We normally finished a song in about three hours, and can't ever remember coming away from a session without having a song. Author Christopher Sanford , who wrote the biography titled McCartney , says that even during the Beatles days, it was McCartney who was constantly pushing the group to find new sounds in the studio: ["Paul was the guy, I think, who was saying, 'Y'know, we can take this to a new direction.
We can try these instruments that have never been tried. Let's get George Martin to have an orchestra playing out of tune! The single was a global hit, with "Penny Lane" eventually topping the U. In Britain, the single was kept from the top spot by Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me," marking the first time since their debut single "Love Me Do" that the Beatles failed to top the charts in their homeland.
The single, which was the Beatles' first after retiring from touring, featured the first of many Beatles songs the group never got to perform live. Or do you simply want to leave a comment?
Please use the form below! Marilyn Longstaff 5 months ago. It's not a commercial venture. It's in a series of poems about hearing loss. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Overview Concerts Albums. Penina People Want Peace. Recording "Penny Lane" Jan 04, Recording "Penny Lane" Jan 05, Recording "Penny Lane" Jan 06, Recording "Penny Lane" Jan 09, Recording "Penny Lane" Jan 10, Recording "Penny Lane" Jan 12, Recording "Penny Lane" Jan 17, Mixing "Penny Lane" Jan 25, Mixing "Penny Lane" Sep 30, Mixing "Paul Is Live" July Her Majesty Officially appears on Abbey Road.
Mean Mr. Mustard Officially appears on Abbey Road. Penny Lane is believed to be named after James Penny, an 18th-century slave trader. The single was the result of the record company wanting a new release after several months of no new Beatles releases.
The song's title is derived from the name of a street near Lennon's childhood home for his first 5 years Newcastle Road, just off Church Road , in the band's hometown, Liverpool , England. McCartney and Lennon would meet at Penny Lane junction in the Princes Park area to catch a bus into the centre of the city. At the time, in the s, this was a significant bus terminus for several routes, and buses with "Penny Lane" displayed were common throughout Liverpool. The name Penny Lane is also used for the area that surrounds its junction with Smithdown Road , Smithdown Place where the terminus was located and Allerton Road, including a busy shopping area.
Penny Lane is sometimes said to be named after James Penny , an 18th-century slave trader. The street is an important landmark, sought out by many Beatles fans touring Liverpool. In the past, street signs saying "Penny Lane" were constant targets of tourist theft and had to be continually replaced. Eventually, city officials gave up and simply began painting the street name on the sides of buildings.
This practice was stopped in and more theft-resistant "Penny Lane" street signs have since been installed, although some are still stolen. Beatles producer George Martin has stated he believes the pairing of "Penny Lane" with "Strawberry Fields Forever" resulted in probably the greatest single ever released by the band.
In the UK, the pairing famously failed to reach No. Since the Beatles usually did not include songs released as singles on their British albums, both songs were left off the Sgt. This was also the first single by the Beatles to be sold with a picture sleeve in the UK, a practice rarely used there at that time, but common in the US and various other countries such as Japan. Production began in Studio 2 at Abbey Road on 29 December with piano as the main instrument. This is known as one of the few times the producer's decision overruled that of the already superstar Beatles.
Geoff Emerick also notes in his book that prior to this recording, the high "E" was considered unobtainable by trumpet musicians and has been expected of them since said performance on the record.
Mason was paid 27 pounds and 10 shillings for his performance on the recording. The second verse then commences which is also eight-measures in length as they all are. The drums kick in with a simple drum pattern at this point to complete the rhythm section of the song. Otherwise, this verse is instrumentally similar to the first verse throughout except for the final measure. All instruments stop at this point, leaving the fourth beat of this eighth measure open for Paul to highlight the song's title, which works nicely as a segue into the first chorus.
The first chorus is also eight-measures in length as they all are and features primarily multi-tracked piano, bass and drums. One of the overdubbed pianos, presumably the one played through a Vox amplifier with added reverb, is used to hold out chords on the downbeat of each measure. The third and fourth measure bring in harmonized trumpets to fill in the space left in the vocals. However, there are no chirping flutes in the first three measures this time, a single flute playing held out notes in the first and third measures instead.
The fourth and sixth measures also feature a solo flute, each of these measures containing a triplet to fill in the gaps left by Paul's vocals; measure four having a descending triplet and measure six having an ascending triplet.
A tambourine is added for this verse as well, accented on the two and four beat of every measure. The tambourine disappears for this verse, but is replaced by John's conga drum playing. Ringo opens up the presence of this verse by riding on the cymbal instead of the hi-hat.
And, of course, the most prominent feature of this verse is the superbly performed piccolo trumpet solo by David Mason, with his high-note climax heard on the third of the three note drum accents as repeated from the second verse.
The second chorus then follows which mimics the previous chorus rather closely. Differences include the sound effects sped up drum rolls? The cor anglais English Horn then hits a single high note that is held for the seventh and eighth measures.
Otherwise the general instrumentation is the same as the third verse. The sixth and final verse then commences, which still includes the tambourine and the staccato trumpets in the first six measures. The bowed double-bass comes in on the third measure with a descending line that holds out its final note throughout the entire fourth measure.
The third chorus is then heard which is quite similar to the first chorus but with the trumpets playing a different pattern throughout. David Mason here returns with a simple quarter-note melody line in the third and fourth measures. The fourth and final chorus is different from the rest in that it raises its key. A piccolo plays the melody line in unison with Paul's lead vocals in the main body of the entire chorus this time around. The tambourine also appears here, the only time it's been played in a chorus.
David Mason's piccolo trumpet appears again with a rather complicated line in the third and fourth measures, and then a simpler one in the seventh and eighth measures. To finish off the last measure, Paul repeats the song's title, this evolving into the final chord of the song. This final chord prominently features the highly reverberated piano played through a Vox amplifier, the high pitched squeal of Paul's harmonium, and Ringo's rapid-fire cymbal work, all three of these elements from the original four-track tape.
Regarding the high pitched squeal, Paul explained in "McCartney 3,2,1": "Anyone else would go, 'oh, that's feedback, let's get rid of it. But with us, it's, 'No, it sounds good, y'know, it's great, that's fine, y'know. Nonetheless, after three tape reductions, what is heard was arranged meticulously and breathtakingly performed.
Paul takes center stage with great vocal work, bass, harmonium, piano, piano and piano. We can hear John's piano two overdubs , conga drums, and harmony vocals done flawlessly.
Ringo's drums, tambourine and percussion overdubs work beautifully with the song as well. American Releases. Around the first week of February, , the "promotion record" disc of "Penny Lane," backed with " Strawberry Fields Forever ," was distributed to radio stations around the US. This is mentioned separately from its release for the general public because of the unique mix of "Penny Lane" contained on this disc.
As mentioned above, Capitol Records initially received an early mix of the song that contained a concluding piccolo trumpet flourish from David Mason, something that was later decided to be left off. Since a stereo mix did not exist at that time, the stereo copies of the album contained a mock stereo mix created from the mono mix, as described above.
The vinyl version of this album continued to be reissued in the US throughout the years, while it got its first CD release on September 21st, , with a true stereo mix now in place. The CD was then remastered and re-released on September 9th, Sometime in , Capitol released Beatles music on a new but short-lived format called " Playtapes. These Playtapes are highly collectable today. When this album was first released on CD on September 20th, , the true stereo mix was finally included.
This album was then remastered and re-released on August 10th, As indicated above, Capitol created a new and unique mix of the song by combining the stereo mix which US audiences hadn't heard yet up to this point with the piccolo trumpet conclusion as heard on the promotion copies of the US single. This was manufactured by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in Chatsworth, California and was part of their " Original Master Recording " series, which prepared its albums utilizing half-speed mastering technology from the original master tapes.
In this case, however, they leased the master tape from EMI in the UK, not realizing that this was a second generation master tape originally supplied by Capitol Records in America. Nonetheless, this edition of the album was only available for a short time and is quite collectible today.
In September of , it also received a remastered release, and then a newly mixed version was released on November 6th, Pepper " album were released, most of which included the excellent newly mixed stereo version of "Penny Lane" as a bonus track. Live Performances.
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