Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane

BEATLES RECORD

THE Beatles had recorded several tracks of their new LP at EMI’s Abbey Road studios in London by the end of last week. Brian Epstein told the MM: “Any track could be the next single, but it won’t necessarily come from the LP. The third track would make a great single for anyone else, but the next Beatles single must be supreme.” The record might be released in February. One rumoured title is “Strawberry Fields Forever”.

A Beatles TV spectacular is definitely being planned but no dates were available at press-time.

In America Sid Bernstein, who promoted the Beatles’ previous New York concerts, says the group has turned down a one million dollar offer for two shows at Shea Stadium this summer.

From Melody Maker – January 14, 1967

NEW BEATLES RECORD – You can buy it on Feb. 17

THE Beatles’ new single is “Strawberry Fields Forever” — as exclusively named in the MM two weeks ago. The other side (there is no A or B side) is “Penny Lane”. The single will be released on February 17. Both are Lennon-McCartney compositions.

The first 250,000 copies of the single will be sold in a colour presentation sleeve, specially prepared by EMI. This is the first Beatles single since “Eleanor Rigby” and “Yellow Submarine” was released on August 5 last year.

“Strawberry Fields Forever” is about a Liverpool reform school for girls. “Penny Lane” is the name of a road in the northern part of Liverpool — near the areas where John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison lived.

“Strawberry Fields Forever” is very much a John Lennon composition. It has none of the lyrical McCartneys qualities. It’s a medium tempo number and doesn’t tell a connected story in the way that Eleanor Rigby does. The words are rather bleak.

The group are continuing to work on their next LP and may do a TV spectacular based on the tracks on the album when it is released. No release date has been set.

The third Beatles feature film is still being discussed and no date for its start has been fixed. The shooting is held up because of difficulties over the script.

From Melody Maker – January 28, 1967

BEATLES: ‘Strawberry’ single all set

BEATLES’ new single, out on February 11, is “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane.” And for the first time since the Beatles began recording, it brings a Liverpool theme into their songs.

For both titles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, are derived from areas of Liverpool.

The single is a double A-side and was one of three planned for their next LP. Manager Brian Epstein told Disc and Music Echo this week: “I feel this is their best single to date.”

The Beatles will be featured on “Top Of The Pops” with special films planned by Swedish TV producer Peter Goldmann, who is flying into Britain specially to film the boys. The films will be distributed to various TV companies.

The first quarter of a million new Beatles singles pressed by EMI will be sent out in special coloured, pictorial sleeve.

Because the two tracks have been taken from the Beatles’ LP recordings, it has not been decided whether to include them on the album.

From Disc And Music Echo – January 28, 1967

BEATLES FINISH SINGLE

GEORGE HARRISON in full Indian gear, arrives at the EMI Studios in St John’s Wood, London watched by slightly startled fans in more conventional English clobber. The Beatles were in the studios to complete their new single “Strawberry Fields Forever” to be released on February 17.

From Melody Maker – February 4, 1967

Beatles new single being played in Cannes streets by French Radio Luxembourg van…

From Melody Maker – February 11, 1967

MOST WAY-OUT BEATLES EVER

CERTAINLY the most unusual and way-out single the Beatles have yet produced — both in lyrical content and scoring. Quite honestly, I don’t really know what to make of it.

The complex backing consists’ of flutes, cellos, harpsichord and weird effects — plus constantly changing tempos, including a startling glissando that sounds as if the disc’s slowing down. It builds to a bustling crescendo with crisp brass. Completely fascinating, a record that becomes more spellbinding with every play. John takes the lead on deep echo.

FLIP: By far the more commercial sounding of the two sides. Again the flutes and brass are prominent, but this one has a jaunty jogging rhythm, a catchy tune, some of those familiar Beatle falsettos, and a colourful lyric.

From New Musical Express – February 11, 1967

SCOOP OF THE WEEK! BEATLES:

I woke up with a tune on my mind and it was ‘Penny Lane’ – says MANFRED MANN

HERE it is! The Beatles new single! At the height of Monkeemania among fans and with the Stones’ every move hinged on controversy, once again John, Paul, George and Ringo look set to come crashing back to retrieve their pop crown.

“Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” – two new Lennon-McCartney compositions originally scheduled for the group’s next album – make up the double-sided single out next Friday (February 17).

It is their fourteenth release since the days of “Love Me Do” in October 1962.

Their last record, “Eleanor Rigby” / “Yellow Submarine”, which seems to have set the pattern for double A-side singles, held the top spot for a month. The question now, with so many new things happening in the chart, is whether they can do it again.

One person who thinks they can is MANFRED MANN, who reviewed the single for Disc and Music Echo at his Blackheath, London, home last weekend.

Says Manfred: “I’m glad I had the opportunity of hearing it more than once. In fact, Klaus had a copy soon after it was recorded and brought it round for me to hear.

The first time I heard “Penny Lane” I thought it was fairly pleasant – but it left me rather cold. Then I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night with a tune on my mind and realise it was “Penny Lane.”

It’s an excellent record. It has an obvious, more immediate appeal than the other side. It must be a success. Must be number one. The lyrics are good.

“Strawberry Fields” struck me at first as being manufactured and over-clever. Initially, I thought here are four guys trying to show they are not being left behind.

On second hearing the song seems to hand together a bit more. It’s very good. Basically a good melody. The way they record is brilliant. Everything here is so well thought out.

From Disc And Music Echo – February 11, 1967

BEATLES: NO TO JUKE BOX, YES TO TOP of POPS

BEATLES will NOT now appear in film clip on this Saturday’s “Juke Box Jury.” The BBC has turned down Brian Epstein’ request that the film should be used full-length with the playing time of the record.

Said Billy Cotton Jnr. assistant head of Light Entertainment: “Use of the film was conditional on our playing the whole of the record and we couldn’t guarantee to do this.”

The policy of “Juke Box Jury” has always been to play only a part of each record, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to play so many.

The clips will be available for use on regional TV pop shows if required.

Both sides of the Beatles’ new single “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” will, however, be heard on “Top Of The Pops” next Thursday – the eve of the release of the record. And the accompanying film will be seen.

Radio London claimed first airplay of “Penny Lane,” Radio City claimed first airplay of both sides of the single, BBC got special permission for advance plays… and on Monday Radio Scotland weighed in with the claim, by telegram to Disc And Music Echo:

“Radio Scotland first station to have ‘Penny Lane’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ by Beatles at No 1 in the chart.”

From Disc And Music Echo – February 11, 1967

BEATLES: EIGHT MORE AWARDS

THE Beatles’ new single “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” is released tomorrow (Friday), but at presstime EMI gave advance orders of 200,000 for the disc. The group, who were nominated this week for eight “Grammy” awards in America for “Eleanor Rigby”, “Michelle”, the “Revolver” album and the album’s cover, are still working on their next LP. Press officer Tony Barrow, told the MM: “The album will not be out before April and even that is not definite.”

There is still no date for the start of their third feature film, but it will probably start shooting by summer. Film clips of both sides of the new singles will be shown on Top Of The Pops tonight (Thursday).

From Melody Maker – February 18, 1967

MYSTERY OF THE BEATLE BABIES

THE first quarter of a million buyers of The Beatles’ new single will get a special coloured sleeve. On one side is a colour pic of The Beatles, in an ornate golden frame. They are all moustached and George has a beard as well.

The reverse side looks like a page from a family album and depicts four separate pix of four baby boys, all uncaptioned. The song titles, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever are also incorporated in the design. When asked why this particular motif, NEMS Press Officer, Tony Barrow, said that the childhood pix (all guaranteed genuine early Beatles) relate to Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields which were childhood haunts of John, Paul and Co. They are not identified because, Tony says, they hope everyone will have a lot of guesses before the correct captions are released. FAB-208 guesses that the small boy sitting bolt upright with a toy dog is John, it’s Paul in the pram, Ringo in the knitted jersey and George perched on a cushion. What say you? These pix have not been published before and the boys did a lot of rummaging before they came up with them.

From Fabulous208 – February 25, 1967

PENNY LANE REVISITED And some comments on the Beatles by the locals

“PENNY LANE?” I asked. “Ain’t dara new Beatles’ record?” the man asked back. “Yeah, yeah, it’s that as well,” I said. “But WHERE is it ” “What?” the man asked again. “Penny Lane — you know the place the song’s all about.” This time the man gave an answer. “Oh, dat… well gerra bus over dere and it’ll take yer right to it!” “Ta wack,” said I, lapsing into the vernacular — and, I made a Beatle-line for the bus stop.

Yes, I was in Liverpool to find out what it was all about. Of course, I’d heard of the Cavern, the Pier Head, Lime Street, even Knotty Ash… but Penny Lane? This was a new one on me. I figured: “Must be something special for the Beatles to sing about it.”

About twenty minutes later, the bus slowed down and the conductor shouted: “Penny Lane!” I felt a tremble of excitement. Man, this was really it! The bus dropped me at a shelter in the middle of a roundabout. “Seems familiar,” I thought as I looked around this suburban shopping centre where, sure enough, some of the things the Beatles sing about really CAN be found.

The suburban sky wasn’t exactly blue but there IS a barber’s shop and there IS a bank on the corner — in fact, there are TWO banks on two corners. I wondered whether I could trace the banker himself, who must by now be infamous to millions of disc-fans, but nobody seemed to be sure about him. But I had much more luck with the barbers shop. The owner, Mr. Bioletti, kindly broke off his lunch break to have a few words with me. He is a pleasant sort of man who was only too pleased to answer my questions.

Had he ever met the Beatles? — I asked, pointing to an autographed sleeve of their “Please Please Me” LP, on show in his office. “Well, John, George and Paul used to come in here for haircuts when they were kids — oh, about fourteen years ago.” “How about those autographs, then,” I asked, looking more closely at the record sleeve. “When did they sign them ?” At this, Mr. Bioletti looked a trifle embarrassed and explained that in fact the signatures were only those of his son, who WANTED to be a Beatle. “Oh well, he’s not the only one,” thought I.

Kids today want to be Beatles, not firemen. In fact, every fireman wants to be a Beatle, or so it seemed when I went up to the nearby fire station in Allerton Road to track down our hero-of-the-lyrics. “Is there a fireman here with a picture of the Queen in his pocket?” I asked at the door. “Better come in a minute,” said a fireman. I repeated my question to a whole group of firemen. “Very strange,” they said. “It could be Charlie — he’s that sort of bloke,” replied one. “Yeah, it’s gotta be him,” said another. I asked if good old Charlie was in. “No,” they said. “Never mind,” I said. “Did anyone know the Beatles?” “I know George’s parents,” said one, and another swore he used to live next door to Ringo Starr who apparently threw fireworks through his letterbox.

“Hot stuff,” I thought. So what did the firemen think of the Beatles’ new record? Their reactions varied from “fabulous” to “haven’t heard it.” Fireman Ken Jones agreed it was good but added: “They’re only singing rubbish. Let’s be honest.”

“Well, at least they keep their machines clean,” I thought, harking back to the lyrics in my mind. And the firemen slid down the pole…

From Record Mirror – March 4, 1967

BEATLES back at the top

THE Beatles released Engelbert Humperdinck from tenancy of the top of the MM’s Pop 50 with their double hit “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane”.

The group are working on their new album — a follow-up to their “Revolver” hit LP. Their A & R man George Martin told the MM: “We are working every night on the album from seven o’clock until two in the morning. It’s even more way out than ‘Revolver’.“

The LP, which is half completed, will not be released before April.

From Melody Maker – March 4, 1967

THEY HAD A GREAT RECORD, NO OBVIOUS OPPOSITION, BUT MISS THE TOP. WHY?

JEREMY WALSH TALKS OF THE REASONS BEHIND THE BEATLE MYSTERY

SO the Beatles didn’t reach number one with “Penny Lane”/“Strawberry Fields Forever” … so what? In terms of pop music, a world-shattering event? Or just something inevitable. The Beatles themselves must have been holding their breaths every time one of their discs was issued — even they, in all the full flush of success — unique success — couldn’t have been so conceited as to think the phenomenal string of top hits would be eternal.

Their first number one was “From Me To You”, their last “Eleanor Rigby”. In between they had blatant rockers like “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, “I Feel Fine”, songs for the Mums and Dads like “She Loves You”, songs for the kiddies like “Yellow Submarine”, songs which became rhythm and blues standards like “Day Tripper” and songs which had their own whimsical brand of introverted emotion, like “Help!” and “We Can Work It Out”. All brilliant songs.

And despite Engelbert Humperdinck getting the best ‘Beat The Beatles’ story of all it wasn’t really Engel-‘ bert’s mumsy “Release Me” that kept the Beatles off the top. It was the Beatles themselves. The Beatles, who have been the advocates of progressive pop are probably outrunning public tastes. After all how many people understood, or wanted to understand “Strawberry Fields Forever”, which must be the most pretentious record the normally sensible Beatles have ever recorded.

And “Penny Lane”, a clever pretty, catchy pop record, should have been about love, emotion, happiness, unhappiness, not about their home town which everyone thought they had disowned. It really is ridiculous that the group who have made so many BRILLIANT tracks, on singles or LP’s should release a relatively uncommercial single. Certainly, neither “Yellow Submarine” nor “Eleanor Rigby” was about love or emotion, nor “Paperback Writer” but they didn’t exactly sell like “She Loves You” or “Help”. I bet the next Beatle record will be about love, girls, emotion.

Also don’t say that the Monkees have anything to do with any falling off of Beatle success. Much as I like the Monkees TV show, the Beatles have more to offer, had more to offer and will have more to offer. When the Monkees write like “Yesterday”, “Eleanor Rigby” I’ll re-think about it.

Perhaps one reason that the Beatles sales are falling is the obvious loss — and inevitable loss — of youthful enthusiasm. No doubt the Beatles would laugh if anyone told them to inject youthful enthusiasm into their records, but if they could listen objectively to their earlier records (I don’t think they could) then they would see why they sold so many records. They sound as though they’re enjoying singing and playing, all the words are fresh and their voices are rough and undeniably appealing, and the enormous talent of the group is shining through. Now, their clever polished records have so much more happening, so many more subtleties and so much less youthfulness. And the Beatles market is still with young people. Jazz and classic and R&B and soul and rock fans will never ever buy their records — their songs maybe, by someone else.

I just hope that no one treats the Beatles failure to reach the top the same way as the Stones were treated with “Mother”. After all no one has the divine right to top the charts. Even when Elvis was the undisputed king of the record world between the years 1957-1962 loads of his records didn’t get to the top.

One last reason for any drop in Beatle popularity must be their lack of attention to their fans. They act, look, and probably talk with not much regard to their fans and although no one except their fans blames them, much fan-worship must have been switched to more attentive idols.

That’s all. But if you have any reasons why you think the Beatles didn’t get to the top, why not write and tell me and I’ll print your letters.

From Melody Maker – April 1, 1967