Penny Lane by Lennon-McCartney – Improvised by pianist Charles Manning

Описание: Credited to the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership of the English rock band “The Beatles,” “Penny Lane” was primarily written by Paul McCartney, with Lennon co-writing the lyrics. In 1967, the song was released as a double A-side single with “Strawberry Fields Forever.” The lyrics refer to Penny Lane, a street in south Liverpool with the surrounding area of Smithdown Place and its roundabout bus terminus. As school children, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison hung out at the terminus. Through this childhood nostalgia and from the Dylan Thomas poem “Fern Hill,” McCartney was inspired to write "Penny Lane."

The 1967 promotional film for “Penny Lane” and a clip for “Strawberry Fields Forever” are recognized as pioneering works, being one of the first examples in what would later become the music video. In 1985, they were the oldest videos in the New York Museum of Modern Art exhibition of most influential music videos. The “Penny Lane” clip includes footage of Liverpool, the number 46 bus to Penny Lane, the roundabout shelter, and a fireman riding a white horse. Other street scenes were filmed around Angel Lane in Stratford. At the time, McCartney made the following prediction: “In the future, all records will have vision as well as sound. In 20 years’ time, people will be amazed to think we just listened to records.”

In 1967, the clips were first broadcast in America on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and in Britain on “Top of the Pops,” then shortly after on the US variety program, “The Hollywood Palace,” and “American Bandstand.” Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor, mentioned the “Penny Lane” trumpet solo as an example of contemporary pop music worthy of recognition as art. A “Time” magazine appraisal hailed the Beatles as having “bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical, to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music.” In 2010, Elvis Costello performed “Penny Lane” during a concert at the White House when McCartney received the Gershwin Prize from President Barack Obama.

“Penny Lane” reached the top at No. 1 in 1967 on the Australian Top 40, the Canada Top Singles, the Netherlands Top 100, the New Zealand Listener, the Sweden Tio i Topp, the US Billboard Hot 100, the US Cash Box, and the West German Hit-Parade charts. In this rendition, pianist Charles Manning improvises the hit song “Penny Lane.”