By 1967, The Beatles had released so many No. 1 singles that it seemed impossible that one of their songs wouldn’t take the top spot. That year, they released “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” together. Both songs were so strong on their own that it felt like another slam dunk for the band. Ultimately, though, another artist got the top spot on the U.K. charts. John Lennon was not a fan of this musician.
The Beatles consistently had No. 1 singles until 1967
The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein wanted the band to release a single in early 1967. They gave him three songs: “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Penny Lane,” and “When I’m Sixty-four.” While “When I’m Sixty-four” was a solid song, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” were seen as unbeatable.
“I decided to give [Brian] a super-strong combination,” producer George Martin said, per the book The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz, “a double-punch that could not fail, an unbeatable linking of two all-time great songs: ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane.’”
Ultimately, though, neither song hit No. 1 in the U.K. Instead, the top spot went to Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Release Me.”
“That’s in the Guinness Book of World Records,” Humperdinck told the LA Times. “And for me to stop the Beatles from having their 12th number one was quite a coup.”
While George Harrison said it was a “bit of a shock being Number Two,” the rest of The Beatles didn’t seem publicly upset. Per the book John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman, Lennon offered a dignified, “There’s room for everything.” In reality, though, he was not a fan of Humperdinck.
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John Lennon once compared Paul McCartney to Engelbert Humperdinck
Lennon was never a fan of the honeyed pop music Humperdinck released. For years, even before Humperdinck unseated them on the charts, he used the name as an expression of derision. When The Beatles met Elvis, for example, he used Humperdinck to express how disappointing the meeting had been.
“It was a load of rubbish,” he said. “It was just like meeting Englebert Humperdinck.”
Per the book Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney by Howard Sounes, Lennon described McCartney’s solo album McCartney as “Engelbert Humperdinck music.“
McCartney understood that this was a blistering insult coming from Lennon. He said it was one of the more hurtful things his bandmate had said about him.
“I’ve never come back at him, not at all, but I can’t hide my anger about all the things he said at the time, about the Muzak, about me singing like Engelbert Humperdinck,” he said.
What Beatles songs hit No. 1?
While Humperdinck might have blocked the “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” combo from hitting No. 1, The Beatles still had many songs top the charts in the United Kingdom. They had 17 No. 1 hits in the U.K., including “From Me to You,” “She Loves You,” “Day Tripper,” and “Hey Jude.”
