Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album carried on the childhood and Liverpool theme with its circus and fairground effects, its pervading atmosphere of the traditional northern music hall that was in both its main creators' [McCartney and Lennon's] blood." "Sgt. Pepper" album cover was designed by the pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. Blake recalled of the concept: "I offered the idea that if they had just played a concert in the park, the cover could be a photograph of the group just after the concert with the crowd who had just watched the concert, watching them. If we did this by using cardboard
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band were requested by Lennon, but ultimately rejected. The actor Leo Gorcey's image was painted out after he requested a fee. When McCartney was asked why the Beatles did not include Elvis Presley among the musical artists, he replied: "Elvis was too important and too far above the rest even to mention ... he was more than merely a ... pop singer, he was Elvis the King." The final cost for the cover art was nearly £3,000 (), an extravagant sum for a time when album covers would typically cost around £50 (). "Sgt. Pepper" was previewed on the pirate radio