On this day in 1967, The Beatles released Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever in the UK.

The song is inspired by a road in Liverpool that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison frequented when changing buses during their years as students. McCartney mentioned during an interview in 1965 that he wanted to write a song about Penny Lane, and in 1966 he wrote the song after being presented with Lennon’s Strawberry Fields Forever, which served as the singles second side. 

Penny Lane features a wide variety of instrumentation, adding handclaps, congas, piano, flutes, trumpets, oboes and a double bass to the groups usual combination. Still dissatisfied, McCartney decided to add a piccolo trumpet solo, which critics agree completes the song.

Many British reviewers were initially confused by the release and predicted trouble for commercial sales. The song however quickly went to number two on the charts, only beaten as a protocol dictated that only the sales of the better-selling side of a double A-side were eligible, essentially halving the numbers. This made the release the first Beatles single since 1963 to fail to reach number one. The band themselves were unperturbed by this result, with Starr recalling that it took pressure off the group.