"STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER" & "PENNY LANE" WILL FINALLY APPEAR ON SGT PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND WHEN IT's RE-RELEASED

Fans were angry Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane never made the album but they are set to be included for the 50th anniversary version

 

Two of the Beatles ’ most famous songs will finally be included on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club when the album is re-issued on June 1 to mark 50 years since its release.

Despite being written specifically for their eighth studio album, record label EMI chose to put out Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane as a double A side single.

Fans were furious it never made the final collection.

Regarded as one of the best albums of all time, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club won four Grammy awards, including making history as the first rock collection to be named Album Of The Year.

The album was based on a concept by Sir Paul McCartney to record as the fictional Sgt Pepper group and encouraged them to push creative boundaries after they gave up touring.

The results were classic tracks With A Little Help From My Friends and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

But at the time The Beatles lost a battle with their label to keep Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane on the collection.

Talking about the tracks Sir Paul, 74, said: “ John write this absolutely amazing song Strawberry Fields Forever for the new album and I was frankly a bit jealous so I went home and wrote Penny Lane.

“We wanted them as the main tracks on Sgt Pepper.

“We were in another phase of our career.

“We didn’t have to be performing every night so instead we could be writing or chatting with our mates or visiting an art exhibition.

“Having the time off gave us time to come in (to the studio) with crazy ideas.

“We were all opening our minds to different areas and sharing it with one another.

“There was a lot of cross-fertilization.”

Producer George Martin admitted not adding the songs on to the album was “the biggest mistake of (his) professional life.”

He said: “The only reason that Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane didn’t go onto the album was a feeling that if we issued a single it shouldn’t go onto an album.

“It was a crazy idea, and I’m afraid I was partly responsible.

“In those days it was an aspect that we’d try to give the public value for money.

“Brian (Epstein, The Beatles’ manager) came to me and said: ‘I must have a really great single. What have you got?’.

“I said: ‘I’ve got three tracks and two of them are the best tracks (Lennon and McCartney) have ever written’.

“So we put them together’.”

Ringo, 76, later confessed that the concept album idea never really got off the ground.

He said: “It was going to run like a rock opera.

“It started out with a feeling that it was going to be something totally different but we only got as far as Sgt Pepper and Billy Shears.

“We kept the title and the feel that it’s all connected but in the end we didn’t actually connect all the songs up.”

The Beatles’ company Apple Corps are said to have the backing of all parties involved in the record for the changes to be included in the new release.

It’s thought that one in five British households own a vinyl copy of Sgt Pepper.

  


source:mirror