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Welcome to my Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane Web Site.

 

In 1966 the Beatles, fresh from their ‘more popular than Jesus’ tour of the USA and looking ahead to a period of relative calm, start to create the backbone of what they had in mind as an autobiographical album of Liverpool.

The first song, which started recording on 24th November 1966 was ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

The album was Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The third song to be tackled by the group – ‘When I’m 64’ being the second – was ‘Penny Lane’. However, Capitol records were keen to release a new Beatles single which meant both ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’ were removed from the Sgt. Peppers line up and released as a double a-side.

British music protocol at that time stated that a single could not be placed on an album released later that year.

Unfortunately, this put pay to the autobiographical thread of the album and Sgt. Peppers was left to germinate and grow in a different direction than originally intended.

Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is a truly great album, arguably the groups best. We can only imagine how it would have been received by the public and the music business if these two tracks had been included as intended.

 

Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane single Released UK 17/02/67   Released US 13/02/67

Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band LP Released UK 01/06/67   Released US 02/06/67

Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane single Chart position UK Number 2   Chart position US Number 1

First Beatles Single not to hit number 1 in the UK since Love Me Do almost five years earlier.

 

Now Read On:

Strawberry Fields Forever

Penny Lane

 

 

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This page was last updated on 08/02/98.

 

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