Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band may be one of the most iconic album covers of all time, not least because you could theoretically spend hours trying to decipher all the characters on there.
It’s got everyone from gods to paupers to kings, or, in this case, Mahatma Gandhi to Bob Dylan to Marilyn Monroe. But, in many ways, this oddball who’s who guessing game of faces is made all the more fun by not just the ones you can see clearly, but the ones you can’t.
The frustrating thing for anyone who has attempted to study the artwork at length is that there are some figures you just can’t make out, no matter how much you strain your 20/20 vision. Some are just out of shot, while others are obscured by big heads, literally and metaphorically, making it a huge shame that some characters don’t take up as much space in this piece of iconic history as they should.
That’s not even getting into the figures whom The Beatles wanted to include but ultimately faced the cutting room floor. This ranged across an entire spectrum, from Jesus Christ to Adolf Hitler, because if one thing is for certain, the Fabs were nothing if not lovers of stirring the pot.
Handily, to save your sanity and your eyesight, there are now many different numbered guides online that you can search to decode the puzzle of the cover. However, in the interest of saving your time, let’s run through a few of those hidden mystery figures who appear on the cover of Sgt Pepper, but you might not have realised were on the role call.
Who are some of the hidden faces on the Sgt Pepper cover?
This is not to say that the obscured figures on the cover are any less significant than those who take up the space front on there; some pretty seismic names who failed to make the main billing.
For starters, near the top right corner, there’s James Joyce, the prolific Irish poet and author, who is usurped in the frame by Dylan. Diagonally down to his left is fellow writer Stephen Crane, neatly tucked away in the shoulder of Issy Bonn.
Down on the front row, the figure furthest left is an unidentified creepy laughing person, and a few along from them are iconic Hollywood actors Marcello Mastroianni and Shirley Temple, with the latter making three appearances on the cover in total.
Then, slightly further over, Bette Davis and Timothy Carey are mostly obscured by The Beatles themselves—frankly rude to appear on your own album cover when you have such mega stars being hidden by your presence.
There are many madcap theories on exactly what Sgt Pepper symbolised in all its chaotic, technicoloured glory. As far as pictures go, it’s also probably one of the most famous images in the world, let alone just in terms of album covers. But, to this end, if your likeness had been used to create such acclaim, wouldn’t you be slightly pissed off if your face was covered by someone else’s massive head? I certainly would be, anyway.