael Cooper guided the band through the poses for the cover photograph as well as several shots that would appear on the back and inner sleeve.

All of this work did not come cheap, with the total cost coming to around £3,000 (equivalent to £53,000 in 2023). This earned it the title of the most expensive record cover at the time, with the average cost for a cover in 1967 being around £50.