The enjoyment listeners obtain from Penny Lane is underpinned by seven stealthy key modulations they barely notice.
That’s according to composer Howard Goodall, who deconstructs the 1967 Paul McCartney track in the video below (tune in from 20 minutes).
McCartney instinctively knows that the best modulations “occur by stealth”, Goodall says, adding that the Beatle pulls off “clever, immensely satisfying key changes no fewer than seven times almost without you noticing” in Penny Lane.
“This is the work of a composer who really knows what he’s doing,” he says in the 2004 Channel Four program.
