I have the feeling this has been asked before, but howcome SFF never made it to number one?

Who's to say? But you'd have to admit it was a bit strange to mainstream audiences, the great psychedelic-era classic that it is. In the U.S. the flip-side was 'Penny Lane' (same in the U.K.?), a much more 'accessible' track to the masses. So the mystery only deepens for me.

Yea, but SFF was written in 1967, you know the whole pschyedelic rock era, so would it really be "a bit strange to mainstream audience"?
Coz you see, Sgt P is is credited for the best Beatles album and it has psychedelicness in it...

No, the song was written and recorded in 1966. Maybe The Beatles were way ahead of their time by recording this track. Penny Lane was much more accessible indeed. George Martin believes that the combination of two of the best things The Beatles ever did might not have helped to become a #1 single.

Its all down to bad luck , it was up against Engelbert Humperdink`s Please Release Me , he was a handsome looking devil and
a big hit with the ladies , its sad but true , any other time i guess it wouldn`t been a problem .
Releashed on the 17 th Feb my Birthday [5th]

mr kite wrote:Releashed on the 17 th Feb my Birthday [5th]

Ah, we share the same star sign....

Similarly, just for the sake of conversation and/or debate, why did Come Together with all its strangeness reached number one?

Honey_Tree wrote:
Similarly, just for the sake of conversation and/or debate, why did Come Together with all its strangeness reached number one?

Because Something was on the flipside.

cant keep the crooners of the top

no matter how good youre music is if youre up against a crooner with a love theme and deep husky manly voice , all the mums and grannies come out in numbers and start buying music again

But who remembers that Engelbert Humperdink's song.... Strawberry fields forever is a classic...and a signature song for John Lennon