<P> The collage includes 57 photographs and nine waxworks that depict a diversity of famous people, including actors, sportsmen, scientists and--at Harrison's request--the Self - Realization Fellowship gurus Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda . Inglis views the tableau "as a guidebook to the cultural topography of the decade", demonstrating the increasing democratisation of society whereby "traditional barriers between' high' and' low' culture were being eroded". The final grouping included singers such as Bob Dylan and Bobby Breen; the film stars Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe; the artist Aubrey Beardsley; the boxer Sonny Liston and the footballer Albert Stubbins . Also included were the comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (as well as comedian W.C. Fields) and the writers H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Dylan Thomas . Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ were requested by Lennon, but ultimately rejected . When McCartney was asked why the Beatles did not include Elvis Presley, he replied: "Elvis was too important and too far above the rest even to mention...so we didn't put him on the list because he was more than merely a...pop singer, he was Elvis the King ." The final cost for the cover art was nearly £ 3,000, an extravagant sum for a time when album covers would typically cost around £ 50 . For their work on Sgt . Pepper, Blake and Haworth won the 1968 Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts . </P> <P> After finishing Sgt . Pepper, but prior to the album's commercial release, the Beatles took an acetate disc of the album to the American singer Cass Elliot's flat off King's Road in Chelsea, where at six in the morning they played it at full volume with speakers set in open window frames . The group's friend and former press agent, Derek Taylor, remembered that residents of the neighbourhood opened their windows and listened without complaint to what they understood to be unreleased Beatles music . On 26 May 1967, Sgt . Pepper was given a rushed release in the UK, where it was originally scheduled for 1 June . The US release followed on 2 June . It was the first Beatles album where the track listings were exactly the same for the UK and US versions . The band's eighth LP, it debuted in the UK at number one--where it stayed for 22 consecutive weeks--selling 250,000 copies during the first seven days . On 4 June, the Jimi Hendrix Experience opened a show at the Saville Theatre in London with their rendition of the title track . Epstein owned the Saville at the time, and Harrison and McCartney attended the performance . McCartney described the moment: "The curtains flew back and (Hendrix) came walking forward playing' Sgt . Pepper' . It's a pretty major compliment in anyone's book . I put that down as one of the great honours of my career ." Rolling Stone magazine's Langdon Winner recalls: </P> <P> The closest Western Civilization has come to unity since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was the week the Sgt . Pepper album was released . In every city in Europe and America the radio stations played (it)... and everyone listened...it was the most amazing thing I've ever heard . For a brief while the irreparable fragmented consciousness of the West was unified, at least in the minds of the young . </P> <P> Sgt . Pepper was widely perceived by listeners as the soundtrack to the "Summer of Love". In Riley's opinion, the album "drew people together through the common experience of pop on a larger scale than ever before". American radio stations interrupted their regular scheduling, playing the album virtually non-stop--often from start to finish . It occupied the number one position of the Billboard Top LPs in the US for 15 weeks, from 1 July to 13 October 1967 . With 2.5 million copies sold within three months of its release, Sgt . Pepper's initial commercial success exceeded that of all previous Beatles albums . None of its songs were issued as singles at the time . </P>

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