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Strawberry Fields Forever

April 12, 2024

For other uses, see Strawberry Fields.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A-side single with "Penny Lane". It represented a departure from the group's previous singles and a novel listening experience for the contemporary pop audience. While the song initially divided and confused music critics and the group's fans, it proved highly influential on the emerging psychedelic genre. Its accompanying promotional film is similarly recognised as a pioneering work in the medium of music video.[6]

"Strawberry Fields Forever"
US picture sleeve
Single by the Beatles
A-side"Penny Lane" (double A-side)
Released13 February 1967 (1967-02-13)
Recorded29 November, 8–21 December 1966
StudioEMI, London
Genre
Length4:07
Label
Songwriter(s)Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)George Martin
The Beatles singles chronology
"Eleanor Rigby" / "Yellow Submarine"
(1966) 		"Strawberry Fields Forever" / "Penny Lane"
(1967) 		"All You Need Is Love"
(1967)
Promotional film
"Strawberry Fields Forever" on YouTube

Lennon based the song on his childhood memories of playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children's home in Liverpool. Starting in November 1966, the band spent 45 hours in the studio, spread over five weeks, creating three versions of the track. The final recording combined two of those versions, which were entirely different in tempo, mood and musical key. It features reverse-recorded instrumentation, Mellotron flute sounds, an Indian swarmandal, and a fade-out/fade-in coda, as well as a cello and brass arrangement by producer George Martin. For the promotional film, the band used experimental techniques such as reverse effects, jump-cuts and superimposition.

The song was the first track the Beatles recorded after completing Revolver and was intended for inclusion on their forthcoming (as yet untitled) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Instead, with pressure from their record company and management for new product, the group were forced to issue the single, and then adhered to their philosophy of omitting previously released singles from their albums. The double A-side peaked at number 2 on the Record Retailer chart, thereby breaking the band's four-year run of chart-topping singles in the UK. In the United States, "Strawberry Fields Forever" peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. To the band's displeasure, the song was later included on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP.

Lennon viewed "Strawberry Fields Forever" as his finest work with the Beatles.[7] After Lennon's murder in New York City, a section of Central Park was named after the song. In 1996, the discarded first version of the song was issued on the outtakes compilation Anthology 2; in 2006, a new version was created for the remix album Love. Artists who have covered the song include Richie Havens, Todd Rundgren, Peter Gabriel, Ben Harper, and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs featuring Debbie Harry. In 1990, a version by the Madchester group Candy Flip became a top-ten hit in the UK and Ireland. The song was ranked number 7 on Rolling Stone's updated 2021 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Background and writing edit

 
Entrance gates at Strawberry Field, near Lennon's childhood home in Woolton, Liverpool

Strawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army children's home close to John Lennon's childhood home in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool.[8][9] Lennon and his friends Pete Shotton, Nigel Walley and Ivan Vaughan used to play in the wooded garden behind the home.[10][11] One of Lennon's childhood treats was the garden party held each summer in Calderstones Park, near the home, where a Salvation Army brass band played.[12] Lennon's aunt Mimi Smith recalled: "There was something about the place that always fascinated John. He could see it from his window … He used to hear the Salvation Army band [playing at the garden party], and he would pull me along, saying, 'Hurry up, Mimi – we're going to be late.'"[10]

Lennon began writing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in Almería, Spain, during the filming of Richard Lester's How I Won the War in September–October 1966.[13][14] The Beatles had just retired from touring after one of their most difficult periods,[15] which included the "more popular than Jesus" controversy and being the target of mob violence in reaction to their unintentional snubbing of Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos.[8][16] Working on Lester's film without his bandmates left Lennon feeling vulnerable; according to his wife Cynthia, he was also distraught to learn in late October that Alma Cogan, the English singer whom "he'd earmarked to replace Aunt Mimi in his affections", had died in London at the age of 34.[17] In the first versions that Lennon committed to tape, in September, there was no reference to Strawberry Field. Author Steve Turner says that at this stage, Lennon most likely drew inspiration from Nikos Kazantzakis's autobiographical novel Report to Greco, which he was reading in Almería and "tells of a writer searching for spiritual meaning".[18]

I was different all my life. The second verse goes, "No one I think is in my tree." Well, I was too shy and self-doubting. Nobody seems to be as hip as me is what I was saying. Therefore, I must be crazy or a genius – "I mean it must be high or low" ...[19]

– John Lennon, 1980

Like "Penny Lane", which Paul McCartney wrote in late 1966 in response to Lennon's new song,[20] "Strawberry Fields Forever" conveys nostalgia for the Beatles' early years in Liverpool.[21] While both songs refer to actual locations, McCartney said that the two pieces also had strong surrealistic and psychedelic overtones.[8] George Martin, the Beatles' producer, recalled that when he first heard "Strawberry Fields Forever", he thought it conjured up a "hazy, impressionistic dreamworld".[22][nb 1]

As with his Revolver compositions "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "She Said She Said", "Strawberry Fields Forever" was informed by Lennon's experiences with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which caused him to question his identity and seek to dissolve his ego.[23] In Turner's description, the song's opening line, "Let me take you down", establishes Lennon as a "spiritual leader" in keeping with his statements in "The Word", "Rain" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", while Lennon's contention that in Strawberry Field "Nothing is real" reflects the concept of maya (or "illusion") as conveyed in the Hindu teachings that Lennon was also reading during his weeks on the film set.[24] Lennon said the song reflected how he had felt "different all my life";[14][22] he called it "psychoanalysis set to music" and one of his most honest songs.[25] In McCartney's view, the lyrics reflect Lennon's admiration of the nineteenth-century English writer Lewis Carroll, particularly his poem "Jabberwocky".[26]

The earliest demo of the song was recorded in Almería, and Lennon subsequently developed the melody and lyrics in England throughout November.[27] Demos taped at his home, Kenwood, demonstrate his progress with the song and include parts played on a Mellotron,[27][28] a tape-replay keyboard instrument he had purchased in August 1965.[29] On the first Almería recording, the song had no refrain and only one verse, beginning: "There's no one on my wavelength / I mean, it's either too high or too low". Lennon revised these words to make them more obscure, then wrote the melody and part of the lyrics to the chorus (which functioned as a bridge and did not yet include a reference to Strawberry Fields). After returning to England in early November, he added another verse and the mention of Strawberry Fields.[30] The first verse on the released version was the last to be written, close to the time of the song's recording.[31] For the chorus, Lennon was again inspired by his childhood memories: the words "nothing to get hung about" were inspired by Aunt Mimi's strict order not to play in the grounds of Strawberry Field, to which Lennon replied, "They can't hang you for it."[32] The first verse Lennon wrote became the second one in the released version of the song, and the second verse he wrote became the last.

Composition edit

 
"Strawberry Fields Forever" sample
Problems playing this file? See media help.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" was originally written on acoustic guitar in the key of C major. The recorded version is not in standard pitch, due to manipulation of the tape speed, and the key is approximately B♭ major.[33] Among musicologists, Walter Everett describes it as "midway between" A and B♭ over the opening minute and subsequently "closer to B♭",[34] while Dominic Pedler says that some consider it to be closer to A major.[35]

The song begins with a flute-like introduction played on Mellotron,[15] and involves a I–ii–I–♭VII–IV progression (in Roman numeral analysis).[36] The vocals enter with the chorus instead of a verse.[37] In Pedler's description, it has "non-diatonic chords and secondary dominants" combining with "chromatic melodic tension intensified through outrageous harmonisation and root movement".[38] The phrase "to Strawberry" begins with a slightly dissonant G melody note against a prevailing F minor key, then uses the semitone dissonance B♭ and B notes (the natural and sharpened 11th degrees against the Fm chord) until the consonant F note is reached on "Fields". The same series of mostly dissonant melody notes covers the phrase "nothing is real" against the prevailing G7 chord (F♯7 in the key of A).[38]

A half-bar complicates the metre of the choruses, as does the fact that the vocals begin in the middle of the first bar. The first verse follows the chorus and is eight bars long. The verse starts with an F major chord, which progresses to G minor, the submediant, serving as a deceptive cadence. According to musicologist Alan Pollack, the deceptive cadence is encountered in the verse, as the leading-tone never resolves into a I chord directly as expected.[33] Instead, the leading note, harmonised as part of the dominant chord, resolves to the prevailing tonic (B♭) at the end of the verse, after tonicising the subdominant (IV) E♭ chord, on "disagree".[35] On the released recording, the second and third verses are introduced by a descending, raga-esque melody played on an Indian board-mounted zither, known as a swarmandal.[39]

In the middle of the second chorus, brass is introduced, emphasising an ominous quality in the lyrics.[37] After three verses and four choruses, the line "Strawberry Fields Forever" is repeated three times, and the song fades out, with interplay between electric guitar, cello and swarmandal. The song fades back in after a few seconds for what Everett terms a "free-form coda".[40] This avant-garde-style section features the Mellotron playing in a haunting tone – one achieved by recording the instrument's "Swinging Flutes" setting in reverse[41] – scattered drumming, discordant brass, and murmuring, after which the song fades for a second time.[37][33]

Recording edit

Overview edit

External videos
  "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Take 1)
  "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Take 4)
  "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Take 7)
  "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Take 26)

The Beatles began recording "Strawberry Fields Forever" on 24 November 1966.[42] It was the band's first recording session since completing Revolver, in June,[43] and marked the start of recording for what became the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[44] It was also the Beatles' first group activity since the end of their final US tour, on 29 August.[45][46] Recording took place in Studio 2 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London,[47] using a four-track machine.[48]

Before the session, in October, Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, had informed EMI that the band would not be releasing any new music for the Christmas market.[49] On 10 November, newspapers reported that there would be no further concert tours by the Beatles.[50] The band's lack of activity and their highly publicised individual pursuits since September were interpreted by the press as a sign that the band were on the verge of splitting up.[51][52] Their return to the recording studio was given front-page coverage in some newspapers.[53]

George Harrison, who had been travelling in India during the Beatles' lay-off, recalled there being a "more profound ambience" in the band when they reunited to record "Strawberry Fields Forever".[8] Lennon said that, having failed to connect with anyone on Lester's film set, "I was never so glad to see the others. Seeing them made me feel normal again."[43] The song's working title was "It's Not Too Bad".[54] The song took 45 hours to record, spread over five weeks.[55] It was the most complex recording the Beatles had attempted up to this point, and involved three distinct versions of the song;[47][56] each one was different in structure, key and tempo, yet the released recording was created through a combination of the final two versions.[57]

Together with "Penny Lane" and "When I'm Sixty-Four",[58][59] "Strawberry Fields Forever" established the theme for the early part of the Sgt. Pepper project – namely, a nostalgic look back at the band members' childhoods in northern England.[60][61] McCartney has said that this was never planned or formalised as an album-wide concept, but acknowledged that it served as a "device" or underlying theme throughout the project.[60][nb 2]

Take 1 edit

 
"Strawberry Fields Forever" was one of the most technically complex recordings the Beatles ever attempted. The song was recorded entirely on a Studer J37 four-track machine.

After Lennon played the song for the other Beatles on his acoustic guitar, on 24 November, he changed to his Epiphone Casino electric guitar for the recordings. McCartney played Mellotron,[29] which, following Lennon's lead, the other three Beatles had acquired their own examples of, through Moody Blues keyboardist Mike Pinder.[63] Harrison also played electric guitar, emphasising a bass line beside Lennon's rhythm,[34] and Ringo Starr played drums.[64] McCartney wrote the melody for the Mellotron introduction,[65] although on the first take the instrument appears more in the role of backing accompaniment, relative to its prominence on the officially released recording.[34][nb 3]

Take 1 opened with a verse, starting "Living is easy with eyes closed", instead of the chorus, which starts the released version. The first verse also led directly to the second, with no chorus between. Lennon's vocals were automatically double-tracked from the words "Strawberry Fields Forever" through the end of the last verse. The last verse, beginning "Always, no sometimes", has three-part harmonies, with McCartney and Harrison singing "dreamy background vocals".[30][34] Onto this take 1, Harrison also overdubbed slide guitar parts over the choruses,[34] played on the Mellotron's guitar setting[64] and using the instrument's pitch control to achieve the slide effect.[66] This version was soon abandoned; it went unreleased until a new mix was included on the Anthology 2 outtakes compilation in 1996,[67] although the harmony vocals were cut from the track.[34][64][nb 4]

Take 7 edit

 
A 1960s-era Mellotron, similar to that used on the Beatles recording

On 28 November, the band reassembled to try a different arrangement. The second version of the song featured McCartney's Mellotron introduction followed by the chorus.[69] The instrumentation on the basic track was similar to that for take 1, but with the inclusion of maracas.[70] Take 4 was considered sufficient for mix down and overdubs,[69] which included a lead vocal by Lennon, McCartney's bass guitar, and Harrison again playing the slide parts, including what author John Winn terms "Morse code blips", on Mellotron.[71]

Having taken acetates home overnight, the band decided to redo the song again on 29 November, using the same arrangement. The second take that day was chosen as best and subjected to overdubs,[69] such as vocal and bass guitar.[72] In his lead guitar part,[48] Harrison plays arpeggio chord patterns, after Lennon had struggled to master the picking technique.[73] Lennon's vocal was recorded with the tape running fast so that when played back at normal speed the tonality would be altered, giving his voice a slurred sound.[69]

During the subsequent mix-down process, creating what became take 7, Lennon added a second vocal over the choruses.[72] The other final overdubs were piano[74] and further bass.[48][nb 5] This version would be used only for the first minute of the released recording.[74][76]

Take 26 edit

After recording the second version of the song, Lennon wanted to do something different with it.[76] Martin recalled: "He'd wanted it as a gentle dreaming song, but he said it had come out too raucous. He asked me if I could write him a new line-up with the strings. So I wrote a new score (with four trumpets and three cellos) ..."[48] For this purpose, another basic track was recorded on 8 and 9 December, with the group attempting the song at a faster tempo than before.[77] At the start of the first session, recording was overseen by Dave Harries, an EMI technical engineer, in the temporary absence of Martin and Geoff Emerick, the Beatles' usual recording engineer.[78][79] The band focused on achieving a percussion-heavy rhythm track, which included Starr's drums,[77] and backwards-recorded hi-hat[80] and cymbals.[79] The latter process involved writing down the parts before Starr played them, as Harrison had done for his backwards guitar solo on "I'm Only Sleeping".[78] Described by Winn as a "cacophony of noise",[77] the 8 December tape also included timpani and bongos, played by McCartney and Harrison, and other percussion, which, in Harries' account, was provided by Beatles associates Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and Terry Doran.[78]

At the start of the 9 December session, parts of two of the fifteen new takes were edited together into one performance, which was then mixed down to a single track on the four-track master.[81][75] The second of those takes (numbered take 24) consisted of the heavy drum break and accompanying percussion used over the song's coda, and included Lennon's spoken comments "Calm down, Ringo" and "Cranberry sauce".[77][76] In Lewisohn's description, further percussion, including a pounding drum part by Starr, and Harrison's swarmandal were recorded onto one of the available tracks at this time.[81][nb 6] Other overdubs, which appear towards the end of the track, included lead guitar[48] (played by McCartney), piano and the coda's reversed Mellotron flutes.[75][nb 7] Based on the evidence of bootlegs available by 2009, Winn dates the addition of swarmandal to after Martin's orchestral overdubs. With regard to the main piano part, he describes it as the Mellotron's "'piano riff' tape", rather than a genuine instrumental contribution.[85]

The session for Martin's brass and cello arrangement took place on 15 December.[85] The parts were performed in the key of C major but taped so that on playback they sounded in B major.[34] Another mix down was then carried out, reducing all the contributions to two tape tracks.[86][85] Author Ian MacDonald comments that Martin's contribution heightens the song's Indian qualities, as represented first by the swarmandal, through his scoring of the cellos to "[weave] exotically" around McCartney's "sitar-like" guitar figures before the coda.[80] Further overdubs, on what was now named take 26, were two vocal parts by Lennon,[81] the second one doubling the main vocal over the choruses.[85] Lennon re-recorded one of his vocals on 21 December,[81] singing a harmony over the final chorus.[87] Some piano was also added at this time, along with a snare drum part.[87]

Final edit edit

After reviewing the acetates of the new remake and the previous version, Lennon told Martin that he liked both the "original, lighter" take 7 and "the intense, scored version",[81] and wanted to combine the two.[88][89] Martin had to tell Lennon that the orchestral score was at a faster tempo and in a higher key than the earlier recording.[90] Lennon assured him: "You can fix it, George."[91][92]

On 22 December, Martin and Emerick carried out the difficult task of joining takes 7 and 26 together.[91][93] With only a pair of editing scissors, two tape machines and a vari-speed control, Emerick compensated for the differences in key and speed by increasing the speed of the first version and decreasing the speed of the second.[15] He then spliced the versions,[89] starting the orchestral score in the middle of the second chorus.[91] Since take 7 did not include a chorus after the first verse,[48] he also spliced in the first seven words of the second chorus from that take.[94] The pitch-shifting in joining the versions gave Lennon's lead vocal an otherworldly, "swimming" quality.[34][95]

During the editing process, the portion towards the end of take 26, before the arrival of the reversed Mellotron flutes and siren-like trumpet blasts, was faded out temporarily, creating a false ending. On the completed take from 15 December, however, the swarmandal and other sounds were interrupted by the abrupt entrance of the coda's heavy drum and percussion piece.[83] Martin said that the premature fadeout was his idea, to hide some errors in the busy percussion track.[94] Among the faintly audible comments over the coda, "Cranberry sauce" was taken to be Lennon intoning "I buried Paul" by proponents of the "Paul is Dead" hoax,[96] a theory that contended that McCartney had died in November 1966 and been replaced in the Beatles by a lookalike.[97][98]

Shortly before his death in 1980, Lennon expressed dissatisfaction with the final version of the song, saying it was "badly recorded" and accusing McCartney of subconsciously sabotaging the recording.[99][100] Martin remained proud of the track; he described it as "a complete tone poem – like a modern Debussy".[101]

Promotional film edit

 
The Beatles filmed their promo clip for the song around a large tree in Knole Park in Kent.

By January 1967, Epstein was under pressure from the Beatles' record company to release a new single by the group.[102][103] Martin told him that they had recorded "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", which, in his opinion, were "two all-time great songs".[104] The decision was made to issue them as a double A-side single,[105] a format the Beatles had used for their previous single, "Eleanor Rigby" / "Yellow Submarine", in August 1966.[103] The Beatles produced a film clip for "Strawberry Fields Forever", in a continuation of their policy since 1965 of avoiding the need to promote a single with numerous personal appearances on television.[106] It was filmed on 30 and 31 January 1967 at Knole Park in Sevenoaks, Kent.[102][107] The following week, the band shot part of the promotional film for "Penny Lane" at the same location.[108][109][nb 8]

The clip was directed by Peter Goldmann,[102] a Swedish television director who had drawn inspiration in his work from Lester's style in the Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night.[111][112] Goldmann was recommended to the Beatles by their mutual friend Klaus Voormann.[113] One of the band's assistants, Tony Bramwell, served as producer.[112] Bramwell recalls that, inspired by Voormann's comment on hearing "Strawberry Fields Forever"[114] – that "the whole thing sounded like it was played on a strange instrument" – he spent two days dressing up a large tree in the park to resemble "a piano and harp combined, with strings".[115] Writing in 2007, music critic John Harris remarked that Bramwell's set design reflected the "collision of serenity and almost gothic eeriness" evident in the finished song.[115]

 
Lennon with a horseshoe moustache in January 1967

The clip presented the Beatles' new group image, since all four now sported moustaches,[116][117] following Harrison's lead when he left for India in September 1966.[118] In addition to a horseshoe moustache, Lennon wore his round "granny" glasses for the first time as a member of the Beatles,[111] in keeping with his look as Private Gripweed in How I Won the War,[119] for which he had also shorn off his long hair.[120] Combined with their psychedelic clothing, the band's appearance contrasted sharply with the youthful "moptop" image of their touring years;[121] this former image and identity had instead been adopted by the Monkees, an American television and recording act based on the Beatles as they had appeared in A Hard Day's Night and Help![122][nb 9] In author Kevin Courrier's description, Lennon now resembled a character from an Arthur Conan Doyle mystery, while Harrison looked equally austere, with his beard and heavy balaclava.[114]

 
McCartney, Harrison, Starr and Lennon pouring paint over the piano–harp construction. Journalist and broadcaster Joe Cushley describes the clip as "the mad music professors' outdoor seminar".[123]

Instead of a performance of the song, the clip relies on abstract imagery and features reverse film effects, long dissolves, jump-cuts including from day- to night-time, superimposition and extreme close-up shots.[124][nb 10] The Beatles are shown playing and later pouring paint over the upright piano; at one point, McCartney appears to leap from the ground onto a branch of the tree.[111][117][nb 11] In his commentary on the promo clip, music critic Chris Ingham writes:

Beautifully and spookily lit ... much attention is given to close-ups of The Beatles' faces and facial hair, as if the viewer is invited to contemplate the significance of the newly furry Fabs. There's an appropriately surreal air about the film ... which, when experienced simultaneously with The Beatles' extraordinary new music, is deliciously disorientating. The final scene of The Beatles pouring pots of coloured paint onto the "piano" is oddly shocking, but brilliantly memorable as a statement of iconoclastic artistic intent.[117]

 
Beatles standing behind a tree and a broken piano–harp construction

Release edit

The reaction when you played "Strawberry Fields [Forever]" to people was weird ... "Penny Lane" was a bit Beatley; "Strawberry Fields" really wasn't.[115]

– Beatles associate Tony Bramwell

The double A-side single was issued by Capitol Records in the US on 13 February 1967 (as Capitol 5810),[127] and by EMI's Parlophone label in the United Kingdom on 17 February (as Parlophone R 5570).[128] Aside from the compilation album A Collection of Beatles Oldies, issued in the UK but not the US,[129] it was the first release by the Beatles since Revolver and their August 1966 single.[130][131] It was also the first Beatles single in the UK to be presented in a picture sleeve.[132][133] The front of the sleeve contained a studio photo that again demonstrated the band's adoption of facial hair; on the back cover were individual pictures of the four Beatles as infants,[132] which heightened the connection to a Liverpool childhood.[134] Recalling the reaction to the new single and the expectations it created for Sgt. Pepper, music critic Greil Marcus later wrote: "If this extraordinary music was merely a taste of what The Beatles were up to, what would the album be like?"[135] Comparing the two sides in his book Electric Shock, Peter Doggett likens "Penny Lane" to pop art in its evoking "multifaceted substance out of the everyday", and describes "Strawberry Fields Forever" as art pop, "self-consciously excluding the mass audience".[2]

The promotional film for "Strawberry Fields Forever" was the more experimental of Goldmann's clips and underlined the Beatles' ties to the avant-garde scene.[136][137] The band's new look was the focus of much scrutiny,[136] as promotion for the single and its musical content left many listeners unable to recognise the act as the Beatles.[114] The films were first broadcast in America on The Ed Sullivan Show and in Britain on Top of the Pops,[138] a day before the respective release dates in those two countries.[139] On 25 February, they aired on The Hollywood Palace, a traditional US variety program hosted by actor Van Johnson.[140] Amid screams from female members of the studio audience,[140] Johnson bemusedly introduced "Strawberry Fields Forever" with the comment: "It's a musical romp through an open field with psychedelic overtones and a feeling of expanded consciousness … If you know what that means, let me know …"[126] The films attracted a similar level of confusion on the more youth-focused American Bandstand, on 11 March, where Dick Clark invited comments from his studio audience.[141] In the description of author Doyle Greene, the varied opinions towards the "rebranded 'counterculture Beatles'" and their new music demonstrated a "gendering" of popular culture: male reaction was marginally more favourable than female, and women variously focused on the "weird", "ugly" or "grandfather"-like appearance of the band members.[142] Courrier says the hostility towards "Strawberry Fields Forever" was reflective of how pop fans felt abandoned by the Beatles, with one teenager commenting that the group had turned "deliberately weird"[143] and "ought to stop being so clever and give us tunes we can enjoy".[115][nb 12]

In Britain, "Strawberry Fields Forever" / "Penny Lane" was the first Beatles single since "Please Please Me" in 1963 to fail to reach number 1 on Record Retailer's chart (later the UK Singles Chart).[144][nb 13] It was held at number 2 behind Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me",[146][147] the year's biggest-selling single. (In George Martin's book Summer of Love he claims the two songs were counted as two separate singles on the chart, severely hampering the record's chances of reaching the top - but none of the UK's charts listed the two sides separately, including the Record Retailer chart, and so being defined as a double A-side cannot have affected the single's chart position.[148]) Following the speculation that the Beatles were due to disband, their failure to secure the number 1 spot was trumpeted in the UK press as a sign that the group's popularity was declining.[149][150] At the time, McCartney said he was not upset because Humperdinck's song was a "completely different type of thing",[151] while Harrison acknowledged that "Strawberry Fields Forever", like all of the Beatles' latest music, was bound to alienate much of their audience but would also win them new fans.[152][nb 14] On the national chart compiled by Melody Maker magazine, however, the combination topped the singles list for three weeks.[155]

On the US Billboard Hot 100 the two sides of a single were counted separately whether defined as a double A-side or not (for example, "She's a Woman" reached number 4 in 1964 despite being a B-side[156]). "Penny Lane" topped the chart for one week, while "Strawberry Fields Forever" peaked at number 8.[157][158] "Penny Lane" was the side favoured by chart compilers in Australia, where the single was number 1 for five weeks.[101] The single was also number 1 in Canada and Norway, and peaked at number 4 in France.[101]

Critical reception edit

Among contemporary reviews of the single, Melody Maker said that the combination of musical instruments, studio techniques and vocal effect on "Strawberry Fields Forever" created a "swooping, deep, mystic kaleidoscope of sound", and concluded, "The whole concept shows the Beatles in a new, far-out light."[159] The NME's Derek Johnson confessed to being both fascinated and confused by the track, writing: "Certainly the most unusual and way-out single The Beatles have yet produced – both in lyrical content and scoring. Quite honestly, I don't really know what to make of it."[160] According to Beatles biographer Robert Rodriguez, Johnson's comments typified the "bewilderment" and "mood of disquiet" that the song initially aroused in the music press.[132] The Daily Mail's entertainment reporter wrote: "What's happening to the Beatles? They have become contemplative, secretive, exclusive and excluded – four mystics with moustaches."[161]

In the United States, the single's experimental qualities initiated an upsurge in the ongoing critical discourse on the aesthetics and artistry of pop music, as, centring on the Beatles' work, writers sought to elevate pop in the cultural landscape for the first time.[162] Among these laudatory appraisals,[163] Time magazine hailed the song as "the latest sample of the Beatles' astonishing inventiveness".[164] The writer said that, since 1963:

[The] Beatles have developed into the single most creative force in pop music. Wherever they go, the pack follows. And where they have gone in recent months, not even their most ardent supporters would ever have dreamed of. They have bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical, mixing elements of Bach, Oriental and electronic music with vintage twang to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music.[165]

Time concluded by saying that the multitude of "dissonances and eerie space-age sounds" on the track were partly the product of altered tape speed and direction, and commented: "This is nothing new to electronic composers, but employing such methods in a pop song is electrifying."[166] In his review of Sgt. Pepper in June 1967, William Mann of The Times recognised the Beatles as the originators of the vogue for "electronically-manipulated clusters of sound", and he added: "In some records, it's just a generalised effect. But in 'Strawberry Fields', it was poetically and precisely applied."[161]

Richie Unterberger of AllMusic describes "Strawberry Fields Forever" as "one of The Beatles' peak achievements and one of the finest Lennon–McCartney songs".[37] Ian MacDonald wrote in his book Revolution in the Head that it "shows expression of a high order … few if any [contemporary composers] are capable of displaying feeling and fantasy so direct, spontaneous, and original."[167] According to music critic Tim Riley, the song "transformed Lennon's creative arc" by "expand[ing] the hallucinogenic drone of 'Rain' into layered colours that shifted when lit by his vocal inflections" and by inaugurating his use of free-form verse as a lyrical device.[168] Riley adds that while it represented Lennon's "first glimpse of life" outside the Beatles, "part of the recording's ironic pull lies in how the Beatles drape a group sensibility around Lennon's abstract psyche, something only the most intimate of musical friends could do."[169] In his commentary on the track in The Beatles' Diary, Peter Doggett describes the song as "the greatest pop record ever made" and "a record that never dates, because it lives outside time". He rues the single's failure to top the now-official UK chart as "arguably the most disgraceful statistic in chart history".[170]

In the June 1997 issue of Mojo magazine, Jon Savage included "Strawberry Fields Forever" in his list "Psychedelia: The 100 Greatest Classics" and wrote: "When this first came on radio in early 1967, it sounded like nothing else, with its wracked vocal, out-of-tune brass section and queasy strings."[171] In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the track at number 76 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time",[172] a placing the song retained in the magazine's 2011 list,[7] then was re-ranked at number 7 on its 2021 list, the band's highest placement.[173] On a similar list compiled by Q in 2006, it appeared at number 31.[172] In 2010, Rolling Stone placed "Strawberry Fields Forever" at number 3 on its list of the "100 Greatest Beatles Songs".[96][174] It was ranked as the second-best Beatles song by Mojo in 2006, after "A Day in the Life".[175]

Cultural influence and legacy edit

Reactions from contemporary musicians edit

Featuring backwards cymbals, cascading Indian harp … guitar solos, timpani, bongos, trumpets and cellos, this was the lushest music The Beatles had recorded up to then … From its weird Mellotron opening to its fake drum forward reprise where John's voice could be heard saying "Cranberry sauce", "Strawberry Fields Forever" inaugurated 1967 like no other song on earth.[176]

– Author Mark Prendergast, 2003

Mark Lindsay of the US band Paul Revere & the Raiders recalled first listening to the single at home with his producer, Terry Melcher. In Lindsay's recollection: "When the song ended we both just looked at each other. I said, 'Now what the fuck are we gonna do?' With that single, the Beatles raised the ante as to what a pop record should be." Lindsay said he then ensured that the clips for both songs were broadcast on the Raiders' television show, Where the Action Is.[177] The Who's Pete Townshend, a regular on London's psychedelic club scene, described "Strawberry Fields Forever" as "utterly bizarre, creative, strange and different".[178]

Brian Wilson, who had been struggling to complete the Beach Boys' Smile album, first heard "Strawberry Fields Forever" on his car radio[179] while under the influence of barbiturates.[180] In the recollection of his passenger at the time, Michael Vosse, "[Wilson] just shook his head and said, 'They did it already – what I wanted to do with Smile. Maybe it's too late.'"[181] Vosse recalled that they then exchanged laughter, although "at the moment he said it, he sounded very serious."[181] According to author Steven Gaines, the "wondrous and different-sounding" quality of the Beatles' single was one of several factors that accelerated Wilson's emotional descent and led to him abandoning Smile.[182] In response to a fan's question on his website in 2014, Wilson denied that hearing the song had "weakened" him and called it a "very weird record" that he enjoyed.[183]

Psychedelia, recording and music videos edit

The song was influential on psychedelic rock[184] and, in Chris Ingham's description, it established "the standard and style for the entire psychedelic pop movement that would follow".[185] Ian MacDonald recognises the track as having "extended the range of studio techniques developed on Revolver, opening up possibilities for pop which, given sufficient invention, could result in unprecedented sound images".[80] He views it as having launched both the "English pop-pastoral mood" typified by bands such as Pink Floyd, Family, Traffic and Fairport Convention, and English psychedelia's LSD-inspired preoccupation with "nostalgia for the innocent vision of a child".[9] Among other music historians, Simon Philo describes much of Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), as being in the style of the "patented British psychedelia" introduced by "Strawberry Fields Forever".[186] David Howard says the production was a "direct touchstone" for Pink Floyd, the Move, the Smoke and other bands in London's upcoming psychedelic scene.[187]

Although the Mellotron had been a feature of Manfred Mann's late 1966 hit single "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James",[188] its appearance on "Strawberry Fields Forever" remains the most celebrated use of the instrument on a pop or rock recording.[189][190] Mike Pinder, whose band the Moody Blues went on to make extensive use of Mellotron and swarmandal in their work,[191] said he was "in bliss" when he heard the keyboard's flute sound on the Beatles' single.[63] Together with the resonant tone of Starr's drums, the cello arrangement on "Strawberry Fields Forever", as with "I Am the Walrus", was much admired by other musicians and producers, and proved highly influential on 1970s bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard.[80]

Walter Everett identifies the song's ending as an example of the Beatles' continued pioneering of the "fade-out–fade-in coda", further to their use of this device on the 1966 B-side "Rain". He cites "Helter Skelter" as a later example, as well as Led Zeppelin's 1969 track "Thank You" and, as a direct response to the Beatles' lead, both sides of the Rolling Stones' August 1967 single, "We Love You" and "Dandelion".[192] According to historian David Simonelli, further to "Tomorrow Never Knows" in 1966, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" "establish[ed] the Beatles as the most avant-garde [pop] composers of the postwar era". He also says that the single heralded the group's brand of Romanticism as a central tenet of psychedelic rock, which ensured that "The Beatles' vision dominated the entire rock music world."[193] In his contribution to the book In Their Lives: Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs, Adam Gopnik describes the single as the 1960s' most important work of art and "the one that articulated the era's hopes for a crossover of pop art and high intricacy".[194]

Further to the band's pioneering use of promotional films since 1965, the clip for the song served as an early example of what became known as a music video.[195][196] In 1985, the "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" clips were the oldest selections included in the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)'s exhibition of the most influential music videos.[197] The two films occupied a similar place in MoMA's 2003 "Golden Oldies of Music Video" exhibition, where they were presented by avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson.[198][nb 15] The "Strawberry Fields Forever" clip also provided the inspiration for the start of the fan vidding phenomenon in 1975.[200] Kandy Fong, influenced by the Beatles not attempting to perform the music,[201] set images from the Star Trek TV series to an apparently unrelated musical soundtrack.[202]

Strawberry Field, accolades and cultural depictions edit

 
Heavily graffiti-ed gatepost sign at Strawberry Field – with the word "Forever" added in acknowledgement of the Beatles song

Strawberry Field became a popular visiting place for fans of Lennon and the Beatles as a result of the song.[203][204] In 1975, the Liverpool Public Relations Office published a tourism media package titled Nothing to Get Hung About, which contained Beatles-related postcards and history, and a map of Liverpool.[205] By 2011, the level of graffiti left by visitors at Strawberry Field had forced the Salvation Army to have the entrance gates removed[203] and later relocated to the Beatles Experience centre in Liverpool.[206][nb 16]

In July 2017, the Salvation Army began raising funds – through the sale of T-shirts and mugs emblazoned with "Nothing is real" and other lines from Lennon's lyrics – to help finance the construction of a new building at Strawberry Field. The purpose of the building is to help provide job opportunities for young adults with learning difficulties, and to commemorate Lennon, in both an indoor exhibition and a "garden of spiritual reflection".[206]

"Strawberry Fields Forever" is one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" and in 1999 was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' Grammy Hall of Fame.[172] The Strawberry Fields memorial in New York's Central Park is named after the song.[208] The memorial and the Strawberry Fields area of the park, spanning 3.5 acres, was officially dedicated by Yoko Ono in Lennon's memory in October 1985.[209][nb 17] In addition to referencing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in its title, the 2013 Spanish film Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed is a fictional account based on real-life events when a 41-year-old teacher from Cartagena visited Lennon in Almería when he was writing the song.[211]

Subsequent releases and remixes edit

In keeping with the Beatles' usual philosophy that tracks released on a single should not appear on new albums, both "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were left off Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[207][212] Martin later stated that this was an approach that he had encouraged, and it was a "dreadful mistake".[151] The Beatles were displeased that Capitol then included the two songs, along with the band's other non-album singles tracks from 1967, on the Magical Mystery Tour LP, which the company released as a full-length album, in contrast to the six-track double EP released in the UK and many other countries.[213][214]

The stereo version of the Magical Mystery Tour LP contained a 29 December 1966 mix of "Strawberry Fields Forever", in which the trumpets and cellos pan abruptly from left to right at the point where takes 7 and 26 are joined.[94] By the time the album was released on CD, this mix had been superseded by a stereo remix, originally prepared for a 1971 West German issue of Magical Mystery Tour, which omitted the panning effect at the join point, but added a right-to-left panning to the swarmandal scale introducing the second and third verses.[94]

"Strawberry Fields Forever" was sequenced as the opening track of the 1973 compilation album The Beatles 1967–1970,[215] and the single charted again in Britain, peaking at number 32, when EMI reissued all 22 of the Beatles' UK singles in March 1976.[216][nb 18] In 1996, three previously unreleased versions of the song appeared on Anthology 2:[218] one of Lennon's home demos from November 1966; an altered version of the first studio take; and the complete take 7, in mono, edited with an extension of the coda's drums and percussion track from 9 December.[219] In 2006, a newly mixed version of the song was included on the album Love.[15] This mash-up takes sections from an acoustic demo,[220] take 1 and then take 26, and the ending incorporates elements from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "In My Life", "I'm Only Sleeping", "Penny Lane", "Piggies" and "Hello, Goodbye".[94] In 2015, the promo film was included in the three-disc versions (titled 1+) of the Beatles' 1 compilation.[221] A new stereo mix was created by Giles Martin to accompany the clip. This version appeared on CD in 2017 on the two-disc and six-disc 50th-anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper, together with a selection of outtakes from the "Strawberry Fields Forever" sessions, including a complete take 26.[222]

Cover versions edit

Candy Flip edit

"Strawberry Fields Forever"
 
Single by Candy Flip
from the album Madstock...
B-side"Can You Feel the Love"
Released1990
GenreSynth-pop[223]
Length4:09
LabelDebut Edge
Songwriter(s)Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)Dizzie Dee, Ric Peet
Candy Flip singles chronology
"Love Is Life"
(1989) 		"Strawberry Fields Forever"
(1990) 		"This Can Be Real"
(1990)
Music video
"Strawberry Fields Forever" on YouTube

"Strawberry Fields Forever" returned to the charts in 1990 when the duo Candy Flip, one of the British acts associated with the Madchester revival of 1960s psychedelia and fashion,[224] released an electronic version of the track.[225] It peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart in March that year,[226] and number seven in Ireland.[227][nb 19] The recording was also popular on college and indie radio in the US,[225] where it peaked at number 11 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.[229]

Bill Coleman from Billboard commented that the remake was "a stroke of genius", adding: "It's one of those records that make you say to yourself 'how come I didn't think of that' ... An esoteric reading and tasteful production carried by a lazy hip-hop beat. If picked up stateside this could (and deserves to) be massive!"[230] In her contemporary review for The Network Forty, Diane Tameecha described the single as "what happens when Liverpool meets Manchester". She said that the track was an "instantly likable cover" on which "Relatively sparse accompaniment, in the form of Pet Shop Boys' keyboard sounds mixed with that now 'classic' house drum sound, lends a cool flavor to the old Fab Four workhorse."[231] Dele Fadele from NME declared it as a "cheeky update", that "shook TOTP to the rafters".[232] In his review of Candy Flip's debut album, Madstock..., Tim DiGravina of AllMusic describes "Strawberry Fields Forever" as an "extremely successful" reworking of the Beatles' original, and admires it as one of the tracks that convey "the joys of perfect, happy places that simply can't exist".[223]

Other artists edit

"Strawberry Fields Forever" has been recorded by many other artists. Tomorrow, a band that, along with Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, spearheaded London's psychedelic scene,[233] drew heavily from the Beatles' work in their February 1968 release Tomorrow and included a cover of the song on that album.[234] The self-titled debut album by American rock band Vanilla Fudge, released in August 1967, contained a brief homage to "Strawberry Fields Forever" at the end of their cover of "Eleanor Rigby". (The homage is entitled "ELDS" on CD versions of the album, and CD versions of the album in fact additionally spell out an acrostic of the song as an homage, with portions of preceding tracks entitled "STRA", "WBER" and "RYFI".)[235] In August 1969, Richie Havens performed "Strawberry Fields Forever" as part of his set to open the Woodstock Festival.[236]

In 1976, a version by Todd Rundgren was released on his album Faithful, and Peter Gabriel covered the track in the musical documentary All This and World War II. Highlighting the line "Living is easy with eyes closed", Gabriel's recording accompanies newsreel footage of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" declaration after his meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938.[237] A recording by Ben Harper was used in the 2001 film I Am Sam,[238] and Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson covered the track for the 2007 film Across the Universe. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs recorded a ska version of the song[239] featuring Debbie Harry for their 1995 album Rey Azúcar, which was a hit in Latin America.[240]

The song has also been covered by the Bee Gees, the Bobs, Eugene Chadbourne, Sandy Farina, Laurence Juber, David Lanz, Cyndi Lauper, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Mother's Finest, Odetta, Andy Partridge, the Shadows, Plastic Penny,[241] the Ventures and Cassandra Wilson.[207] The vocal melody for "Strawberry Fields Forever" provided the piano score of experimental classical composer Alvin Lucier's 1990 composition "Nothing Is Real".[242]

Personnel edit

According to Ian MacDonald,[243] except where noted:

The Beatles

Additional musicians

Charts edit

Beatles version edit

Chart (1967) Peak
position
Australian Go-Set National Top 40[246] 1
Austrian Singles Chart[247] 13
Belgian Singles Chart (Wallonia)[248] 1
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[249] 4
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[250] 1
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[251] 1
New Zealand Listener Chart[252] 5
Norwegian VG-lista Singles[253] 1
Swedish Kvällstoppen Chart[254] 1
UK Record Retailer Chart[255] 2
US Billboard Hot 100[256] 8
US Cash Box Top 100[257] 10

Candy Flip version edit

Certifications edit

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Japan — 200,000[263]
United Kingdom (BPI)[264] Silver 200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Notes edit

  1. ^ Martin described Lennon's initial performance of the song, on acoustic guitar, as "magic … absolutely lovely".[8]
  2. ^ Author Ian MacDonald identifies allusions to the Beatles' upbringing throughout Sgt. Pepper that are "too persuasive to ignore". These include evocations of the postwar Northern music hall tradition, references to Northern industrial towns and Liverpool schooldays, Lewis Carroll-inspired imagery, the use of brass instrumentation in the style of park bandstand performances such as at Sefton Park,[59] and the album cover's flower arrangement akin to a floral clock.[62]
  3. ^ Although "Strawberry Fields Forever" is primarily Lennon's composition, in 1967 Lennon said that McCartney had contributed to the song, just as he had helped McCartney complete "Penny Lane".[65]
  4. ^ In 2017, a version of the take with the harmony vocals restored was released on the 50th anniversary super-deluxe edition of Sgt. Pepper, with a section of the original warm-up added.[68]
  5. ^ Joseph Brennan, a Columbia University researcher who wrote an expansive study of the recording of "Strawberry Fields Forever",[75] questions part of Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn's description of the track.[48] While Brennan makes no mention of piano on take 7 but includes a second bass part,[48] Winn omits either of these and instead writes that an overdub on "Mellotron (piano and guitar settings)" was among the last additions to take 7.[72]
  6. ^ Harrison's use of swarmandal marked the instrument's introduction into Western pop music.[54] It had 21 strings, which he tuned specifically to suit the part.[82]
  7. ^ Over this ending, marked by the end of the final chorus, Everett identifies swarmandal as the instrument that interplays with the cellos and electric guitar,[40] as does Richie Unterberger.[83] Alternatively, according to authors Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin, the zither-like sound from 3:00 onwards was created by plucking the strings inside a piano.[84]
  8. ^ While in Sevenoaks, Lennon wandered into an antiques shop and purchased the poster for Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal that would inspire his song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"[110]
  9. ^ During the Knole Park shoot, Lennon repeatedly sang "Hey hey, we're the Monkees", from the theme song for The Monkees, to teenagers who had come to watching the Beatles filming.[111]
  10. ^ The non-performance aspect of the two Beatles promos was in response to the Musicians' Union's ban on miming on television.[111][125]
  11. ^ Discussing the clip in The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video, Michael Shore said it was "Richard Lester meets Kenneth Anger in the Twilight Zone".[126]
  12. ^ Referring to this American Bandstand screening, Winn says that the "bewildered reaction ... to the song and the group's new look has to be seen to be believed".[112] Three of the four teenagers were troubled by the clip; the fourth, a young male, said with a broad smile: "I thought it was just great."[115]
  13. ^ There was no standardised UK chart until February 1969, when it was established through the British Market Research Bureau. The Official Charts Company recognises the listings published by Record Retailer from March 1960 onwards as representing the UK Singles Chart for that period.[145]
  14. ^ Starr recalled that the single's failure to top the chart was "a relief" because "it took the pressure off".[153] He likened it to the relief he initially felt in September 1969 when, following Lennon's lead, the Beatles agreed to disband.[154]
  15. ^ In his book on the history of the music video, Saul Austerlitz recognises the two 1967 clips as superior to efforts by the Beatles' contemporaries and a development on the band's work with director Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1966.[106] He also says they lack a satisfactory resolution to the concepts and innovative ideas they introduce, however, and concludes: "The Beatles' videos laid the table for future music-video experiments in symbolism, but their own symbols were, for the most part, muddled and unclear."[199]
  16. ^ The children's home closed in January 2005. On his death in December 1980, Lennon left money to Strawberry Field in his will,[207] and in 1984 his widow, Yoko Ono, donated £50,000 to help maintain the home.[204]
  17. ^ The song also inspired the title of the most widely known of the Beatles' many US fanzines, Strawberry Fields Forever. Its publisher, Joe Pope, organised the prototype for the official Beatles fan conventions (such as Beatlefest) with an event held in Boston, Massachusetts in July 1974.[210]
  18. ^ "Strawberry Fields Forever" was also among the Beatles tracks included on the soundtrack album to the 1988 documentary film Imagine: John Lennon.[217]
  19. ^ Following this, McCartney began including the song in his 1990 live performances as part of a "Lennon Medley". He first played it at the Lennon tribute concert organised by Ono and held at Liverpool's King's Dock on 28 June.[228]

References edit

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  5. ^ Carr & Tyler 1978, p. 62: "Both ['Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane'] represent definitive English acid-rock (as opposed to its American cousin) … The subject-matter was essentially 'Liverpool-on-a-sunny-hallucinogenic-afternoon'."
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External links edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Magical Mystery Tour.
  • Full lyrics for the song at the Beatles' official website
  • Portion of the promo clip on the Beatles' YouTube channel
  • Kent Film Office article on "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" filming 22 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  • "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Love remix) on YouTube
  • Handwritten partial early draft manuscript of Strawberry Fields Forever written by John Lennon at the British Library

April 12, 2024
strawberry, fields, forever, other, uses, strawberry, fields, song, english, rock, band, beatles, written, john, lennon, credited, lennon, mccartney, released, february, 1967, double, side, single, with, penny, lane, represented, departure, from, group, previo. For other uses see Strawberry Fields Strawberry Fields Forever is a song by the English rock band the Beatles written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon McCartney It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A side single with Penny Lane It represented a departure from the group s previous singles and a novel listening experience for the contemporary pop audience While the song initially divided and confused music critics and the group s fans it proved highly influential on the emerging psychedelic genre Its accompanying promotional film is similarly recognised as a pioneering work in the medium of music video 6 Strawberry Fields Forever US picture sleeveSingle by the BeatlesA side Penny Lane double A side Released13 February 1967 1967 02 13 Recorded29 November 8 21 December 1966StudioEMI LondonGenrePsychedelic rock 1 art pop 2 progressive pop 3 psychedelic pop 4 acid rock 5 Length4 07LabelParlophone UK Capitol US Songwriter s Lennon McCartneyProducer s George MartinThe Beatles singles chronology Eleanor Rigby Yellow Submarine 1966 Strawberry Fields Forever Penny Lane 1967 All You Need Is Love 1967 Promotional film Strawberry Fields Forever on YouTubeLennon based the song on his childhood memories of playing in the garden of Strawberry Field a Salvation Army children s home in Liverpool Starting in November 1966 the band spent 45 hours in the studio spread over five weeks creating three versions of the track The final recording combined two of those versions which were entirely different in tempo mood and musical key It features reverse recorded instrumentation Mellotron flute sounds an Indian swarmandal and a fade out fade in coda as well as a cello and brass arrangement by producer George Martin For the promotional film the band used experimental techniques such as reverse effects jump cuts and superimposition The song was the first track the Beatles recorded after completing Revolver and was intended for inclusion on their forthcoming as yet untitled Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band Instead with pressure from their record company and management for new product the group were forced to issue the single and then adhered to their philosophy of omitting previously released singles from their albums The double A side peaked at number 2 on the Record Retailer chart thereby breaking the band s four year run of chart topping singles in the UK In the United States Strawberry Fields Forever peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 To the band s displeasure the song was later included on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP Lennon viewed Strawberry Fields Forever as his finest work with the Beatles 7 After Lennon s murder in New York City a section of Central Park was named after the song In 1996 the discarded first version of the song was issued on the outtakes compilation Anthology 2 in 2006 a new version was created for the remix album Love Artists who have covered the song include Richie Havens Todd Rundgren Peter Gabriel Ben Harper and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs featuring Debbie Harry In 1990 a version by the Madchester group Candy Flip became a top ten hit in the UK and Ireland The song was ranked number 7 on Rolling Stone s updated 2021 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Contents 1 Background and writing 2 Composition 3 Recording 3 1 Overview 3 2 Take 1 3 3 Take 7 3 4 Take 26 3 5 Final edit 4 Promotional film 5 Release 6 Critical reception 7 Cultural influence and legacy 7 1 Reactions from contemporary musicians 7 2 Psychedelia recording and music videos 7 3 Strawberry Field accolades and cultural depictions 8 Subsequent releases and remixes 9 Cover versions 9 1 Candy Flip 9 2 Other artists 10 Personnel 11 Charts 11 1 Beatles version 11 2 Candy Flip version 12 Certifications 13 Notes 14 References 15 Sources 16 External linksBackground and writing edit nbsp Entrance gates at Strawberry Field near Lennon s childhood home in Woolton LiverpoolStrawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army children s home close to John Lennon s childhood home in Woolton a suburb of Liverpool 8 9 Lennon and his friends Pete Shotton Nigel Walley and Ivan Vaughan used to play in the wooded garden behind the home 10 11 One of Lennon s childhood treats was the garden party held each summer in Calderstones Park near the home where a Salvation Army brass band played 12 Lennon s aunt Mimi Smith recalled There was something about the place that always fascinated John He could see it from his window He used to hear the Salvation Army band playing at the garden party and he would pull me along saying Hurry up Mimi we re going to be late 10 Lennon began writing Strawberry Fields Forever in Almeria Spain during the filming of Richard Lester s How I Won the War in September October 1966 13 14 The Beatles had just retired from touring after one of their most difficult periods 15 which included the more popular than Jesus controversy and being the target of mob violence in reaction to their unintentional snubbing of Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos 8 16 Working on Lester s film without his bandmates left Lennon feeling vulnerable according to his wife Cynthia he was also distraught to learn in late October that Alma Cogan the English singer whom he d earmarked to replace Aunt Mimi in his affections had died in London at the age of 34 17 In the first versions that Lennon committed to tape in September there was no reference to Strawberry Field Author Steve Turner says that at this stage Lennon most likely drew inspiration from Nikos Kazantzakis s autobiographical novel Report to Greco which he was reading in Almeria and tells of a writer searching for spiritual meaning 18 I was different all my life The second verse goes No one I think is in my tree Well I was too shy and self doubting Nobody seems to be as hip as me is what I was saying Therefore I must be crazy or a genius I mean it must be high or low 19 John Lennon 1980 Like Penny Lane which Paul McCartney wrote in late 1966 in response to Lennon s new song 20 Strawberry Fields Forever conveys nostalgia for the Beatles early years in Liverpool 21 While both songs refer to actual locations McCartney said that the two pieces also had strong surrealistic and psychedelic overtones 8 George Martin the Beatles producer recalled that when he first heard Strawberry Fields Forever he thought it conjured up a hazy impressionistic dreamworld 22 nb 1 As with his Revolver compositions Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said She Said Strawberry Fields Forever was informed by Lennon s experiences with the hallucinogenic drug LSD which caused him to question his identity and seek to dissolve his ego 23 In Turner s description the song s opening line Let me take you down establishes Lennon as a spiritual leader in keeping with his statements in The Word Rain and Tomorrow Never Knows while Lennon s contention that in Strawberry Field Nothing is real reflects the concept of maya or illusion as conveyed in the Hindu teachings that Lennon was also reading during his weeks on the film set 24 Lennon said the song reflected how he had felt different all my life 14 22 he called it psychoanalysis set to music and one of his most honest songs 25 In McCartney s view the lyrics reflect Lennon s admiration of the nineteenth century English writer Lewis Carroll particularly his poem Jabberwocky 26 The earliest demo of the song was recorded in Almeria and Lennon subsequently developed the melody and lyrics in England throughout November 27 Demos taped at his home Kenwood demonstrate his progress with the song and include parts played on a Mellotron 27 28 a tape replay keyboard instrument he had purchased in August 1965 29 On the first Almeria recording the song had no refrain and only one verse beginning There s no one on my wavelength I mean it s either too high or too low Lennon revised these words to make them more obscure then wrote the melody and part of the lyrics to the chorus which functioned as a bridge and did not yet include a reference to Strawberry Fields After returning to England in early November he added another verse and the mention of Strawberry Fields 30 The first verse on the released version was the last to be written close to the time of the song s recording 31 For the chorus Lennon was again inspired by his childhood memories the words nothing to get hung about were inspired by Aunt Mimi s strict order not to play in the grounds of Strawberry Field to which Lennon replied They can t hang you for it 32 The first verse Lennon wrote became the second one in the released version of the song and the second verse he wrote became the last Composition edit nbsp Strawberry Fields Forever sample source source track Problems playing this file See media help Strawberry Fields Forever was originally written on acoustic guitar in the key of C major The recorded version is not in standard pitch due to manipulation of the tape speed and the key is approximately B major 33 Among musicologists Walter Everett describes it as midway between A and B over the opening minute and subsequently closer to B 34 while Dominic Pedler says that some consider it to be closer to A major 35 The song begins with a flute like introduction played on Mellotron 15 and involves a I ii I VII IV progression in Roman numeral analysis 36 The vocals enter with the chorus instead of a verse 37 In Pedler s description it has non diatonic chords and secondary dominants combining with chromatic melodic tension intensified through outrageous harmonisation and root movement 38 The phrase to Strawberry begins with a slightly dissonant G melody note against a prevailing F minor key then uses the semitone dissonance B and B notes the natural and sharpened 11th degrees against the Fm chord until the consonant F note is reached on Fields The same series of mostly dissonant melody notes covers the phrase nothing is real against the prevailing G7 chord F 7 in the key of A 38 A half bar complicates the metre of the choruses as does the fact that the vocals begin in the middle of the first bar The first verse follows the chorus and is eight bars long The verse starts with an F major chord which progresses to G minor the submediant serving as a deceptive cadence According to musicologist Alan Pollack the deceptive cadence is encountered in the verse as the leading tone never resolves into a I chord directly as expected 33 Instead the leading note harmonised as part of the dominant chord resolves to the prevailing tonic B at the end of the verse after tonicising the subdominant IV E chord on disagree 35 On the released recording the second and third verses are introduced by a descending raga esque melody played on an Indian board mounted zither known as a swarmandal 39 In the middle of the second chorus brass is introduced emphasising an ominous quality in the lyrics 37 After three verses and four choruses the line Strawberry Fields Forever is repeated three times and the song fades out with interplay between electric guitar cello and swarmandal The song fades back in after a few seconds for what Everett terms a free form coda 40 This avant garde style section features the Mellotron playing in a haunting tone one achieved by recording the instrument s Swinging Flutes setting in reverse 41 scattered drumming discordant brass and murmuring after which the song fades for a second time 37 33 Recording editOverview edit External videos nbsp Strawberry Fields Forever Take 1 nbsp Strawberry Fields Forever Take 4 nbsp Strawberry Fields Forever Take 7 nbsp Strawberry Fields Forever Take 26 The Beatles began recording Strawberry Fields Forever on 24 November 1966 42 It was the band s first recording session since completing Revolver in June 43 and marked the start of recording for what became the 1967 album Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band 44 It was also the Beatles first group activity since the end of their final US tour on 29 August 45 46 Recording took place in Studio 2 at EMI Studios now Abbey Road Studios in London 47 using a four track machine 48 Before the session in October Brian Epstein the Beatles manager had informed EMI that the band would not be releasing any new music for the Christmas market 49 On 10 November newspapers reported that there would be no further concert tours by the Beatles 50 The band s lack of activity and their highly publicised individual pursuits since September were interpreted by the press as a sign that the band were on the verge of splitting up 51 52 Their return to the recording studio was given front page coverage in some newspapers 53 George Harrison who had been travelling in India during the Beatles lay off recalled there being a more profound ambience in the band when they reunited to record Strawberry Fields Forever 8 Lennon said that having failed to connect with anyone on Lester s film set I was never so glad to see the others Seeing them made me feel normal again 43 The song s working title was It s Not Too Bad 54 The song took 45 hours to record spread over five weeks 55 It was the most complex recording the Beatles had attempted up to this point and involved three distinct versions of the song 47 56 each one was different in structure key and tempo yet the released recording was created through a combination of the final two versions 57 Together with Penny Lane and When I m Sixty Four 58 59 Strawberry Fields Forever established the theme for the early part of the Sgt Pepper project namely a nostalgic look back at the band members childhoods in northern England 60 61 McCartney has said that this was never planned or formalised as an album wide concept but acknowledged that it served as a device or underlying theme throughout the project 60 nb 2 Take 1 edit nbsp Strawberry Fields Forever was one of the most technically complex recordings the Beatles ever attempted The song was recorded entirely on a Studer J37 four track machine After Lennon played the song for the other Beatles on his acoustic guitar on 24 November he changed to his Epiphone Casino electric guitar for the recordings McCartney played Mellotron 29 which following Lennon s lead the other three Beatles had acquired their own examples of through Moody Blues keyboardist Mike Pinder 63 Harrison also played electric guitar emphasising a bass line beside Lennon s rhythm 34 and Ringo Starr played drums 64 McCartney wrote the melody for the Mellotron introduction 65 although on the first take the instrument appears more in the role of backing accompaniment relative to its prominence on the officially released recording 34 nb 3 Take 1 opened with a verse starting Living is easy with eyes closed instead of the chorus which starts the released version The first verse also led directly to the second with no chorus between Lennon s vocals were automatically double tracked from the words Strawberry Fields Forever through the end of the last verse The last verse beginning Always no sometimes has three part harmonies with McCartney and Harrison singing dreamy background vocals 30 34 Onto this take 1 Harrison also overdubbed slide guitar parts over the choruses 34 played on the Mellotron s guitar setting 64 and using the instrument s pitch control to achieve the slide effect 66 This version was soon abandoned it went unreleased until a new mix was included on the Anthology 2 outtakes compilation in 1996 67 although the harmony vocals were cut from the track 34 64 nb 4 Take 7 edit nbsp A 1960s era Mellotron similar to that used on the Beatles recordingOn 28 November the band reassembled to try a different arrangement The second version of the song featured McCartney s Mellotron introduction followed by the chorus 69 The instrumentation on the basic track was similar to that for take 1 but with the inclusion of maracas 70 Take 4 was considered sufficient for mix down and overdubs 69 which included a lead vocal by Lennon McCartney s bass guitar and Harrison again playing the slide parts including what author John Winn terms Morse code blips on Mellotron 71 Having taken acetates home overnight the band decided to redo the song again on 29 November using the same arrangement The second take that day was chosen as best and subjected to overdubs 69 such as vocal and bass guitar 72 In his lead guitar part 48 Harrison plays arpeggio chord patterns after Lennon had struggled to master the picking technique 73 Lennon s vocal was recorded with the tape running fast so that when played back at normal speed the tonality would be altered giving his voice a slurred sound 69 During the subsequent mix down process creating what became take 7 Lennon added a second vocal over the choruses 72 The other final overdubs were piano 74 and further bass 48 nb 5 This version would be used only for the first minute of the released recording 74 76 Take 26 edit After recording the second version of the song Lennon wanted to do something different with it 76 Martin recalled He d wanted it as a gentle dreaming song but he said it had come out too raucous He asked me if I could write him a new line up with the strings So I wrote a new score with four trumpets and three cellos 48 For this purpose another basic track was recorded on 8 and 9 December with the group attempting the song at a faster tempo than before 77 At the start of the first session recording was overseen by Dave Harries an EMI technical engineer in the temporary absence of Martin and Geoff Emerick the Beatles usual recording engineer 78 79 The band focused on achieving a percussion heavy rhythm track which included Starr s drums 77 and backwards recorded hi hat 80 and cymbals 79 The latter process involved writing down the parts before Starr played them as Harrison had done for his backwards guitar solo on I m Only Sleeping 78 Described by Winn as a cacophony of noise 77 the 8 December tape also included timpani and bongos played by McCartney and Harrison and other percussion which in Harries account was provided by Beatles associates Mal Evans Neil Aspinall and Terry Doran 78 At the start of the 9 December session parts of two of the fifteen new takes were edited together into one performance which was then mixed down to a single track on the four track master 81 75 The second of those takes numbered take 24 consisted of the heavy drum break and accompanying percussion used over the song s coda and included Lennon s spoken comments Calm down Ringo and Cranberry sauce 77 76 In Lewisohn s description further percussion including a pounding drum part by Starr and Harrison s swarmandal were recorded onto one of the available tracks at this time 81 nb 6 Other overdubs which appear towards the end of the track included lead guitar 48 played by McCartney piano and the coda s reversed Mellotron flutes 75 nb 7 Based on the evidence of bootlegs available by 2009 Winn dates the addition of swarmandal to after Martin s orchestral overdubs With regard to the main piano part he describes it as the Mellotron s piano riff tape rather than a genuine instrumental contribution 85 The session for Martin s brass and cello arrangement took place on 15 December 85 The parts were performed in the key of C major but taped so that on playback they sounded in B major 34 Another mix down was then carried out reducing all the contributions to two tape tracks 86 85 Author Ian MacDonald comments that Martin s contribution heightens the song s Indian qualities as represented first by the swarmandal through his scoring of the cellos to weave exotically around McCartney s sitar like guitar figures before the coda 80 Further overdubs on what was now named take 26 were two vocal parts by Lennon 81 the second one doubling the main vocal over the choruses 85 Lennon re recorded one of his vocals on 21 December 81 singing a harmony over the final chorus 87 Some piano was also added at this time along with a snare drum part 87 Final edit edit After reviewing the acetates of the new remake and the previous version Lennon told Martin that he liked both the original lighter take 7 and the intense scored version 81 and wanted to combine the two 88 89 Martin had to tell Lennon that the orchestral score was at a faster tempo and in a higher key than the earlier recording 90 Lennon assured him You can fix it George 91 92 On 22 December Martin and Emerick carried out the difficult task of joining takes 7 and 26 together 91 93 With only a pair of editing scissors two tape machines and a vari speed control Emerick compensated for the differences in key and speed by increasing the speed of the first version and decreasing the speed of the second 15 He then spliced the versions 89 starting the orchestral score in the middle of the second chorus 91 Since take 7 did not include a chorus after the first verse 48 he also spliced in the first seven words of the second chorus from that take 94 The pitch shifting in joining the versions gave Lennon s lead vocal an otherworldly swimming quality 34 95 During the editing process the portion towards the end of take 26 before the arrival of the reversed Mellotron flutes and siren like trumpet blasts was faded out temporarily creating a false ending On the completed take from 15 December however the swarmandal and other sounds were interrupted by the abrupt entrance of the coda s heavy drum and percussion piece 83 Martin said that the premature fadeout was his idea to hide some errors in the busy percussion track 94 Among the faintly audible comments over the coda Cranberry sauce was taken to be Lennon intoning I buried Paul by proponents of the Paul is Dead hoax 96 a theory that contended that McCartney had died in November 1966 and been replaced in the Beatles by a lookalike 97 98 Shortly before his death in 1980 Lennon expressed dissatisfaction with the final version of the song saying it was badly recorded and accusing McCartney of subconsciously sabotaging the recording 99 100 Martin remained proud of the track he described it as a complete tone poem like a modern Debussy 101 Promotional film edit nbsp The Beatles filmed their promo clip for the song around a large tree in Knole Park in Kent By January 1967 Epstein was under pressure from the Beatles record company to release a new single by the group 102 103 Martin told him that they had recorded Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane which in his opinion were two all time great songs 104 The decision was made to issue them as a double A side single 105 a format the Beatles had used for their previous single Eleanor Rigby Yellow Submarine in August 1966 103 The Beatles produced a film clip for Strawberry Fields Forever in a continuation of their policy since 1965 of avoiding the need to promote a single with numerous personal appearances on television 106 It was filmed on 30 and 31 January 1967 at Knole Park in Sevenoaks Kent 102 107 The following week the band shot part of the promotional film for Penny Lane at the same location 108 109 nb 8 The clip was directed by Peter Goldmann 102 a Swedish television director who had drawn inspiration in his work from Lester s style in the Beatles 1964 film A Hard Day s Night 111 112 Goldmann was recommended to the Beatles by their mutual friend Klaus Voormann 113 One of the band s assistants Tony Bramwell served as producer 112 Bramwell recalls that inspired by Voormann s comment on hearing Strawberry Fields Forever 114 that the whole thing sounded like it was played on a strange instrument he spent two days dressing up a large tree in the park to resemble a piano and harp combined with strings 115 Writing in 2007 music critic John Harris remarked that Bramwell s set design reflected the collision of serenity and almost gothic eeriness evident in the finished song 115 nbsp Lennon with a horseshoe moustache in January 1967The clip presented the Beatles new group image since all four now sported moustaches 116 117 following Harrison s lead when he left for India in September 1966 118 In addition to a horseshoe moustache Lennon wore his round granny glasses for the first time as a member of the Beatles 111 in keeping with his look as Private Gripweed in How I Won the War 119 for which he had also shorn off his long hair 120 Combined with their psychedelic clothing the band s appearance contrasted sharply with the youthful moptop image of their touring years 121 this former image and identity had instead been adopted by the Monkees an American television and recording act based on the Beatles as they had appeared in A Hard Day s Night and Help 122 nb 9 In author Kevin Courrier s description Lennon now resembled a character from an Arthur Conan Doyle mystery while Harrison looked equally austere with his beard and heavy balaclava 114 nbsp McCartney Harrison Starr and Lennon pouring paint over the piano harp construction Journalist and broadcaster Joe Cushley describes the clip as the mad music professors outdoor seminar 123 Instead of a performance of the song the clip relies on abstract imagery and features reverse film effects long dissolves jump cuts including from day to night time superimposition and extreme close up shots 124 nb 10 The Beatles are shown playing and later pouring paint over the upright piano at one point McCartney appears to leap from the ground onto a branch of the tree 111 117 nb 11 In his commentary on the promo clip music critic Chris Ingham writes Beautifully and spookily lit much attention is given to close ups of The Beatles faces and facial hair as if the viewer is invited to contemplate the significance of the newly furry Fabs There s an appropriately surreal air about the film which when experienced simultaneously with The Beatles extraordinary new music is deliciously disorientating The final scene of The Beatles pouring pots of coloured paint onto the piano is oddly shocking but brilliantly memorable as a statement of iconoclastic artistic intent 117 nbsp Beatles standing behind a tree and a broken piano harp constructionRelease editThe reaction when you played Strawberry Fields Forever to people was weird Penny Lane was a bit Beatley Strawberry Fields really wasn t 115 Beatles associate Tony Bramwell The double A side single was issued by Capitol Records in the US on 13 February 1967 as Capitol 5810 127 and by EMI s Parlophone label in the United Kingdom on 17 February as Parlophone R 5570 128 Aside from the compilation album A Collection of Beatles Oldies issued in the UK but not the US 129 it was the first release by the Beatles since Revolver and their August 1966 single 130 131 It was also the first Beatles single in the UK to be presented in a picture sleeve 132 133 The front of the sleeve contained a studio photo that again demonstrated the band s adoption of facial hair on the back cover were individual pictures of the four Beatles as infants 132 which heightened the connection to a Liverpool childhood 134 Recalling the reaction to the new single and the expectations it created for Sgt Pepper music critic Greil Marcus later wrote If this extraordinary music was merely a taste of what The Beatles were up to what would the album be like 135 Comparing the two sides in his book Electric Shock Peter Doggett likens Penny Lane to pop art in its evoking multifaceted substance out of the everyday and describes Strawberry Fields Forever as art pop self consciously excluding the mass audience 2 The promotional film for Strawberry Fields Forever was the more experimental of Goldmann s clips and underlined the Beatles ties to the avant garde scene 136 137 The band s new look was the focus of much scrutiny 136 as promotion for the single and its musical content left many listeners unable to recognise the act as the Beatles 114 The films were first broadcast in America on The Ed Sullivan Show and in Britain on Top of the Pops 138 a day before the respective release dates in those two countries 139 On 25 February they aired on The Hollywood Palace a traditional US variety program hosted by actor Van Johnson 140 Amid screams from female members of the studio audience 140 Johnson bemusedly introduced Strawberry Fields Forever with the comment It s a musical romp through an open field with psychedelic overtones and a feeling of expanded consciousness If you know what that means let me know 126 The films attracted a similar level of confusion on the more youth focused American Bandstand on 11 March where Dick Clark invited comments from his studio audience 141 In the description of author Doyle Greene the varied opinions towards the rebranded counterculture Beatles and their new music demonstrated a gendering of popular culture male reaction was marginally more favourable than female and women variously focused on the weird ugly or grandfather like appearance of the band members 142 Courrier says the hostility towards Strawberry Fields Forever was reflective of how pop fans felt abandoned by the Beatles with one teenager commenting that the group had turned deliberately weird 143 and ought to stop being so clever and give us tunes we can enjoy 115 nb 12 In Britain Strawberry Fields Forever Penny Lane was the first Beatles single since Please Please Me in 1963 to fail to reach number 1 on Record Retailer s chart later the UK Singles Chart 144 nb 13 It was held at number 2 behind Engelbert Humperdinck s Release Me 146 147 the year s biggest selling single In George Martin s book Summer of Love he claims the two songs were counted as two separate singles on the chart severely hampering the record s chances of reaching the top but none of the UK s charts listed the two sides separately including the Record Retailer chart and so being defined as a double A side cannot have affected the single s chart position 148 Following the speculation that the Beatles were due to disband their failure to secure the number 1 spot was trumpeted in the UK press as a sign that the group s popularity was declining 149 150 At the time McCartney said he was not upset because Humperdinck s song was a completely different type of thing 151 while Harrison acknowledged that Strawberry Fields Forever like all of the Beatles latest music was bound to alienate much of their audience but would also win them new fans 152 nb 14 On the national chart compiled by Melody Maker magazine however the combination topped the singles list for three weeks 155 On the US Billboard Hot 100 the two sides of a single were counted separately whether defined as a double A side or not for example She s a Woman reached number 4 in 1964 despite being a B side 156 Penny Lane topped the chart for one week while Strawberry Fields Forever peaked at number 8 157 158 Penny Lane was the side favoured by chart compilers in Australia where the single was number 1 for five weeks 101 The single was also number 1 in Canada and Norway and peaked at number 4 in France 101 Critical reception editAmong contemporary reviews of the single Melody Maker said that the combination of musical instruments studio techniques and vocal effect on Strawberry Fields Forever created a swooping deep mystic kaleidoscope of sound and concluded The whole concept shows the Beatles in a new far out light 159 The NME s Derek Johnson confessed to being both fascinated and confused by the track writing Certainly the most unusual and way out single The Beatles have yet produced both in lyrical content and scoring Quite honestly I don t really know what to make of it 160 According to Beatles biographer Robert Rodriguez Johnson s comments typified the bewilderment and mood of disquiet that the song initially aroused in the music press 132 The Daily Mail s entertainment reporter wrote What s happening to the Beatles They have become contemplative secretive exclusive and excluded four mystics with moustaches 161 In the United States the single s experimental qualities initiated an upsurge in the ongoing critical discourse on the aesthetics and artistry of pop music as centring on the Beatles work writers sought to elevate pop in the cultural landscape for the first time 162 Among these laudatory appraisals 163 Time magazine hailed the song as the latest sample of the Beatles astonishing inventiveness 164 The writer said that since 1963 The Beatles have developed into the single most creative force in pop music Wherever they go the pack follows And where they have gone in recent months not even their most ardent supporters would ever have dreamed of They have bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical mixing elements of Bach Oriental and electronic music with vintage twang to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music 165 Time concluded by saying that the multitude of dissonances and eerie space age sounds on the track were partly the product of altered tape speed and direction and commented This is nothing new to electronic composers but employing such methods in a pop song is electrifying 166 In his review of Sgt Pepper in June 1967 William Mann of The Times recognised the Beatles as the originators of the vogue for electronically manipulated clusters of sound and he added In some records it s just a generalised effect But in Strawberry Fields it was poetically and precisely applied 161 Richie Unterberger of AllMusic describes Strawberry Fields Forever as one of The Beatles peak achievements and one of the finest Lennon McCartney songs 37 Ian MacDonald wrote in his book Revolution in the Head that it shows expression of a high order few if any contemporary composers are capable of displaying feeling and fantasy so direct spontaneous and original 167 According to music critic Tim Riley the song transformed Lennon s creative arc by expand ing the hallucinogenic drone of Rain into layered colours that shifted when lit by his vocal inflections and by inaugurating his use of free form verse as a lyrical device 168 Riley adds that while it represented Lennon s first glimpse of life outside the Beatles part of the recording s ironic pull lies in how the Beatles drape a group sensibility around Lennon s abstract psyche something only the most intimate of musical friends could do 169 In his commentary on the track in The Beatles Diary Peter Doggett describes the song as the greatest pop record ever made and a record that never dates because it lives outside time He rues the single s failure to top the now official UK chart as arguably the most disgraceful statistic in chart history 170 In the June 1997 issue of Mojo magazine Jon Savage included Strawberry Fields Forever in his list Psychedelia The 100 Greatest Classics and wrote When this first came on radio in early 1967 it sounded like nothing else with its wracked vocal out of tune brass section and queasy strings 171 In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked the track at number 76 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 172 a placing the song retained in the magazine s 2011 list 7 then was re ranked at number 7 on its 2021 list the band s highest placement 173 On a similar list compiled by Q in 2006 it appeared at number 31 172 In 2010 Rolling Stone placed Strawberry Fields Forever at number 3 on its list of the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs 96 174 It was ranked as the second best Beatles song by Mojo in 2006 after A Day in the Life 175 Cultural influence and legacy editReactions from contemporary musicians edit Featuring backwards cymbals cascading Indian harp guitar solos timpani bongos trumpets and cellos this was the lushest music The Beatles had recorded up to then From its weird Mellotron opening to its fake drum forward reprise where John s voice could be heard saying Cranberry sauce Strawberry Fields Forever inaugurated 1967 like no other song on earth 176 Author Mark Prendergast 2003 Mark Lindsay of the US band Paul Revere amp the Raiders recalled first listening to the single at home with his producer Terry Melcher In Lindsay s recollection When the song ended we both just looked at each other I said Now what the fuck are we gonna do With that single the Beatles raised the ante as to what a pop record should be Lindsay said he then ensured that the clips for both songs were broadcast on the Raiders television show Where the Action Is 177 The Who s Pete Townshend a regular on London s psychedelic club scene described Strawberry Fields Forever as utterly bizarre creative strange and different 178 Brian Wilson who had been struggling to complete the Beach Boys Smile album first heard Strawberry Fields Forever on his car radio 179 while under the influence of barbiturates 180 In the recollection of his passenger at the time Michael Vosse Wilson just shook his head and said They did it already what I wanted to do with Smile Maybe it s too late 181 Vosse recalled that they then exchanged laughter although at the moment he said it he sounded very serious 181 According to author Steven Gaines the wondrous and different sounding quality of the Beatles single was one of several factors that accelerated Wilson s emotional descent and led to him abandoning Smile 182 In response to a fan s question on his website in 2014 Wilson denied that hearing the song had weakened him and called it a very weird record that he enjoyed 183 Psychedelia recording and music videos edit The song was influential on psychedelic rock 184 and in Chris Ingham s description it established the standard and style for the entire psychedelic pop movement that would follow 185 Ian MacDonald recognises the track as having extended the range of studio techniques developed on Revolver opening up possibilities for pop which given sufficient invention could result in unprecedented sound images 80 He views it as having launched both the English pop pastoral mood typified by bands such as Pink Floyd Family Traffic and Fairport Convention and English psychedelia s LSD inspired preoccupation with nostalgia for the innocent vision of a child 9 Among other music historians Simon Philo describes much of Pink Floyd s first album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 1967 as being in the style of the patented British psychedelia introduced by Strawberry Fields Forever 186 David Howard says the production was a direct touchstone for Pink Floyd the Move the Smoke and other bands in London s upcoming psychedelic scene 187 Although the Mellotron had been a feature of Manfred Mann s late 1966 hit single Semi Detached Suburban Mr James 188 its appearance on Strawberry Fields Forever remains the most celebrated use of the instrument on a pop or rock recording 189 190 Mike Pinder whose band the Moody Blues went on to make extensive use of Mellotron and swarmandal in their work 191 said he was in bliss when he heard the keyboard s flute sound on the Beatles single 63 Together with the resonant tone of Starr s drums the cello arrangement on Strawberry Fields Forever as with I Am the Walrus was much admired by other musicians and producers and proved highly influential on 1970s bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard 80 Walter Everett identifies the song s ending as an example of the Beatles continued pioneering of the fade out fade in coda further to their use of this device on the 1966 B side Rain He cites Helter Skelter as a later example as well as Led Zeppelin s 1969 track Thank You and as a direct response to the Beatles lead both sides of the Rolling Stones August 1967 single We Love You and Dandelion 192 According to historian David Simonelli further to Tomorrow Never Knows in 1966 Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane establish ed the Beatles as the most avant garde pop composers of the postwar era He also says that the single heralded the group s brand of Romanticism as a central tenet of psychedelic rock which ensured that The Beatles vision dominated the entire rock music world 193 In his contribution to the book In Their Lives Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs Adam Gopnik describes the single as the 1960s most important work of art and the one that articulated the era s hopes for a crossover of pop art and high intricacy 194 Further to the band s pioneering use of promotional films since 1965 the clip for the song served as an early example of what became known as a music video 195 196 In 1985 the Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane clips were the oldest selections included in the New York Museum of Modern Art MoMA s exhibition of the most influential music videos 197 The two films occupied a similar place in MoMA s 2003 Golden Oldies of Music Video exhibition where they were presented by avant garde artist Laurie Anderson 198 nb 15 The Strawberry Fields Forever clip also provided the inspiration for the start of the fan vidding phenomenon in 1975 200 Kandy Fong influenced by the Beatles not attempting to perform the music 201 set images from the Star Trek TV series to an apparently unrelated musical soundtrack 202 Strawberry Field accolades and cultural depictions edit nbsp Heavily graffiti ed gatepost sign at Strawberry Field with the word Forever added in acknowledgement of the Beatles songStrawberry Field became a popular visiting place for fans of Lennon and the Beatles as a result of the song 203 204 In 1975 the Liverpool Public Relations Office published a tourism media package titled Nothing to Get Hung About which contained Beatles related postcards and history and a map of Liverpool 205 By 2011 the level of graffiti left by visitors at Strawberry Field had forced the Salvation Army to have the entrance gates removed 203 and later relocated to the Beatles Experience centre in Liverpool 206 nb 16 In July 2017 the Salvation Army began raising funds through the sale of T shirts and mugs emblazoned with Nothing is real and other lines from Lennon s lyrics to help finance the construction of a new building at Strawberry Field The purpose of the building is to help provide job opportunities for young adults with learning difficulties and to commemorate Lennon in both an indoor exhibition and a garden of spiritual reflection 206 Strawberry Fields Forever is one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll and in 1999 was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy Hall of Fame 172 The Strawberry Fields memorial in New York s Central Park is named after the song 208 The memorial and the Strawberry Fields area of the park spanning 3 5 acres was officially dedicated by Yoko Ono in Lennon s memory in October 1985 209 nb 17 In addition to referencing Strawberry Fields Forever in its title the 2013 Spanish film Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed is a fictional account based on real life events when a 41 year old teacher from Cartagena visited Lennon in Almeria when he was writing the song 211 Subsequent releases and remixes editIn keeping with the Beatles usual philosophy that tracks released on a single should not appear on new albums both Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were left off Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band 207 212 Martin later stated that this was an approach that he had encouraged and it was a dreadful mistake 151 The Beatles were displeased that Capitol then included the two songs along with the band s other non album singles tracks from 1967 on the Magical Mystery Tour LP which the company released as a full length album in contrast to the six track double EP released in the UK and many other countries 213 214 The stereo version of the Magical Mystery Tour LP contained a 29 December 1966 mix of Strawberry Fields Forever in which the trumpets and cellos pan abruptly from left to right at the point where takes 7 and 26 are joined 94 By the time the album was released on CD this mix had been superseded by a stereo remix originally prepared for a 1971 West German issue of Magical Mystery Tour which omitted the panning effect at the join point but added a right to left panning to the swarmandal scale introducing the second and third verses 94 Strawberry Fields Forever was sequenced as the opening track of the 1973 compilation album The Beatles 1967 1970 215 and the single charted again in Britain peaking at number 32 when EMI reissued all 22 of the Beatles UK singles in March 1976 216 nb 18 In 1996 three previously unreleased versions of the song appeared on Anthology 2 218 one of Lennon s home demos from November 1966 an altered version of the first studio take and the complete take 7 in mono edited with an extension of the coda s drums and percussion track from 9 December 219 In 2006 a newly mixed version of the song was included on the album Love 15 This mash up takes sections from an acoustic demo 220 take 1 and then take 26 and the ending incorporates elements from Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band In My Life I m Only Sleeping Penny Lane Piggies and Hello Goodbye 94 In 2015 the promo film was included in the three disc versions titled 1 of the Beatles 1 compilation 221 A new stereo mix was created by Giles Martin to accompany the clip This version appeared on CD in 2017 on the two disc and six disc 50th anniversary editions of Sgt Pepper together with a selection of outtakes from the Strawberry Fields Forever sessions including a complete take 26 222 Cover versions editCandy Flip edit Strawberry Fields Forever nbsp Single by Candy Flipfrom the album Madstock B side Can You Feel the Love Released1990GenreSynth pop 223 Length4 09LabelDebut EdgeSongwriter s Lennon McCartneyProducer s Dizzie Dee Ric PeetCandy Flip singles chronology Love Is Life 1989 Strawberry Fields Forever 1990 This Can Be Real 1990 Music video Strawberry Fields Forever on YouTube Strawberry Fields Forever returned to the charts in 1990 when the duo Candy Flip one of the British acts associated with the Madchester revival of 1960s psychedelia and fashion 224 released an electronic version of the track 225 It peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart in March that year 226 and number seven in Ireland 227 nb 19 The recording was also popular on college and indie radio in the US 225 where it peaked at number 11 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart 229 Bill Coleman from Billboard commented that the remake was a stroke of genius adding It s one of those records that make you say to yourself how come I didn t think of that An esoteric reading and tasteful production carried by a lazy hip hop beat If picked up stateside this could and deserves to be massive 230 In her contemporary review for The Network Forty Diane Tameecha described the single as what happens when Liverpool meets Manchester She said that the track was an instantly likable cover on which Relatively sparse accompaniment in the form of Pet Shop Boys keyboard sounds mixed with that now classic house drum sound lends a cool flavor to the old Fab Four workhorse 231 Dele Fadele from NME declared it as a cheeky update that shook TOTP to the rafters 232 In his review of Candy Flip s debut album Madstock Tim DiGravina of AllMusic describes Strawberry Fields Forever as an extremely successful reworking of the Beatles original and admires it as one of the tracks that convey the joys of perfect happy places that simply can t exist 223 Other artists edit Strawberry Fields Forever has been recorded by many other artists Tomorrow a band that along with Pink Floyd and Soft Machine spearheaded London s psychedelic scene 233 drew heavily from the Beatles work in their February 1968 release Tomorrow and included a cover of the song on that album 234 The self titled debut album by American rock band Vanilla Fudge released in August 1967 contained a brief homage to Strawberry Fields Forever at the end of their cover of Eleanor Rigby The homage is entitled ELDS on CD versions of the album and CD versions of the album in fact additionally spell out an acrostic of the song as an homage with portions of preceding tracks entitled STRA WBER and RYFI 235 In August 1969 Richie Havens performed Strawberry Fields Forever as part of his set to open the Woodstock Festival 236 In 1976 a version by Todd Rundgren was released on his album Faithful and Peter Gabriel covered the track in the musical documentary All This and World War II Highlighting the line Living is easy with eyes closed Gabriel s recording accompanies newsreel footage of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain s Peace for our time declaration after his meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938 237 A recording by Ben Harper was used in the 2001 film I Am Sam 238 and Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson covered the track for the 2007 film Across the Universe Los Fabulosos Cadillacs recorded a ska version of the song 239 featuring Debbie Harry for their 1995 album Rey Azucar which was a hit in Latin America 240 The song has also been covered by the Bee Gees the Bobs Eugene Chadbourne Sandy Farina Laurence Juber David Lanz Cyndi Lauper Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Mother s Finest Odetta Andy Partridge the Shadows Plastic Penny 241 the Ventures and Cassandra Wilson 207 The vocal melody for Strawberry Fields Forever provided the piano score of experimental classical composer Alvin Lucier s 1990 composition Nothing Is Real 242 Personnel editAccording to Ian MacDonald 243 except where noted The Beatles John Lennon vocals rhythm guitar bongos Mellotron end Paul McCartney Mellotron take 7 portion bass guitar piano 244 lead guitar end timpani bongos George Harrison lead guitar take 7 portion 245 slide guitar swarmandal timpani maracas Ringo Starr drums percussion uncredited tack piano 40 Additional musicians George Martin cello and trumpet arrangement Mal Evans tambourine Neil Aspinall guiro Terry Doran maracas Tony Fisher trumpet Greg Bowen trumpet Derek Watkins trumpet Stanley Roderick trumpet John Hall cello Derek Simpson cello Norman Jones celloCharts editBeatles version edit Chart 1967 PeakpositionAustralian Go Set National Top 40 246 1Austrian Singles Chart 247 13Belgian Singles Chart Wallonia 248 1Finland Suomen virallinen lista 249 4Netherlands Dutch Top 40 250 1Netherlands Single Top 100 251 1New Zealand Listener Chart 252 5Norwegian VG lista Singles 253 1Swedish Kvallstoppen Chart 254 1UK Record Retailer Chart 255 2US Billboard Hot 100 256 8US Cash Box Top 100 257 10Candy Flip version edit Chart 1990 PeakpositionAustralian ARIA Report 258 29Belgian Ultratop 50 Singles Flanders 259 47European Eurochart Hot 100 260 7Finnish Suomen virallinen lista 261 17Irish Singles Chart 227 7New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 262 20UK Singles Chart 226 3US Modern Rock Tracks 229 11Certifications editRegion Certification Certified units salesJapan 200 000 263 United Kingdom BPI 264 Silver 200 000 Sales streaming figures based on certification alone Notes edit Martin described Lennon s initial performance of the song on acoustic guitar as magic absolutely lovely 8 Author Ian MacDonald identifies allusions to the Beatles upbringing throughout Sgt Pepper that are too persuasive to ignore These include evocations of the postwar Northern music hall tradition references to Northern industrial towns and Liverpool schooldays Lewis Carroll inspired imagery the use of brass instrumentation in the style of park bandstand performances such as at Sefton Park 59 and the album cover s flower arrangement akin to a floral clock 62 Although Strawberry Fields Forever is primarily Lennon s composition in 1967 Lennon said that McCartney had contributed to the song just as he had helped McCartney complete Penny Lane 65 In 2017 a version of the take with the harmony vocals restored was released on the 50th anniversary super deluxe edition of Sgt Pepper with a section of the original warm up added 68 Joseph Brennan a Columbia University researcher who wrote an expansive study of the recording of Strawberry Fields Forever 75 questions part of Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn s description of the track 48 While Brennan makes no mention of piano on take 7 but includes a second bass part 48 Winn omits either of these and instead writes that an overdub on Mellotron piano and guitar settings was among the last additions to take 7 72 Harrison s use of swarmandal marked the instrument s introduction into Western pop music 54 It had 21 strings which he tuned specifically to suit the part 82 Over this ending marked by the end of the final chorus Everett identifies swarmandal as the instrument that interplays with the cellos and electric guitar 40 as does Richie Unterberger 83 Alternatively according to authors Jean Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin the zither like sound from 3 00 onwards was created by plucking the strings inside a piano 84 While in Sevenoaks Lennon wandered into an antiques shop and purchased the poster for Pablo Fanque s Circus Royal that would inspire his song Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite 110 During the Knole Park shoot Lennon repeatedly sang Hey hey we re the Monkees from the theme song for The Monkees to teenagers who had come to watching the Beatles filming 111 The non performance aspect of the two Beatles promos was in response to the Musicians Union s ban on miming on television 111 125 Discussing the clip in The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video Michael Shore said it was Richard Lester meets Kenneth Anger in the Twilight Zone 126 Referring to this American Bandstand screening Winn says that the bewildered reaction to the song and the group s new look has to be seen to be believed 112 Three of the four teenagers were troubled by the clip the fourth a young male said with a broad smile I thought it was just great 115 There was no standardised UK chart until February 1969 when it was established through the British Market Research Bureau The Official Charts Company recognises the listings published by Record Retailer from March 1960 onwards as representing the UK Singles Chart for that period 145 Starr recalled that the single s failure to top the chart was a relief because it took the pressure off 153 He likened it to the relief he initially felt in September 1969 when following Lennon s lead the Beatles agreed to disband 154 In his book on the history of the music video Saul Austerlitz recognises the two 1967 clips as superior to efforts by the Beatles contemporaries and a development on the band s work with director Michael Lindsay Hogg in 1966 106 He also says they lack a satisfactory resolution to the concepts and innovative ideas they introduce however and concludes The Beatles videos laid the table for future music video experiments in symbolism but their own symbols were for the most part muddled and unclear 199 The children s home closed in January 2005 On his death in December 1980 Lennon left money to Strawberry Field in his will 207 and in 1984 his widow Yoko Ono donated 50 000 to help maintain the home 204 The song also inspired the title of the most widely known of the Beatles many US fanzines Strawberry Fields Forever Its publisher Joe Pope organised the prototype for the official Beatles fan conventions such as Beatlefest with an event held in Boston Massachusetts in July 1974 210 Strawberry Fields Forever was also among the Beatles tracks included on the soundtrack album to the 1988 documentary film Imagine John Lennon 217 Following this McCartney began including the song in his 1990 live performances as part of a Lennon Medley He first played it at the Lennon tribute concert organised by Ono and held at Liverpool s King s Dock on 28 June 228 References edit DeRogatis 2003 p 48 a b Doggett 2015 p 373 Philo 2015 p 119 Frith Simon 1981 1967 The Year It All Came Together The History of Rock Available at Rock s Backpages subscription required Carr amp Tyler 1978 p 62 Both Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane represent definitive English acid rock as opposed to its American cousin The subject matter was essentially Liverpool on a sunny hallucinogenic afternoon Burns 2000 p 176 a b Rolling Stone staff 7 April 2011 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 76 The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever rollingstone com Archived from the original on 25 February 2007 Retrieved 21 December 2017 a b c d e The Beatles 2000 p 237 a b MacDonald 2005 p 216 a b Spitz 2005 p 642 Ingham 2006 p 193 Strawberry Fields Forever Mersey Beat 2006 Archived from the original on 6 March 2016 Retrieved 19 August 2008 Sheff 2000 p 153 a b The Beatles 2000 p 231 a b c d Webb Robert 29 November 2006 Strawberry Fields Forever The making of a masterpiece The Independent Archived from the original on 25 May 2022 Retrieved 24 July 2008 Rodriguez 2012 p 177 Turner 2016 pp 504 05 537 38 Turner 2016 pp 506 07 Everett 1999 p 75 Everett 1999 p 84 Lewisohn 1992 p 235 a b Spitz 2005 p 641 Turner 1999 p 15 Turner 2016 pp 237 523 Sullivan 2017 pp 411 12 Miles 1997 p 45 a b Winn 2009 pp 68 69 Everett 1999 p 76 a b Babiuk 2002 pp 164 65 a b Kozinn 1995 p 148 Turner 1999 pp 118 19 Freeman Simon 31 May 2005 Strawberry Fields is not forever Times Online Retrieved 14 December 2007 a b c Pollack Alan 1995 Notes on Strawberry Fields Forever Soundscapes Retrieved 10 January 2008 a b c d e f g h Everett 1999 p 79 a b Pedler 2003 p 647 Pedler 2003 p 646 a b c d Unterberger Richie The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever AllMusic Archived from the original on 1 September 2012 Retrieved 16 December 2007 a b Pedler 2003 p 648 Babiuk 2002 pp 193 194 a b c Everett 1999 p 80 Unterberger 2006 pp 155 157 Rodriguez 2012 pp 190 254 a b Gould 2007 p 371 Miles 2001 p 247 Everett 1999 p 74 Winn 2009 p 3 a b Lewisohn 2005 p 87 a b c d e f g h Brennan Joseph 1996 Strawberry Fields Forever Putting Together the Pieces columbia edu Retrieved 9 March 2018 Lewisohn 2005 p 86 Turner 2016 p 659 Turner 2016 pp 566 67 Everett 1999 pp 71 72 Turner 2016 p 571 a b Fontenot Robert The Beatles Songs Strawberry Fields Forever The history of this classic Beatles song oldies about com Archived from the original on 4 April 2015 Retrieved 15 December 2017 Spitz 2005 pp 654 55 Rodriguez 2012 p 192 Everett 1999 pp 76 78 79 Everett 1999 p 100 a b Irvin Jim March 2007 The Big Bang Mojo p 78 a b MacDonald 2005 p 215 Gould 2007 pp 371 377 MacDonald 2005 p 215fn a b Dunn Brian History of the Mellotron mikepinder com Archived from the original on 20 June 2007 Retrieved 19 December 2017 a b c Winn 2009 p 69 a b Compton 2017 p 168 Rodriguez 2012 p 191 MacDonald 2005 p 217 The Beatles Celebrate Anniversary of Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band with Special Edition Release thebeatles com April 2017 Retrieved 30 November 2018 a b c d Lewisohn 2005 p 88 Winn 2009 pp 71 72 Winn 2009 p 71 a b c Winn 2009 p 72 MacDonald 2005 p 217fn a b Lewisohn 2005 p 91 a b c Rodriguez 2012 p 194 a b c Unterberger 2006 p 157 a b c d Winn 2009 p 73 a b c Lewisohn 2005 p 89 a b Cunningham 1998 p 147 a b c d MacDonald 2005 p 219 a b c d e Lewisohn 2005 p 90 Everett 1999 pp 80 330 a b Unterberger 2006 p 158 Guesdon amp Margotin 2013 p 368 a b c d Winn 2009 p 74 Unterberger 2006 pp 157 58 a b Winn 2009 pp 75 76 Cunningham 1998 pp 147 48 a b Gilliland 1969 show 45 track 2 Cunningham 1998 p 148 a b c Gould 2007 p 382 Martin George c 1996 In Conversation with George Martin Interview Interviewed by Chris Douridas Santa Monica KCRW Starting at 21 10 Retrieved 4 June 2021 Lewisohn 2005 pp 90 91 a b c d e Winn 2009 p 76 MacDonald 2005 p 218 a b Womack 2014 p 875 Schaffner 1978 p 127 MacDonald 2005 p 312fn Sheff 2000 pp 191 92 Everett 1999 pp 80 83 a b c Sullivan 2017 p 411 a b c Miles 2001 p 255 a b Rodriguez 2012 p 196 Spitz 2005 p 656 Riley 2011 p 328 a b Austerlitz 2007 p 18 Winn 2009 pp 77 85 Ingham 2006 pp 165 66 Miles 2001 pp 255 256 Turner 1999 p 127 a b c d e Wawzenek Bryan 12 March 2017 50 Years Ago Today The Beatles Debut New Image with Strawberry Fields Forever Penny Lane Videos Ultimate Classic Rock Retrieved 13 December 2017 a b c Winn 2009 p 85 Lewisohn 1992 p 242 a b c Courrier 2009 p 165 a b c d e Harris John March 2007 The Day the World Turned Day Glo Mojo p 80 Schaffner 1978 p 69 a b c Ingham 2006 p 165 Everett 1999 p 71 Womack 2014 p 872 Turner 2016 pp 481 83 Frontani 2007 pp 126 131 133 Rodriguez 2012 pp 177 78 Cushley Joe 2003 Boys on Film Mojo Special Limited Edition 1000 Days of Revolution The Beatles Final Years Jan 1 1968 to Sept 27 1970 London Emap p 21 Greene 2016 p 36 Rodriguez 2012 p 200 a b Rodriguez 2012 p 201 Castleman amp Podrazik 1976 pp 61 62 Miles 2001 p 257 Turner 2016 p 573 Frontani 2007 p 131 Ingham 2006 p 42 a b c Rodriguez 2012 p 199 Lewisohn 2005 p 98 Schaffner 1978 p 68 Turner Steve July 1987 The Beatles Sgt Pepper The Inside Story Part II Q Available at Rock s Backpages subscription required a b Frontani 2007 p 133 Courrier 2009 pp 164 65 Greene 2016 p 34 Rodriguez 2012 pp 200 201 a b Frontani 2007 pp 134 35 Rodriguez 2012 pp 201 02 Greene 2016 pp 34 35 Courrier 2009 pp 165 66 Womack 2014 pp 694 723 24 Key Dates in the History of the Official UK Charts The Official Charts Company Archived from the original on 10 January 2008 Retrieved 15 August 2015 Rodriguez 2012 p 198 Doggett 2015 p 389 https www officialcharts com charts singles chart 19670302 7501 Unlike the American chart which included radio plays and point of sale requests in its data the UK chart at this time was entirely based on sales of a disc There was no way the sales could have been divided between the two sides Carr amp Tyler 1978 p 62 Rodriguez 2012 pp 197 98 a b The Beatles 2000 p 239 Winn 2009 p 107 The Beatles 2003 The Beatles Anthology 8 DVDs Apple Corps Event occurs at episode 6 0 41 17 ASIN B00008GKEG barcode 24349 29699 The Beatles 2000 p 348 Castleman amp Podrazik 1976 p 338 Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Rodriguez 2012 pp 198 99 Philo 2015 p 162 MM staff 11 February 1967 Beatles on TV Melody Maker p 1 Sutherland Steve ed 2003 NME Originals John Lennon London IPC Ignite p 48 a b O Gorman Martin 2002 Strange Fruit Mojo Special Limited Edition 1000 Days That Shook the World The Psychedelic Beatles April 1 1965 to December 26 1967 London Emap p 94 Gendron 2002 pp 193 94 Gendron 2002 p 194 Time staff 3 March 1967 Other Noises Other Notes Time p 63 Archived from the original on 20 February 2008 Retrieved 20 July 2008 Spitz 2005 p 657 Frontani 2007 p 135 MacDonald 2005 p 220 Riley 2011 p 329 Riley 2011 pp 329 30 Miles 2001 pp 256 57 Savage Jon June 1997 Psychedelia The 100 Greatest Classics Mojo pp 61 62 Available at Rock s Backpages subscription required a b c Womack 2014 p 874 Strawberry Fields Forever ranked 7 on Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs List Rolling Stone 15 September 2021 Retrieved 16 September 2021 Rolling Stone staff 100 Greatest Beatles Songs 3 Strawberry Fields Forever rollingstone com Retrieved 21 May 2013 Alexander Phil et al July 2006 The 101 Greatest Beatles Songs Mojo p 83 Prendergast 2003 p 193 Babiuk 2002 p 201 Blake Mark 19 June 2016 From Sgt Pepper to Syd Barrett The psychedelic birth of prog rock LouderSound Retrieved 18 October 2018 Rodriguez 2012 pp 187 88 Leaf David director 2004 Beautiful Dreamer Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile biographical film Event occurs at 52 18 53 09 a b Kiehl Stephen 26 September 2004 Lost and Found Sounds page 2 The Baltimore Sun Retrieved 23 April 2018 Gaines 1995 p 177 Brian Answers Fans Questions in Live Q amp A brianwilson com 29 January 2014 Retrieved 15 December 2017 DeRogatis 2003 p 49 Ingham 2006 p 194 Philo 2015 p 126 Howard 2004 p 28 Cunningham 1998 pp 126 27 Brend 2005 p 57 Prendergast 2003 p 83 Everett 1999 p 67 Everett 2009 p 154 Simonelli 2013 p 106 Quinn Anthony 6 July 2017 In Their Lives Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs review musical madeleines The Guardian Retrieved 7 March 2019 Austerlitz 2007 pp 17 18 19 Frontani 2007 pp 132 33 New York staff 31 August 1985 Clips Receive an Artful Showcase Billboard p 51 Retrieved 15 December 2017 Film Exhibitions Golden Oldies of Music Video Museum of Modern Art 2003 Archived from the original on 18 July 2007 Retrieved 15 December 2017 Austerlitz 2007 pp 18 19 Brode amp Brode 2015 p 170 Coppa Francesca July 2008 Women Star Trek and the early development of fannish vidding Transformative Works and Cultures 1 1 doi 10 3983 twc 2008 044 Retrieved 15 December 2017 Ulaby Neda 25 February 2009 Vidders Talk Back to Their Pop Culture Muses NPR Retrieved 15 December 2017 a b BBC News staff 10 May 2011 Beatles Strawberry Fields gates removed BBC News Retrieved 15 December 2017 a b Telegraph staff 13 January 2005 Not even Strawberry Field s forever The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 Retrieved 15 December 2017 Schaffner 1978 p 219 a b Arnold Damian 8 July 2017 Salvation Army unlocks spirituality of John Lennon s Strawberry Field The Times Retrieved 13 December 2017 a b c Fontenot Robert Strawberry Fields Forever The history of this classic Beatles song page 2 about com Archived from the original on 4 April 2015 Retrieved 15 December 2017 Strawberry Fields New York City Department of Parks amp Recreation Retrieved 16 December 2007 Badman 2001 p 359 Rodriguez 2010 pp 299 300 303 Turner 2016 pp 524 26 Philo 2015 p 120 Lewisohn 2005 p 131 Greene 2016 pp 41 42 Schaffner 1978 p 207 Badman 2001 pp 177 180 Erlewine Stephen Thomas John Lennon Imagine Soundtrack AllMusic Retrieved 8 December 2009 Badman 2001 p 553 Lewisohn Mark 1996 Anthology 2 booklet The Beatles London Apple Records pp 29 30 31796 Watson Greig 17 November 2006 Love unveils new angle on Beatles BBC News Retrieved 20 December 2017 Rowe Matt 18 September 2015 The Beatles 1 to Be Reissued with New Audio Remixes and Videos The Morton Report Retrieved 9 January 2016 Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band Super Deluxe Edition booklet The Beatles Apple Records 2017 p 89 a href Template Cite AV media notes html title Template Cite AV media notes cite AV media notes a CS1 maint others in cite AV media notes link a b DiGravina Tim Candy Flip Madstock AllMusic Retrieved 22 March 2020 Savage Jon 8 July 1990 Flaring Up The Stone Roses at Spike Island The Observer Available at Rock s Backpages subscription required a b Sutton Michael Candy Flip AllMusic Retrieved 22 March 2020 a b Strawberry Fields Forever Official Charts Company Retrieved 18 December 2017 a b Search Strawberry Fields Forever irishcharts ie Retrieved 20 December 2017 Badman 2001 p 449 a b Billboard Charts amp Research Department 25 August 1990 Modern Rock Tracks for week ending August 25 1990 Billboard p 16 Coleman Bill 28 April 1990 Dance Trax U S U K Buzz On Candy Flip K Collective PDF Billboard p 28 Retrieved 14 October 2020 Tameecha Diane 3 August 1990 Crossover Alternative PDF The Network Forty p 60 Retrieved 21 March 2020 Fadele Dele 23 February 1991 Long Play NME p 31 Retrieved 5 April 2023 Unterberger Richie Tomorrow AllMusic Retrieved 18 December 2017 DeRogatis 2003 pp 159 60 Vanilla Fudge Songs AllMusic Retrieved 31 December 2009 Line Up gt Day One Friday August 15 woodstock com Retrieved 18 December 2017 Rodriguez 2010 pp 306 07 Original Soundtrack I Am Sam AllMusic 20 July 2017 Cobo Leila 7 21 January 2012 Beatles Latin Style Billboard p 15 Retrieved 15 December 2017 Fernandez Bitar Marcelo 25 November 1995 Los Fabulosos Cadillacs Riding High in Argentina Billboard pp 64 67 Retrieved 15 December 2017 Strawberry Fields Forever by Plastic Penny Secondhandsongs com Retrieved 11 February 2023 Sanderson Blair Mattias Kaul Nothing Is Real Music by Alvin Lucier AllMusic Retrieved 20 December 2017 MacDonald 2005 pp 212 20 Guesdon amp Margotin 2013 p 366 Winn 2009 pp 69 71 72 Go Set Australian Charts 19 April 1967 poparchives com au Retrieved 21 March 2015 The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever austriancharts at Retrieved 16 December 2017 The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever ultratop be Retrieved 14 December 2017 Nyman Jake 2005 Suomi soi 4 Suuri suomalainen listakirja in Finnish 1st ed Helsinki Tammi ISBN 951 31 2503 3 Nederlandse Top 40 The Beatles in Dutch Dutch Top 40 Retrieved 29 November 2013 The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever Penny Lane in Dutch Single Top 100 Retrieved 29 November 2013 The Beatles Flavour of New Zealand Retrieved 2 March 2019 The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever norwegiancharts com Retrieved 14 December 2017 Swedish Charts 1966 1969 Kvallstoppen Listresultaten vecka for vecka gt Januari 1968 PDF in Swedish hitsallertijden nl Retrieved 14 December 2017 The Beatles Official Charts Company Retrieved 23 February 2015 The Beatles Awards gt Billboard Singles AllMusic Archived from the original on 2 June 2012 Retrieved 14 December 2017 CASH BOX Top 100 Singles Week ending APRIL 1 1967 cashboxmagazine com Archived from the original on 5 September 2012 Retrieved 14 December 2017 Candy Flip Strawberry Fields Forever australian charts com Retrieved 20 December 2017 Candy Flip Strawberry Fields Forever ultratop be Retrieved 20 December 2017 Eurochart Hot 100 Singles PDF Music amp Media 7 April 1990 Retrieved 18 June 2021 Pennanen Timo 2021 Candy Flip Sisaltaa hitin 2 laitos Levyt ja esittajat Suomen musiikkilistoilla 1 1 1960 30 6 2021 PDF in Finnish Helsinki Kustannusosakeyhtio Otava p 41 Retrieved 28 June 2022 Candy Flip Strawberry Fields Forever charts nz Retrieved 20 December 2017 Cash Box Japan PDF Cash Box 15 June 1968 p 52 Retrieved 27 March 2023 British single certifications Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever British Phonographic Industry Retrieved 20 February 2021 Sources editAusterlitz Saul 2007 Money for Nothing A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes New York NY Continuum ISBN 978 0 8264 1818 0 Babiuk Andy 2002 Beatles Gear All the Fab Four s Instruments from Stage to Studio Milwaukee WI Backbeat Books ISBN 0 87930 731 5 Badman Keith 2001 The Beatles Diary Volume 2 After the Break Up 1970 2001 London Omnibus Press ISBN 978 0 7119 8307 6 The Beatles 2000 The Beatles Anthology San Francisco CA Chronicle Books ISBN 0 8118 2684 8 Brend Mark 2005 Strange Sounds Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop San Francisco CA Backbeat Books ISBN 978 0 879308551 Brode Douglas Brode Shea T eds 2015 Gene Roddenberry s Star Trek The Original Cast Adventures Lanham MD Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 1 4422 4987 5 Burns Gary 2000 Refab Four Beatles for Sale in the Age of Music Video In Inglis Ian ed The Beatles Popular Music and Society A Thousand Voices Basingstoke UK Macmillan Press ISBN 978 0 333 76156 4 Carr Roy Tyler Tony 1978 The Beatles An Illustrated Record London Trewin Copplestone Publishing ISBN 0 450 04170 0 Castleman Harry Podrazik Walter J 1976 All Together Now The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961 1975 New York NY Ballantine Books ISBN 0 345 25680 8 Compton Todd 2017 Who Wrote the Beatle Songs A History of Lennon McCartney San Jose Pahreah Press ISBN 978 0 9988997 0 1 Courrier Kevin 2009 Artificial Paradise The Dark Side of the Beatles Utopian Dream Westport CT Praeger ISBN 978 0 313 34586 9 Cunningham Mark 1998 Good Vibrations A History of Record Production London Sanctuary ISBN 978 1 860742422 DeRogatis Jim 2003 Turn on Your Mind Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock Milwaukee WI Hal Leonard ISBN 978 0 634 05548 5 Doggett Peter 2015 Electric Shock From the Gramophone to the iPhone 125 Years of Pop Music London The Bodley Head ISBN 978 1 84792 218 2 Everett Walter 1999 The Beatles as Musicians Revolver Through the Anthology New York NY Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 512941 5 Everett Walter 2009 The Foundations of Rock From Blue Suede Shoes to Suite Judy Blue Eyes New York NY Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 531024 5 Frontani Michael R 2007 The Beatles Image and the Media Jackson MS University Press of Mississippi ISBN 978 1 57806 965 1 Gaines Steven 1995 1986 Heroes amp Villains The True Story of the Beach Boys Boston MA Da Capo Press ISBN 978 0 306 80647 6 Gendron Bernard 2002 Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club Popular Music and the Avant Garde Chicago IL University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0 226 28737 9 Gilliland John 1969 Sergeant Pepper at the Summit The very best of a very good year audio Pop Chronicles University of North Texas Libraries Gould Jonathan 2007 Can t Buy Me Love The Beatles Britain and America New York NY Harmony Books ISBN 978 0 307 35337 5 Greene Doyle 2016 Rock Counterculture and the Avant Garde 1966 1970 How the Beatles Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era Jefferson NC McFarland ISBN 978 1 4766 6214 5 Guesdon Jean Michel Margotin Philippe 2013 All the Songs The Story Behind Every Beatles Release New York NY Black Dog amp Leventhal ISBN 978 1 57912 952 1 Howard David N 2004 Sonic Alchemy Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings Milwaukee WI Hal Leonard ISBN 978 0 634 05560 7 Ingham Chris 2006 The Rough Guide to the Beatles 2nd edn London Rough Guides ISBN 978 1 84353 720 5 Kozinn Allan 1995 The Beatles London Phaidon ISBN 0 7148 3203 0 Lewisohn Mark 1992 The Complete Beatles Chronicle New York NY Harmony Books ISBN 0 600 58749 5 Lewisohn Mark 2005 1988 The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962 1970 London Bounty Books ISBN 978 0 7537 2545 0 MacDonald Ian 2005 Revolution in the Head The Beatles Records and the Sixties 2nd rev edn Chicago IL Chicago Review Press ISBN 978 1 55652 733 3 Miles Barry 1997 Paul McCartney Many Years From Now New York NY Henry Holt amp Company ISBN 0 8050 5249 6 Miles Barry 2001 The Beatles Diary Volume 1 The Beatles Years London Omnibus Press ISBN 0 7119 8308 9 Pedler Dominic 2003 The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles London Omnibus Press ISBN 978 0 7119 8167 6 Philo Simon 2015 British Invasion The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence Lanham MD Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 0 8108 8626 1 Prendergast Mark 2003 The Ambient Century From Mahler to Moby The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age New York NY Bloomsbury ISBN 1 58234 323 3 Riley Tim 2011 Lennon The Man the Myth the Music The Definitive Life London Random House ISBN 978 0 7535 4020 6 Rodriguez Robert 2010 Fab Four FAQ 2 0 The Beatles Solo Years 1970 1980 Milwaukee WI Backbeat Books ISBN 978 1 4165 9093 4 Rodriguez Robert 2012 Revolver How the Beatles Reimagined Rock n Roll Milwaukee WI Backbeat Books ISBN 978 1 61713 009 0 Schaffner Nicholas 1978 The Beatles Forever New York NY McGraw Hill ISBN 0 07 055087 5 Sheff David 2000 1981 All We Are Saying The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono New York NY St Martin s Press ISBN 0 312 25464 4 Simonelli David 2013 Working Class Heroes Rock Music and British Society in the 1960s and 1970s Lanham MD Lexington Books ISBN 978 0 7391 7051 9 Spitz Bob 2005 The Beatles The Biography New York NY Little Brown and Company ISBN 1 84513 160 6 Sullivan Steve 2017 Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings Volumes 3 amp 4 Lanham MD Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 1 4422 5448 0 Turner Steve 1999 A Hard Day s Write The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song 2nd edn New York NY Carlton HarperCollins ISBN 0 06 273698 1 Turner Steve 2016 Beatles 66 The Revolutionary Year New York NY HarperLuxe ISBN 978 0 06 249713 0 Unterberger Richie 2006 The Unreleased Beatles Music amp Film San Francisco CA Backbeat Books ISBN 978 0 87930 892 6 Winn John C 2009 That Magic Feeling The Beatles Recorded Legacy Volume Two 1966 1970 New York NY Three Rivers Press ISBN 978 0 307 45239 9 Womack Kenneth 2014 The Beatles Encyclopedia Everything Fab Four Santa Barbara CA ABC CLIO ISBN 978 0 313 39171 2 External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Magical Mystery Tour Full lyrics for the song at the Beatles official website Portion of the promo clip on the Beatles YouTube channel Kent Film Office article on Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane filming Archived 22 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Strawberry Fields Forever Love remix on YouTube Handwritten partial early draft manuscript of Strawberry Fields Forever written by John Lennon at the British Library Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Strawberry Fields Forever amp oldid 1217162788, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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