Matrix Information
Side 1: (mono) 7XCE18438 7XAPA1471
Side 2: (mono) 7XCE18439 7XAPA1472
Overview
Another single initially placed on heavy performance restriction by Northern Songs (Leeds Music), hence its release here some two weeks after the UK.
Just after release of this single, EMI (Australia) ended the separate cataloguing systems used on its in-house and distributed labels and created a unified numbering system, beginning at 8301. The 8000 series was chosen because Parlophone's catalogue—the highest range in use at the time—was then numbering in the low 8000s. 'Lady Madonna'/'The Inner Light' was the last Parlophone single issued under the old numbering system.
As EMI (Australia) was somewhat preoccupied with meeting demand for both Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the recently released Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request, let alone anything else, they turned to the Australian Record Company (ARC) to supplement production of select contemporary singles, of which this was one. Such ARC pressings can be identified by a smaller centre pressing ring with distinct groove and a raised ridge along the outside of the label.
The single remained available until the late 1980s.
