In 1966, three years after the release of the legendary "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and two years…read moreafter their sensational US tour that started Beatlemania, the Beatles were World famous.
It was also at this time when Paul McCartney started writing about his days that he shared with John Lennon in their hometown, Liverpool.
For Paul, it seemed like he was taking a step back from the limelight of the Beatles' phenomenal success and taking the time to reflect upon his childhood memories.
Paul said in a documented interview: "I still want to write a song about the places in Liverpool where I was brought up. Places like The Docker's Umbrella ..., and Penny Lane near my old home."
There were a lot of fond memories for Paul when he wrote Penny Lane. This was where he had to change buses to get to John Lennon's house. This was also the district where he hanged out with many of his friends.
Paul explained that Penny Lane was not only a street, but also a district, and the lyrics of the song were all based on real places - the barber shop, the bank, the fire station. "It's part fact, part nostalgia for a great place..., as we remember it, and it's still there."
Paul recalled that as he was writing Penny Lane, John came along to help him: "We were writing childhood memories: recently faded memories from eight or ten years before, so it was a recent nostalgia, pleasant memories for both of us."
Penny Lane is one of very few Beatles songs that were written about real places and real lives and is probably the only one that is about the childhood of Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
It's been over 50 years since the release of Penny Lane and almost 40 years since the Beatles broke up, but numerous tourists still visit Penny Lane every day. Yours truly included. And its road sign still gets stolen by Beatles fans.
The latest version of the road sign when I was there was bolted down into a concrete wall with temper-proof screws, screws that cannot be unfastened with a screwdriver or most tools. Let's see how long this one gets to stay.
I am just guessing... but this must be the most often stolen road sign in the World...
"In Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say, 'Hello'..."