Penny Lane

(Lennon/McCartney)

Quick Facts

Composer	Paul
Lead Vocal	Paul
Recorded	Dec 1966 – Jan 1967
Length	3:00
Key	B
Noted Takes	26
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Geoff Emerick

Originally released on

Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane

Parlophone — R 5570

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Story

"Penny Lane" is a song by the British rock band the Beatles that was released as a double A-side single with "Strawberry Fields Forever" in February 1967. It was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. The lyrics refer to Penny Lane, a street in Liverpool, and make mention of the sights and characters that McCartney recalled from his upbringing in the city. [Wikipedia]

Penny Lane is a song by The Beatles, written by McCartney and led on vocal by Paul McCartney. David Mason's piccolo trumpet solo, Liverpudlian street vignettes. The piccolo trumpet solo by David Mason and descriptive street vignettes gave the song picturesque detail compared to 'Strawberry Fields Forever' (Kozinn 1995, p.152).

The session work falls within the band's Magical Mystery Tour (late 1967) period, recorded 29 Dec 1966 at EMI Studios + Olympic Sound Studios (Barnes) for some MMT/All You Need Is Love work. George Martin produced; Geoff Emerick engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn's account on p.91 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (excerpt below). McCartney requested 'a really clean American sound'; Emerick recorded each instrument in isolation to achieve separation, spending three weeks perfecting arrangements unprecedented in Beatles recording (Emerick 2006, p.375). McCartney's exuberant portrait of Liverpool street life represented his most confident compositional voice, building from a simple piano foundation into densely layered instrumentation (MacDonald 1994, p.95).

What's distinctive

One of 65 songs led primarily by Paul. Carries the unique tag 'piccolo-trumpet' — no other song shares it. Take count: 26 — the highest take number documented in Lewisohn's session log.¹

Recording

Penny Lane is the catalogue's most famous “missing notes” mix-variant case and a textbook varispeed entry: the released UK single is one record, the US radio promo with the extra trumpet tag is another, and the post-2017 Giles Martin stereo is a third — the documented divergences are catalogued in Releases below.^1,2
The song was tracked at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, across nine sessions between 29 December 1966 and 17 January 1967. The session that fixed the record's identity was 17 January 1967, when David Mason of the New Philharmonia Orchestra overdubbed the piccolo trumpet solo on a B♭ piccolo in Studio Two; McCartney had seen Mason perform Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 on BBC2 on 11 January and asked Martin to hire him, with Mason playing to a line McCartney hummed and Martin notated on the spot.¹
The record is McCartney's “really clean American sound” brief executed by Geoff Emerick at a granularity unprecedented in the band's catalogue: each woodwind and brass overdub was recorded in tight isolation in Studio Two so the dense arrangement — four flutes, two trumpets, two piccolos, flugelhorn, double bass, drums, piano, vocals and Mason's solo — could be balanced after the fact.^2,3
The per-instrument isolation, layered overdub reductions and varispeed shaping are the same playbook that produced its companion single Strawberry Fields Forever, recorded in the same eight-week window; together they are the records on which the 1966–67 EMI studio practice reaches its full expression.²

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road — Studio Two (nine sessions, 29 Dec 1966 – 17 Jan 1967)
Tape machine	Studer J37 four-track, multiple reductions²
Console	REDD.51 valve desk²
Microphones	U47/U48, AKG C12, ribbon mics (4038)
Outboard / effects	EMI RS124, EMT 140, Fairchild 660, ADT, tape phasing, Leslie cabinet
Guitars	Epiphone Casino, Fender Stratocaster (Harrison — psychedelic 'Rocky' Strat), Mellotron, clavioline
Amplifiers	Vox AC100, Vox UL730, Fender Showman, Fender Bassman

Recording Timeline

29 December 1966 – 17 January 1967 — nine sessions at EMI Studios (Abbey Road), Studio Two — Penny Lane was built up across nine sessions, the rhythm and dense arrangement layered through multiple four-track reductions. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick.¹
11 January 1967 — McCartney sees David Mason on BBC2 — McCartney saw David Mason perform Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 on a BBC2 broadcast and asked George Martin to hire him for the high trumpet line he had in mind.¹
17 January 1967 — piccolo trumpet overdub, Studio Two — David Mason overdubbed the piccolo trumpet solo on a B♭ piccolo, playing to a line McCartney hummed and Martin notated; additional Mason trumpet figures were also taped at the very end of the song.¹
25 January 1967 — final mono mixing — three further mono mixes were made; remix 14 was accepted as the final master, with the extra end-of-song trumpet figures omitted. By then a small number of US promo pressings carrying the earlier remix 11 (with the tag) had already gone to radio.¹

I read in books that the trumpet sound was later speeded up but that isn't true because I can still play those same notes on the instrument along with the record.— David Mason¹

Studio Notes

Varispeed — McCartney's piano part was recorded at standard speed early in the session and slowed on playback to give the honky-tonk colour the track opens with. The popular claim that the Mason piccolo trumpet solo was varispeeded is directly refuted by Mason himself (see quote above); his own testimony takes precedence over later secondary speculation.^1,2
Neumann U47 / KM54 spot-mic'd overdubs — each woodwind and brass overdub was recorded in tight isolation in Studio Two so the dense arrangement could be balanced after the fact; this microphone selection was standard EMI practice for solo overdubs.^2,3
Multiple reductions onto the Studer J37 four-track — the dense arrangement was bounced through several four-track reductions during the 30 December – 17 January sessions before the final mono mix on 25 January.^1,2
Artificial Double Tracking — McCartney's lead vocal is ADT'd in the choruses, the technique still less than a year old at the time of the session.²
REDD.51 — the EMI valve desk that mixed every Penny Lane session; the desk's house EQ curve is part of why the 1967 mono carries the dense-but-clean midrange that McCartney's brief was reaching for.²
Fairchild 660 — the limiter on McCartney's lead vocal bus, characteristic of the EMI mid-1967 vocal chain.²

Releases

1967 UK mono single (Parlophone R 5570, 17 February 1967) — the standard commercial mono; double A-side with Strawberry Fields Forever. The piccolo trumpet solo is present in its single statement; the extra end-of-song trumpet figures are absent.¹
1967 US promotional mono single (Capitol P 5810) — one of the most-collected Beatles 45s in the US; carries additional David Mason trumpet figures at the very end, played on 17 January and included in mono remix 11 (sent to Capitol). Three further mono mixes followed on 25 January and remix 14 became the final master with the tag omitted — by then a small number of remix-11 promo pressings had reached radio.¹
1967 US stereo — Magical Mystery Tour LP (27 November 1967, Capitol) — the first commercial stereo, prepared by George Martin without the band present (mono was the band-attended mix through Sgt Pepper); subtle differences in woodwind balance and a more separated vocal placement versus the mono.¹
1980 Capitol Rarities (US) — first wide release of the promo-only mono with the trumpet tag, making the previously near-mythic “extra notes” version available outside the collector market.¹
Anthology 2 (1996) — an alternate-mix appearance built from synchronised four-track session reels.
2009 stereo remaster (Allan Rouse / Guy Massey) — re-EQ'd from the four-track tapes; preserves the commercial-release arrangement (no trumpet tag), with a wider stereo image than 1967 but unchanged splice and overdub structure.
2017 Sgt. Pepper 50th-anniversary edition (Giles Martin stereo remix) — a new stereo mix from the four-track session reels for the deluxe set; notably brighter top end and clearer woodwind separation than the 2009 remaster, retaining the standard commercial arrangement.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 87–95.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), chaps. 3, 4, 5, 6, 8.
Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (New York: Gotham Books, 2006), 375.

Frequently asked

Who wrote Penny Lane?

“Penny Lane” is credited to Paul McCartney (Lennon–McCartney).

Who sings lead on Penny Lane?

The lead vocal on “Penny Lane” is by Paul McCartney.

When was Penny Lane recorded?

“Penny Lane” was tracked at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, across nine sessions between 29 December 1966 and 17 January 1967, with David Mason's piccolo trumpet overdubbed on 17 January and final mono mixing on 25 January 1967.¹

How many takes did Penny Lane require?

Mark Lewisohn's session log documents up to 26 numbered takes for “Penny Lane”.¹

On this page

Story

What's distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked