10 Artists That Changed With One Song

As the ‘60s wore on, no one was sure whether rock and roll was going to be another passing fad. The genre was barely a decade old yet, and The Beatles had become one of the biggest acts in the world, only to leave the road after being too overwhelmed by screaming female fans. Though that should logically be where the story ends for them, John Lennon came into Abbey Road Studios with one of the greatest songs of his career.

While Strawberry Fields Forever was originally conceived as a folksy song, the band saw this as an opportunity to experiment with the ramifications of rock. Being students of the avant garde, the band took different pieces of different takes of the song and stuck them together, speeding up and slowing down different parts of the song to make sure the whole thing blended well. With some of the most graphic imagery Lennon would write in a song, this would serve as the first taste of psychedelia, as the Summer of Love began not long after the song came out.

This was also the first time we got to see the Fab Four as studio creations, using the recording format as its own instrument, from toying around with different tape loops and wild sounds on Sgt. Peppers to incorporating synthesizers towards the end of their run on Abbey Road. Just because the Beatles left the road didn’t mean they were dead by any means. The decade had only just begun, and the Fab Four were just as curious where their music could go as their audience.