News

Is it just me, or is there something about turning 50 this year? It’s true, 1967 is indeed my birth year and as I look around at who and what else marks its golden anniversary in 2017, I realise I am in very good company with numerous culturally significant movies, albums, TV shows, books, and people all joining me to chalk up their half century. 

Looking back through the events of the year 1967, it’s astonishing to note that it gave us not only Pringles snacks and Twix bars, but also saw the arrival of The Doors’ seminal album; The Jungle Book and The Graduate movies in cinemas; Fleetwood Mac forming while Jimi Hendrix gave his first major performance at the legendary Monterey music festival in California.

But perhaps most significantly, 1967 is the year that the world’s biggest band released the most iconic album of all time as The Beatles’ immeasurably influential Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band went on sale. To mark the golden anniversary of the art rock masterpiece, several reissue super-deluxe packages go on sale on 26 May. To celebrate the release of the lavishly presented, newly mixed and expanded stereo and 5.1-surround sound anniversary editions of 1967’s most famous album, read the story behind the reissues in our special feature starting on p64. And if that’s not enough, our Music Legends profile on p102 turns the spotlight on the band that created the template that so many others have since followed. 

Lee Dunkley, editor