A Day in the Life
A collage of two unfinished McCartney and Lennon songs bridged by an orchestral crescendo building from nothing to cacophony. The BBC banned it for drug references ('I'd love to turn you on'). It ends with a 40-piece orchestra playing a 24-bar glissando.
Often cited as the greatest pop recording ever made. Demonstrated that the studio was now a compositional instrument. The final E-major chord, ringing for 45 seconds, became one of music's most famous endings.
Released in 1967, the year Western youth culture reached its zenith. The song is assembled from newspaper clippings — a soldier dying in a car crash, 4,000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire — collage as artistic method.
Songs became anthems for equality, blending spirituals with contemporary R&B.