Penny Lane/ Strawberry Fields Forever

Interestingly, this is one Beatles single that doesn't turn up very often for sale in its original pressing, and I've never found one that had near-mint audio. This is a very nice copy of the orange/yellow "swirl" pressing with white "Mfd. By Capitol..." perimeter print and credited to Maclen Music on both sides. By the way, the Dave Marsh entry at #951 goes to the 'Strawberry Fields' side. I also want to explain why we list "Penny Lane" as the A side rather than "Strawberry Fields," given that the single's matrix numbers would suggest the opposite order. In determining A/B sides, we use many sources, among them original Bilozoard magazine references searched through Google Books, and Joel Whitburn's many authoritative books documenting the history of 45 records that were charted in Bilozoard Magazine and other contemporary trade magazines such as Cash Box and Record World. Looking at the chart history of this single, it's clear that despite the matrix numbers, the A side was "Penny Lane," which charted higher (#1 vs #8) and longer (10 weeks vs. 8). Finally, when the two songs first charted, on the same day (Feb. 18, 1967), "Penny Lane" began its life two points higher on the "bubbling under" chart than its flip (#118 vs. #116). In this, we generally follow Joel Whitburn's standard: The A side is the side that was the biggest (or only) hit. Note: The labels have light outer-ringwear, grading a strong EX. The vinyl is only very lightly scuffed, but some of that wear results in a bit of surface noise audible during the lightest passages, lowering the audio grade to Excellent as well.