The other thing is the Sgt Pepper album must have been one of the first albums where the concept was applied to the entitre object – front, back, inner gatefold (gatefolds were rare for the time), a printed inner sleeve containing lyrics, an insets sheet of cut-out-and-keep images (a kind of interactive element). Up to this point most cover designs were really only an element on the front cover, with tracklistings and perhaps some blurb printed in black (and typeset in a generic house style by the printer). Revolver had taken a step forward by having a band photo printed on the back cover, but Stg Pepper was were they made the album into an object d’art.

White album was an inevitable contrast (opulent to minimalist) and after that their major releases were always framed by this need to apply some kind of concept (Abbey Road = tribute to the studio – note they are walking away from it in the front cover photo – and Let It Be = back to basics).