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The Beatles

The 45-minute 1992 television documentary The Making of Sgt. Pepper had not been issued on video or DVD by the time this almost-official-looking DVD came out about ten years later. And really, in the world of Beatledom, could the producers of that documentary have been that surprised to see such an unauthorized copy appear? The TV special itself is pretty good, containing some vintage footage and then-contemporary interviews with producer George Martin and the three surviving (at the time) Beatles, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The best segments are when Martin's at the board discussing and actually isolating certain parts of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band recordings. In fact, some of the most interesting of these bits have been bootlegged from the soundtrack onto vinyl and CD, as they don't appear on official releases. If you've read reasonably widely about the Beatles, none of the interview material will come as a revelation, though some of the circumstances of the recordings discussed still aren't common knowledge (such as the initial plan to include "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" on the album before they were snatched away for a single). Still, it's entertaining enough to hear the memories relayed in the Beatles' own words. (Ringo on "With a Little Help from My Friends," which originally included the line "What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you throw tomatoes at me?": "I would not sing that line.") Not many other figures are interviewed, but a particularly interesting one (if only because he's not interviewed much) is David Mason, who played the piccolo trumpet solo on "Penny Lane." Also included on the DVD is a 1987 television program On the Town: Sgt. Pepper's 20th Anniversary Party at Abbey Road Studios. But this is almost useless, mixing a bit of footage of McCartney, Harrison, and Starr around the time Sgt. Pepper's was issued on CD with some very general, superficial overviews of aspects of the Beatles' career. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide