April 16, 2018 • 69 mins
It's a new year for the Beatles, and with it a new album in the works. After half a decade of nearly non-stop live performances, the band were at last able to enjoy the fruits of their fame, and the freedom to experiment in bold new directions. But the real question was, would the public follow them in those bold new directions? Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, recorded the prior December, would be the true test of the band's new direction. It's one thing to listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows" as the play-out end of an LP, but another entirely to see if this new English psychedelia "proto-prog rock" could also dominate the singles charts. The answer? Yes and no. America propelled the Beatles' new sound to #1, but in their native England the band was, for the first time since the dawn of Beatlemania, shut out of the top spot. Younger fans who adored the mop-tops now saw high brow cover art and facial hair adorning their favorite crushes. This was a message the world: whether you like it or not, The Beatles are growing up. But would growing up mean splitting apart? Was the height of their popularity behind them? Many theorized, but few could predict that once more John, Paul George and Ringo would push the boundaries of pop music into a whole new world...
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