On this day in 1966, the Beatles began recording their seventh studio album, Revolver

The band had originally planned to try a different studio from the usual Abbey Road, and they looked into recording at Stax Studio in Memphis. This plan had to be scrapped due to locals descending on the building hoping to catch a glimpse of the band, and they headed back to Abbey Road.

Work on the album began with Tomorrow Never Knows, written by Lennon, though the arrangement was changed significantly before the final release. The first recording for the song wouldn’t appear until 1996, when it was released as part of the Anthology 2 compilation. The band recorded 14 songs over the following months, with work wrapping up in June, ahead of an August release.

Revolver was released to immediate success, with the album topping charts in the US for six weeks and the UK for seven. UK critics praised the album highly, though in the US many reviews were more mixed as the press were uneasy with the bands speaking out  about contemporary issues. Today, Revolver is regarded as a highly influential album within many genres, and is often credited with opening up more possibilities in pop music, leading to more creative and conceptual works by other musicians.