- Timeline See what happened in February 1967
- UK release date:
- Feb 17, 1967
- US release date:
- Feb 13, 1967
- Sessions This album has been recorded during the following sessions
- Recording "Strawberry Fields Forever" #3 (Nov 29, 1966)
- Recording "Strawberry Fields Forever" #4 (Dec 08, 1966)
- Recording "Strawberry Fields Forever" #5 (Dec 09, 1966)
- Mixing Strawberry Fields Forever #7 (Dec 22, 1966)
- Mixing "When I'm Sixty Four", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and recording "Penny Lane" (Dec 29, 1966)
- Recording "Penny Lane" and mixing "When I'm Sixty Four", "Penny Lane" (Dec 30, 1966)
- Mixing "Penny Lane" (Jan 25, 1967)
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Track list
Disc 1
1.
4:11 • Studio version • A
- Paul McCartney:
- Bass, Bongos, Electric guitar, Mellotron, Timpani
- Ringo Starr:
- Drums, Percussion
- John Lennon:
- Acoustic guitar, Bongos, Mellotron, Piano, Vocals
- George Harrison:
- Electric guitar, Maracas, Svarmandal, Timpani
- George Martin:
- Producer
- Geoff Emerick:
- Engineer
- Mal Evans:
- Tambourine
- Derek Simpson:
- Cello
- Norman Jones:
- Cello
- Neil Aspinall:
- Guiro
- Terry Doran:
- Maracas
- Tony Fisher:
- Trumpet
- Greg Bowen:
- Trumpet
- Derek Watkins:
- Trumpet
- Stanley Roderick:
- Trumpet
- John Hall:
- Cello
- Session Recording:
- Nov 29, 1966
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
- Session Recording:
- Dec 08, 1966
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Abbey Road
- Session Overdubs:
- 29 Nov 1966 and 8, 9, 15, 21 Dec 1966
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Abbey Road
- Session Mixing:
- Dec 22, 1966
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
2.
2:58 • Studio version • B • Mono
- Paul McCartney:
- Bass, Harmonium, Percussion, Piano, Tambourine, Vocals
- Ringo Starr:
- Drums, Handbell
- John Lennon:
- Backing vocals, Congas, Guitar, Handclaps, Piano
- George Harrison:
- Backing vocals, Guitar
- George Martin:
- Piano, Producer
- Geoff Emerick:
- Engineer
- David Mason:
- Flugelhorn, Trumpets
- Ray Swinfield:
- Flutes, Piccolos
- P Goody:
- Flutes, Piccolos
- Manny Winters:
- Flutes, Piccolos
- Dennis Walton:
- Flutes, Piccolos
- Leon Calvert:
- Flugelhorn, Trumpets
- Freddy Clayton:
- Flugelhorn, Trumpets
- Bert Courtley:
- Flugelhorn, Trumpets
- Duncan Campbell:
- Flugelhorn, Trumpets
- Dick Morgan:
- Cor anglais, Oboes
- Mike Winfield:
- Cor anglais, Oboes
- Frank Clarke:
- Double bass
- Session Recording:
- Dec 29, 1966
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
- Session Overdubs:
- 30 Dec 1966 and 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12 Jan 1967
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Abbey Road
- Session Mixing:
- Jan 25, 1967
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
About
From Beatles Bible:
A key date in The Beatles’ career came with the UK release of perhaps their finest single of all, the double a-side Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever.
Although heralded upon its release as a major advance for the group – and, indeed, for Western music – the single failed to reach number one in the UK, the first time this had occurred since Love Me Do in 1962.
Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever entered the charts on 23 February 1967, and climbed to number two. It was held off by Engelbert Humperdinck’s Release Me, and spent 11 weeks on the charts.
The failure to reach the top was because many chart compilers counted the double a-side as two individual releases; it did, in fact, outsell Release Me by nearly two to one. […]
From RollingStone, May 26, 2017:
[…] Upon its release on February 17th, 1967, the double-A-sided “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever” became the first Beatles single since 1962’s “Love Me Do” that failed to reach Number One in the United Kingdom. Adding insult to injury, it was blocked from the top spot by Engelbert Humperdinck’s overblown cover of the Forties chestnut “Release Me.” Martin believed the chart success was hampered by the fact that record compilers counted the two sides as individual entries, thus splitting the sales. In fact, the Beatles’ release outsold Humperdinck’s by nearly double. Still, Martin remained guilt-ridden for his part in breaking the so-called “roll” of Number Ones. “We would have sold far more and got higher up in the charts if we had issued one of those [songs] with, say, ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ on the back,” he later lamented. […]
From paulmccartney.com, May 25, 2017:
PMc: So another question we quite often see is, in hindsight, do you wish ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘Strawberry Fields’ had been included on the album? And if so, where would you have placed them?
PM: No, I was happy. So we won’t even get into placing them! I was happy that it was the precursor to ‘Sgt. Pepper’. And the thing was, you know, we always liked to release things fresh. We had just made those tracks, so the thought of waiting until we had completed the whole album would not have appealed to us. You know, we liked that as soon as it’s made, at the nearest point to the actual making of the song and the record, we would like to put it out. So I was glad how we did it and it was like a fanfare, that single. Another thing we liked about it was it was simple value for money. You really got two A-sides. But it kind of heralded what was to come.
Last updated on June 4, 2017
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