George Martin said that HIS worst mistake was allowing EMI to put out Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields as a single, when they were recorded for Sgt Pepper. Those two tracks were the first recorded for the album, EMI wanted a single, and so George caved. At that time The Fabs were operating a rule that they didn’t put a single on an album (although sometimes the record company would pull a track off an album for a single, which is why the rule was not always observed). Sgt Pepper was, of course, stunning, and you might have thought unimprovable, except that Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever were among the greatest tracks recorded by anybody at all, let alone the Beatles.
They should have been on Sgt Pepper, and the album would have been even better. Fortunately, as Ian McDonald says, the Beatles were at the height of their powers and went straight back into the studio to record A Day In The Life – perhaps their finest achievement of all. You can’t help wondering if anybody involved noticed at the time that that brief spell was the absolute pinnacle of pop music history. In two flawless years, when the Beatles didn’t put a foot wrong and recorded three blistering albums (Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Pepper) and a string of stunning singles, the absolute peak of this blaze of glory was right there at the very end of 1966 and beginning of ‘67.
