Restoring 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' to the ''Sgt. Pepper' album

Considering you `hate the Beatles` Pretzell you do plenty trolling around Beatles related posts. I respect your right to do so but wouldn`t you enjoy life more listening to Kraftwerk* and other `pioneers`?

*I love Kraftwerk, just got the live box along with the Beatles related SPLHCB releases.

 

I like this a lot!
There is always something to be said for the theory of programming side a/side b vinyl so as to compel the listener to turn the album over and give them an instant reward for doing so. (the alternate theory of course is to create two standalone sides each of particular character, as many great albums did). Ending a side with PL and then coming in with SFF is great. I say this having never really liked Mr Kite though, and still haven't heard this new dynamite version of Within You as yet, which might make me like that one more. And I'm viewing this question as "if you HAD to place these songs on Sgt Pepper where would they go?" only, you dig.

 

Good idea! I would make When I'm Sixty Four and Within You Without You both B-Sides (to what A-Sides I don't know) and replace them with Strawberry Fields Forever rand Penny Lane.

 

Just for the fun

Sgt. Pepper
With a Little Help
Strawberry Fields
Penny Lane
She's Leaving Home
Mr. Kite

Within You
Lucy in the Sky
Good Morning
Pepper reprise
A Day in the Life

 

It would also make MMT a noticeably weak album.

 

I think it already is a pretty weak album.

 

Three tuneless dirgy George tracks would almost completely kill it!

 

MMT is a weak album????? I think Capitol did a fantastic job!

 

They did and it's a fine album, but taking off Strawberry Fields Forever & Penny Lane and replacing them with two relatively tuneless Pepper's rejects (Only A Northern Song and It's All Too Much) along with Blue Jay Way would substantially weaken it. I do like all those three songs to some extent but there's not much to any of them. A lot of production effects covering weak songs.

 

The Beatles never went out of their way to put their weakest available songs as B-sides. Quite the opposite in fact. Beatles singles were almost always the two STRONGEST songs they had at their disposal - usually one side going to John and the other side going to Paul. In countries that charted the single sides separately, like the US, both songs would often chart high:

Penny Lane US #1
SFF US #8

We Can Work It Out US #1
Day Tripper US #5

I Feel Fine US #1
She's A Woman US #4

Hey Jude US #1
Revolution US #12

I doubt it would have been a "good idea" to purposefully cut down on their potential chart action by putting relative crap on the B-sides of singles that would rather than giving them a second top 10 hit in many cases, most likely would not even make the Hot 100, while burying half of their "hit potential" material on albums - since "album tracks" couldn't chart.

Anyway - I'm sure whatever the "official A/B" designation of the single sides, Paul and John would have each almost always considered their own side of the single to be the "true A-side"

I can't imagine them ever having thought, or George Martin ever having suggested: "OK Paul's song is obviously the best of the bunch of newest tracks recorded, so he'll get the A-side - so John - what's the absolute worst thing you've got to put on the B-side?

That was obviously NOT the way they operated.

They each put their strongest song forward as the potential A-side, where the stronger of the two gets the "A" designation, and the weaker of the two (the second strongest song) got the B-side designation. If they were both considered strong enough (or they couldn't come to a consensus, or one pushed/insisted hard enough - like John did with Day Tripper) they were released (in the UK anyway) as "officially" double A-sides.

 

Polled this back in April: Should the Sgt Pepper reissue include Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane in its running order?

 

Sacrilege I know but.....

1) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2) With A Little Help From My Friends
3) Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
4) Penny Lane (with trumpet ending)
5) Fixing A Hole
6) She's Leaving Home
7) Being For the Benefit Of Mr. Kite!

8) Strawberry Fields Forever (remove coda, then cross-fade into...)
9) Within You Without You
10) When I'm Sixty-Four
11) Lovely Rita
12) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13) A Day In The Life (with 'Hummmmm' ending)

Single Double-A: Getting Better/Good Morning Good Morning

 

That didn't seem to be a problem with Revolver. Or Help. Or Hard Days Night. Or Abbey Road.

 

Off:

Your premise is false.

1. Sir George Martin did not "remove them because of their ["The Beatles"] rule against having singles on albums... ".
The Double A-side was released per request of Brian Epstein. Martin said it was a "dreadful mistake" ["The Beatles" 2000/Wiki].
The bands previous single, was released on August 5th 1966; a long time to wait in "Beatlemania" time.

The single was released Feburay 13th 1967; the album ["SPLHCB"] release in the UK wasn't till May 26th 1967 & the US release was even further off on June 2nd 1967.

2. The two songs released, were the 1st recorded for the session; it wasn't like the album was finished & George Martin took the two songs in question off the completed "SPLHCB".

Have any of the 'Beatles' ever been on record [p.i.] to saying 'the single's songs should have been on "SPLHCB" '?

Of course, "The Beatles" did the exact same thing on the next album, two songs from "The Beatles" were released as a single & were therefore not on the album too!!

As you eluded to, the band two years later did release a single w/songs from an album, so so much for 'The Rule'!

Think the group [all concerned] was pretty happy w/the resulting album ["SPLHCB"/& always were].

Nothing at all, against having fun putting this two tracks in the tracklist of "SPLHCB".

Just didn't wish for Sir George [personal choice for "5th Beatle"] to be disparaged in any way on the subject.

Enjoy.

 

Remove When I'm 64 and insert Penny Lane. Remove Lovely Rita and insert Only A Northern Song.

 

Nothing should ever be replaced with Only A Northern Song.

 

The single from Revolver came out the same day, so people could buy one or the other and not miss out.
Film soundtracks were exceptions.
Abbey Road is also an exception, a sign of the times I feel.

 

Boring, but as a playlist to listen to the new mixes I just put Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane between the two sides, in that order. I'm used to the sides of Pepper as they are, and I'm used to the single tracks in that order from Magical Mystery Tour and the blue album, and actually, SFF sounds good following Mr. Kite and Penny Lane sounds good preceding Within You Without You.... so, that's easy.

Did anyone else think when they first heard those songs that the coda of Strawberry Fields was supposed to be an intro to Penny Lane? I never heard them on a 45, only on albums, so I'm not sure when I realized it was an ending, not a beginning....

 

Here's what Paul just said about this on his website:

PMc: So another question we quite often see is, in hindsight, do you wish ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘Strawberry Fields’ had been included on the album? And if so, where would you have placed them?
PM: No, I was happy. So we won’t even get into placing them! I was happy that it was the precursor to ‘Sgt. Pepper’. And the thing was, you know, we always liked to release things fresh. We had just made those tracks, so the thought of waiting until we had completed the whole album would not have appealed to us. You know, we liked that as soon as it’s made, at the nearest point to the actual making of the song and the record, we would like to put it out. So I was glad how we did it and it was like a fanfare, that single. Another thing we liked about it was it was simple value for money. You really got two A-sides. But it kind of heralded what was to come.

PMc: Kind of like a road sign showing what was on the way?
PM: Yeah!

So everyone can stop worrying that the album was spoiled.

 

Of course I could remove "Within You Without You" and replace it with "Strawberry Fields"...

 

Seems like they had more albums with singles than without.

 

Those two songs might have been intended for inclusion on the album early on, but no one is likely to know where they would go as the album wasn't even completed when the single was released, so when the final running order was eventually decided, those two songs would have been out of the equation anyway. If I had to drop one song from the original listing to solve a play time proble, it would be Within You, Without You. Just have fun in creating your own version of the new album.

 

Off:

"Without" "Within You Without You" is "Without" a doubt the...

Just Joking!!

 

I think the forum needs more Sgt. Pepper threads, we're running a bit low.

 

I'll play. This is how I made a CD many (many) years ago. I didn't give a thought to LP or side length. It just flowed for me and kept alternating Paul/John tunes on Side 2.

1) Sgt Pepper's LHCB
2) With A Little Help From My Friends
3) Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
4) Getting Better
5) Fixing A Hole
6) She's Leaving Home
7) Being For the Benefit Of Mr. Kite!

8) Within You Without You
9) Penny Lane
10) Strawberry Fields Forever
11) When I'm Sixty-Four
12) Lovely Rita
13) Good Morning, Good Morning
14) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
15) A Day In The Life