One of the most iconic albums of all time has a big birthday this year.  Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band turns fifty.  Whoever you are, wherever you are, there's a good chance that this means something to you.  Arena couldn't let this musical milestone go by without a look back at this pivotal moment in musical and pop cultural history and of course, a look forward to the celebratory remastered version.  Alan Corr was tasked with visiting Abbey Road for Arena, to take a listen.  Tough gig, but somebody's got to do it.

Born out of friendly rivalry with the Beach Boys, Sergeant Pepper is the Beatles' eighth studio album and marks a change in more than just their musical style.  Following their 1966 hit Revolver, it was time to do things differently.

"They quit concerts altogether, through pure jadedness and the fact that they couldn't hear themselves play.  It wasn't helping them musically."

 And so the Beatles entered the realm of the studio band, and the concept album.  Or did they?  John Lennon says no, actually.  If Sergeant Pepper is a concept album, then the million dollar question must become, what is the concept?  While there is no shortage of theories, fitting them coherently into a narrative arch proves a divisive topic.  One thing that can be agreed upon however is that this was an album that irreversibly changed the musical landscape of the free love era.

Maybe you're an owner of one of the 31 million copies of the album that sold worldwide, maybe you even bought a copy when it first dropped in 1967, but the crucial question is, do you need the updated, remastered version?  Alan Corr thinks so.

"The drums are brighter, the bass is more profound and there's also a lot more going on that I'd never detected before…"

 So if Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, A Day in the Life and She's Leaving Home are part of the sound track of your life, then yes, you're probably going to want to give it a go.

 "What they've done is not guild the lily; they've just brought something else new out of this extraordinary album"

Click here for the full interview from Arena.

Photo credit: CHRIS YOUNG/AFP/Getty Images