Psychedelic Rock
The song “Penny Lane” by The Beatles is a wonderful example of Sixties British Invasion music. This nostalgic song is credited to Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Penny Lane is the name of a street in Liverpool, England, with a bus terminus, and many buses had “Penny Lane” displayed on them. McCartney said, “I’d get a bus to his [Lennon’s] 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.” The record was released in February, 1967, as one side of a double A-sided single with “Strawberry Field Forever.” Later in 1967, “Penny Lane” was included on their U.S. version of their Magical Mystery Tour album (but not on the U.K. EP).
And, in 1967, “Penny Lane” rose to “#1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as well as in Canada, Australia, and West Germany. It went to #2 on the U.K. Singles Chart and Irish Singles Chart. It went to #4 in Belgium. Rolling Stone magazine has “Penny Lane” on its list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
On the track were Paul McCartney (lead, harmony and backing vocals, three pianos, bass); John Lennon (harmony and backing vocals, two pianos, congas, handclaps); producer and orchestrator George Martin (piano); and David Mason (piccolo trumpet). Mason’s solo was inspired, evidently, by McCartney hearing Mason perform on a BBC TV broadcast of the J.S. Bach’s second Brandenburg Concerto. The piccolo trumpet is built about one octave higher than a standard trumpet, and it’s use in a pop song provides a unique texture.
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