The Beatles

Released: March 18, 1996

Songwriter: Paul McCartney Lennon-McCartney

Producer: George Martin

[Verse 1]
In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say hello

[Verse 2]
On the corner is a banker with a motorcar
The little children laugh at him behind his back
And the banker never wears a mac
In the pouring rain
Very strange

[Chorus 1]
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit and meanwhile back

[Verse 3]
In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass
And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen
He likes to keep his fire engine clean
It's a clean machine

[Piccolo trumpet solo]

[Chorus 2]
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
Four of fish and finger pies
In summer, meanwhile back

[Verse 4]
Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout
A pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she's in a play
She is anyway

[Verse 5]
In Penny Lane the barber shaves another customer
We see the banker sitting, waiting for a trim
And then the fireman rushes in
From the pouring rain
Very strange

[Chorus 1]
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit, and meanwhile back

[Chorus 2]
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
Penny Lane

[Outro]
(Instrumental)
A suitable ending, I think!

The Beatles are arguably the most famous, critically-acclaimed, and successful rock band of all time—certainly the preeminent group of the 20th century. They started out as four teenagers playing grimy basement clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, but they progressed to become world-beating rock stars who are still influential to this day.

John Lennon first formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen in March 1957. A fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined shortly thereafter, eventually inviting his friend George Harrison to audition for the band. After finally impressing John with his guitar skills, George was asked to join—but this juncture would be short-lived as John’s departure to college signaled the other quarrymen to go their separate ways.

By 1960, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison had re-branded from ‘Johnny & the Moondogs’ to ‘The Silver Beetles’ at the behest of their new bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe. The name would eventually evolve into ‘The Silver Beatles’ by July of that year, before settling on ‘The Beatles’ come August—just in time for their trip to Hamburg with new drummer, Pete Best. Though club residencies in Germany would prove fundamental to the group’s progress as a whole, the tour turned out to be a blessing and a curse, following the deportation of a then-seventeen-year-old George Harrison, and the eventual tragic death of Stuart Sutcliffe.

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