Revolver (Beatles album) group collective since 1962, and gave them an unprecedented amount of time to prepare for a new album. Writing in "The Beatles Forever", Nicholas Schaffner cites 1966 as the start of the band's "'psychedelic' period" and adds: "That adjective implies not only the influence of certain mind-altering chemicals, but also the freewheeling spectrum of wide-ranging colors that their new music seemed to evoke." Music journalist Carol Clerk describes "Revolver" as having been "decisively informed by acid", following John Lennon and George Harrison's continued experimentation with the drug LSD since the spring of 1965.<ref name="Clerk/Uncut"> Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).</ref>
With the Beatles were placed on "The Beatles' Second Album". The LP had advance orders of a half million and sold another half million by September 1965, making it the second album to sell a million copies in the United Kingdom, after the soundtrack to the 1958 film "South Pacific". "With the Beatles" remained at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, displacing "Please Please Me", so that the Beatles occupied the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks. It even reached number 11 in the "singles charts" (because at the time UK charts counted all records sold, regardless of format). EMI Australia