Title:	Strawberry Fields Forever - Take 1
Credits:	Lennon - McCartney
Recorded:	EMI Studios, London, 24 November 1966
Producer:	George Martin
Engineer:	Geoff Emerick
Locations:	Anthology 2 - disc 2, track 2

After five months away from the studio, and three apart from each other, the Beatles came together at Abbey Road on Thursday 24 November 1966, encumbered no longer by deadlines and touring schedules, and keen to explore new song ideas and methods of recording. In the next five months they would deliver the two sides of their forthcoming single, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, and the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. After issuing 116 titles in 46 months, a rate of 30 per year, in between concert dates, film shoots, TV recordings and radio sessions, the Beatles were clearly giving themselves and their music a chance to breathe. The result was startling - few could dispute that this was an era of tremendous creativity.

Strawberry Fields Forever typifies this: a succession of fine recordings captured the gist of the song but no performance wholly seized its spirit (at least, not to the satisfaction of its composer), and the final master was not completed until almost a month after this initial session. As it took shape on 24 November, with an alternative lyric order and arrangement, this recording was considerably different from that master.

| Demo | Take 7 | Original Release |