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On this day, February 13, 1967, Capitol Records released "Penny Lane" in the United States.
Penny Lane
US picture sleeve
Single by the Beatles
A-side: "Strawberry Fields Forever" (double A-side)
Released: 13 February 1967 {in the United States}
Recorded: 29 December 1966 – 17 January 1967
Studio: EMI, London
Genre: Psychedelic pop, progressive pop, baroque pop
Length: 3:03
Label: Parlophone: (UK), Capitol (US)
Songwriter(s): Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s): George Martin
Promotional film: "Penny Lane" on YouTube {below}
"Penny Lane" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a double A-side single with "Strawberry Fields Forever" in February 1967. It was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. The lyrics refer to Penny Lane, a street in Liverpool, and make mention of the sights and characters that McCartney recalled from his upbringing in the city.
The Beatles began recording "Penny Lane" in December 1966, intending it as a song for their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Instead, after it was issued as a single to satisfy record company demand for a new release, the band adhered to their policy of omitting previously released singles from their albums. The song features numerous modulations that occur mid-verse and between its choruses. Session musician David Mason played a piccolo trumpet solo for its bridge section.
"Penny Lane" was a top-five hit across Europe and topped the US Billboard Hot 100. In Britain, it was the first Beatles single since "Please Please Me" in 1963 to fail to reach number 1 on the Record Retailer chart. In November 1967, "Penny Lane" was included on the US Magical Mystery Tour album. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked the track at number 280 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2006, Mojo ranked the song at number 9 of "The 101 Greatest Beatles Songs".
In 2011, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
{snip}
Release
"Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were released as a double A-side single, in a fashion identical to that of the Beatles' previous single, "Eleanor Rigby" / "Yellow Submarine". The release took place in the United States on 13 February 1967 and in the United Kingdom on 17 February. It was the first single by the Beatles to be sold with a picture sleeve in the UK, a practice rarely used there at that time. Expectations were high for the release, since it was the band's first new music since they had decided to abandon touring, a decision that had led to speculation in the press in late 1966 that the group would disband. Comparing the two sides, author Clinton Heylin writes that McCartney was possibly "fearful of alienating fans unduly" with the more dense and experimental "Strawberry Fields Forever". He says that with "Penny Lane", McCartney was "again cast in the role of the great populariser" by providing the "more prosaic depiction of the Liverpool of their youth ... set to another of his eminently hummable melodies". In his book Electric Shock, Peter Doggett describes "Strawberry Fields Forever" as art pop, "self-consciously excluding the mass audience", and likens "Penny Lane" to pop art in its evoking "multifaceted substance out of the everyday".
{snip}
US picture sleeve
Single by the Beatles
A-side: "Strawberry Fields Forever" (double A-side)
Released: 13 February 1967 {in the United States}
Recorded: 29 December 1966 – 17 January 1967
Studio: EMI, London
Genre: Psychedelic pop, progressive pop, baroque pop
Length: 3:03
Label: Parlophone: (UK), Capitol (US)
Songwriter(s): Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s): George Martin
Promotional film: "Penny Lane" on YouTube {below}
"Penny Lane" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a double A-side single with "Strawberry Fields Forever" in February 1967. It was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. The lyrics refer to Penny Lane, a street in Liverpool, and make mention of the sights and characters that McCartney recalled from his upbringing in the city.
The Beatles began recording "Penny Lane" in December 1966, intending it as a song for their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Instead, after it was issued as a single to satisfy record company demand for a new release, the band adhered to their policy of omitting previously released singles from their albums. The song features numerous modulations that occur mid-verse and between its choruses. Session musician David Mason played a piccolo trumpet solo for its bridge section.
"Penny Lane" was a top-five hit across Europe and topped the US Billboard Hot 100. In Britain, it was the first Beatles single since "Please Please Me" in 1963 to fail to reach number 1 on the Record Retailer chart. In November 1967, "Penny Lane" was included on the US Magical Mystery Tour album. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked the track at number 280 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2006, Mojo ranked the song at number 9 of "The 101 Greatest Beatles Songs".
In 2011, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
{snip}
Release
"Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were released as a double A-side single, in a fashion identical to that of the Beatles' previous single, "Eleanor Rigby" / "Yellow Submarine". The release took place in the United States on 13 February 1967 and in the United Kingdom on 17 February. It was the first single by the Beatles to be sold with a picture sleeve in the UK, a practice rarely used there at that time. Expectations were high for the release, since it was the band's first new music since they had decided to abandon touring, a decision that had led to speculation in the press in late 1966 that the group would disband. Comparing the two sides, author Clinton Heylin writes that McCartney was possibly "fearful of alienating fans unduly" with the more dense and experimental "Strawberry Fields Forever". He says that with "Penny Lane", McCartney was "again cast in the role of the great populariser" by providing the "more prosaic depiction of the Liverpool of their youth ... set to another of his eminently hummable melodies". In his book Electric Shock, Peter Doggett describes "Strawberry Fields Forever" as art pop, "self-consciously excluding the mass audience", and likens "Penny Lane" to pop art in its evoking "multifaceted substance out of the everyday".
{snip}