With a Little Help from My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper

In 1962 George Martin reluctantly signed a young group called the Beatles to the EMI record label. Thus began his stint as record producer for one of the most groundbreaking bands in pop history. Martin, writing with freelancer Pearson, describes in detail the creative processes-both artistic and technical-that went into making one of the most acclaimed Beatles albums, the 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, ``a musical fragmentation grenade, exploding with a force that is still being felt.'' Tracing each song on the record from its genesis in the mind of one of the Fab Four, Martin explains how each fragment or idea evolved, with input from the entire band and from the engineering team, into a final track, and how the album broke new ground. Fans hoping for an inside scoop on some of the more sensational aspects of the bandmembers' lives will be disappointed, but admirers of the Beatles' music and those who take an interest in the technical aspects of record production will find this book engrossing. Photos not seen by PW. (May)