We are so proud that our grandfather, W.C. Fields, is among the international icons on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band iconic, 1967 album cover. He is found in the top row, 6th from left. “There were those who refused to be on there, saying, ‘I'm not a lonely heart,’ or, ‘I don't want to be on there.’ Letters had to go out to get permission from everybody, and some people did turn us down.” GEORGE, www.thebeatles.com
[Click on the album cover to enlarge.]
“Sgt. Pepper's: The greatest album of all time turns 50”
“The front cover was unique and expensive, featuring an array of the Beatles idols, mostly Americans, including W. C. Fields, Dion, Dylan, Brando, Shirley Temple, Marilyn Monroe, Laurel & Hardy, Edgar Allan Poe and Mae West. Other figures, such as Gandhi, Oscar Wilde or Lewis Carroll, had enduring influences on the Beatles' social and artistic developments.” Read more by Alexander E. Hooke...
“The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ at 50: Still Full of Joy and Whimsy”
“They rejected any generation gap. The album cover set the 1967 Beatles, with their mustaches and shiny mock band uniforms, alongside their suited, mop-topped pop-star wax statues—so recent, yet so distant—and cultural figures like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sonny Liston and W. C. Fields, a rightful claim to adult significance. But the LP was also packaged with cardboard cutouts—a mustache, military stripes—like something for children. While the Summer of Love nurtured hippie dreams of creating a new world, the Beatles reminded listeners of how entrenched the old one was, and how comforting.” Read more by Jon Pareles...