I’m reading the follow up to Ken Womacks two part bio of George Martin. The first part, Maximum Volume, took George up to late 1965. Sound Pictures, the second part, has kicked off with the Revolver sessions.
It offers some great detail on recordings of Revolver and I’ve just passed the recording of Strawberry Fields. Interestingly in this book Womack suggests that George Martins reference to releasing Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane as a single as the “biggest mistake of his professional life” was not just because it prevented him putting them on Pepper, but because by releasing two great songs as a Double A side meant it was harder for them to reach No 1. Despite the single selling nearly twice as much as Release Me, the song that kept them out of No 1, as the sales in the UK were accounted for as if the two sides were separate singles, it couldn’t rise above Release Me to gain the No 1 spot. I’ve heard this before so it’s interesting to read reference to it again. He felt he’d made an error in commercial judgement by not pairing one of the songs with When I’m Sixty Four, even if the resulting single he considered the best one they ever made.
