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Toppermost of the Poppermost - UK Number Ones : part 2 - The 1960s

Started by daf, June 12, 2019, 01:55:00 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
Quote from: bigfatheart on February 17, 2020, 03:48:27 PM
56 weeks on the chart is fucking mad. Who, a year and four weeks after the song's release, was finally just deciding that yeah, you know what, I will go out and buy that turgid dross?

Buying it for their mothers' birthdays?

daf

QuotePlease release me, let me go,
For I don't love you anymore.
To live a lie would be a sin.
Release me and let me love again.

Happy Birthday Mum!

daf

Calm down Ringo!, it's . . .

230b. (MM 179.)  The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever



From : 4-24 March 1967
Weeks : 3
Double A-side : The Beatles - Penny Lane
Bonus 1 : Promo Film
Bonus 2 : The Beatles Cartoon

The Story So Far :  September - December 1966
QuoteOn 18 September 1966, John Lennon travelled to Carboneras in Spain to film How I Won The War for director Richard Lester.

Based on a novel by a man named Lear Patrick Ryan, the film stars Michael Crawford as bungling British Army Officer Lieutenant Earnest Goodbody, with John Lennon, in his only non-musical role, as Musketeer Gripweed, and Roy Kinnear as Musketeer Clapper. The film uses an inconsistent variety of styles—vignette, straight-to-camera, and, extensively, parody of the war film genre, docu-drama, and popular war literature—to tell the story of 3rd Troop, the 4th Musketeers (a fictional regiment reminiscent of the Royal Fusiliers and the Household Cavalry) and their misadventures in the Second World War.

This is told in the comic/absurdist vein throughout, a central plot being the setting-up of an "Advanced Area Cricket Pitch" behind enemy lines in North Africa, but it is all broadly based on the Western Desert Campaign in mid-late 1942 and the crossing of the last intact bridge on the Rhine at Remagen in early 1945.



Filming took place during the autumn of 1966 in the German state of Lower Saxony, at the Bergen-Hohne Training Area, Verden an der Aller and Achim [bless you!], as well as the Province of Almería in Spain.

To prepare for the role, Lennon had his hair cut down, contrasting sharply with his mop-top image. During filming, he started wearing round "granny-like" glasses, which he continued to sport nearly constantly for the remainder of his life, becoming one of his most distinctive trademarks. A photo of Lennon in character as Gripweed found its way into many print publications, including the front page of the first issue of Rolling Stone, in November 1967.

     

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The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein had been suffering from depression and anxiety for some time, a condition exacerbated by his use of drugs – both prescribed and illegal. His anxiety had heightened following The Beatles decision to stop touring, which left Epstein with less involvement in their careers. Each member was undertaking individual projects in the late summer of 1966, and he had intended to join John Lennon in Spain on the set of How I Won The War.

On Monday 26 September 1966, he was hospitalised in a London clinic. The official given reason was that it was a check-up, although it later transpired that he had overdosed on prescribed drugs.  As a result, he was forced to cancel his visit to Spain in order to recuperate.

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On Tuesday 4 October, Lennon was joined by Ringo Starr and his wife Maureen, who stayed until after Lennon's 26th birthday on 9 October.

Ringo : "Towards the end of 1966, with John being in Spain filming How I Won the War, I went and hung out with him because he was lonely. We really supported each other a lot. Maureen and I decided to go out and stay with Michael Crawford, who was with John in the film, and every five or six days we would move house. All of us were living in the same house and there was always something wrong with it – that was the most boring part about it, and it was damn hot."

The film was later released in October 1967 as an X certificate - which caused problems for some of the Beatles younger fans hoping to catch a glimpse of Lennon's stringy 'Gripweed' in action.

   

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On Sunday 6 November 1966, having completed his work on 'How I Won The War', John Lennon returned to London with his wife Cynthia. He had been in Spain for seven weeks, initially staying at a small seafront apartment but later moving to a villa, Santa Isabel, near Almería.

 

The same day, Paul McCartney flew to France on a plane-ferry from Lydd airport in Kent, England. The intention was to take a driving holiday. In order to escape the attention of The Beatles' fans, McCartney wore a disguise, although his brand new dark green Aston Marton DB5 was enough to attract the attention of even the least observant bystander.

Paul : "I was pretty proud of the car. It was a great motor for a young guy to have, pretty impressive."

   

McCartney donned his disguise after passing through French customs. Wig Creations, the film cosmetic company used by The Beatles on 'A Hard Day's Night', had made him a moustache to wear.

Paul : "They measure you and match the colour of your hair, so it was like a genuine moustache with real glue. And I had a couple of pairs of glasses made with clear lenses, which just made me look a bit different. I put a long blue overcoat on and slicked my hair back with Vaseline and just wandered around and of course nobody recognised me at all. It was good, it was quite liberating for me."

McCartney planned to drive to Paris before heading south to Bordeaux, where he had arranged to meet Mal Evans under the clock on the Saint-Eloi church on 12 November 1966. They then intended to follow the Loire river from Orleans.

Paul : "It was an echo of the trip John and I made to Paris for his twenty-first birthday, really. I'd cruise, find a hotel and park. I parked away from the hotel and walked to the hotel. I would sit up in my room and write my journal, or take a little bit of movie film. I'd walk around the town and then in the evening go down to dinner, sit on my own at the table, at the height of all this Beatle thing, to ease the pressure, to balance the high-key pressure. Having a holiday and also not be recognised. And re-taste anonymity. Just sit on my own and think all sorts of artistic thoughts like, I'm on my own here, I could be writing a novel, easily. What about these characters here in this room?"

Out of the recording studio, he was keen to experiment with his film camera.

Paul : "Kodak 8 mm was the one, because it came on a reel. Once it became Super-8 on a cartridge you couldn't do anything with it, you couldn't control it. I liked to reverse things. I liked to reverse music and I found that you could send a film through the camera backwards. Those very early cameras were great. If you take a film and run it through a camera once, then you rewind it and run it through again, you get two images, superimposed. But they're very washed out, so I developed this technique where I ran it through once at night and only photographed points of light, like very bright reds, and that would be all that would be on the first pass of the film. It would be like on black velvet, red, very red. I used to do it in my car so it was car headlights and neon signs, the green of a go sign, the red of a stop, the amber.

"The next day, when it was daylight, I would go and shoot and I had this film that was a combination of these little points of light that were on a 'black velvet' background and daylight. My favourite was a sequence of a leaning cross in a cemetery. I turned my head and zoomed in on it, so it opened just with a cross, bingo, then as I zoomed back out, you could see the horizon was tilted at a crazy angle. And as I did it, I straightened up. That was the opening shot, then I cut to an old lady, facing away from me, tending the graves. A fat old French peasant who had stockings halfway down her legs and was revealing a lot of her knickers, turning away, so it was a bit funny or a bit gross maybe. She was just tending a grave so, I mean, I didn't need to judge it. I just filmed it. So the beautiful thing that happened was from the previous night's filming. There she is tending a grave and you just see a point of red light appear in between her legs and it just drifts very slowly like a little fart, or a little spirit or something, in the graves. And then these other lights just start to trickle around, and it's like Disney, it's like animation!

"One thing I'd learned was that the best thing was to hold one shot. I was a fan of the Andy Warhol idea, not so much of his films but I liked the cheekiness of Empire, the film of the Empire State Building, I liked the nothingness of it. So I would do a bit of that."

 

McCartney's journal was later lost, as was his film of his trip. Sadly, some of the reels were later stolen by fans who broke into his home on Cavendish Avenue, London.

Paul : "There were some sequences I loved: there was a Ferris wheel going round, but you couldn't quite tell what it was. And I was looking out of the hotel window in one French city and there was a gendarme on traffic duty. There was lot of traffic coming this way, then he'd stop 'em, and let them all go. So the action for ten minutes was a gendarme directing the traffic: lots of gestures and getting annoyed. He was a great character, this guy. I ran it all back and filmed all the cars again, it had been raining so there was quite low light in the street. So in the film he was stopping cars but they were just going through his body like ghosts. It was quite funny. Later, as the soundtrack I had Albert Ayler playing the 'Marseillaise'. It was a great little movie but I don't know what happened to it."

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On Monday 7 November 1966, the day before her exhibition Unfinished Paintings And Objects was to open, Japanese artist Yoko Ono was introduced to John Lennon for the first time.

John : "That old gang of mine. That's all over. When I met Yoko is when you meet your first woman and you leave the guys at the bar and you don't go play football anymore and you don't go play snooker and billiards. Maybe some guys like to do it every Friday night or something and continue that relationship with the boys, but once I found the woman, the boys became of no interest whatsoever, other than they were like old friends. You know: 'Hi, how are you? How's your wife?' That kind of thing. You know the song: 'Those wedding bells are breaking up that old gang of mine.' Well, it didn't hit me till whatever age I was when I met Yoko, which was twenty-six. Nineteen sixty-six we met, but the full impact didn't... we didn't get married till '68, was it? It all blends into one bleeding movie! But whatever, that was it. The old gang of mine was over the moment I met her. I didn't consciously know it at the time, but that's what was going on. As soon as I met her, that was the end of the boys, but it so happened that the boys were well known and weren't just the local guys at the bar."

 

The exhibition was held at the Indica Gallery, in the basement of the Indica Bookshop in Mason's Yard, Mayfair, London. The Indica was co-owned by John Dunbar, Peter Asher and Barry Miles, and was supported in its early years by Paul McCartney.

John : "There was a sort of underground clique in London; John Dunbar, who was married to Marianne Faithfull, had an art gallery in London called Indica, and I'd been going around to galleries a bit on me off days in between records, also to a few exhibitions in different galleries that showed sort of unknown artists or underground artists. I got the word that this amazing woman was putting on a show the next week, something about people in bags, in black bags, and it was going to be a bit of a happening and all that. So I went to a preview the night before it opened. I went in – she didn't know who I was or anything – and I was wandering around. There were a couple of artsy-type students who had been helping, lying around there in the gallery, and I was looking at it and was astounded. There was an apple on sale there for two hundred quid; I thought it was fantastic – I got the humor in her work immediately. I didn't have to have much knowledge about avant-garde or underground art, the humor got me straightaway. There was a fresh apple on a stand – this was before Apple – and it was two hundred quid to watch the apple decompose.

"But there was another piece that really decided me for-or-against the artist: a ladder which led to a painting which was hung on the ceiling. It looked like a black canvas with a chain with a spyglass hanging on the end of it. This was near the door when you went in. I climbed the ladder, you look through the spyglass and in tiny little letters it says 'yes'. So it was positive. I felt relieved. It's a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn't say 'no' or 'fuck you' or something, it said 'yes'."

   

Another piece was 'Play It By Trust' aka 'White Chess Set', which carried the instructions: Play it for as long as you can remember who is your opponent and who is your own self. There was also 'Painting To Hammer A Nail In', a hammer attached to a block, into which people were invited to hammer nails.

John : "Then I went up to this thing that said, 'Hammer a nail in.' I said, 'Can I hammer a nail in?' and she said no, because the gallery was actually opening the next day. So the owner, Dunbar, says, 'Let him hammer a nail in.' It was, 'He's a millionaire. He might buy it,' you know. She's more interested in it looking nice and pretty and white for the opening. That's why she never made any money on the stuff; she's always too busy protecting it! So there was this little conference and she finally said, 'OK, you can hammer a nail in for five shillings.' So smart-ass here says, 'Well, I'll give you an imaginary five shillings and hammer an imaginary nail in.' And that's when we really met. That's when we locked eyes and she got it and I got it and that was it."

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On Saturday 12 November 1966, one week after beginning his road trip across France, Paul McCartney had a rendezvous with The Beatles' roadie Mal Evans in Bordeaux. Prior to meeting Evans, McCartney spent the night in a Bordeaux club. Wearing the moustache and glasses disguise he had prepared to allow him to travel incognito, the club staff wouldn't let him in.

Paul : "I looked like old jerko. 'No, no, monsieur, non' – you schmuck, we can't let you in! So I thought, Sod this, I might as well go back to the hotel and come as him! So I came back as a normal Beatle, and was welcomed in with open arms. I thought, Well, it doesn't matter if I've blown my cover because I'm going to meet Mal anyway, I don't have to keep the disguise any longer. Actually, by the time of the club I'd sort of had enough of it. Which was good. It was kind of therapeutic but I'd had enough. It was nice because I remembered what it was like to not be famous and it wasn't necessarily any better than being famous. It made me remember why we all wanted to get famous; to get that thing. Of course, those of us in the Beatles have often thought that, because we wished for this great fame, and then it comes true but it brings with it all these great business pressures or the problems of fame, the problems of money, et cetera. And I just had to check whether I wanted to go back, and I ended up thinking, No, all in all, I'm quite happy with this lot."

McCartney met Evans at the Saint-Eloi catholic church, on Rue Saint-James in Bordeaux.

Paul : "We met up, exactly as planned, under the church clock. He was there. I figured I'd had enough of my own company by then. I had enjoyed it, it had been a nice thing. Then we drove down into Spain but we got to Madrid and we didn't know anyone; the only way would have been to go to a club and start making contacts. So we thought, This is not going to be any fun, and rang the office in London, and booked ourselves a safari trip."

The pair drove from Bordeaux to Spain, making films on their journey. They had hoped to meet John Lennon in Almería, but filming for 'How I Won The War' had ended and he had returned to England. Instead they decided on a safari holiday and flew to Kenya. McCartney arranged to meet his girlfriend Jane Asher there, and in Seville had someone drive his Aston Martin DB5 back to London.

McCartney and Evans flew from Seville to Madrid, and from there to Nairobi. They had a 10-hour stopover in Rome, during which they did some sightseeing. Upon their arrival in Kenya they toured Ambosali Park, overlooked by Mount Kilimanjaro, and stayed at the Treetop Hotel, the royal family's Kenyan base.

 

On Saturday 19 November 1966, on the flight back to London from Nairobi, McCartney had the idea for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Paul : "We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top boys approach. We were not boys, we were men. It was all gone, all that boy shit, all that screaming, we didn't want any more, plus, we'd now got turned on to pot and thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers. There was now more to it; not only had John and I been writing, George had been writing, we'd been in films, John had written books, so it was natural that we should become artists.

"Then suddenly on the plane I got this idea. I thought, Let's not be ourselves. Let's develop alter egos so we're not having to project an image which we know. It would be much more free. What would really be interesting would be to actually take on the personas of this different band. We could say, 'How would somebody else sing this? He might approach it a bit more sarcastically, perhaps.' So I had this idea of giving the Beatles alter egos simply to get a different approach; then when John came up to the microphone or I did, it wouldn't be John or Paul singing, it would be the members of this band. It would be a freeing element. I thought we can run this philosophy through the whole album: with this alter-ego band, it won't be us making all that sound, it won't be the Beatles, it'll be this other band, so we'll be able to lose our identities in this.

"Me and Mal often bantered words about, which led to the rumour that he thought of the name Sergeant Pepper, but I think it would be much more likely that it was me saying, 'Think of names.' We were having our meal and they had those little packets marked 'S' and 'P'. Mal said, 'What's that mean? Oh, salt and pepper.' We had a joke about that. So I said, 'Sergeant Pepper,' just to vary it, 'Sergeant Pepper, salt and pepper,' an aural pun, not mishearing him but just playing with the words. Then, 'Lonely Hearts Club', that's a good one. There's lot of those about, the equivalent of a dating agency now. I just strung those together rather in the way that you might string together Dr Hook and the Medicine Show. All that culture of the sixties going back to those travelling medicine men, Gypsies, it echoed back to the previous century really.

"I just fantasised, well, 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. That'd be crazy enough because why would a Lonely Hearts Club have a band? If it had been Sergeant Pepper's British Legion Band, that's more understandable. The idea was to be a little more funky, that's what everybody was doing. That was the fashion. The idea was just take any words that would flow. I wanted a string of those things because I thought that would be a natty idea instead of a catchy title. People would have to say, 'What?' We'd had quite a few pun titles – Rubber Soul, Revolver – so this was to get away from all that."

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On Sunday 27 November 1966, John Lennon filmed a second appearance on the comedy television show Not Only... But Also.

Lennon played the role of Dan, a doorman at the fictional nightclub Ad Lav. The name was a spoof on the Ad Lib Club, a venue often frequented by The Beatles and other leading showbusiness personalities of the mid-1960s. Lennon wore a uniform complete with top hat and gloves, and for perhaps the first time in public wore the wire-framed granny glasses that would soon become his trademark.

   

The 51-second sketch was filmed early in the morning on London's Broadwick Street, beside the entrance to the underground men's toilet on the corner of Hopkins Street. It also featured Peter Cook as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The edition of 'Not Only... But Also' featuring the sketch was first shown on BBC One on 26 December 1966 at 9pm.

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On Sunday 18 December 1966, Paul McCartney and Jane Asher attended the première of the film The Family Way at London's Warner Cinema. The film's soundtrack had been written by McCartney and scored by George Martin.

Paul : "If you are blessed with the ability to write music, you can turn your hand to various forms. I've always admired people for whom it's a craft – the great songwriting partners of the past, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, or Cole Porter. I've admired the fact that they can write a musical and they can do a film score. So film scores were an interesting diversion for me, and with George Martin being able to write and orchestrate – and being pretty good at it – I got an offer through the Boulting Brothers for him and me to do some film music for The Family Way."

     

Paul : "I had a look at the film and though it was great. I still do. It's very powerful and emotional – soppy, but good for its time. I wanted brass-band music; because with The Beatles we got into a lot of different kinds of music, but maybe brass band was a little too Northern and 'Hovis'. I still loved it. My dad had played trumpet and his dad had been in a brass band, so I had those leanings. For the film I got something together that was sort of 'brassy bandy', to echo the Northernness of the story, and I had a great time. We got an Ivor Novello Award for the score – for the best film song that year, a piece called 'Love In The Open Air', which Johnny Mercer was nearly going to put lyrics to, but I didn't know who he was. Later I realised, 'Oh, that Johnny Mercer! You mean the greatest lyricist on the planet!' I should have done that. Never mind – it fell through – but it was good fun doing the music."

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On Tuesday 20 December 1966, with speculation mounting about The Beatles' future, the group appeared to take part in interviews for the UK weekly television series Reporting '66, made by Independent Television News. Each member of the group was interviewed by ITN reporter John Edwards outside EMI Studios prior to their evening recording session, and discussed how they were working on new material. They all sported moustaches apart from George Harrison, who had a full beard.

The first to arrive was John Lennon, carrying a number of LPs. He explained that The Beatles may focus on individual projects in 1967, but relations within the group were good and they intended to continue working together. He also explained that The Beatles were unlikely to tour again but that he and Paul McCartney would continue writing songs "for ever".



McCartney and Mal Evans were the next to arrive. McCartney explained more about The Beatles' frustration with touring, saying it had affected their ability to perform well. Harrison's contribution was the briefest. He ran up the steps to the studio, unwilling to answer any questions apart from a brief denial that The Beatles were splitting up.

Ringo was the last to arrive, and was accompanied by Neil Aspinall. He also spoke for the longest, explaining that The Beatles had no interest in repeating past successes, and that a future group film would be postponed until they found a suitable script. He did, however, say he may consider making a film without the others. Starr also denied that he was bored with being in The Beatles, and wished viewers a merry Christmas before signing autographs for waiting fans. The interview was first shown on 28 December 1966.
The Single :
Quote"Strawberry Fields Forever" was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. While the song initially divided and confused music critics and the group's fans, it proved highly influential on the emerging psychedelic genre. The song's working title was "It's Not Too Bad".



Lennon began writing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in Almería, Spain, during the filming of Richard Lester's How I Won the War in September–October 1966. The Beatles had just retired from touring after one of the most difficult periods of the band's career, which included the "more popular than Jesus" controversy and being the target of mob violence in reaction to their unintentional snubbing of Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos. 

John : "Dick Lester offered me the part in this movie, which gave me time to think without going home. We were in Almerí­a, and it took me six weeks to write the song. I was writing it all the time I was making the film. And as anybody knows about film work, there's a lot of hanging around. I have an original tape of it somewhere. Of how it sounded before it became the sort of psychedelic-sounding song it became on record."



Lennon had rented a villa called Santa Isabel, whose wrought-iron gates and surrounding lush vegetation bore a resemblance to the gates of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children's home near Lennon's childhood home in Woolton. He based the song on his childhood memories of playing in the garden.

Paul : "I've seen Strawberry Field described as a dull, grimy place next door to him that John imagined to be a beautiful place, but in the summer it wasn't dull and grimy at all: it was a secret garden. John's memory of it wasn't to do with the fact that it was a Salvation Army home; that was up at the house. There was a wall you could bunk over and it was a rather wild garden, it wasn't manicured at all, so it was easy to hide in."

With his childhood friends Pete Shotton, Nigel Walley and Ivan Vaughan, Lennon would roam the grounds of Strawberry Field. Additionally, each summer there would be a garden party held in the grounds, which he especially looked forward to.

Aunt Mimi : "There was something about the place that always fascinated John. He could see it from his window. As soon as we could hear the Salvation Army band starting, John would jump up and down, and he would pull me along, shouting, 'Mimi, come on. We're going to be late.'"



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As with his Revolver compositions "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "She Said She Said", "Strawberry Fields Forever" was informed by Lennon's experiences with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which caused him to question his identity and seek to dissolve his ego. Through the lens of LSD, however, the song song turned from simple nostalgia into inward reflection. Lennon's self doubt came to the fore, at times clouded by inarticulacy and hallucinogenic sensations. He later described Strawberry Fields Forever, along with Help!, as "one of the few true songs I ever wrote... They were the ones I really wrote from experience and not projecting myself into a situation and writing a nice story about it."

John : "The second line goes, 'No one I think is in my tree.' Well, what I was trying to say in that line is 'Nobody seems to be as hip as me, therefore I must be crazy or a genius.' It's the same problem as I had when I was five: 'There is something wrong with me because I seem to see things other people don't see. Am I crazy, or am I a genius?' ... What I'm saying, in my insecure way, is 'Nobody seems to understand where I'm coming from. I seem to see things in a different way from most people.'"

On the first Almería recording, the song had no chorus and only one verse, beginning: "There's no one on my wavelength / I mean, it's either too high or too low". Lennon revised these words to make them more obscure, then wrote the melody and part of the lyrics to the chorus. After returning to England in early November, he added another verse and the mention of Strawberry Fields.

 

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The Beatles began recording "Strawberry Fields Forever" on 24 November 1966. It was the band's first recording session since completing Revolver, in June, and was also the Beatles' first group activity since the end of their disastrous final US tour in August. The previous month, Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, had informed EMI that the band would not be releasing any new music for the Christmas market. On 10 November, newspapers reported that there would be no further concert tours by the Beatles. The band's lack of activity and their highly publicised individual pursuits since September was interpreted by the press as a sign that the band were on the verge of splitting up.

George : "I came back to England towards the end of October and John got back from Spain. It was all predetermined when we'd meet again. Then we went in the studio and recorded 'Strawberry Fields'. I think at that point there was a more profound ambience to the band."

John : "I was never so glad to see the others. Seeing them made me feel normal again."

Together with "Penny Lane" and "When I'm Sixty-Four", "Strawberry Fields Forever" established the theme for the early part of the Sgt. Pepper project – namely, a nostalgic look back at the band members' childhoods in northern England. McCartney has said that this was never planned or formalised as an album-wide concept, but acknowledged that it served as a "device" or underlying theme throughout the project.



After recording the second version of the song, Lennon wanted to do something different with it.

George Martin : "He'd wanted it as a gentle dreaming song, but he said it had come out too raucous. He asked me if I could write him a new line-up with the strings. So I wrote a new score (with four trumpets and three cellos) ..."

The session for Martin's brass and cello arrangement took place on 15 December. After reviewing the acetates of the new remake and the previous version, Lennon told Martin that he liked both the "original, lighter" Take 7 and "the intense, scored version" [Take 26], and wanted to combine the two.

Martin had to tell Lennon that the orchestral score was at a faster tempo and in a higher key than the earlier recording. Lennon assured him: "You can fix it, George."

On 22 December, Martin and Geoff Emerick carried out the difficult task of joining takes 7 and 26 together. With only a pair of editing scissors, two tape machines and a vari-speed control, Emerick compensated for the differences in key and speed by increasing the speed of the first version and decreasing the speed of the second. He then spliced the versions, starting the orchestral score in the middle of the second chorus. Since take 7 did not include a chorus after the first verse, he also spliced in the first seven words of the second chorus from that take.

During the editing process, the portion towards the end of take 26 was faded out temporarily, creating a false ending. On the completed take from 15 December, however, the swarmandal and other sounds were interrupted by the abrupt entrance of the coda's heavy drum and percussion piece. The premature fade-out was George Martin's idea - to hide some errors in the busy percussion track.

Among the faintly audible comments over the coda, "Cranberry sauce" was taken to be Lennon intoning "I buried Paul" by proponents of the "Paul is Dead" hoax, a theory that contended that McCartney had died in November 1966 and been replaced in the Beatles by a lookalike.

 

The band spent 45 hours in the studio, spread over five weeks, creating three versions of the track. The final recording combined two of those versions, which were entirely different in tempo, mood and musical key. It was the most complex recording the Beatles had attempted up to this point

Although the main song was written in 1966, Lennon may have already worked out some of the musical ideas a couple of years earlier - as seen in a film clip from February 1964, which appears to show Lennon in a hotel room playing the intro melody on a melodica.

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By January 1967, Epstein was under pressure from the Beatles' record company to release a new single by the group. Martin told him that they had recorded "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", which, in his opinion, were "two all-time great songs". The decision was made to issue them as a double A-side single, a format the Beatles had used for their previous single, "Eleanor Rigby" / "Yellow Submarine", in August 1966. 

Work began on the promotional films on 30 January 1967. The films were both produced by Tony Bramwell for Subafilms, and were shot on colour 35mm film by a crew from London-based Don Long Productions.

The Swedish director was Peter Goldmann, who had been recommended by Klaus Voormann. Goldmann had arrived in England in early January and looked for suitable locations in London and elsewhere. The first location he decided upon was in Knole Park in Sevenoaks, Kent, owned by the National Trust.

The film for Strawberry Fields Forever was the first to be shot. A number of sequences were shot around a dead oak tree near the park's birdhouse. The Beatles had intended to film a sequence in which Paul McCartney dropped down from a dead oak tree, but poor light meant it was not possible on the first day. That sequence, and several others, was filmed on 31 January, which saw the completion of of the shoot. 

 


In the final edit, the sequence was reversed so it looked as though McCartney leaped into the tree. The planned sequence involved him jumping from the tree and running backwards towards a piano.

During a break in the filming John Lennon bought a circus poster dating from 1843 in an antique shop. The poster, which advertised a circus in Rochdale, subsequently provided the inspiration for the song Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!.

The clip presented the Beatles' new group image, since all four now sported moustaches, following Harrison's lead when he left for India in September 1966. In addition, Lennon wore his round "granny" glasses for the first time as a member of the Beatles. Combined with their psychedelic clothing, the band's appearance contrasted sharply with the youthful "moptop" image of their touring years.

The films were first broadcast in America on The Ed Sullivan Show and in Britain on Top of the Pops, a day before the respective release dates in those two countries. On 25 February, they aired on The Hollywood Palace, a traditional US variety program hosted by actor Van Johnson, who introduced "Strawberry Fields Forever" with the bemused  comment: "It's a musical romp through an open field with psychedelic overtones and a feeling of expanded consciousness ... If you know what that means, let me know ..."

On 11 March 1967, American Bandstand showed the promos for both songs and quizzed the teenage audience on their reaction to Beatles "weird" new songs and appearance.

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In Britain, "Strawberry Fields Forever" / "Penny Lane" was the first Beatles single since "Please Please Me" in 1963 to fail to reach number 1 on Record Retailer's chart. The single was held at number 2 behind Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me", even though the Beatles record sold considerably more. This was due to the practice on some charts to only count the sales of the best-selling side of a double A-side - meaning the record's overall sales were effectively halved. However, on the national chart compiled by Melody Maker magazine, the single topped the "Pop 50" chart for three weeks in March 1967.

 

Paul : "It's fine if you're kept from being number one by a record like Release Me, because you're not trying to do the same kind of thing. That's a completely different scene altogether."

In the US, "Penny Lane" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, while "Strawberry Fields Forever" peaked at number 8. Following the speculation that the Beatles were due to disband, their failure to secure the number 1 spot was trumpeted in the UK press as a sign that the group's popularity was declining.

Tony Bramwell : "The reaction when you played "Strawberry Fields" to people was weird ... "Penny Lane" was a bit Beatley; "Strawberry Fields" really wasn't."

Among contemporary reviews of the single, Melody Maker said that the combination of musical instruments, studio techniques and vocal effect on "Strawberry Fields Forever" created a "swooping, deep, mystic kaleidoscope of sound", and concluded, "The whole concept shows the Beatles in a new, far-out light."

The NME's Derek Johnson confessed to being both fascinated and confused by the track, writing: "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."

Time magazine hailed the song as : "the latest sample of the Beatles' astonishing inventiveness", and that : "Since 1963, The Beatles have developed into the single most creative force in pop music. Wherever they go, the pack follows. And where they have gone in recent months, not even their most ardent supporters would ever have dreamed of. They have bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical, mixing elements of Bach, Oriental and electronic music with vintage twang to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music."

Mark Lindsay of the US band Paul Revere & the Raiders recalled first listening to the single at home with his producer, Terry Melcher : "When the song ended we both just looked at each other. I said, 'Now what the fuck are we gonna do?' With that single, the Beatles raised the ante as to what a pop record should be."

The Daily Mail's entertainment reporter wrote: "What's happening to the Beatles? They have become contemplative, secretive, exclusive and excluded – four mystics with moustaches."

 

In keeping with the Beatles' usual philosophy that tracks released on a single should not appear on new albums, both "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were left off Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. George Martin later stated that this was an approach that he had encouraged, and it was a "dreadful mistake".

Other Versions includeNoel Harrison (1967)  /  The Ventures (1967)  /  The Hollyridge Strings (1967)  /  "Mansikkamaa" by Finn Trio (1967)  /  "Il est plus facile" by F.R. David (1967)  /  David McCallum (1968)  /  Richie Havens (1968)  /  Tomorrow (1968)  /  Plastic Penny (1968)  /  Design (1972)  /  R. Stevie Moore (1975)  /  Peter Gabriel (1976)  /  Todd Rundgren (1976)  /  Café Crème (1977)  /  Sandy Farina (1978)  /  The King's Singers (1978)  /  The Runaways (1980)  /  Village Pistols (1981)  /  Ewa Bem (1984)  /  Candy Flip (1990)  /  The Shadows (1990)  /  Colin's Hermits (1990)  /  Los Fabulosos Cadillacs (1995)  /  The Swingle Singers (1999)  /  Cyndi Lauper (2002)  /  Laurence Juber (2003)  /  Hayseed Dixie (2007)  /  Satanic Beatles : 800% Slower (2017)  /  Andrew Gold (2008)  /  VinsCool Atari (2018)  /  Raxlen Slice Modern 8-bit (2019)  /  a robot (2019)  /  Danny McEvoy (2020)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote               

daf

Very strange!, it's . . .

230b. (MM 179.)  The Beatles - Penny Lane



From :  4-24 March 1967
Weeks : 3
Double A-side : The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
Bonus 1 : Promo film
Bonus 2 : The Beatles Cartoon

The Beatles Eighth Forgotten Album : "A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!)"
QuoteAlthough Brian Epstein voiced support for the Beatles' continuing evolution as artists, highlighting the advances they had made with their August 1966 album Revolver, this period was one of doubt and anxiety for him. As a manager who thrived on organising the group's concert appearances, he began to worry that their enormous popularity might be coming to an end, or would diminish in the absence of new musical product. In the Beatles' absence, The Monkees had first aired in September and soon won over the teenybopper audience that the band had sought to lose.

After Brian Epstein told EMI that The Beatles would not be making any new music available for the Christmas market, the record company chose to prepare the first UK compilation of their music - "A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!)". As many of the songs on the album only existed in mono, a series of sessions were required to create new stereo versions.

On Monday 31 October 1966, George Martin oversaw three stereo mixes of Paperback Writer. He had also intended to work on She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand, but work on Paperback Writer took up the entire two-hour session and they were left for another time.

Martin was surprised at how time-consuming the remixing proved to be. In the case of "She Loves You", the 1963 two-track recording tape had since been reused, forcing EMI engineer Geoff Emerick to return to the mono master and create a "mock stereo" mix. This was achieved through removing the high frequencies from the left channel and the low frequencies from the right.

The final day of the album's preparation was carried out without Martin and Emerick. Two other EMI engineers, Peter Bown and Graham Kirkby, remixed "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out" that day. They then worked on "This Boy", the B-side of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", but this was due to a miscommunication with EMI's office in Manchester Square, where the song had been confused with "Bad Boy".




The album contained seven non-album singles which were issued here on LP for the first time :
"She Loves You"  /  "From Me to You"  /  "We Can Work It Out"  /  "I Feel Fine"  /  "Day Tripper"  /  "Paperback Writer"  / and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" - and six UK singles [plus Michelle and Yeterday] that had previously appeared on UK albums :
"Help!"  /  "Michelle"  /  "Yesterday"  /  "Yellow Submarine"  /  "Can't Buy Me Love"  /  "A Hard Day's Night"  /  "Ticket to Ride"  / "Eleanor Rigby"

Just one song, Bad Boy, was previously unreleased in the UK - having been recorded specially for the Capitol album Beatles VI in June 1965. Its inclusion made the album an essential purchase for 1966 Beatles completists.

The album's preparation and release coincided with rumours in the press that the group were on the verge of splitting up. This speculation was encouraged by the band members' high-profile individual activities since completing their final US tour, in late August 1966, and the announcement that, unlike in previous years, the Beatles would not be performing any concerts in Britain at the end of the year.

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The album cover is a painting by artist David Christian, who captured the vibrant colours then popular in London's Carnaby Street fashion boutiques such as I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet. In featuring a man with a mop-top haircut reclining on a chair and clad in Day-Glo striped trousers and a garishly patterned tie, the artist had captured the band's new psychedelic image, which would be unveiled in the film clips for the two songs on their next single : "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane".

The back of the LP sleeve featured a photograph of the group taken by Robert Whitaker. The photo was taken in the Tokyo Hilton, where the band members were confined for much of their 1966 concert tour of Japan due to security concerns. The Beatles are shown inspecting some 'objets d'art' that the Japanese promoter had arranged to have brought to the group's hotel suite to help fill the time before their shows at the Budokan Hall. On the Japanese edition, the image is reversed - which is likely to be the correct way round, due to the Japanese writing visible on Paul's clothes.

 

By this time, the Beatles' more dedicated fans had begun analysing the band's song lyrics for hidden meanings, and their album covers were scrutinized for coded messages. The cover of 'A Collection of Beatles Oldies' was viewed as the first example of the Beatles leaving clues relating to the Paul is Dead hoax, which contended that Paul McCartney had been decapitated in a car crash in November 1966 and replaced in the band by lookalike. Proponents of the cobblers "theory" noted that four figures (the Beatles) were pictured around a car in the top left corner of the painting, and that another car appeared to be heading straight towards the head of the man (Paul?) reclining in the chair. In addition, if the first two letters of the word printed on the bass drum, "OLDIES", are each advanced alphabetically, the word becomes a message stating "PM DIES"!!!!

The back-cover photo is also cited as "evidence" because of McCartney's black clothes, his distance from Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, and the appearance of smoke around him. This clue represents "ectoplasm", suggesting that McCartney's presence is merely an "apparition" ~ Spooky!

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EMI had been expecting to achieve the biggest album of the year with the first compilation of the Beatles' greatest hits, but 'A Collection of Beatles Oldies', released on 10 December 1966, proved to be one of the biggest miscalculations of the pop charts. On Record Retailer's LPs chart, where all of the group's previous albums had held the top position for a minimum of seven weeks, the compilation reached number 7. On the national chart published by Melody Maker, it peaked at number 4. In all it spent 34 weeks on the charts.

It was the first Beatles album to fail to reach number one. At the time Revolver was still selling strongly, and the top seller that Christmas was the soundtrack to The Sound Of Music.

Writing in the 1970s, NME critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler said of the compilation: "Once again, it was Christmas – and the Beatles had no new product to give to EMI for their Santa sack! As a last resort, a predictable collection of oldies was hastily assembled and crammed into an inferior Carnaby-Street-style carrier-bag sleeve."

The 1966 Christmas Fan Club Single :
Quote
On Friday 25 November 1966, The Beatles' fourth Christmas record, Pantomime: Everywhere It's Christmas, was recorded at the first floor demo studio owned by their publisher, Dick James.

Recorded between sessions for "Strawberry Fields Forever", for the 1966 offering, the usual greetings and thanks gave way to a 'Pantomime'-themed collection of original songs and comic skits. Each member of The Beatles sang on the recording, with Paul McCartney also playing piano.

Ringo : "We worked it out between us. Paul did most of the work on it. He thought up the 'Pantomime' title and the two song things."

 

On 2 December 1966, It was edited into a six-minute piece, and featured :
Song: Everywhere It's Christmas  / Orowanya  (Corsican Choir And Small Choir)  /   A Rare Cheese  (Two Elderly Scotsmen)  /  The Feast  /  The Loyal Toast  /  Podgy The Bear And Jasper  /   Felpin Mansions : Part One (Count Balder And Butler)  /  Felpin Mansions : Part Two (The Count And The Pianist)  /  Song: Please Don't Bring Your Banjo Back  /  Everywhere It's Christmas (Mal Evans)  /  Everywhere It's Christmas (reprise).

 

The Beatles' press officer Tony Barrow was listed as the session's producer, and he assumed the role of advising engineer Geoff Emerick about how the track should be assembled. The single sided 33⅓ RPM mono 7" flexi-disc made by Lyntone Recordings Ltd. was sent to members of The Beatles' UK fan club on 16 December 1966.

 

Paul : "I drew the cover myself. There's a sort of funny pantomime horse in the design if you look closely. Well I can see one there if you can't."

 

The US fan-club members did not get a flexi-disc. Instead, they received a postcard with the message on one side and a short version of 'The Beatle Bulletin' on the other.

The Story So Far : January - February 1967
QuoteOn Thursday 5 January 1967, The Beatles worked on two recordings : their next single "Penny Lane", and an experimental piece which was recorded in a single take. It was given no official title, listed as Untitled  on EMI's recording logs, although it later became known as "Carnival Of Light".

In 1966 the design team Binder, Edwards and Vaughan painted a piano in psychedelic colours for Paul McCartney. David Vaughan, asked McCartney to contribute a recording for two events, to be promoted by the designers in the Roundhouse venue in Camden, London, on 28 January and 4 February 1967. The events were variously known as The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave or The Carnival of Light Rave. McCartney agreed to make a recording for Vaughan, although the artist wasn't entirely impressed with the results.

David Vaughan : "I asked Paul to do it and I thought he would make more of it than he did; I thought this was a vehicle for him, if anything was. My trouble is, I expect everybody to drop everything. I forget other people have got things on."

Carnival Of Light lasted 13'48" and constituted the basic track along with a series of overdubs. Track one of the tape was full of distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds; track two had a distorted lead guitar; track three had the sounds of a church organ, various effects (inc. gargling of water) and voices; track four featured various indescribable sound effects with heaps of tape echo and manic tambourine. Track three featured John and Paul screaming dementedly and bawling aloud random phrases like 'Are you all right?' and 'Barcelona!' Paul terminated the proceedings after almost 14 minutes with one final shout up to the control room: "Can we hear it back now?"

A mono mix was made at the end of the session, which was then given by McCartney to Binder, Edwards and Vaughan on a reel of quarter inch tape.

Geoff Emerick : "When they had finished George Martin said to me, 'This is ridiculous, we've got to get our teeth into something more constructive."

 

Carnival Of Light was also described by Barry Miles, who reportedly played a part in the genesis of the recording :

"The tape has no rhythm, though a beat is sometimes established for a few bars by the percussion or a rhythmic pounding on the piano. There is no melody, though snatches of a tune sometimes threaten to break through. The Beatles make literally random sounds, although they sometimes respond to each other; for instance, a burst of organ notes answered by a rattle of percussion. The basic track was recorded slow so that some of the drums and organ were very deep and sonorous, like the bass notes of a cathedral organ. Much of it is echoed and it is often hard to tell if you are listening to a slowed-down cymbal or a tubular bell. John and Paul yell with massive amounts of reverb on their voices, there are Indian war cries, whistling, close-miked gasping, genuine coughing and fragments of studio conversation, ending with Paul asking, with echo, 'Can we hear it back now?'

"The tape was obviously overdubbed and has bursts of feedback guitar, schmaltzy cinema organ, snatches or jangling pub piano, some unpleasant electronic feedback and John yelling, 'Electricity'. There is a great deal of percussion throughout, again much of it overdubbed. The tape was made with full stereo separation, and is essentially an exercise in musical layers and textures. It most resembles The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet, the twelve-minute final track on Frank Zappa's Freak Out! album, except there is no rhythm and the music here is more fragmented, abstract and serious. The deep organ notes at the beginning of the piece set the tone as slow and contemplative."

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On Wednesday 18 January 1967, Paul McCartney gave an interview for the Granada Television late-night show Scene Special.

The interview was conducted by producer Jo Durden-Smith, and was recorded in a ground-floor studio at 3 Upper James Street in central London. The subtitle of the show was It's So Far Out It's Straight Down.

 

McCartney discussed the London counterculture, appearing in four separate sequences in the 29-minute programme. Also included were the editorial board of International Times, the Indica Bookshop's founder Barry Miles, footage of Pink Floyd performing Interstellar Overdrive at the UFO Club, a 'happening' at Piccadilly Circus, and footage of a poetry gathering at the Royal Albert Hall featuring Allen Ginsberg, Adrian Mitchell and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Paul : "If you don't know anything about it [the counterculture], you can sort of trust that it's probably gonna be all right... It's human beings doing it, and you know vaguely what human beings do. The straights should welcome the underground because it stands for freedom... It's not strange, it's just new. It's not weird, it's just what's going on around."

It's So Far Out It's Straight Down was broadcast in the north of England at 10.25pm on Tuesday 7 March 1967.



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On Thursday 12 January 1967, Joe Orton was asked to write a script for The Beatles' third film. Orton was a celebrated playwright in the London theatre. The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein thought he might be the perfect writer for a Beatles film, and Paul McCartney had previously invested £1,000 in one of Orton's other plays, Loot.

Walter Shenson, producer of the films A Hard Day's Night and Help!, asked Orton to rework a draft script written by a now-unknown writer. In Orton's diary entry for 12 January 1967 he noted that Shenson had called Orton's agent and said that they had a script. Although Shenson considered it to be "dull", he asked if Orton might take a look. Orton agreed, and had read it by 15 January, when he wrote: "Like the idea. Basically it is that there aren't four young men. Just four aspects of one man. Sounds dreary, but as I thought about it I realised what wonderful opportunities it would give."

Orton used portions of the earlier script and incorporated new scenes. The resulting script was titled Up Against It. Orton met Shenson on 16 January, and a contract was drawn up, which allowed Orton to buy back the script rights if it were rejected.

On Tuesday 24 January 1967, Orton met Paul McCartney and Brian Epstein to discuss the project. The meeting took place at Epstein's London mews house.

Joe Orton : "I rang the bell and an old man opened the door. He seemed surprised to see me. 'Is this Brian Epstein's house?' I said. 'Yes, sir,' he said, and led the way into the hall. I suddenly realised that the man was the butler. I've never seen one before. He took my coat and I went to the lavatory. When I came out he'd gone. There was nobody about. I wandered around a large dining-room which was laid for dinner. And then I got to feel strange. The house appeared to be empty. So I went upstairs to the first floor. I heard music only I couldn't decide where it came from. So i went further upstairs and found myself in a bedroom. I came down again and found the butler. He took me into a room and said in a loud voice, 'Mr Orton.'

    "Everybody looked up and stood to their feet. I was introduced to one or two people. And Paul McCartney. He was just as the photographs. Only he'd grown a moustache. His hair was shorter too. He was playing the latest Beatles recording, 'Penny Lane'. I liked it very much. Then he played the other side – Strawberry something. I didn't like this as much. We talked intermittently. Before we went out to dinner we'd agreed to throw out the idea of setting the film in the thirties. We went down to dinner. The crusted old retainer – looking too much like a butler to be good casting – busied himself in the corner.

    "'The only thing I get from the theatre,' Paul M. said, 'is a sore arse.' He said Loot was the only play he hadn't wanted to leave before the end. 'I'd've liked a bit more,' he said. We talked of the theatre. I said that compared to the pop scene the theatre was square. 'The theatre started going downhill when Queen Victoria knighted Henry Irving,' I said. 'Too fucking respectable.' We talked of drugs, of mushrooms which give hallucinations – like LSD. 'The drug, not the money,' I said. We talked of tattoos. And, after one or two veiled references, marijuana. I said I'd smoked it in Morocco. The atmosphere relaxed a little. Dinner ended and we went upstairs again. We watched a programme on TV. It had phrases in it like 'the in-crowd' and 'swinging London'.

    "There was a scratching at the door. I thought it was the old retainer, but someone got up to open the door and about five very young and pretty boys trooped in. I rather hoped this was the evening's entertainments. It wasn't, though. It was a pop group called The Easybeats. I'd seen them on TV. I liked them very much then. In a way they were better (or prettier) offstage than on.

    "After a while Paul McCartney said, 'Let's go upstairs'. So he and I and Peter Brown went upstairs to a room also fitted with a TV ... A French photographer arrived with two beautiful youths and a girl. He'd taken a set of new photographs of The Beatles. They wanted one to use on the record sleeve. Excellent photograph. And the four Beatles look different with their moustaches. Like anarchists in the early years of the century. After a while we went downstairs. The Easybeats still there. The girl went away. I talked to the leading Easybeat. Feeling slightly like an Edwardian masher with a Gaeity Girl. And then I came over tired and decided to go home. I had a last word with Paul M. 'Well,' I said, 'I'd like to do the film. There's only one thing we've got to fix up.' 'You mean the bread.' 'Yes.' We smiled and parted. I got a cab home. It was pissing down."



Orton delivered an initial draft on 25 February. He expected it to be rejected, noting in his diary on 11 February that : "the boys, in my script, have been caught in-flagrante, become involved in dubious political activity, dressed as women, committed murder, been put in prison and committed adultery."

The Beatles and Epstein decided it was be too risqué and the project was abandoned, although Orton was well paid for his efforts. The script was returned to Orton without comment.

Paul : "The reason why we didn't do Up Against It wasn't because it was too far out or anything. We didn't do it because it was gay. We weren't gay and really that was all there was to it. It was quite simple, really. Brian was gay...and so he and the gay crowd could appreciate it. Now, it wasn't that we were anti-gay – just that we, The Beatles, weren't gay."

Other film ideas considered by The Beatles at this time included adaptations of The Lord Of The Rings and The Three Musketeers, but like 'Up Against It', all were dropped.

The Single :
Quote"Penny Lane" was written by Paul McCartney in the music room at his London home, 7 Cavendish Avenue. It was composed on an upright piano which he had recently had painted in psychedelic rainbow patterns by artist David Vaughan.

Released as a double A-side, it was the first Beatles single in the UK to be presented in a picture sleeve. The front of the sleeve contained a studio photo that again demonstrated the band's adoption of facial hair. On the back cover were individual pictures of the four Beatles as infants.

 

Paul : "When I came to write it, John came over and helped me with the third verse, as often was the case. We were writing childhood memories: recently faded memories from eight or ten years before, so it was a recent nostalgia, pleasant memories for both of us. All the places were still there, and because we remembered it so clearly we could have gone on.

The song's title had been toyed with by the two writers since Rubber Soul, when an embryonic In My Life had Lennon imagining a bus journey through Liverpool, listing names of places remembered.

   

A year later, he was spurred to write the song once presented with Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever". McCartney also cited Dylan Thomas's nostalgic poem "Fern Hill" as an inspiration for "Penny Lane".

Paul : "We were often answering each other's songs so it might have been my version of a memory song but I don't recall. It was childhood reminiscences: there is a bus stop called Penny Lane. There was a barber shop called Bioletti's with head shots of the haircuts you can have in the window and I just took it all and arted it up a little bit to make it sound like he was having a picture exhibition in his window. It was all based on real things; there was a bank on the corner so I imagined the banker, it was not a real person, and his slightly dubious habits and the little children laughing at him, and the pouring rain. The fire station was a bit of poetic licence; there's a fire station about half a mile down the road, not actually in Penny Lane, but we needed a third verse so we took that and I was very pleased with the line 'It's a clean machine'. I still like that phrase, you occasionally hit a lucky little phrase and it becomes more than a phrase. So the banker and the barber shop and the fire station were all real locations."

Penny Lane was a street in Liverpool, which also lent its name to the surrounding area. Lennon and McCartney both lived nearby, and often met at the Penny Lane junction to catch a bus into the city centre.

Paul : "Penny Lane was kind of nostalgic, but it was really about a place that John and I knew ... I'd get a bus to his house and I'd have to change at Penny Lane, or the same with him to me, so we often hung out at that terminus, like a roundabout. It was a place that we both knew, and so we both knew the things that turned up in the story."

John : "The bank was there, and that was where the tram sheds were and people waiting and the inspector stood there, the fire engines were down there. It was just reliving childhood."

 

John Lennon is said to have contributed the line "Four of fish and finger pie", which derived from a crude Liverpudlian sexual term.

Paul : "It's part fact, part nostalgia for a great place – blue suburban skies, as we remember it, and it's still there. And we put in a joke or two: 'Four of fish and finger pie.' The women would never dare say that. except to themselves. Most people wouldn't hear it, but 'finger pie' is just a nice little joke for the Liverpool lads who like a bit of smut."

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Production began in Studio 2 at EMI Studios on 29 December 1966, with piano as the main instrument. Engineer Geoff Emerick recalled McCartney playing Pet Sounds repeatedly during recording session breaks.

Paul : "I remember saying to George Martin, 'I want a very clean recording.' I was into clean sounds – maybe a Beach Boys influence at that point."

McCartney was dissatisfied with the initial attempts at the song's instrumental solo (played on a cor anglais), and was inspired to use a piccolo trumpet after seeing trumpeter David Mason play the instrument during a BBC TV broadcast of the second Brandenburg Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach. On 17 January 1967, Mason recorded the instrumental solo used for the final mix.

George Martin : "The result was unique, something which had never been done in rock music before."

The original US promo single mix of "Penny Lane" had an additional flourish of piccolo trumpet notes at the end of the song. This mix was quickly superseded by one without the last trumpet passage, but not before copies had been pressed and sent to radio stations.

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The Beatles' low public profile since completing their 1966 US tour in late August caused concern for Brian Epstein, their manager, who feared that the band's popularity might suffer. Wary also of the threat presented by The Monkees, an American television and recording act formed in the Beatles' image, Epstein approached Martin for a new single by the band. Martin told him that they had recorded "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", which he considered to be the group's best songs up to that point.

George Martin : "The only reason that Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane didn't go onto the new album was a feeling that if we issued a single, it shouldn't go onto an album. That was a crazy idea, and I'm afraid I was partly responsible. It's nonsense these days, but in those days it was an aspect that we'd try to give the public value for money. The idea of a double a-side came from me and Brian, really. Brian was desperate to recover popularity, and so we wanted to make sure that we had a marvellous seller. He came to me and said, 'I must have a really great single. What have you got?' I said, 'Well, I've got three tracks – and two of them are the best tracks they've ever made. We could put the two together and make a smashing single.' We did, and it was a smashing single – but it was also a dreadful mistake. We would have sold far more and got higher up the charts if we had issued one of those with, say, When I'm Sixty-Four on the back."



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Once it was decided that 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' would be released as a double A-side single, The Beatles agreed to make a promotional film for distribution to television companies. Both songs' films were produced by Tony Bramwell and directed by Peter Goldmann.

The film includes footage of Liverpool – such as the number 86 bus to Penny Lane, the shelter on the roundabout, and a fireman riding a white horse. On 5 February 1967 The Beatles were filmed riding horses and walking around the Angel Lane area in Stratford, in the east of London. Two days later they went to Knole Park in Sevenoaks, Kent, where the 'Strawberry Fields Forever' film had been made a few days earlier.

The Beatles were filmed in two sequences. Firstly they rode horses through an archway, then they sat at a dinner table laid out with candelabras and lace cloth, where they were served with their musical instruments by Mal Evans. The temperature was bitterly cold on this February day, but a crowd of onlookers including pupils from a local school stayed to watch the filming. The footage was intercut with material shot in Liverpool, of the areas mentioned in the song and of the Liverpudlian green buses. The Beatles did not feature in these segments, which were filmed on an unknown date.

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Released in the United States on 13 February, and in the United Kingdom on 17 February 1967, expectations were high for the release, since it was the band's first new music since they had decided to abandon touring, a decision that had led to speculation in the press in late 1966 that the group would disband.

Since the Beatles usually did not include songs released as singles on their albums, both "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were left off 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. With their omission, the Liverpool childhood theme that had been a loose concept behind the album was abandoned.

In Britain, most reviewers were initially confused by the single and predicted that the Beatles' creative advances might not be rewarded in record sales.

Melody Maker said the brass parts were "beautifully arranged" and concluded: "Tinged with sentimentality, the number slowly builds into an urgent, colourful and vivid recollection of the Liverpool street that the Beatles remember so clearly."

The Times said: "'Penny Lane' looks back to the days when parochialism was not an attitude to be derided. While it may seem that the commonplace suburb is a pleasanter source of inspiration than a psychedelic ecstasy, it may also be that the song is instinctively satisfying a youthful appetite for simplicity ..."

 


Remarkably, although it was arguably The Beatles' strongest single, it failed to top the UK singles chart. Sales were on a par with other Beatles singles, and it received much airplay across radio stations, it was held off by Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me" on the Record Retailer and NME charts - but was a Number 1 for 3 weeks in March 1967 on the Melody Maker chart . . . which, according to later "experts", doesn't count . . . for some reason!

George Harrison : "It was pretty bad, wasn't it, that Engelbert Humperdinck stopped Strawberry Fields Forever from getting to number one? But I don't think it was a worry. At first, we wanted to have good chart positions, but then I think we started taking it for granted. It might have been a bit of a shock being number two – but then again, there were always so many different charts that you could be number two in one chart and number one in another."

Its failure to top most of the charts provoked comments in the UK press that the Beatles' position of eminence was at an end, with headlines such as "Has the Bubble Burst?" The band were unperturbed by the result. In Starr's recollection, it was a "relief" and "took the pressure off" the group, while Lennon said in a late 1966 interview: "We sort of half hope for the downfall. A nice downfall. Then we would just be a pleasant old memory."



In the United States, with Penny Lane as the favoured side, the song became the band's 13th single to reach number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was also number 1 in Australia, West Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark and Malaysia.

In his television show Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein highlighted the trumpet solo on "Penny Lane" among examples of the genre's eclectic qualities that made contemporary pop music worthy of recognition as art.

Time magazine wrote that the Beatles had "bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical, mixing elements of Bach, Oriental and electronic music with vintage twang to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music".

Liverpool poet Roger McGough credited "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" as the first examples of British streets and locations being celebrated in pop music and of the Beatles creating a "mythology" for Liverpool. The song's popularity led to the regular theft of Penny Lane street signs and the area becoming one of the city's major tourist attractions.

Derek Taylor : "First, there was a leap in the kind of material they were writing from Rubber Soul to Revolver. They were obviously moving ahead. The second indication that something was going on was the "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields" single, which got people very excited ... Of course, nobody knew then it would be Sgt. Pepper and all that that entailed."

Other Versions includeThe Red Cats (1967)  /  The Hollyridge Strings (1967)  /  Kai Winding (1967)  /   Les Sinners (1967)  /  Dominique Walter (1967)  /  Márcio Greyck (1967)  /  Dave Bowie & The Dave Bowie Band (feat. Dave Bowie) (1967)  /  Electronic Concept Orchestra (1969)  /  Count Basie (1970)  /  Marty Gold (1972)  /  "Reeperbahn" by Udo Lindenberg und Das Panik-Orchester (1978)  /  Lena Zavaroni (1982)  /  The King's Singers (1986)  /  The Swingle Singers (1999)  /  Dingledonk Bumbleshoe (2001)  /  Judy Collins (2007)  /  peacejoytown (2007)  /  Jason Falkner (2008)  /  Elvis Costello (2010)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  8-bit (2014)  /  Yellow Dubmarine (2016)  /  Satanic Beatles : 800% slower (2017)  /  a robot (2019)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
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The Beatles Eighth Album - Part 1 : "Those Disgusting Moustaches"
QuoteOn Thursday 24 November 1966, with touring behind them, The Beatles retreated from public view to begin work on their eighth album. They were keen to use the studio to its full potential, experimenting with different sounds with the intention of producing their best work to date.

Paul : "Now we were off the road and in the studio with new songs. Strawberry Fields is the song that John had, about the old Salvation Army home for kids he used to live next door to in Liverpool. We related it to youth, golden summers and fields of strawberry. I knew what he was talking about. The nice thing is that a lot of our songs were starting to get a little bit more surreal. I remember John having a book at home called Bizarre, about all sorts of weird things. We were opening up artistically and taking the blinkers off."

Strawberry Fields Forever was written in Spain while filming 'How I Won The War'. On his return, Lennon recorded a series of solo demos in mid-November 1966 at his home in Weybridge, Surrey.



Following considerable discussion and rehearsal, just one take was recorded on this first day. Instead of opening with the chorus, the early versions of the song began with the first two verses back-to-back.

George Martin : "That November John came into the studio, and we went into our regular routine. I sat on my high stool with Paul standing beside me, and John stood in front of us with his acoustic guitar and sang the song. It was absolutely lovely."

This initial arrangement was also used on Take 1 in the studio. This first take also has a rounded ending; a Mellotron and guitar instrumental passage. The Mellotron was a fairly new keyboard instrument in 1966, which The Moody Blues' Mike Pinder had introduced The Beatles to in 1965.

Mike Pinder : "I got to know John, Paul, George and Ringo over the years and I introduced them to the 'tron... Within a week all four of them had a Fab-Tron. I knew that I would be rewarded, and the first time I heard Strawberry Fields I was in bliss. It was the closest thing to recording with them, other than my visits to Abbey Road during their recording sessions."

The instrument had a bank of magnetic audio tapes inside, each lasting approximately eight seconds and containing a range of pre-recorded sounds. These tape loops could be used to mimic other instruments; The Beatles used the flute sound for Strawberry Fields Forever's introduction.

Paul : "We used a mellotron on Strawberry Fields. I didn't think it would get past the Musicians' Union, so we didn't advertise it; we just had it on the sessions. It had what would now be called 'samples' of flute, which are actually tapes that play and then rewind. We had eleven seconds on each tape, which could be played on each key."



On 28 November the group recorded three more takes, numbered 2-4. Take 2 was arranged slightly differently – this time it started with a Mellotron introduction followed by the chorus. The key was also changed from C to A major. The line-up on take two was the same as on take one, with the addition of maracas played by Ringo. Take three broke down during the introduction, after Lennon complained that the Mellotron was too loud.

Take 4 was complete, however, and featured Mellotron, drums and maracas on track one; Lennon's electric guitar on track two; McCartney's bass guitar on three, along with Harrison's Morse code-style notes played on the Mellotron's guitar setting; and Lennon's lead vocals on track four. The vocals were recorded with the tape running faster than normal, so it was slower upon playback. This version was marked 'best', albeit temporarily. Three rough mono mixes were made for reference purposes but, after further reflection, The Beatles decided to re-record the rhythm track.

George Martin : "Then we tried it with Ringo on drums, and Paul and George on their bass and electric guitars. It started to get heavy – it wasn't the gentle song that I had first heard. We ended up with a record which was very good heavy rock. Still, that was apparently what John wanted, so I metaphorically shrugged my shoulders and said: 'Well, that really wasn't what I'd thought of, but it's OK.' And off John went."

On 29 November, the session began with lengthy rehearsals and discussions before the band recorded take 5. It was a false start, but take 6 was complete, and had an extended coda. Lennon added slowed down vocals and McCartney recorded a bass guitar part, and a reduction mix – Take 7 – was made to free up two tracks on the tape. Lennon then double-tracked his vocals during the choruses, and an overdub using the Mellotron's guitar and piano settings was the last item to be recorded.

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On Tuesday 6 December 1966, The Beatles recorded Christmas messages for pirate stations Radio London and Radio Caroline. The previous year The Beatles had recorded seasonal greetings for pirate stations from their dressing rooms while on tour. In December 1966, having finished touring, they agreed to record new messages in the studio. They were scripted spoken-word items, some of which had a simple Mellotron backing.

All of the messages were recorded live although at one point in the proceedings Paul asked George Martin to feed playback tape echo into the studio as they spoke. George Martin replied, with heavy sarcasm, "Do you want to make a production out of it?" George Harrison then chipped in with "Yeah, let's double-track everything!" and John offered his suggestion, "He can double-splange them! That'd be great!"

The main purpose of the session, however, was the recording of the basic track of McCartney's "new" song . . .

When I'm Sixty-Four dates back to The Beatles' earliest days. Paul McCartney had composed it on the family piano at 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool when he was about 15.

Paul : "Back then I wasn't necessarily looking to be a rock 'n' roller. When I wrote When I'm Sixty-Four I thought I was writing a song for Sinatra. There were records other than rock 'n' roll that were important to me."

McCartney used to perform a variation of When I'm Sixty-Four on piano in the Cavern Club era, when the group's equipment used to stop working.

John : "When I'm Sixty-Four was something Paul wrote in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like 'grandchildren on your knee' and 'Vera, Chuck and Dave'. It was just one of those ones that he'd had, that we've all got, really; half a song. And this was just one that was quite a hit with us. We used to do them when the amps broke down, just sing it on the piano."

 

The song was dusted down in 1966, the year McCartney's father Jim turned 64. When I'm Sixty-Four focuses on a young man anxiously looking towards old age. The music is suitably old-fashioned, with a music hall melody and an arrangement prominently featuring George Martin's clarinet score.

Paul : "I thought it was a good little tune but it was too vaudevillian, so I had to get some cod lines to take the sting out of it, and put the tongue very firmly in cheek. It's pretty much my song. I did it in a rooty-tooty variety style... George helped me on a clarinet arrangement. I would specify the sound and I love clarinets so 'Could we have a clarinet quartet?' 'Absolutely.' I'd give him a fairly good idea of what I wanted and George would score it because I couldn't do that. He was very helpful to us. Of course, when George Martin was 64 I had to send him a bottle of wine."

On Tuesday 6 December, two takes were recorded with McCartney on bass guitar and Ringo Starr on drums, with some electric guitar performed by either Lennon or Harrison towards the end. Both of the takes were complete, with the Take 2 considered the best. McCartney then overdubbed a piano part before the session came to a close.

Two days later, without the other Beatles being present, McCartney added his lead vocals to take two. The song was then left until 20 December, when McCartney, Lennon and Harrison taped backing vocals and Starr played chimes. The next day, the clarinetists were hired. Three musicians were needed for the prepared score (for two clarinets and a bass clarinet), these being Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie and Frank Reidy. As was usual for professional studio musicians, they nailed the performance in a very short time, the session being complete in only two hours, from 7 to 9 pm.

Geoff Emerick : "The clarinets on that track became a very personal sound to me. I recorded them really close up, bringing them so far forward that they became one of the main focal points."

George Martin : "I remember recording it in the cavernous Number One studio at Abbey Road, and thinking how the three clarinet players looked as lost as a referee and two linesmen alone in the middle of Wembley Stadium."

During the mixing stage, meanwhile, McCartney decided that the song needed speeding up.

Geoff Emerick : "Paul asked to have the track sped up a great deal – almost a semitone – so that his voice would sound more youthful, like the teenager he was when he originally wrote the song."

On 30 December they scrapped all previous mixes and created a new mono one, which raised the key from C to D flat major. 2nd engineer Richard Lush remembers listening to the mono mix on this day as a guide which caused George Martin to question the speed it was recorded : "He kept saying, 'Surely it can't have been that fast?'"

Paul : "George Martin in his book says that I had it speeded up because I wanted to appear younger but I think that was just to make it more rooty-tooty; just lift the key because it was starting to sound a little turgid."

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Having had a short break away from it, Lennon's thoughts turned back to Strawberry Fields Forever . . .

George Martin : "A week later he came back and said: 'I've been thinking about it, too, George. Maybe what we did was wrong. I think we ought to have another go at doing it. Up to that time we had never remade anything. We reckoned that if it didn't work out first time, we shouldn't do it again. But this time we did. 'Maybe we should do it differently,' said John. 'I'd like you to score something for it. Maybe we should have a bit of strings, or brass or something.' Between us we worked out that I should write for cellos and trumpets, together with the group. When I had finished we recorded it again, and I felt that this time it was much better. Off went John again."

On 8 December, they recorded a new version. George Martin and Geoff Emerick arrived late to the studio as they had tickets for the première of the Cliff Richard film Finders Keepers. As The Beatles were keen to start recording, technical engineer Dave Harries oversaw the early part of the session.

Dave Harries : "They had tickets for the premiere of Cliff Richard's film Finders Keepers and didn't arrive back until about 11 o'clock. Soon after I had lined up the microphones and instruments in the studio that night, ready for the session, The Beatles arrived, hot to record. There was nobody else there but me so I became producer/engineer. We recorded Ringo's cymbals, played them backwards, Paul and George were on timps and bongos, Mal Evans played tambourine, we overdubbed the guitars, everything. It sounded great. When George and Geoff came back I scuttled upstairs because I shouldn't really have been recording them."



The recordings from this session were a far cry from the previous versions of Strawberry Fields Forever. Ringo Starr was on drums, and the other Beatles played various percussion instruments including cymbals, hi-hat, snare drum, bongos, maracas and tambourine. Some of the cymbals were recorded backwards. Towards the end of the session two takes were edited together. The first 2:24 of Take 15 was combined with the latter part of Take 24, which featured Lennon muttering phrases including "Cranberry sauce" and "Calm down Ringo!".

The following day, on 9 December, a reduction mix became known as Take 25, and put the percussion onto a single track of the tape. Paul McCartney then recorded a lead guitar part, George Harrison added some svarmandal, an Indian zither instrument, and George Martin and John Lennon played two Mellotron parts, using the 'swinging flutes' and, towards the end of the song, 'piano riff' settings.

It was decided that Martin should score Strawberry Fields for strings and brass. Four trumpets and three cellos were recorded on 15 December, onto track three of the tape. The trumpeters were Tony Fisher, Greg Bowen, Derek Watkins and Stanley Roderick, and the cellists were John Hall, Derek Simpson and Norman Jones.

A reduction mix, numbered Take 26, was then made to free up space for more overdubs. It had The Beatles' drums and percussion parts on track one, and electric guitar, Mellotron, cellos and trumpets on track two. Lennon recorded his lead vocals onto track three. He double tracked them during the choruses onto track four, with George Harrison simultaneously adding two descending svarmandal arpeggios.

21 December saw the addition of new Lennon vocals, plus snare drum and piano. These were recorded on track three, erasing the 15 December recording. That was the end of the recording, but the song wasn't yet complete . . .

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On Thursday 22 December 1966, after reviewing the tapes of previous sessions, John Lennon decided that he liked both the original recording of Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7) and the later remake (Take 26). He asked George Martin to join them together, despite them being in different keys and tempos.

George Martin : "A few days later he rang me up and said: 'I like that one, I really do. But, you know, the other one's got something too,'. 'Yes, I know,' I said, 'they're both good. But aren't we starting to split hairs?' Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word 'split', because John's reply was: 'I like the beginning of the first one, and I like the end of the second one. Why don't we just join them together?' 'Well, there are only two things against it,' I said. 'One is that they're in different keys. The other is that they're in different tempos.' 'Yeah, but you can do something about it, I know. You can fix it, George.'"

Martin and Emerick studied the tapes to see if Lennon's wish was possible. The two recordings were a semitone apart, but they found that by speeding up the first version and slowing down the second they were able to match, "With the grace of God, and a bit of luck," according to Martin.

Take 7, which opened the song, was left in its original key of A major. Take 26, meanwhile, was recorded in C major.  Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick found that by slowing down Take 26 by 11.5% the tempos and keys of the two versions matched perfectly - Geoff Emerick : "We gradually decreased the pitch of the first version at the join to make them weld together."

   

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On Thursday 29 December 1966, between 7pm and 2.15am the following morning, Paul McCartney recorded the first takes of "Penny Lane". At this stage the song was known as Untitled, although McCartney had been speaking about writing a song titled Penny Lane since at least November 1965.

George Martin : "We started off with Strawberry Fields, and then we recorded When I'm Sixty-Four and Penny Lane. They were all intended for the next album. We didn't know it was Sgt Pepper then – they were just going to be tracks on The New Album – but it was going to be a record created in the studio, and there were going to be songs that couldn't be performed live."

The recording of Penny Lane was almost as complex as for Strawberry Fields Forever. To begin with, McCartney laid down six takes of the piano backing track onto track one of the multitrack tape. He then overdubbed another similar piano part onto track two, fed through a Vox amplifier with a tremolo effect at a low speed, while Ringo Starr simultaneously added a tambourine part.   

McCartney added more piano onto track three, using EMI's 'Mrs Mills' honky-tonk piano. He also recorded some high harmonium notes, fed through a guitar amplifier, onto track four.

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On Monday 9 January 1967, following a brief detour recording the experimental audio piece 'Carnival of Light', work resumed on 'Penny Lane' with the recording of the first brass overdub which included four flutes, two trumpets, two piccolos and a flugelhorn. The flautists were Ray Swinfield, P Goody, Manny Winters and Dennis Walton, while the trumpeters were Leon Calvert and Freddy Clayton.

As they rehearsed their score with George Martin and Paul McCartney, John Lennon was in the studio control room recording the proceedings, using vast amounts of tape echo and varispeed. The rehearsal tape began with 90 seconds of warm-ups and discussions, after which Martin called for a 10-minute break. McCartney played through Penny Lane on a piano, telling the musicians "it's kinda confusing to what key it's in." He also sang some suggestions for the brass parts. Martin then conducted the flutes in a rehearsal of the chorus, and were joined by the trumpets in a second attempt. The song was played back twice, and Martin can be heard complaining that something was out of tune.

On Tuesday 10 January 1967, hand bells were added whenever the fireman was mentioned in the lyrics, and vocal harmonies were added to the instrumental passage which would later receive the piccolo trumpet solo. Ringo Starr rang the bells. 

On Thursday 12 January 1967, the second set of session musicians recorded contributions to Penny Lane : two trumpets, played by Bert Courtley and Duncan Campbell; two oboes, played by Dick Morgan and Mike Winfield, who also both added cor anglais parts; and a double bass played by Frank Clarke. The Beatles considered Penny Lane to be complete at this stage, and two mono mixes were created at the end of the session.

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The previous evening, McCartney saw trumpet player David Mason performing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto Number 2 in F Major with the English Chamber Orchestra from Guildford Cathedral, on the the BBC 2 television series Masterworks. Impressed with what he heard, McCartney decided to use him for the final overdub on Penny Lane.



Mason was telephoned the following day by George Martin, and booked for a studio session on 17 January 1967. There, he added the famous piccolo trumpet solo - replacing the cor anglais part.

David Mason : "He saw me playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto Number 2 in F Major with the English Chamber Orchestra from Guildford Cathedral. The next morning I got a call and a few days later I went along to the studio. I took nine trumpets along and we tried various things, by a process of elimination settling on the B flat piccolo trumpet. We spent three hours working it out. Paul sang the parts he wanted, George Martin wrote them out, I tried them. But the actual recording was done quite quickly."

Mason was paid £27 10s for his work which, in the absence of any prepared notation, he helped McCartney and Martin write and arrange.

David Mason : "Although Paul seemed to be in charge, and I was the only one playing, the other three Beatles were there too. They were jolly high notes, quite taxing, but with the tapes rolling we did two takes as overdubs on top of the existing song. I read in books that the trumpet sound was later speeded up but that isn't true because I can still play those notes on the instrument along with the record."

Mason recorded two overdubs, the solo, and the flourish towards the song's close which appeared on early US pressings of the single. And with that, recording on Penny Lane was complete.

David Mason : "They all had funny clothes on, candy-striped trousers, floppy yellow bow ties etc. I asked Paul if they'd been filming because it really looked like they had just come off a film set. John Lennon interjected: 'Oh no mate, we always dress like this!'"



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On Sunday 18 December 1966, 21-year-old socialite Tara Browne, a friend to The Beatles and an heir to the Guinness empire, died in a traffic accident. Browne was a member of the Irish aristocratic family Oranmore & Browne, and was a member of the Swinging London scene in the mid 1960s. He was the son of Dominick Browne, the fourth Baron Oranmore and Browne, and Oonagh Guinness, heiress to the Guinness fortune. Browne was in line to inherit a £1m fortune upon his 25th birthday, and died leaving the considerable sum of £56,069 in his estate.

On the night of 17 December 1966 he and his girlfriend, 19-year-old model Suki Potier, had spent the evening at a friend's house in Earls Court. They left shortly before 1am on the following morning, in search of food. Browne drove his Lotus Elan car through London's South Kensington at high speed. He failed to notice a red traffic light and drove through the junction of Redcliffe Square and Redcliffe Gardens, colliding with a stationary van in Redcliffe Gardens after swerving to avoid an oncoming Volkswagen car. Tara Browne died of his injuries the following day, and was survived by his wife Noreen, from whom he had separated, and their two sons. Potier later claimed that Browne swerved the car to absorb the impact of the crash to save her life. She was unharmed in the accident.

   

A month later, on Tuesday 17 January 1967, a report detailing the coroner's verdict into his death was published in the Daily Mail newspaper which provided John Lennon with inspiration for his new song . . .

John : "I was writing A Day In The Life with the Daily Mail propped in front of me on the piano. I had it open at their News in Brief, or Far and Near, whatever they call it. I noticed two stories. One was about the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car. That was the main headline story. He died in London in a car crash. I didn't copy the accident. Tara didn't blow his mind out. But it was in my mind when I was writing that verse."

However, Paul McCartney later downplayed suggestions that the song was directly about Browne's death.

Paul : "The verse about the politician blowing his mind out in a car we wrote together. It has been attributed to Tara Browne, the Guinness heir, which I don't believe is the case, certainly as were were writing it, I was not attributing it to Tara in my head. In John's head it might have been. In my head I was imagining a politician bombed out on drugs who'd stopped at some traffic lights and didn't notice that the lights had changed. The 'blew his mind' was purely a drugs reference, nothing to do with a car crash."

John : "Paul and I were definitely working together, especially on "A Day in the Life" ... The way we wrote a lot of the time: you'd write the good bit, the part that was easy, like "I read the news today" or whatever it was, then when you got stuck or whenever it got hard, instead of carrying on, you just drop it; then we would meet each other, and I would sing half, and he would be inspired to write the next bit and vice versa. He was a bit shy about it because I think he thought it's already a good song ... So we were doing it in his room with the piano. He said "Should we do this?" "Yeah, let's do that."

 

The middle section was an unfinished song fragment written by Paul McCartney, its practical earthiness providing a perfect counterpoint to Lennon's languorous daydreaming.

Paul : "I had this sequence that fitted, 'Woke up, fell out of bed', and we had to link them. This was the time of Tim Leary's 'Turn on, tune in, drop out' and we wrote, 'I'd love to turn you on.' John and I gave each other a knowing look: 'Uh-huh, it's a drug song. You know that, don't you?'"

John : "Paul's contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song, 'I'd love to turn you on,' that he'd had floating around in his head and couldn't use. I thought it was a damn good piece of work."

Paul : "It was another song altogether but it happened to fit. It was just me remembering what it was like to run up the road to catch a bus to school, having a smoke and going into class. It was a reflection of my schooldays. I would have a Woodbine, somebody would speak and I'd go into a dream."

John : "I dug it. It was a good piece of work between Paul and me. I had the 'I read the news today' bit, and it turned Paul on. Now and then we really turn each other on with a bit of song, and he just said 'yeah' – bang, bang, like that. It just sort of happened beautifully."

The song's final verse was inspired by another item featured the Daily Mail's Far And Near column. The story had been sold to the Daily Mail in Manchester by Ron Kennedy of the Star News agency in Blackburn. Kennedy had noticed a Lancashire Evening Telegraph story about road excavations and in a telephone call to the Borough Engineer's department had checked the annual number of holes in the road.

Lennon had a problem with the words of the final verse, however . . .
   
John : "There was still one word missing in that verse when we came to record. I knew the line had to go 'Now they know how many holes it takes to... something, the Albert Hall.' It was a nonsense verse really, but for some reason I couldn't think of the verb. What did the holes do to the Albert Hall? It was Terry [Doran], who said 'fill' the Albert Hall. And that was it. Perhaps I was looking for that word all the time, but couldn't put my tongue on it. Other people don't necessarily give you a word or a line, they just throw in the word you're looking for anyway."


 


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On Thursday 19 January 1967, The Beatles recorded four takes of 'A Day In The Life' - under the working title 'In The Life Of...', and the group began by rehearsing with John Lennon on piano, Paul McCartney playing an organ, George Harrison on an acoustic guitar and Ringo Starr playing congas. These rehearsals were recorded but later wiped.

For the four proper takes, Lennon sang a guide vocal onto track four while his acoustic guitar, McCartney's piano, Harrison's maracas and Starr's congas were taped together onto track one. Onto take four Lennon added two vocal overdubs onto tracks two and three, with some piano licks by McCartney on the latter.

Geoff Emerick : "There was so much echo on A Day In The Life. We'd send a feed from John's vocal mic into a mono tape machine and then tape the output – because they had separate record and replay heads – and then feed that back in again. Then we'd turn up the record level until it started to feed back on itself and give a twittery sort of vocal sound. John was hearing that echo in his cans as he was singing. It wasn't put on after. He used his own echo as a rhythmic feel for many of the songs he sang, phrasing his voice around the echo in his cans."

The Beatles were unsure what they wanted to fill the two bridge sections with, so had Mal Evans count out 24 bars. At the end of the first sequence an alarm clock was set off. The clock, although intended to be temporary, later provided the perfect introduction to McCartney's vocal passage, and so was kept in the final version.

Paul : "I said, 'We'll take 24 bars, we'll count it, we'll just do our song, and we'll leave 24 bare. You could actually hear Mal counting it out, with more and more echo because we thought it was kinda freaky."

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At 5'03", "A Day In The Life" was longer than anything The Beatles had previously released. John Lennon's vocal were smothered in tape echo, his lines 'answered' by Starr with a series of intuitive drum fills, which were recorded on 3 February 1967.

Paul : "We persuaded Ringo to play tom-toms. It's sensational. He normally didn't like to play lead drums, as it were, but we coached him through it. We said, 'Come on, you're fantastic, this will be really beautiful,' and indeed it was."

Ringo : "I only have one rule and that is to play with the singer. If the singer's singing, you don't really have to do anything, just hold it together. If you listen to my playing, I try to become an instrument; play the mood of the song. For example, 'Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire,' – boom ba bom. I try to show that; the disenchanting mood. The drum fills are part of it."



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On Friday 10 February 1967, the orchestral overdubs for 'A Day In The Life' were recorded. John Lennon had suggested the use of a symphony orchestra to fill the song's instrumental passages, but was unable to put his ideas into adequate words. Paul McCartney suggested asking the players to build from their instruments' lowest possible notes to the highest, and George Martin was given the task of turning the vision into reality . . .

George Martin : "We all felt a sense of occasion, since it was the largest orchestra we ever used on a Beatles recording. So I wasn't all that surprised when Paul rang up and said, 'Look, do you mind coming in evening dress?'
'Why? What's the idea?'
'We thought we'd have fun. We've never had a big orchestra before, so we thought we'd have fun on the night. So will you come in evening dress? And I'd like all the orchestra to come in evening dress, too.'
'Well, that may cost a bit extra, but we'll do it,' I said. 'What are you going to wear?'
'Oh, our usual freak-outs' – by which he meant their gaudy hippie clothes, floral coats and all."


Forty orchestral musicians were hired for the session, at a total cost of £367 and 10 shillings :
    Violin: Erich Gruenberg, Granville Jones, Bill Monro, Jurgen Hess, Hans Geiger, D Bradley, Lionel Bentley, David McCallum, Donald Weekes, Henry Datyner, Sidney Sax, Ernest Scott
    Viola: John Underwood, Gwynne Edwards, Bernard Davis, John Meek
    Cello: Francisco Gabarro, Dennis Vigay, Alan Dalziel, Alex Nifosi  /  Double bass: Cyril MacArthur, Gordon Pearce
    Clarinet: Basil Tschaikov, Jack Brymer  /  Oboe: Roger Lord  /  Bassoon: N Fawcett, Alfred Waters  /  Flute: Clifford Seville, David Sanderman
    French horn: Alan Civil, Neil Sanders  /  Trumpet: David Mason, Monty Montgomery, Harold Jackson
    Trombone: Raymond Brown, Raymond Premru, T Moore  /  Tuba: Michael Barnes
    Harp: John Marston   /  Percussion: Tristan Fry

George Martin and McCartney conducted the orchestral glissando, with Martin supplying some basic instructions to the musicians, many of whom were from the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras.

George Martin : "What I did there was to write, at the beginning of the twenty-four bars, the lowest possible note for each of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the twenty-four bars, I wrote the highest note each instrument could reach that was near a chord of E major. Then I put a squiggly line right through the twenty-four bars, with reference points to tell them roughly what note they should have reached during each bar. The musicians also had instructions to slide as gracefully as possible between one note and the next. In the case of the stringed instruments, that was a matter of sliding their fingers up the strings. With keyed instruments, like clarinet and oboe, they obviously had to move their fingers from key to key as they went up, but they were asked to 'lip' the changes as much as possible too.

"I marked the music 'pianissimo' at the beginning and 'fortissimo' at the end. Everyone was to start as quietly as possible, almost inaudibly, and end in a (metaphorically) lung-bursting tumult. And in addition to this extraordinary of musical gymnastics, I told them that they were to disobey the most fundamental rule of the orchestra. They were not to listen to their neighbours. A well-schooled orchestra plays, ideally, like one man, following the leader. I emphasised that this was exactly what they must not do. I told them 'I want everyone to be individual. It's every man for himself. Don't listen to the fellow next to you. If he's a third away from you, and you think he's going too fast, let him go. Just do your own slide up, your own way.' Needless to say, they were amazed. They had certainly never been told that before."

The session was recorded onto a separate reel of tape running in parallel with The Beatles' previously-recorded instruments and vocals. This required EMI's staff to create a technical solution to allow two four-track machines to run together.

[engineer] Ken Townsend : "George Martin came up to me that morning and said to me 'Oh Ken, I've got a poser for you. I want to run two four-track tape machines together this evening. I know it's never been done before, can you do it?' So I went away and came up with a method whereby we fed a 50 cycle tone from the track of one machine then raised its voltage to drive the capstan motor of the second, thus running the two in sync. Like all these things, the ideas either work first time or not at all. This one worked first time. At the session we ran the Beatles' rhythm track on one machine, put an orchestral track on the second machine, ran it back did it again, and again, and again until we had four orchestra recordings. The only problem arose sometime later when George and I were doing a mix with two different machines. One of them was sluggish in starting up and we couldn't get the damn things into sync. George got quite annoyed with me actually."

Having a separate tape reel running allowed for the orchestra to be recorded four times. It was then taped a fifth time, onto track four of the first reel, giving the equivalent of 200 session musicians. Paul McCartney conducted the proceedings in EMI's enormous Studio One.

Paul : "It was interesting because I saw the orchestra's characters. The strings were like sheep – they all looked at each other: 'Are you going up? I am!' and they'd all go up together, the leader would take them all up. The trumpeters were much wilder. The jazz guys, they liked the brief. The musicians with the more conventional instruments would behave more conventionally."



At the end of one of the performances – likely to have been the first – the musicians broke out into spontaneous applause.

George Martin : "After one of the rehearsals I went into the control room to consult Geoff Emerick. When I went back into the studio the sight was unbelievable. The orchestra leader, David McCallum, who used to be the leader of the Royal Philharmonic, was sitting there in a bright red false nose. He looked up at me through paper glasses. Eric Gruenberg, now a soloist and once leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, was playing happily away, his left hand perfectly normal on the strings of his violin, but his bow held in a giant gorilla's paw. Every member of the orchestra had a funny had on above the evening dress, and the total effect was completely weird."

Those present in the studio knew they were witnessing a special occasion. Among them were various members of staff at EMI Studios, some of whom attended purely as spectators. Also present in the studio was George Harrison's wife Pattie, along with a number of friends including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richard, Donovan, Michael Nesmith of The Monkees, Simon and Marijke of design company The Fool, and Spud from The Brumbeats.

[engineer] Tony Clark : "I was speechless. the tempo changes – everything in that song – was just so dramatic and complete. I felt so privileged to be there... I walked out of the Abbey Road that night thinking 'What am I going to do now?' It really did affect me."

The entire session was filmed. The Beatles' intention was to make a television special about the making of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, beginning with this evening's recording, although the idea was later abandoned. On this evening, however, silent footage was captured by a team led by NEMS's Tony Bramwell.

Tony Bramwell : "Before we filmed we handed out loaded 16mm cameras to invited guests including, among others, Mick and Marianne, and Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. They were shown what to press and told to film whatever they wanted. The BBC then banned the subsequent video. Not because of the content of the footage, but because the song itself had drug references."

The session lasted for five hours, from 8pm to 1am the following morning. After the session musician had completed their work and gone home, The Beatles considered how to end the song. The orchestral climax was felt to be too abrupt, so the group and the studio guests gathered around a microphone and recorded themselves humming a note lasting for eight beats.

The humming takes were numbered 8-11. The first three broke down as people were unable to stop themselves from laughing, but the final one was complete. Three more overdubs of humming were then added. In the end, this was felt to be not dramatic enough, and an alternative was sought. Eventually the idea of a piano chord was eventually settled upon . . .

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On Wednesday 22 February 1967, 'A Day In The Life' was completed with the recording of the final piano chord.

 

Initially using three pianos, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Mal Evans all played an E major chord. McCartney led the recording, which was recorded by Geoff Emerick in the control room of Studio Two. To capture every last bit of sound – including the rustling of paper and a squeaking chair – he used heavy compression and careful manipulation of the faders.

George Martin : "I wanted that chord to last as long as possible, and I told Geoff Emerick it would be up to him, not the boys, to achieve that. What I did was to get all four Beatles and myself in the studio at three pianos, an upright and two grands. I gave them the bunched chords that they were to play. Then I called out, 'Ready? One, two, three – go!' With that, CRASH! All of us hit the chords as hard as possible. In the control room, Geoff had his faders – which control the volume input from the studio – way, way down at the moment of impact. Then, as the sound died away, he gradually pushed the faders up, while we kept as quiet as the proverbial church mice. In the end, they were so far up, and the microphones so live, that you could hear the air-conditioning. It took forty-five seconds to do, and we did it three or four times, building up a massive sound of piano after piano after piano, all doing the same thing."

It took nine attempts to record a satisfactory version, as the five performers had trouble hitting the chord at precisely the same time. Take seven was the longest at 59 seconds, but take nine was the best. Three more overdubs were added to further thicken the sound. Two of these were of more pianos chords, and the third was of George Martin playing a harmonium.

At the end of the session The Beatles recorded an experimental piece, its purpose unknown. It lasted 22'10" and primarily featured Ringo Starr's drums, augmented by tambourine and congas. A single take was recorded, and was known in the studio as Anything, or Drum Track.

 

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A week before the release of Sgt Pepper, the BBC's director of sound broadcasting, Frank Gillard, wrote to EMI head Sir Joseph Lockwood with the news that the corporation was banning A Day In The Life due to the refrain "I'd love to turn you on". Gillard's letter, dated 23 May 1967, read:
Quote"I never thought the day would come when we would have to put a ban on an EMI record, but sadly, that is what has happened over this track. We have listened to it over and over again with great care, and we cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that the words "I'd love to turn you on", followed by that mounting montage of sound, could have a rather sinister meaning.

    The recording may have been made in innocence and good faith, but we must take account of the interpretation that many young people would inevitably put upon it. "Turned on" is a phrase which can be used in many different circumstances, but it is currently much in vogue in the jargon of the drug-addicts. We do not feel that we can take the responsibility of appearing to favour or encourage those unfortunate habits, and that is why we shall not be playing the recording in any of our programmes, Radio or Television.

    I expect we shall meet with some embarrassment over this decision, which has already been noted by the Press. We will do our best not to appear to be criticising your people, but as you will realise, we do find ourselves in a very difficult position. I thought you would like to know why we have, most reluctantly, taken this decision."



On 20 May 1967, during the BBC Light Programme's preview of the Sgt. Pepper album, disc jockey Kenny Everett was prevented from playing "A Day in the Life". The BBC announced that it would not broadcast the song due to the line "I'd love to turn you on", which, according to the corporation, advocated drug use.

   

The Beatles hit back at the decision, with Paul McCartney telling reporters: "The BBC have misinterpreted the song. It has nothing to do with drug taking. It's only about a dream."

John : "The laugh is that Paul and I wrote this song from a headline in a newspaper. It's about a crash and its victim. How can anyone read drugs into it is beyond me. Everyone seems to be falling overboard to see the word drug in the most innocent of phrases."


daf

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   tumbleweed ~
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purlieu

Crikey. These posts are astonishing. I'd be happy with just the song and a short bio, just in case you're getting too overwhelmed by making them!

Not much to say about these two songs. Both songwriters at their peak here, really. An unbeatable double a-side.

daf

Apologies for the delays - took a bit longer than usual, but I wanted to give this one my best shot - as it was the reason I included the Melody Maker charts in the first place!

Should get the next one out tomorrow - once I've stopped fiddling with the bugger!


Cardenio I

I can't imagine what it must have been like hearing Strawberry Fields for the first time. "What the fuck is this? The Beatles??" Lennon's peak as a songwriter. Incredible song.

daf

Start Spreading the Nudes, it's . . .

231.  Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra - Somethin' Stupid



From :  9 – 22 April 1967
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Call Me
Bonus : TV performance with Frank Jr

The Story So Far : 
QuoteFollowing her Number 1 with 'These Boots were made for walking", she reached #19 with the virtually identical "How Does That Grab You Darling" in May 1966.

 


She followed it with the flops "Friday's Child" (b/w "Hutchinson Jail") in July 1966, and "In Our Time" (b/w "Leave My Dog Alone") in October 1966, but was back in the Top 8 with "Sugar Town" in January 1967.




The ballad "Somethin' Stupid" — a duet with her father Frank Sianatra — hit No. 1 in the U.S. and the U.K. in April 1967. It earned a Grammy Award nomination for Record of the Year and remains the only father-daughter duet to hit No.1 in the U.S.




Her next single "Love Eyes" (b/w  "Coastin'") flopped in the UK in May 1967, but charted at #15 in the US.

In 1966 and 1967 Sinatra traveled to Vietnam to perform for the US troops. Many US soldiers adopted her song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" as their anthem. Sinatra recorded several anti-war songs, including "My Buddy", featured on her album Sugar; "Home", co-written by Mac Davis, and "It's Such A Lonely Time of Year", which appeared on the 1968 LP The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas.

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In March 1967, Frank Sinatra released a bossa nova album - Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim. The tracks were arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman, accompanied by a studio orchestra. Along with Jobim's original compositions, the album features three standards from the Great American Songbook : "Change Partners", "I Concentrate on You", and "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" - arranged in the bossa nova style.

   

Jobim had to wait for Sinatra to return from a holiday in Barbados where he was taking a mutually agreed 'shagging break' from his marriage to Mia Farrow.

The album was recorded on January 30 and February 1, 1967, at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Later in the evening of February 1, Sinatra and his daughter, Nancy, recorded their single "Somethin' Stupid".

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In 1967, Nancy Sinatra recorded the theme song for the James Bond film "You Only Live Twice". Originally, producers sought British singer Julie Rogers. Best known for her hit "The Wedding", Rogers was married to Michael Black - Bond lyricist Don Black's older brother. She was approached to perform the song written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse.

Julie Rogers : "This came at the height of my recording career in 1967. I just had three number one hit records worldwide. I recorded the song at Universal Studios with a 50-piece orchestra and John Barry. And to me, that was it, I'd done the theme."



John Barry : "It was usually the producers that said 'this isn't working, there's a certain something that it needed'. If that energy wasn't there, if that mysterioso kind of thing wasn't there, then it wasn't going to work for the movie."

The song was re-written, and the search was on for a replacement. Producer Cubby Broccoli had in mind one of the biggest names in showbiz - Frank Sinatra.

John Barry : "Cubby Broccoli was a friend of Frank Sinatra's. So he phoned him up and said we'd love you to sing the song in the movie. But Frank said no, he didn't want to do it, but my daughter is really good! Have Nancy do it."

Although Nancy Sinatra did indeed get the job, she was by no means second choice either. According to Bricusse, Barry had already lined up Aretha Franklin on the eve of her signing for Atlantic Records. However, the producers were insistent on using Nancy Sinatra who had just topped the charts with "These Boots Are Made For Walkin".

Marc Almond : "Nancy Sinatra was the epitome of that swinging sixties hipness, with her boots, her mini skirts, and her blonde hair. She was American as well, which I think was important because that gave the feeling that Bond was international. But there was also a sophistication to her as well."

I BET THERE WAS, ALMOND, YOU DIRTY OLD BOLLOCKS. I BET THERE WAS!!!

Nancy Sinatra : "I was panic-stricken from the very beginning of the whole procedure. I would rather have root canal surgery than go through that again. You Only Live Twice was difficult in a lot of ways. The fact that is was quite rangey, and I wasn't used to that, I was used to my little octave and a half. I even asked John, are you sure you want me to do this because maybe you need Shirley Bassey? But they said no, we want you, we want your sound."



Despite a full day's recording, they didn't have one perfect performance.

John Barry : "We took about maybe twelve takes and then when she had gone, we literally took pieces from all these takes that we had done and we stuck them all together and made the one tape that finally went out with the movie. As we say, it was a hatchet job. But she loved it and when she heard it she called me up and said you made it sound wonderful."

Nancy Sinatra : "There were bad notes, they just edited it together. They didn't want to embarrass me. I tried my best - I was 26 years old and really scared."

All of this was hidden from moviegoers in 1967, except those involved in the production.

Julie Rogers : "I saw the movie and sat there and cried. Anybody would! It was such a wonderful opportunity that just fizzled away for me."

   

A more guitar-heavy version of "You Only Live Twice" appeared on a double A-sided single along with "Jackson" - a duet with Lee Hazlewood. though the Bond theme stalled at #44 in the US, the single was was more successful in the UK, reaching #11.

The Johnny Cash cover "Jackson" also featured on her 1967 album "Country, My Way". It was produced by Lee Hazlewood who brought in real Nashville session players for authenticity. Hazlewood contributed only one song, "By the Way (I Still Love You)," and the rest were covers of popular county songs.




Also released in 1967 was Frank Sinatra's next album - "The World We Knew" - which included "Drinking Again" and the duet with Nancy "Something Stupid". Bending to the times, most of the songs featured fuzz guitars, reverb, folky acoustic guitars, wailing harmonicas, drum kits, organs, and brass. The title song reached #33 in the UK charts in August 1967.

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Nancy Sinatra had married actor and pop singer Tommy Sands in 1960, but the had divorced in 1965. In 1967 she would marry for a second time - with photographer Ron Joy.

   

Her next single "Lightning's Girl" (b/w "Until It's Time For You To Go") reached #24 in the US in September 1967, but was a flop in the UK.




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Another duet with Lee Hazlewood - "Lady Bird" (b/w "Sand") charted at #47 in the UK in November 1967, and she rounded off the year with the raunchy #83 US flop, "Tony Rome", the title track from the detective film Tony Rome starring her father. In the UK it became the B-side of her next UK single : "Some Velvet Morning" - another duet with Hazlewood.

 


Her first solo single in 1968 was the wistful "100 Years" (b/w "See The Little Children") which reached the #69 position in the US. In August 1968, "Happy" (b/w "Nice 'N Easy") flopped in the UK. In November 1968, "Good Time Girl" (b/w "Old Devil Moon") also flopped. As did "God Knows I Love You" (b/w "Just Being Plain Old Me") in March 1969; and "Drummer Man" in September 1969.

In 1968 she recorded the Kenny Young song "The Highway Song" produced by Mickie Most. Backed with "Are You Growing Tired Of My Love", the song reached #21 in the UK in November 1969.

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In 1966 she appeared as herself in The Oscar, and starred in The Last of the Secret Agents, as well as singing the title song. She also starred in Roger Corman's biker story The Wild Angels with Peter Fonda, then in 1968 she shared the screen with Elvis Presley in his musical comedy Speedway—her final film.




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In September 1969, The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas was released. As well as Frank, the seasonal platter also featured his children, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Nancy Sinatra and Tina Sinatra.

Frank, Jr. was away on tour, and added his singing later to the pre-recorded tracks. The closing song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas", has new 'dad-based' lyrics sung by Sinatra's children, with Frank singing the final verse and chorus solo.

 

Frank's next album Cycles was released in November 1968. Sinatra sang a variety of folk-rock oriented songs, including Judy Collins' hit "Both Sides Now", "Plenty of Jam Jars" by The Ravellers, and the Glen Campbell hits "Gentle on My Mind" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix". The title song was released as a single, reaching #23 on the US charts.

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The next Frank Sintra album, "My Way" was released in 1969 on his own Reprise label. It was mainly a collection of contemporary pop songs, such as Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", The Beatles' "Yesterday", Jacques Brel's "If You Go Away", and the anthemic title song "My Way", which reached #5 in the UK singles chart in April 1969 and became Sinatra's theme song in this stage of his career.

Also released in 1969 was "A Man Alone: The Words and Music of McKuen". In a tribute to the poet, all songs on this album were written by Rod McKuen. The single "Love's Been Good to Me", extruded from the plastic waffle, reached #8 in the UK charts in October 1969.

   

In 1969, Sinatra's sales were low. To try to combat this, he agreed to record a concept album with Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons and singer-songwriter Jake Holmes. Gaudio and Valli brought Sinatra a fully written album that told the story of a man whose wife has left him to raise his two young sons in Watertown.

Watertown was released in March 1970 through Reprise Records. In a series of soliloquies, the nameless narrator tells his heartbreaking story of personal loss: his wife has left him and their two boys for the lure of the big city. The album was released to mixed critical reviews and poor sales, with it being Sinatra's only major album release that failed to chart in the Top 100 in the US.

The album's orchestral tracks were recorded in New York at Columbia 30th Street Studio, also referred to as "The Church." Unlike previous work, Sinatra did not record with the orchestra, but he did attend the recording sessions for the music. He recorded his vocals over the prerecorded tracks at United/Western Studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. He would never again record his vocals without a live orchestra.

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Another Frank & Nancy duet - "Feelin' Kinda Sunday" (b/w "Kids") - was released in 1970, but failed to trouble the charts, as did "I Love Them All (The Boys In The Band)" in March 1970  /  "How Are Things In California?"  and a cover of The Move's "Flowers In The Rain"  in 1971.

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Frank Sinatra's next album, Sinatra & Company was released in 1971. The first side was in the bossa nova style, and the second side is influenced by soft rock, featuring a couple of standards from John Denver.

The bossa nova recordings were originally cut for a follow-up to the widely acclaimed Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, but some of Sinatra's less mainstream albums hadn't performed well, and anxieties drove the creation of this hybrid.

Three songs recorded at the Sinatra-Jobim session – "Bonita", "The Song of The Sabiá", and "Off Key (Desafinado)" – were omitted from Sinatra & Company. "Sabiá" was released in the USA as the flip side of the single "Lady Day" in 1970.

A song from the soft rock side - "I Will Drink the Wine"  reached #16 in the UK charts in March 1971. 

With sales dwindling, and the golf course calling, Frank announced his retirement . . .

 

In the autumn of 1971, the Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's duet "Did You Ever?" (b/w "Back On The Road")  reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart. 

In 1972, they performed for a Swedish documentary, Nancy & Lee In Las Vegas, which chronicled their Vegas concerts at the Riviera Hotel and featured solo numbers and duets from concerts, and behind-the-scenes footage.

In 1973 she released "Kind Of A Woman" (b/w "It's The Love (That Keeps It All Together)" and a non-LP single, "Sugar Me" written by Lynsey De Paul and Barry Blue.

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In 1973, Frank Sinatra returned from his brief retirement with the appropriately titled Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. Released amidst a whirlwind of publicity, the album was a commercial success, earning gold status and peaking just outside the top-ten on the UK and Billboard album charts. The album was accompanied by a television special, Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra, which reunited Sinatra with Gene Kelly.

Sinatra intended the album be composed entirely of songs by his friend Joe Raposo - who wrote music for Sesame Street. The record label balked and prevailed over Sinatra, limiting him to four : "You Will Be My Music"  /  "Winners"  /  "There Used to Be a Ballpark" / and "C is For Cookie" "Noah".

Another album by Frank - "Some Nice Things I've Missed" - emerged, like a toad beneath the harrow, in 1974. Consisting mainly of cover versions of songs made popular by other artists, the conceit of the album's title is that the songs on the album were ones that Sinatra liked but did not get the chance to record before they became hits, including : "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?"  /  "Sweet Caroline"  /  "If" /  and  "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown".

 

With that, he retired for a second time . . .

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After a couple of years away, Nancy began releasing singles on Private Stock, including "Annabell of Mobile" (b/w "She Played Piano And He Beat The Drums") in July 1975  /  Kinky Love" in April 1976 - which was banned by some radio stations in the for "suggestive" lyrics"  /  "Indian Summer" (b/w "Dolly And Hawkeye") with Lee Hazlewood in October 1976, and "It's for My Dad" (b/w "A Gentle Man Like You") in August 1977.

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Six years after his last album, in 1980 Frank Sinatra returned from his second retirement in with the triple concept album - Trilogy: Past Present Future.

Each of the album's three records was conceived as an individual work portraying a different time epoch, and each was arranged by one of Sinatra's major collaborators: Billy May (The Past), Don Costa (The Present), and Gordon Jenkins (The Future). Nelson Riddle also contributed the arrangement of "Something" for The Present.

For "The Past", Sinatra made a record of standards for the first time since the early 1960s, including : "The Song Is You"  /  "It Had to Be You"  /  and "All of You".

"The Present" concentrates on pop hits like "Love Me Tender"  /  "Song Sung Blue"  /  "MacArthur Park", and "Just the Way You Are", and also included the hit single "Theme from New York, New York". Originally tanking at #59 in the UK in 1980, it was re-released and reached #4 in February 1986 - becoming his final chart hit.

"The Future" was more of a freeform suite than a set of songs. It opened with the bum-numbing eleven-minuter "What Time Does the Next Miracle Leave?"  /  continued with "World War None!"  and  "The Future" - (Continued): "I've Been There!" - (Conclusion): "Song Without Words" / and closed with "Finale: Before the Music Ends]"

At the Grammy Awards of 1981, Trilogy: Past Present Future was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and Sinatra's recording of "Theme from New York, New York" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

On his WNEW-AM show, Jonathan Schwartz described the "Future" suite that forms the final part of this album as "narcissistic" and "a shocking embarrassment". Sinatra rang to complain, and had Schwartz suspended by his ankles over the Hudson River by some goons from his job.

 

By the mid-1970s, Nancy Sinatra had slowed her musical activity and ceased acting to concentrate on being a wife and mother. She returned to the studio in 1981 to record a country album with Mel Tillis called Mel & Nancy. Two of their songs made the Billboard Country Singles Chart: "Texas Cowboy Night" (b/w "After The Lovin'") - #23 in July 1981,  and "Play Me or Trade Me" (b/w "Where Would I Be") - which was glued to the #43 "barnacle position" in January 1982.

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She Shot Me Down, released in 1981 was the final album Frank Sinatra recorded for the record label he founded, Reprise. It was generally considered an artistic triumph featuring a thought-provoking set of torch songs with soaring strings, lyrics fraught with loss and regret, and heart-rending, world-weary vocals. The album, however, was not a commercial success.

Songs included : "Good Thing Going (Going Gone)"  /  "Thanks for the Memory"  /  "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)"  /  and the medley  "The Gal that Got Away / It Never Entered My Mind"

 

Released in 1984, L.A. Is My Lady, produced by Quincy Jones, was the final solo studio album by Frank Sinatra. This was the first studio album Sinatra had recorded with Jones since 1964's It Might as Well Be Swing.

This was the first time Sinatra recorded "Mack the Knife". He re-recorded the vocal on October 30, 1986 for the album's 1986 release on compact disc. Sammy Cahn wrote a new verse for "Teach Me Tonight", referencing Sinatra's many love affairs. Cahn also altered the lyrics of "Until the Real Thing Comes Along", with Sinatra claiming "I'd even punch out Mr. T for you".
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Duets was released in 1993. Consisting of duets between Sinatra and younger singers from various genres, the album was a commercial success, debuting at #2 on the Billboard albums chart, reaching #5 in the UK, and selling over 3 million copies in the US. It is the only Sinatra album to date to achieve triple platinum certification.

The album received mixed critical notices, with complaints stemming from Sinatra's specified style of isolated performance wherein he was never joined by his duet partners in the studio, an artificial method of record production which lacked the elements of personal collaboration and spontaneity. The guest singers had been directed to sing along to his pre-recorded vocal parts, and to make their performances complement his.

An orchestra was rehearsed at Capitol Records Studio A in Los Angeles, where Sinatra had recorded many times. Sinatra showed up for the first two days of intended tracking sessions but begged off laying down any vocals, the first day because he did not like being isolated in a vocal booth. On the second day, a small elevated stage was set-up for Sinatra to stand on to make the recording session feel more like a live performance.

The various duet partners were invited to participate remotely, their recordings sent to Capitol by way of ISDN digital telephone lines connected to the digital recording equipment. Bono recorded his part to "I've Got You Under My Skin" while standing on a couch in the Studios control room in Dublin, as he was too short to reach the microphone. 

After Aretha Franklin recorded her part to "What Now My Love" in Detroit, she recorded a personal message to Sinatra, thanking him for the opportunity.

Other duets included : "The Lady Is a Tramp"  with Luther Vandross   /  "I've Got a Crush on You" with Barbra Streisand  /  "I've Got the World on a String" with Liza Minnelli  /  and "They Can't Take That Away From Me"  with Natalie Cole.

 

In 1994, the sequel, Duets II was released. Though not as commercially successful as Duets, it still rose to #9 on the Billboard albums chart and sold over 1 million copies in the U.S. It also peaked at #29 in the UK.

Critical notices were again mixed at best, although some viewed it as an improvement over its predecessor. These would be the last studio recordings made by Sinatra, who had begun his recording career fifty five years earlier.

Songs included : "For Once in My Life" with Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder  /  "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" with Patti LaBelle  /  "Luck Be a Lady" with Chrissie Hynde  /  and "A Foggy Day" with Willie Nelson.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In 1995, Nancy posed for Playboy magazine at the age of 54, and made appearances on TV shows to promote her album One More Time. The magazine appearance caused some controversy. On the talk show circuit, she said her father was proud of the photos.

 

In 2004 she collaborated with tedious vegetable murderer Steve Morrissey to record a version of his song "Let Me Kiss You". The single—released the same day as Steve's version—charted at #46 in the UK, providing Sinatra with her first hit for over 30 years. The follow-up single, "Burnin' Down the Spark", failed to chart.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On 14 May 1998, Frank Sinatra died with his wife at his side at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, aged 82, after a heart attack. The night after Sinatra's death, the lights on the Empire State Building in New York City were turned blue, the lights at the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honour, and the casinos stopped spinning for one minute.

Sinatra was buried in a blue business suit with mementos from family members — cherry-flavored Life Savers, Tootsie Rolls, a bottle of Jack Daniel's, a pack of Camel cigarettes, a Zippo lighter, stuffed toys, a dog biscuit, and a roll of dimes that he always carried — next to his parents in section B-8 of Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

The Single :
Quote"Somethin' Stupid" was written by C. Carson Parks. The song is best known in the 1967 version by Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy Sinatra, which reached number one in the US and UK.



In the early 1960s, Carson Parks was a folk singer in Los Angeles. He was an occasional member of The Easy Riders, and also performed with The Steeltown Three, which included his younger brother Van Dyke Parks. In 1963, he formed the Greenwood County Singers, later known as The Greenwoods, who had two minor hits and included singer Gaile Foote. Before the Greenwoods disbanded, Parks and Foote married and, as Carson and Gaile, recorded an album in 1966 for Kapp Records, San Antonio Rose, which included the song "Something Stupid".

The most successful and best-known version of "Somethin' Stupid" was issued in 1967 as a single by Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra and subsequently appeared on Frank's album The World We Knew. Frank had played Parks' recording to his daughter's producer, Lee Hazlewood : "He asked me, 'Do you like it?' and I said, 'I love it, and if you don't sing it with Nancy, I will.' He said, 'We're gonna do it, book a studio.'"



Their rendition was recorded on February 1, 1967. Al Casey played guitar on the recording and Hal Blaine was the drummer. Lee Hazlewood and Jimmy Bowen [Bullseye!] were listed as the producers of the single, with arrangement by Billy Strange.

The single spent two weeks at number 1 in the UK, four weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and nine weeks atop the easy listening chart, becoming Frank's second gold single, and Nancy's third.  It was the first and only instance of a father-daughter number-one song in America.




Other Versions include :   The Lennon Sisters (1967)  /  Homer and Jethro (1967)  /  Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (1967)  /  David Houston and Tammy Wynette (1967)  /  Andy Williams (1967)  /  Peggy Lee (1967)  /  The Doodletown Pipers (1967)  /  Jackie Mittoo & The Soul Vendors  (1967)  /  "En lille dumhed" by Siw Malmkvist & Otto Brandenburg (1967)  /   "Je t'aime" by Dominique Michel et Michel Louvain (1967)  /  "Ces mots stupides" by Sacha Distel et Joanna Shimkus (1967)  /  "Was kann ich denn dafür" by Jack White und Brigitt Petry (1967)  /  "Coisinha Estúpida" by Leno e Lílian (1967)  /  "Nå'nting fånigt" by Lill-Babs & Curt Peterson (1967)  /  Peaches and Herb (1968)  /  "Rhywbeth Syml" gan Mary Hopkin ac Edward (1968)  /  Peters & Lee (1976)  /  Des O'Connor & Kim Wilde (1988)  /  The Smithereens (1995)  /  Amanda Barrie & Johnny Briggs (1995)  /  Ali & Kibibi Campbell (1995)  /  Robbie Walliams & Nicole Kidman (2001)  /  Danny McEvoy & Jasmine Thorpe (2016)  /  The ILVES Sisters (2017)  /  8-bit Jazz (2017)  /  Soren Madsen  (2018)  /  Toast Garden (2019)

On This Day  :
Quote9 April : "At the Drop of Another Hat" closes at Booth NYC after 105 performances
11 April : "Illya Darling" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC
11 April : Tom Stoppard's play "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead" debuts in London at the Old Vic
12 April : Sarah Cracknell, (Saint Etienne), born in Chelmsford, Essex
13 April : "Casino Royale" James Bond comedy film starring David Niven and Peter Sellers premieres in London
15 April : "Wait A Minim!" closes at John Golden Theater NYC after 457 performances
15 April : Frankie Poullain, (The Darkness), born Francis Gilles Poullain-Patterson in Milnathort, Kinross-shire, Scotland
16 April : "Walking Happy" closes at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC after 161 performances
17 April : Surveyor 3 launched; soft lands on Moon, April 20
17 April : Liz Phair, musician and songwriter, born Elizabeth Clark Phair in New Haven, Connecticut, USA
21 April : Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Allilueva arrives in New York City after defecting to the US
22 April : Tom Conway, British film, radio and TV actor dies at 62.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote           

DrGreggles

I know I've already used up my weekly "I think this is fucking shit" quota on the Africa thread, but I'm going to bring next week's allowance forward so I can say it about Something Stupid too.

purlieu

Yeah, not a favourite of mine at all. I like Nancy, but nah.

daf


Have there ever been two more different consecutive No. 1s than SFF and the Sinatras?

DrGreggles

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on February 28, 2020, 12:45:58 AM
Have there ever been two more different consecutive No. 1s than SFF and the Sinatras?

January 1991:
Iron Maiden - Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter
Enigma - Sadeness (Part I)

DrGreggles


gilbertharding

And didn't Mr Bobby knock Meatloaf off number one (or the other way round)?


gilbertharding


purlieu



daf

Barefootin', it's . . .

232.  Sandie Shaw - Puppet On A String



From : 23 April – 13 May 1967
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Tell The Boys
Bonus : Eurovision Performance

The Story So Far & Further : 
Quote1967 got off to a bad start with "I Don't Need Anything" (b/w "Keep In Touch") only reaching #50 in January.

 

Like many singers in the 60s, she recorded versions of her songs in several European languages, and as a result had a large following in the Continent. In March 1967, she released two foreign language EP's -

'Sandie Shaw In French' : "Mais Tu L'Aimes" (Girl Don't Come)  /   "Tu L'as Bien Compris"  (Message Understood)  /  "Pourvu Que Ca Dure" (Long Live Love)  /  "Rien N'Empechera L'Amour" (I'll Stop at Nothing)

'Sandie Shaw In Italian' : "Viva L'Amore Con Te" (Long Live Love)  /  "E Ti Avro" (Girl Don't Come)  /  "Domani"  (Tomorrow)  /  "Quello Che Tu Cerchi Amica" (Stop Feeling Sorry for Yourself)

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In 1967, she was invited by the BBC to represent the UK in that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. She had reservations as she felt it would destroy her credibility, but performed five songs on The Rolf Harris Show, with the public voting that the one that should represent the country was the Bill Martin/Phil Coulter composition "Puppet on a String".



Although she disliked the song and thought it was unrepresentative of her material, the song won the contest - which was also the first time the UK entry had won. It gave her a third UK No. 1 single, a record for a female at the time.




"Puppet on a String" also became an international hit (though not in the US) and the largest-selling single of the year in Germany, qualifying for a gold disc for one million plus sales in the UK and Europe. Globally, the single achieved sales in excess of 4 million, making it the biggest selling winning Eurovision track to date.




Shortly before the Eurovision Song Contest, she was caught up in a divorce scandal which threatened to blow a hole in her career -

Sandie Shaw : "There was another pressure on me to do Eurovision... I'd been named as 'the other woman' in a divorce case, divorce was a big deal back then, no one did it. At the time it happened, I was 17 and the man was 15 years older than me, and I wasn't aware of his marital status so to be pilloried for that... everyone said, 'Oh look what sweet Sandie has done,' but I didn't have the strength to argue with anyone, so I did Eurovision to readjust people's views of me, you know, 'She's a nice girl really.' The hypocrisy bound around women then was awful."

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To cash in on the massive success, in May 1967, Pye released 'Puppet on a String' - as her third album. It mainly included previously released material, with two new tracks (from the single) acting as the carrot.

   

An EP was later released in the UK entitled "Tell The Boys" containing the other four prospective Eurovision songs after fans expressed demands for them, including  : "Tell The Boys"  /  "I'll Cry Myself To Sleep"  /  "Had A Dream Last Night"  and "Ask Any Woman"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In June 1967, she represented Britain at the Bratislava Festival of Pop Songs, behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia.




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Eschewing [bless you!] her regular songwriter, Chris Andrews - for the moment, while the Eurovision iron was still hot - Bill Martin & Phil Coulter were tasked with penning the follow-up.

   

"Tonight In Tokyo" (b/w "You've Been Seeing Her Again"), reached #21 in July 1967.

   

In September, she performed in Italy, along with her great mate Adam Faith, and released the single "You've Not Changed" (b/w "Don't Make Me Cry") which was a #18 hit in October 1967.




As well as her music, there was talk of a acting career in Italian films, and on stage in London's Glittering West End -

 


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Her fourth album, Love Me, Please Love Me was released in November 1967, several months after Shaw's triumph in that year's Eurovision Song Contest. The album mainly contains cover versions, including "One Note Samba"  /  "Every Time We Say Goodbye"  and "I Get a Kick Out of You", plus two songs - "Hold 'im Down"  and  "That's Why" - written by Chris Andrews, who was her main songwriter for much of the 1960s.

 


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Five singles were released in 1968, but only the first, "Today" (b/w "London") charted - at #27 in February 1968.

 

The following four flops featured : "Don't Run Away" (b/w "Stop") in April  /  "Show Me" (b/w "One More Lie") in June  /  "Together" (b/w "Turn On The Sunshine") in August  /  and "Those Were The Days" (b/w "Make It Go") in September 1968.

   

In 1968 Sandie celebrated her 21st birthday, began the 'Sandie Shaw' fashion label, selling her own brand of clothing and shoes and jewellery, and in March, married fashion designer Jeff Banks at the Greenwich Register Office in London.

   

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In September and October 1968 she hosted her own TV show, The Sandie Shaw Supplement, on the BBC. Six episodes were broadcast :

1. "Eyes, Nose, Mouth and a Heartbeat" : With the music of love and sex
2. "Quicksand" : "Down Route 66 to San Jose in a Tijuana Taxi, she's a Homeward Bound Day Tripper with a Ticket To Ride on Trains and Boats and Planes. And if the Girl Don't Come — she'll have made her Getaway. Or hit a quicksand"
3. "Salt, Pepper and a Touch of Garlic" : with the music of the Continent
4. "Reflections" : Sandie pays tribute to the legendary ladies she admires.
5. "Sandcastles In The Air" : Sandie with the music of fantasy and make-believe.
6. "A Large Slice Of Bread" : with the music of money and glamour.

As was typical of the era, the original videotapes of all six shows were wiped, but episodes 2 and 3 were later recovered after the return of film tele-recordings from overseas.

Her fifth album, also titled 'The Sandie Shaw Supplement', was released to accompany the series, and contained songs featured in the episodes, including : "Route 66"  /  "Homeward Bound"  /  "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"  /  and "Words"

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Her last UK Top 10 hit was "Monsieur Dupont" - originally sung by German artist Manuela with German lyrics - it was backed with "Voice In The Crowd", and reached #6 in January 1969.




Following "Think It All Over" (b/w "Send Me A Letter") - which reached #42 in May 1969, she would be out of the charts for over a decade. The title of her next single, "Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now" (b/w "So Many Things To Do"), inspired a hit by The Smiths - who would play a part in her chart revival in the 1980s.

Shaw also produced her own album in 1969, Reviewing the Situation, which contained versions of songs by contemporary artists such as Bob Dylan ("Lay Lady Lay"), and the Rolling Stones ("Sympathy for the Devil"), and with her finger on the pulse, became the first artist to cover a Led Zeppelin song with "Your Time Is Gonna Come" .

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The new decade opened with "By Tomorrow" (b/w "Maple Village") which flopped in January 1970, and was followed by "Wight Is Wight" (b/w "That's The Way He's Made") in May 1970.

 

"Rose Garden" (b/w "Maybe I'm Amazed") followed in February 1971  /  "Show Your Face" (b/w "Dear Madame") in May 1971  /  "Where Did They Go" (b/w "Look At Me") in January 1972  /  and "Father And Son" (b/w "Pity The Ship Is Sinking") in July 1972.

   

Her contract with Pye expired in 1972, and she began working on other ventures. These included co-writing a full-length rock musical; songwriting; acting in stage productions - playing Ophelia in Hamlet and Joan of Arc in Saint Joan; writing children's books; and in 1973, appearing on BBC Television's long running music hall programme, The Good Old Days.

In 1973, Shaw was one of eight artists each given their own TV special in the BBC1 series Music My Way, where her guests included Blue Mink. Following that, Shaw left the music business and got a "proper job" in a central London restaurant as a waitress.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In 1977 she began a lifelong commitment to Buddhism, and released two singles on the CBS label : "One More Night" (b/w "Still So Young") in June, and "Just A Disillusion" (b/w "Your Mama Wouldn't Like It") in August 1977.

The marriage to Jeff Banks had ended in 1978, and her second husband, Nik Powell, introduced her to electronic musicians the British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.). She recorded a version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" for their Music of Quality And Distinction album on the Virgin label, which brought her back into the public eye.

The following year Shaw wrote and recorded an album, Choose Life, and released the single "Wish I Was" (b/w "Life Is Like A Star") to publicise the World Peace Exposition in London in March 1983.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Later in the year, a new phase in her career began after she received a letter from "two incurable Sandie Shaw fans" – devious, truculent and unreliable singer Steve Morrissey and the lovely lead guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths – telling her that "The Sandie Shaw legend cannot be over yet – there is more to be done." Shaw's husband was a friend of Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records, the label to which the Smiths were signed, and she agreed to record some of their songs.

In April 1984, her version of "Hand in Glove" (b/w "I Don't Owe You Anything") was released and peaked at #27 in the UK. In a neat twist on her trademark, she performed the song on Top of the Pops wearing shoes, while the rest of The Smiths sported bare feet.




In 1986 she released covers of Lloyd Cole and Patti Smith songs as singles on the Polydor label : "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?", backed by her own composition, "Steven (You Don't Eat Meat)", stiffed at #68 in May, and "Frederick" (b/w "Go Johnny Go!") - a Top 93 smash in August 1986. That year saw her embark on her first university tour in almost 20 years with a band made up largely of members of the JoBoxers. Shaw embarked on two more successful university tours, and made appearances at Gay pride and Peace festivals.

 

In 1988 she released the album Hello Angel, the name inspired by a postcard from the now solo Steve Morrissey, who also co-wrote her next single : "Please Help The Cause Against Loneliness" (b/w "Lover Of The Century") - which stalled at #86 in September.

The follow-up, and her final single to date, "Nothing Less Than Brilliant" (b/w "I Love Peace") was co-written by Sandie Shaw and Chris Andrews, missed the charts entirely on it's first release in November 1988, but got to #66 in 1994 - when it was re-issued to promote her best-of collection.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Shaw's autobiography, The World at My Feet, was published in 1991, and the following year she began studying at Oxford and the University of London and qualified as a psychotherapist in 1994. It was around this time that Shaw divorced Powell and met her third husband, Tony Bedford.

Concentrating on a new career as a psychotherapist, Shaw opened the Arts Clinic in 1997 with her husband, to provide psychological healthcare and creative development to those in the creative industries. The clinic is now styled Barefoot Therapy: The Arts Clinic and continues to provide psychological support for those in the fields of entertainment, media and sports. In 1998 she was invited to join the Royal Society of Musicians as an Honorary Professor of Music.

On 26 February 2007, in honour of her 60th birthday, Shaw released a new version of "Puppet on a String" on her website. The re-tooled version, called "Puppet's Got a Brand New String" had a complete overhaul in sound and vocals under the supervision of her friend Howard Jones.

Sandie Shaw : "I went to visit Howard one day and he was sitting at his keyboards playing around with some really beautiful chords and he started humming a bit of a soulful melody over it. 'That's nice.' I remarked. 'You try it,'he suggested. I did and it felt really good. I suddenly realised that this was the dreaded 'Puppet.' 'Don't loose your nerve,' he coaxed, 'let's see if you can change your karma.' So we finished it off, recorded it and sent it to a young, hip producer/mixer, Andy Gray who re-arranged and mixed the track and voila! I am cured! I really love it – I hope you do too."

Shaw was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to music.

The Single :
Quote"Puppet on a String" was written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. It is best known as the British winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967, held in Vienna.


 
She had never been taken with the idea of taking part in the contest but her friend, Adam Faith, had talked her into it, saying it would keep her manager Eve Taylor happy. Taylor wanted to give Shaw a more cabaret appeal and felt that this was the right move - and also felt that it would get Shaw back in the public's good books as she had recently been involved in a divorce scandal.

Shaw had originally performed the song as one of five prospective numbers to represent the United Kingdom in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest on The Rolf Harris Show. Of the five songs performed, "Puppet on a String" was Shaw's least favourite.

Sandie Shaw : "I hated it from the very first oompah to the final bang on the big bass drum. I was instinctively repelled by its sexist drivel and cuckoo-clock tune."

She was disappointed when it was selected as the song she would use to represent the country, but it won the contest hands down, though it has always been felt that this was partly due to her existing popularity on the continent (she had recorded most of her hit singles in French, Italian, German and Spanish).



As a result, "Puppet on a String" became her third Number One hit in the UK - a record for a woman at the time, and was a big worldwide smash. In Germany, the single was the biggest seller of the entire year, reaching sales of over 1 million copies. Shaw also recorded "Puppet on a String" in French ("Un tout petit pantin"), Italian ("La danza delle note"), Spanish ("Marionetas en la cuerda"), and German ("Wiedehopf im Mai").

Other Versions include :   Ken Boothe (1967)  /  Charlotte Marian (1967)  /  Dandy (1967)  /  Al Hirt (1967)  /  "Lille marionet" by Grethe Sønck (1967)  /  "Speelbal in de wind" by Anneke Grönloh (1967)  /  "Sätkynukke" by Marja Leena (1967)  /  "Un tout petit pantin" by Les Parisiennes (1967)  /  "Estou Feliz" by Os 3 Morais (1967)  /  "Sprattelgumma" by Siw Malmkvist (1967)  /  John Holt (1978)  /  Big Hair (1980)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  a robot (2015)  /  8-bit (2019)

On This Day  :
Quote23 April : Soyuz 1 launched; Vladimir Komarov becomes 1st in-flight casualty
26 April : "Hallelujah, Baby!" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC
27 April : Expo 67 opens in Montreal, Canada
28 April : Muhammad Ali refuses induction into army & stripped of boxing title
30 April : Ostankino Tower, the then highest free-standing structure in the world at 540m is finished in Moscow, Russia
1 May : Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu married at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas.
4 May : Lunar Orbiter 4 launched by US
4 May : Kate Garraway, TV presenter, born Kathryn Mary Garraway in Abingdon-on-Thames, Berkshire
10 May : Jon Ronson, British journalist and author born in Cardiff, Wales
10 May : Rolling Stones Keith Richard, Brian Jones & Mick Jagger arrested on drug charges
10 May : Young MC, rapper, born Marvin Young in South Wimbledon, London.
11 May : "Sing, Israel Sing" opens at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC for 14 performances
11 May : Great Britain, Ireland & Denmark apply for membership of the EEC
12 May : 1st quadraphonic concert by Pink Floyd at the Games for May concert in London
12 May : "Are You Experienced" album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience released
12 May : John Masefield,, Poet Laureate, dies at 88
13 May : Octagonal boxing ring is tested to avoid corner injuries

Extra! Extra!
Quote               

Read all about it! :
Quote                   


The Culture Bunker

Eh, the song doesn't do anything for me, but I chuckled at the article of the Smiths with Sandie in which Ms Shaw is captioned as being Morrissey.

purlieu



I think her duet with The Smiths was partly an attempt to distance herself from the Eurovision stigma.

This song can also be blamed for giving us the abysmal Cliff, Lulu and Dana Eurovisions of the following three years.

Jollity


daf

What a Load of Shhh, it's . . .

233.  The Tremeloes - Silence Is Golden



From : 14 May – 3 June 1967
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Let Your Hair Hang Down
Bonus : Live TV Performance

The Story So Far & Further : 
QuoteFollowing the Top 25 hit, "I Want Candy" in July 1965, a split between Brian Poole and The Tremeloes was in the works. The band was inactive in the studio for almost six months while the mechanics of Poole's exit worked themselves out. The consensus in the music press was that Poole was poised for stardom, while the Tremeloes were believed to be headed for oblivion . . . Instead, Poole disappeared from view after a series failed singles, and ultimately left the music business, ending up working in a barbers shop.

Following Poole out the door in 1966 was original bassist Alan Howard. The Tremeloes continued with a revised line-up of Rick Westwood (guitar)  /  Dave Munden (drums + lead vocals)  /  Alan Blakley (rhythm guitar + keyboards)  /  and Len "Chip" Hawkes (bass).

Westwood and Blakley were dual lead guitarists with guitar/sitar and banjo, pedal steel guitar and keyboards featured on their songs. Hawkes could play drums in addition to bass guitar. Blakley-Hawkes composed much of their original material, mostly on albums and 'B' sides, then some later singles, while Munden and Westwood also made songwriting contributions.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Their first single as a four piece was a cover of Paul Simon's song "Blessed" (b/w "The Right Time") in June 1966, which failed to chart.

After switching from Decca to CBS Records, The Tremeloes' first single on CBS was a cover of The Beatles song "Good Day Sunshine" (b/w "What A State I'm In") in August 1966. This also failed to chart, but established a new image of a more contemporary group in tune with the times.



They then started a successful run of hits with Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby" (b/w "Gentleman Of Pleasure") - a UK #4 and US #14 in September 1966.




Plans to release a second single featuring another Cat Stevens song - "I'm So Sleepy" - were abandoned after Cat revealed plans to release the song himself, the selfish bastard!

 

Following their chart success, The Tremeloes were booked on a tour alongside The Hollies, Paul Jones, and the Spencer Davis Group. A popular concert number on the tour became their next single, and their first chart-topper in the UK since "Do You Love Me" . . .




As well peaking at #1 in the UK, "Silence Is Golden", climbed to #11 in America during the spring of 1967, becoming their second U.S. gold record.

 


They released their first album without Brian Poole : 'Here Comes the Tremeloes' in May 1967, which peaked at #15 in the UK album charts.




Their next single, "Even The Bad Times Are Good" (b/w "Jenny's Alright") reached #4 in August 1967, and they went on a three-week package tour of America with The Who, Amen Corner and Marmalade.

 


All members shared vocals, though most of the songs featured either Hawkes or drummer Dave Munden as the lead singer. Guitarist Rick Westwood sang falsetto on the single "Be Mine", and they dipped their toe into psychedelia for the flip-side "Suddenly Winter" - the combination bombed at #39 in November 1967.




Binning the falsetto, they were back on form with the double A-sided single - "Suddenly You Love Me" / "As You Are" - which secured a Top 6 spot in January 1968.




"Helule Helule" (b/w "Girl From Nowhere") peaked at #14 in May 1968, and they bounced back to #6 in September 1968 with "My Little Lady" (b/w "All The World To Me"). They closed out the year with "I Shall Be Released" (b/w "I Miss My Baby") which only just scraped into the Top 30 in December 1968.




Like a dog returning to it's vomit, "Hello World" (b/w "Up, Down, All Around") revisited the #14 position in March 1969. The flop "Once On A Sunday Morning" (b/w "Fa La La, La La, La Le") broke their run of charting platters in June 1969, but "(Call Me) Number One" (b/w "Instant Whip") saw them back at peak powers, climbing to #2 in October 1969.

   

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In 1970, the band committed a series of grave errors that started innocently enough. The members, apparently weary of being treated as a soft pop band, decided to change their sound and image. They spent a year writing and preparing an album of music that was intended to prove they could do serious songs, and that was not, in and of itself, a mistake. The error came when the group announced their intention and, in the process, disparaged all of their past hits and dismissed the listeners whom they had attracted as "morons"!

When the smoke cleared, the group had managed to alienate most of their listeners and any representative of the music press who had previously been in their corner, while the new music released on the album 'Master', was ignored by the very people they'd sought to attract.

Their first single from the album, "By The Way" (b/w "Breakheart Motel"), tanked at #35 in March 1970. To rub salt into the wounds, they had just missed out on a sure-fire smash hit with "Yellow River" (sung by Dave Munden) when it was shelved as a single in favour of "By The Way". Producer Mike Smith set songwriter Jeff Christie's lead vocal to The Tremeloes backing, and it became a UK chart hit for the band Christie in June 1970.

   

But even in the midst of this debacle, the band showed that it still had the golden touch - "Me and My Life", which was a tuneful number off the album, reached #4 in the UK in September 1970, while its B-side, "Try Me", was a first-rate rock & roll number. "Right Wheel, Left Hammer, Sham" (b/w "Take It Easy") failed to chart in January 1971, and "Hello Buddy" (b/w "My Woman") proved to be their final chart hit - peaking at #32 in July 1971.

   

Though their UK chart career had fallen down the dustpipe, they continued to have hits on the Continent : "Too Late (To Be Saved)" (b/w "If You Ever") was a German #33 in October 1971  /  "I Like It That Way" (b/w "Wakamaker") #33 in the Netherlands in May 1972  /  "Blue Suede Tie" (b/w "Yodel Ay") #38 in Germany in November 1972  / and  "Ride On" (b/w "Hands Off") was a German #16 hit in April 1973.

     

Their line-up changed several times from 1972 onwards, the first new entrants being guitarist Bob Benham and a year later Aaron Woolley both from Swansea-based band Jumbo. They replaced Blakley and Hawkes - though both, like an elephant returning to it's sticky bun, would later rejoin the band later in the decade.

They briefly changed their name to The Trems for their next single : "Make Or Break" (b/w "Movin' On") in July 1973, but reverted back to The Tremeloes for "Good Time Band" (b/w "Hard Woman"). Despite the exciting excursion into re-branding, the public had clearly stopped listening, as neither single charted.

   

They opened their account for 1975 with a re-recording of their 1964 hit "Someone Someone" (b/w "My Friend Delaney"), and had another go at a name-change - this time to Space on the record label of their 'Don't Let the Music Die' album and single "Rocking Circus" in April 1975. It didn't last, and it was back to The Tremeloes for their next single : "Be Boppin' Boogie" (b/w "Ascot Cowboys") in August 1975.

By 1978 they were down to a trio of Alan Blakley, David Munden and Ray Stevens, and released the disco influenced singles "Lonely Nights" and "Ging Gang Goolie" in Germany.

   

Chip Hawkes pursued a solo career for a while producing two albums for RCA Records in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1979 he returned to England and rejoined the Tremeloes and produced the next single : "The Lights Of Port Royal" (b/w "Silas"). He left in 1988, and eventually  managed his son Chesney's pop career - resulting in a number 1 with "The One and Only" in 1991.

In 1983 the original quartet reformed and had a microscopic #93 hit with their cover version "Words" (b/w "I Will Return").

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Alan Blakley died from cancer in June 1996, leaving Munden and West to continue in concert with newer recruits Dave Fryer (bass) and Joe Gillingham (keyboards). Jeff Brown, former bass player and lead vocals for The Sweet, replaced Fryer in 2005. Dave Fryer retired to live in Germany after leaving the band, and continues to write music and play occasionally.

In 2019 two separate incarnations of the band were touring - The Tremeloes with Westwood, Clarke and Hawkes, along with Hawkes' son Jodie and Richard Marsh, and "The Trems" with Gillingham, Brown, Twynham and Phil Wright (ex- 'Paper Lace'). Munden had retired following knee issues resulting from a fall.

The Single :
Quote"Silence Is Golden" was co-written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, for The Four Seasons. It was originally released in 1964 as the B-side of the U.S. #1 single "Rag Doll". British band The Tremeloes later recorded a virtually identical version, which reached the top position on the UK Singles Chart on 18 May 1967, where it stayed for three weeks.



In the US, the single reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was one of the top 100 songs of 1967. The song sold one million copies globally, earning gold disc status.



The Tremeloes also recorded an Italian version, "E in silenzio".

Other Versions include :   The Red Squares (1967)  /  "Hiljaa vain ollaan" by Finntrio (1967)  /  The Nocturnes (1968)  /  Big Ben Hawaiian Band (1968)  /  Curt Haagers (1975)  /  Ingmar Nordströms (1990)  /  "Amo em silêncio" by Roupa Nova (1990)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Jason Hill (2013)  /  Fiorola (2018)

On This Day  :
Quote15 May : Edward Hopper, American painter, dies at 84
15 May : Paul McCartney meets his future wife Linda Eastman
20 May : BBC bans the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" because of alleged drug references
23 May : Phil Selway, (Radiohead), born Philip James Selway in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
24 May : Heavy D, rapper, born Dwight Errington Myers in Mandeville, Jamaica
25 May : John Lennon takes delivery of his psychedelically painted Rolls Royce
27 May : Gazza, footballer, born Paul John Gascoigne in Gateshead, County Durham
27 May : "Sherry!" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 65 performances
28 May : Francis Chichester arrives home at Plymouth from Round-the-world trip
29 May : Noel Gallagher, (Oasis), born Noel Thomas David Gallagher in Longsight, Manchester
30 May : Claude Rains, British actor (Casablanca), dies at 77
30 May : Evel Knievel's jumps over 16 cars on his motorbike in Gardena, California
31 May : Billy Strayhorn, American pianist and composer, dies of cancer at 51
1 June : Arthur Ransome, author (Swallows and Amazons), dies aged 83

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