Both ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Penny Lane’ were given A-side status on the single. Initially the two songs were intended to be part of the new album they were about to start work on, but they decided the themes didn’t quite fit in. However the two songs did go well together, making it the best single they ever did–which is why it deserves a chapter on its own.

These were the first Beatles songs to name real places. In the general run of British pop music, it was most unusual to hear a British location mentioned–or at least a location outside of London. Yet we all sang about places in America that none of us had ever visited and most probably never would, like Chicago, New Orleans, California, Massachusetts, New York New York.

Today, both Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane have taken on the status of mythical magical places. In New York, Strawberry Fields is the memorial garden in Central Park dedicated to John, near the building where he was shot. Penny Lane has also turned itself into a shrine of sorts, with a Penny Lane wine bar featuring photos of the Beatles. The barber’s shop, originally Mr Bioletti’s Barber Shop, is now unisex and called Tony Slavin, but it too features Beatles memorabilia. Tourists take photos of each other standing outside, just as they do on the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing in London.

There is a modern ironic use of the names Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, where in 2014 the American CIA detention camp were still holding suspected terrorists. One of the prison houses was known as Penny Lane and is next door to Strawberry Fields. The latter was named first, after the last word in its title–Forever.

The record came out at a time when social and cultural class barriers in Britain seemed to be on the verge of being broken down. Didn’t matter where you came from, even if it was a provincial place like Liverpool, you could still succeed and find fulfilment. We had just won the World Cup, our fashions and designs, films and art and popular music were being enjoyed around the world. Oh, being alive was heaven, back in 1967. That’s honestly how it felt.

George Martin has said that he considers ‘Strawberry Fields’/‘Penny Lane’ their best record–meaning best single. Looking back now, it still seems to sum up that era–and the Beatles in general. There was the psychedelic, futuristic, drug-inspired, mysterious words and weird musical arrangement of ‘Strawberry Fields’ juxtaposed with the fun and accessible words and music of ‘Penny Lane’. There was something for everyone, avant-garde or traditional, intellectual or otherwise, young and old, rich or poor, to enjoy, think about or just admire and hum and dance along to.

The record showed us the differences between John and Paul–which we had hitherto only suspected. It seemed to confirm that John saw music as a vehicle for thought whereas Paul saw it as a matter of mood and melody. Not always true, of course, as John could do love songs and Paul could do angst. But as a generalization, it seemed to stack up. Melody flows from Paul, out of every pore; musically, he is the more naturally gifted. John was interested in words, much more than Paul. But there again, each could do both.

The two songs illustrated the sort of subject matter they had gravitated towards. John always said that his best subject was himself. Once he realized he could write about himself, instead of boy–girl, blue moon love, that was what he concentrated on: ‘I’m not interested in writing third party songs,’ he told Playboy in 1980. ‘I like to write about me, ’cos I know me.’

Paul could and did write about his feelings, but even then he usually disguised them, preferring in his lyrics to go for narrative, a story, a setting, little vignettes, as in ‘Penny Lane’, using mainly the third person. He also loved nostalgia, pastiche, parodies of former forms of music.

Paul was the hard worker who beavered away, seeing it through rather than leaving things half done, the way John tended to. George Martin used to say that Paul came into the studio with fixed ideas, knowing how he wanted the song to sound. With John, it had to be dragged out of him, he didn’t quite know his own mind, or couldn’t express it as clearly as Paul.

Hence it was a great partnership, each producing different sorts of songs but at the same time able to inspire the other, help them improve. It was a competition, sibling rivalry, to impress the other. Which had worked brilliantly. So far.

But had the Beatles reached their zenith with ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Penny Lane’? That was a thought that came into my head as I started work on their biography. Was it possible that the fans of Engelbert Humperdinck had got it right, the ones who kept his record at number 1 for six weeks? Honestly, some people, eh?

The NME chart for 8 March 1967 with Engelbert still topping the Beatles–shame.