At a play time of 3:10, “Ticket to Ride” was the first Beatles song to surpass the three minute mark. It was perhaps a little risky, in the mid 1960s, to release a single more than 3 minutes long because most pop radio stations had a standard two and a half or three minute time limit per song. Radio back then was formatted to shorter “bite-sized” songs compared to today’s more open ended policy, as far as song lengths go.
The Beatles were always pushing boundaries and setting new standards and this case of disregard for the “time barrier” is an example of that.
