As reported yesterday, the Beatles appear to be planning to put out an expanded edition of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on June 1, the 50th anniversary of its original release. While the news has yet to be made official, we've learned that Ringo Starr has heard it and is thrilled with the sound.

The news comes via Keith Allison, the former Paul Revere & the Raiders bassist who has worked with Starr. As he wrote on Facebook, he was visiting Starr a couple of months ago when the newly remastered album arrived for Ringo's approval. Naturally, they put it on. "So what did Ringo think?" Allison wrote. "He thought it was great! Why? Because it originally was recorded on a 4-track with a lot of overdubs, which buried the drums. Now, the drums have been lifted and come through as they should. He was pleased. You'll be glad to know it was remastered at EMI Studios where it was originally recorded."

Allison also revealed that Starr told him that he hadn't listened to the record "in decades." Still, Starr tweeted the same image that the Beatles' and George Harrison's accounts sent out, of four vertical bars in the same colors and placement as the outfits worn by the group on the album's cover. "Coming soon peace and love peace and good," Ringo wrote, adding a handful of emoji.

Sources within the Beatles' Apple Corps organization told the Times that the 50th anniversary edition includes "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane," the double A-sided single whose February 1967 release kicked off the Sgt. Pepper era. George Martin was once quoted as saying that the decision to not include those two songs on the record was "a truly terrible mistake."