FIRST OFF . . .

It may not have been in perfect harmony, but the world was singing nostalgic praises of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on Monday. In England, a group of noticeably long-toothed Beatlemaniacs convened at Abbey Road studios to mark the watershed LP’s 20th anniversary--and even the musicians playing for commuters in London’s Underground were playing tunes from the 1967 album. In the States, sales of the remastered, compact disc version of “Sgt. Pepper” were brisk in New York but less so locally. John Quinn, CD buyer for Tower Records in New York, reported sales of 220 CDs since they went on sale to lined-up buyers at 12:01 a.m. Monday, adding there were “a lot of affluent-looking, Reebok-wearing types” buying the $12.99 CD. But in Los Angeles’ Tower store on Sunset Boulevard, assistant CD buyer Debbie Frazin said that the only real lines the store experienced Monday were power lines for TV news crews. As of noon, the store had sold only 32 CDs--”mostly to middle-aged people who had bought the LP when it first came out.”