Penny Lane

The songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney was not just a partnership, but also a rivalry that slowly managed to increase in intensity over the years.  In late 1966, that rivalry was still friendly for the most part, and the two old chums were more likely to be cooperative rather than adversarial.  On some occasions, a composition that one of them wrote on his own would inspire the other to come up with something of equal merit.  Thus it was that Lennon's dreamy Strawberry Fields Forever, with its idyllic image of one of their childhood haunts, spurred McCartney on to write a tribute to the neighborhood of Penny Lane.  

Lennon's composition was largely an internal meditation on identity, one that only referred to its title locale obliquely.  McCartney, on the other hand, opted to write a piece about specific places and the characters who inhabited them.  Most of us think of it as a sunny song with its "blue suburban skies," but Tim Riley points out in his book Tell Me Why that the third line of every verse shifts into a minor key as the characters deal with the "pouring rain."  Then there is the verse about the pretty nurse, who, "though she feels as if she's in a play, she is anyway."  McCartney very subtly hints that under the shiny surface, things are not always what they seem.  "Very strange."

Riley states that Penny Lane is "as perfect as pop gets," and goes on to say that "McCartney's command of the 45 genre in this song is masterful," forgetting that neither this song nor Strawberry Fields Forever were written as singles.  Rather, they were both intended to be part of an album built around the concept of childhood.  Though that concept album was abandoned once these songs were selected for immediate release, the double-A sided single was issued in a picture sleeve with photos of the Beatles as children on one side.

In the book Here, There and Everywhere, engineer Geoff Emerick reveals that Paul was still heavily influenced by the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds at this time, and he told Geoff that he wanted a "clean American sound" for this song.  Emerick suggested that they record each instrument individually in order to achieve this, instead of the usual practice of having the band lay down a backing track onto which overdubs could be added.  The process became very complex as a result and was spread out over many days.

On December 29th, 1966, Paul began this process by recording six takes of the piano track.  He then recorded two more piano tracks, each with slight variations and different effects added to make them sound distinct.  He played a high-pitched harmonium on track four, most prominent at the very end of the song.  Along the way Ringo joined in playing  tambourine, and a sped-up drum roll and cymbals were also added.  On December 30th, these four tracks were reduced to a single track before overdubs continued with Paul's lead vocal and occasional backing vocals from John.

January 4th, 1967 saw John add yet another piano part as George played guitar and Paul double-tracked his vocal line.  On the 5th, Paul re-recorded his lead vocals.  On the 6th, Paul played bass, John added rhythm guitar and Ringo drums.  John also played conga drums!  Another reduction mix followed before John and producer George Martin added - you guessed it - even more piano.  Handclaps and scat singing by Paul, John and George of what would eventually become the brass part finished out the day's work.

For some reason, George Martin's arrangement was recorded by different sets of instruments on different days.  The first group of flutes, trumpets, piccolos and a fluegelhorn played their parts on January 9th.  In between, on the 10th, Ringo added tubular bells to the track at the two points where the fireman is mentioned.  On the 12th, more trumpets, oboes, cor anglais and a double bass finished recording Martin's arrangement.  At this session, Paul told Martin about a tiny trumpet he had seen on a television program the previous evening.  It turned out that Martin knew the player, David Mason, and that he played the piccolo trumpet in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto on the BBC program in question.

Though the track had probably been considered complete at this point, Paul could not resist the opportunity to add the piccolo trumpet to the mix, so Mason arrived at the studio on January 17th to apply the crowning touch.  Paul figured out the melody he wanted, Martin wrote it down and Mason nailed it in two takes.  

A mono mix was made and quickly sent along with the Strawberry Fields Forever mono mix to the US for the single release.  But Paul belatedly decided that he did not want the final little piccolo trumpet flourish at the end of the song, so a new mono mix was sent to the US on January 25th.  Promotional copies of the first mix had already been played on American radio.  These, of course, instantly became collector's items.

While Penny Lane became a number one hit in the US, it stalled at number two in the UK, unable to dislodge Engelbert Humperdinck's Release Me from the top spot.  At the end of the year, Capitol added it along with the other songs from 1967 singles to the Magical Mystery Tour album, although in mock stereo.  The first true stereo mix was created in 1971, and first heard only on the UK version of the Blue Album in 1973.  The US version of the album Rarities in 1980 finally used the true stereo mix and included the final trumpet flourish. 

Anthology 2 from 1996 presents a version of the song highlighting some elements buried in the final mix, especially a lovely brass instrumental section before David Mason's piccolo trumpet solo was added in its place.  50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper include the stripped down backing track of pianos, plus various voices and sound effects barely heard or not heard at all on the finished product.

Promotional films were made for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever at the time of the single's release.  To create the illusion that they were in Liverpool, a crew was dispatched to get some location shots of the Penny Lane district, but the Beatles were actually shot walking and riding white horses around Angel Lane in the east end of London.  The horses were used again around Knole Park near Sevenoaks in Kent, where another scene was shot of the boys around a dinner table in the park.  As was the case when the Beatles were placed on skis for the film Help!, they seem to have had no prior experience riding horses.  Oddly, John, not Paul, is the primary focus of the film.

The films were quickly edited and shown on various programs in the UK including Juke Box Jury and Top of the Pops.  In the US, they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand and ABC's variety show The Hollywood Palace.  These films were the first time that audiences saw the Beatles' new look with moustaches and beards, and reaction was definitely mixed.