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1967 single by the Beatles

"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A side single with "Penny Lane". It represented a departure from the group's previous singles and a novel listening experience for the contemporary pop audience. While the song initially divided and confused music critics and the group's fans, it proved highly influential on the emerging psychedelic genre. Its accompanying promotional film is similarly recognised as a pioneering work in the medium of music video. Lennon based the song on his childhood memories of playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children's home in Liverpool. Starting in November 1966, the band spent 45 hours in the studio, spread over five weeks, creating three versions of the track. The final recording combined two of those versions, which were entirely different in tempo, mood and musical key. It features reverse recorded instrumentation, Mellotron flute sounds, an Indian swarmandal, and a fade out/fade in coda, as well as a cello and brass arrangement by producer George Martin. For the promotional film, the band used experimental techniques such as reverse effects, jump cuts and superimposition. The song was the first track the Beatles recorded after completing Revolver and was intended for inclusion on their forthcoming (as yet untitled) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Instead, with pressure from their record company and management for new product, the group were forced to issue the single, and then adhered to their philosophy of omitting previously released singles from their albums. The double A side peaked at number 2 on the Record Retailer chart, thereby breaking the band's four year run of chart topping singles in the UK. In the United States, "Strawberry Fields Forever" peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. To the band's displeasure, the song was later included on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP. Lennon viewed "Strawberry Fields Forever" as his finest work with the Beatles. Lennon's aunt Mimi Smith recalled: "There was something about the place that always fascinated John. He could see it from his window He used to hear the Salvation Army band [playing at the garden party], and he would pull me along, saying, 'Hurry up, Mimi – we're going to be late.'" Lennon began writing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in Almería, Spain, during the filming of Richard Lester's How I Won the War in September–October 1966. The Beatles had just retired from touring after one of their most difficult periods, which included the "more popular than Jesus" controversy and being the target of mob violence in reaction to their unintentional snubbing of Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos. Working on Lester's film without his bandmates left Lennon feeling vulnerable; according to his wife Cynthia, he was also distraught to learn in late October that Alma Cogan, the English singer whom "he'd earmarked to replace Aunt Mimi in his affections", had died in London at the age of 34. In the first versions that Lennon committed to tape, in September, there was no reference to Strawberry Field. Author Steve Turner says that at this stage, Lennon most likely drew inspiration from Nikos Kazantzakis's autobiographical novel Report to Greco, which he was reading in Almería and "tells of a writer searching for spiritual meaning". Like "Penny Lane", which Paul McCartney wrote in late 1966 in response to Lennon's new song, "Strawberry Fields Forever" conveys nostalgia for the Beatles' early years in Liverpool. While both songs refer to actual locations, McCartney said that the two pieces also had strong surrealistic and psychedelic overtones. George Martin, the Beatles' producer, recalled that when he first heard "Strawberry Fields Forever", he thought it conjured up a "hazy, impressionistic dreamworld". As with his Revolver compositions "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "She Said She Said", "Strawberry Fields Forever" was informed by Lennon's experiences with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which caused him to question his identity and seek to dissolve his ego. In Turner's description, the song's opening line, "Let me take you down", establishes Lennon as a "spiritual leader" in keeping with his statements in "The Word", "Rain" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", while Lennon's contention that in Strawberry Field "Nothing is real" reflects the concept of maya (or "illusion") as conveyed in the Hindu teachings that Lennon was also reading during his weeks on the film set. Lennon said the song reflected how he had felt "different all my life"; he called it "psychoanalysis set to music" and one of his most honest songs. In McCartney's view, the lyrics reflect Lennon's admiration of the nineteenth century English writer Lewis Carroll, particularly his poem "Jabberwocky". The earliest demo of the song was recorded in Almería, and Lennon subsequently developed the melody and lyrics in England throughout November. Demos taped at his home, Kenwood, demonstrate his progress with the song and include parts played on a Mellotron, a tape replay keyboard instrument he had purchased in August 1965. On the first Almería recording, the song had no refrain and only one verse, beginning: "There's no one on my wavelength / I mean, it's either too high or too low". Lennon revised these words to make them more obscure, then wrote the melody and part of the lyrics to the chorus (which functioned as a bridge and did not yet include a reference to Strawberry Fields). After returning to England in early November, he added another verse and the mention of Strawberry Fields. The first verse on the released version was the last to be written, close to the time of the song's recording. For the chorus, Lennon was again inspired by his childhood memories: the words "nothing to get hung about" were inspired by Aunt Mimi's strict order not to play in the grounds of Strawberry Field, to which Lennon replied, "They can't hang you for it." The first verse Lennon wrote became the second one in the released version of the song, and the second verse he wrote became the last.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" was originally written on acoustic guitar in the key of C major. The recorded version is not in standard pitch, due to manipulation of the tape speed, and the key is approximately B major. Instead, the leading note, harmonised as part of the dominant chord, resolves to the prevailing tonic (B) at the end of the verse, after tonicising the subdominant (IV) E chord, on "disagree". On the released recording, the second and third verses are introduced by a descending, raga esque melody played on an Indian board mounted zither, known as a swarmandal. In the middle of the second chorus, brass is introduced, emphasising an ominous quality in the lyrics. Before the session, in October, Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, had informed EMI that the band would not be releasing any new music for the Christmas market. On 10 November, newspapers reported that there would be no further concert tours by the Beatles. The band's lack of activity and their highly publicised individual pursuits since September were interpreted by the press as a sign that the band were on the verge of splitting up. Their return to the recording studio was given front page coverage in some newspapers. George Harrison, who had been travelling in India during the Beatles' lay off, recalled there being a "more profound ambience" in the band when they reunited to record "Strawberry Fields Forever". Lennon said that, having failed to connect with anyone on Lester's film set, "I was never so glad to see the others. Seeing them made me feel normal again." The song's working title was "It's Not Too Bad". The song took 45 hours to record, spread over five weeks. It was the most complex recording the Beatles had attempted up to this point, and involved three distinct versions of the song; each one was different in structure, key and tempo, yet the released recording was created through a combination of the final two versions. Together with "Penny Lane" and "When I'm Sixty Four", "Strawberry Fields Forever" established the theme for the early part of the Sgt. Pepper project – namely, a nostalgic look back at the band members' childhoods in northern England. McCartney has said that this was never planned or formalised as an album wide concept, but acknowledged that it served as a "device" or underlying theme throughout the project. refn|group=nb|Author Ian MacDonald identifies allusions to the Beatles' upbringing throughout Sgt. Pepper that are "too persuasive to ignore". These include evocations of the postwar Northern music hall tradition, references to Northern industrial towns and Liverpool schooldays, Lewis Carroll inspired imagery, the use of brass instrumentation in the style of park bandstand performances such as at Sefton Park, Harrison also played electric guitar, emphasising a bass line beside Lennon's rhythm, and Ringo Starr played drums. McCartney wrote the melody for the Mellotron introduction, although on the first take the instrument appears more in the role of backing accompaniment, relative to its prominence on the officially released recording. Take 1 opened with a verse, starting "Living is easy with eyes closed", instead of the chorus, which starts the released version. The first verse also led directly to the second, with no chorus between. Lennon's vocals were automatically double tracked from the words "Strawberry Fields Forever" through the end of the last verse. The last verse, beginning "Always, no sometimes", has three part harmonies, with McCartney and Harrison singing "dreamy background vocals". Onto this take 1, Harrison also overdubbed slide guitar parts over the choruses, played on the Mellotron's guitar setting and using the instrument's pitch control to achieve the slide effect. This version was soon abandoned; it went unreleased until a new mix was included on the Anthology 2 outtakes compilation in 1996, although the harmony vocals were cut from the track.

On 28 November, the band reassembled to try a different arrangement. The second version of the song featured McCartney's Mellotron introduction followed by the chorus. The instrumentation on the basic track was similar to that for take 1, but with the inclusion of maracas. Take 4 was considered sufficient for mix down and overdubs, which included a lead vocal by Lennon, McCartney's bass guitar, and Harrison again playing the slide parts, including what author John Winn terms "Morse code blips", on Mellotron. Having taken acetates home overnight, the band decided to redo the song again on 29 November, using the same arrangement. The second take that day was chosen as best and subjected to overdubs, such as vocal and bass guitar. In his lead guitar part,

On 22 December, Martin and Emerick carried out the difficult task of joining takes 7 and 26 together. With only a pair of editing scissors, two tape machines and a vari speed control, Emerick compensated for the differences in key and speed by increasing the speed of the first version and decreasing the speed of the second. The clip presented the Beatles' new group image, since all four now sported moustaches, following Harrison's lead when he left for India in September 1966. In addition to a horseshoe moustache, Lennon wore his round "granny" glasses for the first time as a member of the Beatles,]]
Instead of a performance of the song, the clip relies on abstract imagery and features reverse film effects, long dissolves, jump cuts including from day to night time, superimposition and extreme close up shots. refn|group=nb|The non performance aspect of the two Beatles promos was in response to the Musicians' Union's ban on miming on television. In his commentary on the promo clip, music critic Chris Ingham writes:
Beautifully and spookily lit much attention is given to close ups of The Beatles' faces and facial hair, as if the viewer is invited to contemplate the significance of the newly furry Fabs. There's an appropriately surreal air about the film which, when experienced simultaneously with The Beatles' extraordinary new music, is deliciously disorientating. The final scene of The Beatles pouring pots of coloured paint onto the "piano" is oddly shocking, but brilliantly memorable as a statement of iconoclastic artistic intent.

It was held at number 2 behind Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me", the year's biggest selling single. (In George Martin's book Summer of Love he claims the two songs were counted as two separate singles on the chart, severely hampering the record's chances of reaching the top but none of the UK's charts listed the two sides separately, including the Record Retailer chart, and so being defined as a double A side cannot have affected the single's chart position.) Following the speculation that the Beatles were due to disband, their failure to secure the number 1 spot was trumpeted in the UK press as a sign that the group's popularity was declining. At the time, McCartney said he was not upset because Humperdinck's song was a "completely different type of thing", while Harrison acknowledged that "Strawberry Fields Forever", like all of the Beatles' latest music, was bound to alienate much of their audience but would also win them new fans. On the national chart compiled by Melody Maker magazine, however, the combination topped the singles list for three weeks. On the US Billboard Hot 100 the two sides of a single were counted separately whether defined as a double A side or not (for example, "She's a Woman" reached number 4 in 1964 despite being a B side). "Penny Lane" topped the chart for one week, while "Strawberry Fields Forever" peaked at number 8. "Penny Lane" was the side favoured by chart compilers in Australia, where the single was number 1 for five weeks. The single was also number 1 in Canada and Norway, and peaked at number 4 in France.

Among contemporary reviews of the single, Melody Maker said that the combination of musical instruments, studio techniques and vocal effect on "Strawberry Fields Forever" created a "swooping, deep, mystic kaleidoscope of sound", and concluded, "The whole concept shows the Beatles in a new, far out light." The NMEs Derek Johnson confessed to being both fascinated and confused by the track, writing: "Certainly the most unusual and way out single The Beatles have yet produced – both in lyrical content and scoring. Quite honestly, I don't really know what to make of it." According to Beatles biographer Robert Rodriguez, Johnson's comments typified the "bewilderment" and "mood of disquiet" that the song initially aroused in the music press. The Daily Mails entertainment reporter wrote: "What's happening to the Beatles? They have become contemplative, secretive, exclusive and excluded – four mystics with moustaches." In the United States, the single's experimental qualities initiated an upsurge in the ongoing critical discourse on the aesthetics and artistry of pop music, as, centring on the Beatles' work, writers sought to elevate pop in the cultural landscape for the first time. Among these laudatory appraisals, Time magazine hailed the song as "the latest sample of the Beatles' astonishing inventiveness". The writer said that, since 1963:
[The] Beatles have developed into the single most creative force in pop music. Wherever they go, the pack follows. And where they have gone in recent months, not even their most ardent supporters would ever have dreamed of. They have bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical, mixing elements of Bach, Oriental and electronic music with vintage twang to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music. Time concluded by saying that the multitude of "dissonances and eerie space age sounds" on the track were partly the product of altered tape speed and direction, and commented: "This is nothing new to electronic composers, but employing such methods in a pop song is electrifying." In his review of Sgt. Pepper in June 1967, William Mann of The Times recognised the Beatles as the originators of the vogue for "electronically manipulated clusters of sound", and he added: "In some records, it's just a generalised effect. But in 'Strawberry Fields', it was poetically and precisely applied." Ian MacDonald wrote in his book Revolution in the Head that it "shows expression of a high order few if any [contemporary composers] are capable of displaying feeling and fantasy so direct, spontaneous, and original." According to music critic Tim Riley, the song "transformed Lennon's creative arc" by "expand[ing] the hallucinogenic drone of 'Rain' into layered colours that shifted when lit by his vocal inflections" and by inaugurating his use of free form verse as a lyrical device. Riley adds that while it represented Lennon's "first glimpse of life" outside the Beatles, "part of the recording's ironic pull lies in how the Beatles drape a group sensibility around Lennon's abstract psyche, something only the most intimate of musical friends could do." In his commentary on the track in The Beatles' Diary, Peter Doggett describes the song as "the greatest pop record ever made" and "a record that never dates, because it lives outside time". He rues the single's failure to top the now official UK chart as "arguably the most disgraceful statistic in chart history". In the June 1997 issue of Mojo magazine, Jon Savage included "Strawberry Fields Forever" in his list "Psychedelia: The 100 Greatest Classics" and wrote: "When this first came on radio in early 1967, it sounded like nothing else, with its wracked vocal, out of tune brass section and queasy strings." In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the track at number 76 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", a placing the song retained in the magazine's 2011 list, then was re ranked at number 7 on its 2021 list, the band's highest placement. On a similar list compiled by Q in 2006, it appeared at number 31. In 2010, Rolling Stone placed "Strawberry Fields Forever" at number 3 on its list of the "100 Greatest Beatles Songs". It was ranked as the second best Beatles song by Mojo in 2006, after "A Day in the Life".

Mark Lindsay of the US band Paul Revere & the Raiders recalled first listening to the single at home with his producer, Terry Melcher. In Lindsay's recollection: "When the song ended we both just looked at each other. I said, Now what the fuck are we gonna do?' With that single, the Beatles raised the ante as to what a pop record should be." Lindsay said he then ensured that the clips for both songs were broadcast on the Raiders' television show, Where the Action Is. The Who's Pete Townshend, a regular on London's psychedelic club scene, described "Strawberry Fields Forever" as "utterly bizarre, creative, strange and different". Brian Wilson, who had been struggling to complete the Beach Boys' Smile album, first heard "Strawberry Fields Forever" on his car radio while under the influence of barbiturates. In the recollection of his passenger at the time, Michael Vosse, "[Wilson] just shook his head and said, 'They did it already – what I wanted to do with Smile. Maybe it's too late.'" Vosse recalled that they then exchanged laughter, although "at the moment he said it, he sounded very serious."

The song was influential on psychedelic rock and, in Chris Ingham's description, it established "the standard and style for the entire psychedelic pop movement that would follow". Ian MacDonald recognises the track as having "extended the range of studio techniques developed on Revolver, opening up possibilities for pop which, given sufficient invention, could result in unprecedented sound images". He views it as having launched both the "English pop pastoral mood" typified by bands such as Pink Floyd, Family, Traffic and Fairport Convention, and English psychedelia's LSD inspired preoccupation with "nostalgia for the innocent vision of a child". Among other music historians, Simon Philo describes much of Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), as being in the style of the "patented British psychedelia" introduced by "Strawberry Fields Forever". David Howard says the production was a "direct touchstone" for Pink Floyd, the Move, the Smoke and other bands in London's upcoming psychedelic scene. Although the Mellotron had been a feature of Manfred Mann's late 1966 hit single "Semi Detached Suburban Mr James", its appearance on "Strawberry Fields Forever" remains the most celebrated use of the instrument on a pop or rock recording. Mike Pinder, whose band the Moody Blues went on to make extensive use of Mellotron and swarmandal in their work, said he was "in bliss" when he heard the keyboard's flute sound on the Beatles' single. Further to the band's pioneering use of promotional films since 1965, the clip for the song served as an early example of what became known as a music video. In 1985, the "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" clips were the oldest selections included in the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)'s exhibition of the most influential music videos. The two films occupied a similar place in MoMA's 2003 "Golden Oldies of Music Video" exhibition, where they were presented by avant garde artist Laurie Anderson. The "Strawberry Fields Forever" clip also provided the inspiration for the start of the fan vidding phenomenon in 1975. Kandy Fong, influenced by the Beatles not attempting to perform the music, set images from the Star Trek TV series to an apparently unrelated musical soundtrack.

Strawberry Field became a popular visiting place for fans of Lennon and the Beatles as a result of the song. In 1975, the Liverpool Public Relations Office published a tourism media package titled Nothing to Get Hung About, which contained Beatles related postcards and history, and a map of Liverpool. By 2011, the level of graffiti left by visitors at Strawberry Field had forced the Salvation Army to have the entrance gates removed

"Strawberry Fields Forever" is one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" and in 1999 was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' Grammy Hall of Fame. The Strawberry Fields memorial in New York's Central Park is named after the song. The memorial and the Strawberry Fields area of the park, spanning 3.5 acres, was officially dedicated by Yoko Ono in Lennon's memory in October 1985. In addition to referencing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in its title, the 2013 Spanish film Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed is a fictional account based on real life events when a 41 year old teacher from Cartagena visited Lennon in Almería when he was writing the song.

In keeping with the Beatles' usual philosophy that tracks released on a single should not appear on new albums, both "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were left off Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Martin later stated that this was an approach that he had encouraged, and it was a "dreadful mistake". The Beatles were displeased that Capitol then included the two songs, along with the band's other non album singles tracks from 1967, on the Magical Mystery Tour LP, which the company released as a full length album, in contrast to the six track double EP released in the UK and many other countries. The stereo version of the Magical Mystery Tour LP contained a 29 December 1966 mix of "Strawberry Fields Forever", in which the trumpets and cellos pan abruptly from left to right at the point where takes 7 and 26 are joined. By the time the album was released on CD, this mix had been superseded by a stereo remix, originally prepared for a 1971 West German issue of Magical Mystery Tour, which omitted the panning effect at the join point, but added a right to left panning to the swarmandal scale introducing the second and third verses. "Strawberry Fields Forever" was sequenced as the opening track of the 1973 compilation album The Beatles 1967–1970, and the single charted again in Britain, peaking at number 32, when EMI reissued all 22 of the Beatles' UK singles in March 1976. In 1996, three previously unreleased versions of the song appeared on Anthology 2: one of Lennon's home demos from November 1966; an altered version of the first studio take; and the complete take 7, in mono, edited with an extension of the coda's drums and percussion track from 9 December. In 2006, a newly mixed version of the song was included on the album Love. take 1 and then take 26, and the ending incorporates elements from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "In My Life", "I'm Only Sleeping", "Penny Lane", "Piggies" and "Hello, Goodbye". In 2015, the promo film was included in the three disc versions (titled 1+) of the Beatles' 1 compilation. A new stereo mix was created by Giles Martin to accompany the clip. This version appeared on CD in 2017 on the two disc and six disc 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper, together with a selection of outtakes from the "Strawberry Fields Forever" sessions, including a complete take 26.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" returned to the charts in 1990 when the duo Candy Flip, one of the British acts associated with the Madchester revival of 1960s psychedelia and fashion, released an electronic version of the track. It peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart in March that year, and number seven in Ireland. In her contemporary review for The Network Forty, Diane Tameecha described the single as "what happens when Liverpool meets Manchester". She said that the track was an "instantly likable cover" on which "Relatively sparse accompaniment, in the form of Pet Shop Boys' keyboard sounds mixed with that now 'classic' house drum sound, lends a cool flavor to the old Fab Four workhorse." Dele Fadele from NME declared it as a "cheeky update", that "shook TOTP to the rafters". In his review of Candy Flip's debut album, Madstock , Tim DiGravina of AllMusic describes "Strawberry Fields Forever" as an "extremely successful" reworking of the Beatles' original, and admires it as one of the tracks that convey "the joys of perfect, happy places that simply can't exist". drew heavily from the Beatles' work in their February 1968 release Tomorrow and included a cover of the song on that album. The self titled debut album by American rock band Vanilla Fudge, released in August 1967, contained a brief homage to "Strawberry Fields Forever" at the end of their cover of "Eleanor Rigby". (The homage is entitled "ELDS" on CD versions of the album, and CD versions of the album in fact additionally spell out an acrostic of the song as an homage, with portions of preceding tracks entitled "STRA", "WBER" and "RYFI".) In August 1969, Richie Havens performed "Strawberry Fields Forever" as part of his set to open the Woodstock Festival. In 1976, a version by Todd Rundgren was released on his album Faithful, and Peter Gabriel covered the track in the musical documentary All This and World War II. Highlighting the line "Living is easy with eyes closed", Gabriel's recording accompanies newsreel footage of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" declaration after his meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938. A recording by Ben Harper was used in the 2001 film I Am Sam, and Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson covered the track for the 2007 film Across the Universe. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs recorded a ska version of the song featuring Debbie Harry for their 1995 album Rey Azúcar, which was a hit in Latin America. The song has also been covered by the Bee Gees, the Bobs, Eugene Chadbourne, Sandy Farina, Laurence Juber, David Lanz, Cyndi Lauper, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Mother's Finest, Odetta, Andy Partridge, the Shadows, Plastic Penny, the Ventures and Cassandra Wilson.