“Penny Lane” by The Beatles

"Penny Lane" came out in February 1967, sharing a double A-side with "Strawberry Fields Forever", and it's Paul McCartney's postcard home: a real Liverpool street, painted from memory with the sights and characters he recalled from growing up there. It's credited to Lennon-McCartney, but it's mostly Paul's.

The Beatles started it in December 1966 with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in mind, but the label wanted a new single, and since the band kept singles off their albums, it never made that record. The music keeps slipping into new keys mid-verse and between choruses, bright as a spring morning, and session man David Mason's piccolo trumpet solo on the bridge is pure sparkle. It topped the Hot 100 in America, yet in Britain it broke the band's run of number ones stretching back to "Please Please Me" in 1963.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.