Penny Lane

Penny Lane is now famous world-wide as it is the title of a hit single by The Beatles, released in 1967 and written by Paul McCartney. McCartney, along with John Lennon, grew up in the area and they spent a lot of time on Penny Lane as children.

The street has become an important landmark sought out by Beatles fans touring Liverpool. The street signs were constantly stolen and had to be continually replaced. Eventually, city officials gave up and simply began painting the street name on the sides of buildings.

The barber shop mentioned in the song, was probably a shop owned by a Mr. Biolettim who has claimed to have cut hair for Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison when they were children.

One innovative feature of the song was the piccolo trumpet solo played by David Mason. This is probably the first use of this instrument (a distinctively higher version of the standard trumpet) in pop music, where it is now (in certain genres) almost a commonplace.