They’re about to leave when a yellow cab slides to the curb in front of the building. John Lennon emerges, wearing a tan jacket. He takes a drag from his cigarette—a Gitane for sure!—and waves to them.

But he doesn’t rush inside the Dakota. He comes over to them.

John greets his two loyal fans by name. He chats with them for a few minutes about his new album.

“I believe it’s my best work since the Beatles,” John says. “I feel truly alive for the first time in twenty years.”

You should have come back, Mark, Jude thinks. You missed having your dream come true—standing right next to, and speaking with, John Lennon.

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

I’m not feelin’ too good myself.

—“Feelin’ Alright?”

For Christmas in 1966, paid members of the Beatles fan club receive their annual flexi disc from the band featuring a Christmas message. This year’s, called “Pantomime: Everywhere It’s Christmas,” is a wacky six and a half minutes of skits and novelty tunes that the band recorded between takes of “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

At Studio Two, the holiday spirit feels more like a burn. The Beatles have been putting in long hours there since the end of November.

The Beach Boys album Pet Sounds (released by Capitol on May 16, 1966) and John’s song “Strawberry Fields Forever” have lit a pair of creative fires under Paul. Just a week later, on December 29, he comes in and lays down the piano tracks for his own tribute to bygone Liverpool, “Penny Lane.”

This is how it had always been with John and Paul. “He’d write ‘Strawberry Fields,’” says Paul, “I’d go away and write ‘Penny Lane.’” No question that it was “to compete with each other. But it was very friendly competition.”

Even so, the Beatles are many songs short of an album, but Brian is pressing for a new hit.

“I must have a really great single,” the manager tells George Martin. “What have you got?”

“Well, I’ve got three tracks,” the producer tells him, “and two of them are the best they’ve ever made. We could put the two together and make a smashing single.”

The result is the double A–side single “Strawberry Fields Forever” / “Penny Lane.” The record is slated for a February release.

On January 31, the band is in Kent, working on promotional materials. “We’d been filming a TV piece to go with ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’” John explains in a 1967 interview. “There was a break and I went into this shop and bought an old poster advertising a variety show that starred Mr. Kite.”

He hangs it on the wall of his living room.

Driven by American radio play of “Penny Lane,” the dual-side single hits number 1 in America—but in Britain it ranks behind “Release Me” by balladeer Engelbert Humperdinck. It’s the first time that a Beatles single has taken second place since January 1963’s “Please Please Me.”