The Beatles Paperback Writer/ Rain (Parlophone R 5452, 1966)
The Beatles Yellow Submarine/ Eleanor Rigby(Parlophone R 5493, 1966)
The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever/ Penny Lane (Parlophone R 5570, 1967)
The Beatles All You Need Is Love/ Baby, You're A Rich man (Parlophone R 5620, 1967)
On the surface things appear to be slowing down a bit after the first frenetic years of Beatle life. Five singles spread over three years and, shock, horror, probe - Strawberry Fields Forever/ Penny lane doesn't make number one!! It being famously kept from the top spot in the UK by Arnold Dorsey (a.k.a. Engelbert Humperdinck) and his Release Me single.
But in reality it was still all go go go when you remember that there were three albums and a double EP released as well during the period these five singles came out: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour!!!
The boys were on fire like never before!
The double A side singles (We Can Work It Out; Strawberry Fields Forever) point to the emergence of McCartney as a true equal to Lennon. As JWL influenced the early singles, Macca does the later years. At this point though it's even stevens.
Hidden gems: Rain is magnificent, as is Eleanor Rigby. And they are B sides! Eleanor made the Revolver album but Rain in 1966 was only to be found on the single. It's a clear sign of the staggering quality standards that the Beatles maintained.
No comments:
Post a Comment