Actually, it was 40 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the world to play. Yes, June 1 marks the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's release.

I can't really speak so much to how Sgt. Pepper changed the culture, but I've read that artists and musicians of the time saw the album as one of the most important works to ever come out. It's one of those albums that (to this this day) regularly tops "Greatest Album of All-Time" lists. While I may prefer "The White Album" and "Abbey Road," it's not hard to see how Sgt. Pepper took pop music to a new place.

I grew up listening to Houston's oldies station, so I was pretty familiar with the Beatles by the time my Uncle Eddie purchased the complete Beatles collection for my dad one Christmas. I think it's a little funny that dad didn't listen to much Beatles music. I think he'd consider himself a Beatles fan, but I'm not sure he could recall which song came from which album.

One of my favorite deleted scenes from "Pulp Fiction" was the scene where Uma Thurman asked John Travolta whether he was an Elvis man or a Beatles man. She said that a Beatles fan could like Elvis and an Elvis fan could like the Beatles, but the artist you preferred would say a lot about you. Dad, to me, was more of an Elvis person. So the Beatles cd's sat on top of dad's cd shelf, relatively unlistened and unused until my brother and I took them upstairs where they'd remain until my dad asked for them back.

Like most Beatles fans I've spoken with, I got into the early Beatles recordings first. You have to start with early albums such as "Please, Please Me" and "With the Beatles" before you can truly love anything that they did in their later years (IMO), but as I made my way through their albums and I noticed that their sound seemed to change with each new album, I became mesmerized with the Beatles.

By the time I got to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," I had an exciting realization that there really was no going back for me. While my musical tastes vary greatly, I have to acknowledge that the Beatles' work opened a door that remains just as wide open today as it did when it opened. It's like I had just eaten the world's tastiest meal and would spend the rest of my life searching for food of similar taste and quality.

As for the album itself, it's more or less a continuation of the pop music experimentation they started on "Revolver," but there are noticeable differences when you listen to "Revolver" and "Sgt. Peppers" back to back. The songs on "Sgt. Pepper" are a little darker and seem to come from a more authentic place. I am probably over simplifying this, but I bet John and Paul can write work of the caliber of "Revolver" in their sleep. And the production quality of the music reflects this.

But somewhere between "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper," the Beatles went back to the woodshed and started working on their masterpiece. And because of their minor hiatus between albums, and also because of their decision to stop touring, they could now focus on the art of making pop music. It's like they upped their own game, and once they did that, they not only changed the scope of their own music, they also changed the game of all music that was to come out.

Okay, enough Beatles idolatry for me...for today at least. Just a couple of additional items:

- I think it's funny that people thought the Beatles were finished after they decided to stop touring. I bet John and Paul just kind of laughed at all of the "Beatles are finished" talk. I mean, one second you're putting the finishing touches on "Penny Lane" or "Strawberry Fields Forever," and the next, you're working on "A Day in the Life." They were sitting on a winning lottery ticket and they knew it.

- I always hate it when people claim that Paul was less of an artist than John. First and foremost, there wouldn't be a "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" without Paul. But beyond that song and the album concept, most of the great songs on that album were Paul songs. In many ways, it's a Paul album. But in true Lennon fashion, the best song on the album is "A Day in the Life." But in true McCartney fashion, the song wouldn't be complete without his interlude in the middle of the song.

- George Martin maintains that his biggest regret as the Beatles' producer was not including "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" on the "Sgt. Peppers" album. The album's already a masterpiece, for frig's sake, putting those two songs on the album would almost be unfair. It'd be like having a basketball team with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, and Wilt Chamberlin on it.

-Matt