Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Who's who on The Beatles' iconic album cover explained

26 May 2022, 14:49 | Updated: 22 April 2025, 13:15

The Beatles at the launch of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Picture: Getty Images

By Mayer Nissim

Mae West, Lenny Bruce and Oscar Wilde, but no Hitler, Gandhi or Jesus.

As well as being one of the best albums of all time, The Beatles' Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band also had one of the most striking covers in pop.

It almost never happened: The band actually already had a cover designed by Dutch group The Fool, but gallery dealer Robert Fraser nudged Paul McCartney to use a "fine artist" instead.

The iconic Beatles sleeve was designed by pop-artists husband and wife partnership Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, with the photograph snapped by Michael Cooper.

It was apparently the first sleeve to feature printed lyrics and a designed inner bag. Original pressings had an inner sleeve designed by Sion and Marijke of The Fool, who had been bumped late in the day for the actual cover.

It was also one of the first gatefold sleeves, and came with a card of cool Pepper cutouts – Blake's original idea for a packet of badges and pencils would have cost too much.

The Beatles – Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Picture: EMI/Alamy

Supposedly loosely based on some pen and ink sketches by Paul McCartney (though Jann denies this), it features John, Paul and George and Ringo in their full Sgt Pepper garb, backed by over 80 cardboard cutouts and wax models.

"Paul and John said I should imagine that the band had just finished the concert, perhaps in a park," Peter Blake said in the 2009 reissue notes.

"I then thought that we could have a crowd standing behind them, and this developed into the collage idea."

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered 2009)

The band themselves pitched some ideas, with Blake and Fraser filling out the crowd with their own choices.

As you can imagine, it wasn't all straightforward. Wary of legal complaints from living stars, Brian Epstein had his assistant contact everyone who was still around.

Mae West originally declined ('What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" she apparently said. The Beatles wrote her a personal letter and she changed her mind.

Artist Peter Blake Reopens The Holburne Museum. Picture: Getty Images

John Lennon, ever the iconoclast, wanted to have Adolf Hitler, Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi.

EMI understandably said no to the first two (this was shortly after "more popular than Jesus" after all), and despite his original inclusion, Gandhi was painted out.

In front of it all was the world BEATLES made out of flowers.

The Beatles - A Day In The Life

"I hated the idea of lettering, or a graphic designer taking Peter and my artwork and slapping their lettering on it,' Jann told the BBC in 2017.

"We were standing in my studio when that idea came up.... I suggested that as another form of lettering, besides the drum, that would keep the integrity of the cover."

So no Hitler or Gandhi... but who's who on the immortal cover, photographed at Chelsea Manor Studios, Flood Street, London on Thursday, March 30, 1967.

We've broken down the full list, complete with a short description of who they are and why they matter.

1. Sri Yukestawar Giri, guru

An Indian monk and yogi, born Priya Nath Karar. A disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya of Varanasi and a member of the Giribranch of the Swami order, Sri Yukestawar Giri was a Kriya yogi, a Jyotishi and a scholar of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads.

2. Aleister Crowley, dabbler in black-magic

"Do what thou wilt..." occultist Aleister Crowley was, not as frequently described, a Satanist, but instead a self-identified prophet who founded the religion of Thelema.

3. Mae West, actress

Actress, singer, sex symbol and Ms "come up and see me some time", Mae West was a vaudeville icon turned Hollywood legend.

4. Lenny Bruce, comic

One of the all-time great stand-up comedians, Lenny Bruce was also a boundary-pushing iconoclast whose 1964 conviction for obscenity proved just how dangerous the counterculture felt to the establishment of the time.

5. Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer

The "father of electronic music", Karlheinz Stockhausen was one of the most important, interesting and groundbreaking composers of the 20th century.

6. W.C. (William Claude) Fields, comic

Juggler and comic W.C. Fields was another vaudeville star who successfully transitioned into Broadway stardom before taking on the movies, being successful in the silent era and talkies, too.

7. Carl Gustav Jung, psychologist

Up there with with his friend Freud as one of the key figures in psychoanalysis, Carl Jung founded the school of analytical psychology and came up with plenty of concepts still in use today (like introversion and extraversion).

8. Edgar Allen Poe, writer

Writer Edgar Allen Poe was the master of the macabre, known for gothic classics like 'The Raven' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart'. He would later be namechecked in 'I Am The Walrus' ("Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar-Allan-Poe").

9. Fred Astaire, dancer/actor

With or without his regular partner Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire was simply one of the greatest popular dancers of all time. After establishing himself on stage, it was on screen (Top Hat, Holiday Inn, Funny Face and so many more) that Astaire became an all-time legend.

10. Richard Merkin, artist

Known for his vivid portraits of popular cultural stars, Richard Merkin became a pal of Peter Blake in the summer of 1966, which probably explains his presence on the Pepper sleeve.

"The photograph of me comes from a very early exhibition catalogue of mine," Merkin said. "I sold the photograph ... for [probably] $200. That photograph would be worth $10,000 now!" He wasn't much of a Beatles fan, but said that Pepper grew on him as the years passed.

11. The Vargas Girl, by artist Alberto Vargas

Alberto Vargas was a Peruvian-American painter famed for his pictures of sexy pin-ups. His subjects like Olive Thomas were dubbed "Vargas Girls".

12. Leo Gorcey, actor – painted out because he requested a fee

Leader of the Dead End Kids (in various roles), the East Side Kids (as Muggs McGinnis) and The Bowery Boys (Slip Mahoney) actor Leo Gorcey was originally on the sleeve, but was painted out after he requested a fee for his inclusion.