Robert Fraser (art dealer) first met John Lennon. Fraser art-directed the cover for The Beatles' 1967 LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" – he dissuaded the group from using the original design, a psychedelic artwork created by the design collective The Fool, instead suggesting the pop artist, Peter Blake, who created the famous collage cover design. Fraser also gave McCartney a small painting of an apple by René Magritte which is believed to have been the inspiration for the name and logo of the Beatles' record company, Apple Records. It was also through Fraser that Richard Hamilton was selected to design the poster
The Beatles (album) group should have released a single album instead. Nonetheless, "The Beatles" reached No. 1 on the charts in both the United Kingdom and the United States, and has since been viewed by some critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. By 1968, the Beatles had achieved commercial and critical success. The group's mid-1967 release, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", was number one in the UK for 27 weeks, through to the start of February 1968, having sold 250,000 copies in the first week after release. "Time" magazine declared that "Sgt. Pepper's" constituted a "historic departure in