Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father

The album "Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father" is an album made by the now-defunct BBC TV consumer programme "That's Life", presented by Esther Rantzen.

The series itself championed all kinds of causes and also provided some humour to Sunday nights - later moved to Saturday nights.

The album came about during a time when the programme was getting letters from people who had been abused by adults when they were children - in response to this, presenter Esther Rantzen set up the charity Childline - how the idea of the actual album was mooted is uncertain - the album itself is a new version (at the time - 1988) of the Beatles album "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It featured some of the groups and singers that were around in the late 1980s - tracks in the order that they were on the original Sergeant Pepper album.

A single was released to help promote the album - the single got to number one in 1988. It was a AA-sided single which was unusual (some people might think) in the fact that, in the normal scheme of things, singles usually have the same artist performing different songs or different versions of the same song - the exceptions to this over the years have been singles released that were featured in musical films or stage musicals - this one had different artists performing different songs - the common denominator was that the two tracks were from the same album, hence the different artists.

The single had "With A Little Help From My Friends" on one side, sung by Wet Wet Wet (Joe Cocker had taken that song to number one about twenty years previously) and on the other side, "She's Leaving Home", a duet by Billy Bragg and Cara Tivey.

As a footnote, "That's Life" is no longer in production - but the Childline charity - and its hotline - is still in business!

Track listing

The track listing of the album was identical to that of the Beatles' original release, though the gibberish known as the "Sgt. Pepper Inner Groove" appears as part of Frank Sidebottom's appearance at the end of side one, not at the end of side two as on the original release. All songs are written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney except where noted otherwise.

ide one

# "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" – The Three Wize Men - 3:22
# "With a Little Help from My Friends" – Wet Wet Wet - 2:38
# "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" – The Christians - 5:26
# "Getting Better" – The Wedding Present with Amelia Fletcher - 1:58
# "Fixing a Hole" – Hue & Cry - 4:06
# "She's Leaving Home" – Billy Bragg with Cara Tivey - 2:51
# "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" – Frank Sidebottom - 3:07

ide two

# "Within You Without You" (George Harrison) – Sonic Youth - 5:03
# "When I'm Sixty-Four" – Courtney Pine Quartet - 4:10
# "Lovely Rita" – Michelle Shocked - 2:25
# "Good Morning Good Morning" – The Triffids - 2:46
# "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)" – The Three Wize Men - 2:40
# "A Day in the Life" – The Fall - 3:56