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
Cultural impact of the Beatles as, in author Shawn Levy's description, "the world's first household psychedelics, avatars of something wilder and more revolutionary than anything pop culture had ever delivered before". Author Carys Wyn Jones locates "Sgt. Pepper's", along with "Pet Sounds", to the beginning of art rock. Both albums are largely viewed as beginnings in the progressive rock genre due to their lyrical unity, extended structure, complexity, eclecticism, experimentalism and influences derived from classical music forms. For several years following "Sgt. Pepper" release, straightforward rock and roll was supplanted by a growing interest in extended form. Several of the English psychedelic bands who followed