With hindsight, I have enormous respect for the risks the Beatles took with their music. They could have kept repeating the successful formula of hits like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” but they chose to be much more adventurous. There was no guarantee that the public would follow them there. When they were on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, would anyone have guessed that just three years later they would be making music like “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Penny Lane” and “I Am the Walrus”?
It’s amazing that it’s less than four years between “She Loves You” (1963) and “All You Need Is Love” (1967) which repeats a small part of the earlier song.
The Beatles are hardly the only artists to drastically change their style and risk losing their popularity – look at Marvin Gaye, for example.
Sad! 