57 years ago today, for a fee of approximately $42.00, classical musician David Mason plays one of the most famous solos in recorded history: the piccolo trumpet on “Penny Lane.” The song was intended for Sgt. Pepper, but in would instead become half of the greatest Double-A side single of all time, paired with “Strawberry Fields Forever” in February ’67. Mason would also appear on other Beatles songs, including “Magical Mystery Tour” and “It’s All Too Much.” On the day of Mason’s “Penny Lane” recording, John Lennon would read an article in that day’s edition of the Daily Mail that would become part of the the song many believe to be the pinnacle of The Beatles’ catalogue: “A Day in the Life.”

The first two verses of the song, referencing the death of Guinness heir Tara Browne in a car crash, are well documented. John was stuck on the lyrics for the rest of the song. During a writing session with McCartney, Paul used a line he’d come up with but had no song of his own for: “I’d love to turn you on.” He also famously added the middle eight section reminiscing about his youth, which was part of the theme intended for the Sgt. Pepper album had “Penny Lane” been included. Both John and Paul insisted the song did not include drug references when the BBC banned it from radio airplay, though that was a stretch. The “…turn you on” line, however, was not the drug reference McCartney had in the song. That would be “blew his mind out.”

The recording of the song is also the stuff of legend. It required 19 more hours of studio time than the entirety of the band’s first album. Keeping the initial backing track intact of bass, acoustic guitar, drums and piano, George Harrison ended up playing the maracas. Both McCartney and George Martin conducted the 40 piece orchestra low-to-high build, scored by Martin, that prefaced the middle-eight and then penultimately ended the track. George noted that he wrote “the lowest possible note for each of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the twenty-four bars, I wrote the highest note, near a chord of E major. Then I put a squiggly line right through the twenty-four bars, with reference points to tell them roughly what note they should have reached during each bar. Of course, they all looked at me as though I were completely mad.” McCartney wanted a 90 piece orchestra, so the segment was recorded several times, then those recordings were overdubbed to create the ending segment.

For the most famous closing chord in music history, John, Paul, Ringo, and Mal Evans each played an E-Major on 3 pianos, with Martin on a harmonium. In order to have the it ring out as long as it does, the recording level was slowly increased as the chord rang out. Due to the high level by the end, studio noise such as papers rustling can be heard. The famous 15kz hightone, heard by dogs and cats, was only on the British version of the album, placed there by Lennon so “every dog would have his day.” One of the first people to hear the final track was David Crosby, played for him during a visit to the session for “Lovely Rita.” He said “Man, I was a dish-rag. I was floored. It took me several minutes to be able to talk after that.”

Today’s Playlist, and I admit it’s a stretch: a SomethingIsHappening compendium of “hole” songs:

Many have covered the song on record and in concert. Wes Montgomery cut it, as did the London Symphony Orchestra. Phish has covered the song live nearly 70 times. For me, two versions stand out. Jeff Beck took home a Grammy in 2010 for his version on the live album Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club:

Neil Young had a surprise while headlining Glastonbury on June 27th, 2009:

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