Information about Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour
Magical Mystery Tour cover
Studio album (US) & Double EP (UK) by The Beatles
Released	November 27 1967 (US LP) December 8 1967 (UK EP) November 19 1976 (UK LP)
Recorded	Abbey Road 1966-11-24 – 1966-12-21 ("Strawberry Fields Forever") and 1966-12-29 – 1967-01-17 ("Penny Lane") Abbey Road and Olympic Sound Studios 25 April 1967 – 7 November 1967 (double EP, rest of LP side 2)
Genre	Psychedelic rock, pop-rock, experimental rock, art rock
Length	36:52 (LP, CD) 19:12 (EP)
Label	Parlophone, Capitol
Producer	George Martin
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone link
The Beatles U.S. chronology
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) Magical Mystery Tour (1967) The Beatles (1968)
Alternate cover
1971 German MMT LP with every track in true stereo
Alternate cover
Double EP sleeve

Magical Mystery Tour is the name of the album and double EP by the English rock band The Beatles, first released in late 1967 (see 1967 in music).

It is also a one-hour television film that was originally aired, in black and white, in the UK in 1967 (see 1967 in television). After critical and public response to the premiere proved negative, plans to air the film on ABC Television in the U.S. were cancelled, and Magical Mystery Tour didn't appear in the U.S. until 1976, as a theatrical release on the midnight movies and college circuits, both of which were mainly underground.

History of the project

Magical Mystery Tour film

Main article: Magical Mystery Tour (film)

After Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Paul McCartney wanted to create a film based upon the Beatles and their music. The film was to be unscripted: various "ordinary" people (including John Lennon's uncle Charlie) were to travel on a charabanc bus and have unspecified "magical" adventures, in the manner of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters.

The Magical Mystery Tour movie was made, but the hoped-for "magical" adventures never happened. During the filming, an ever greater number of cars followed the hand-lettered bus, hoping to see what its passengers were up to, until a running traffic jam developed. The spectacle ended after Lennon angrily tore the lettering off the sides of the bus.

Magical Mystery Tour was the first Beatles film project following the death of manager Brian Epstein in August 1967, and there has been much speculation that the absence of Epstein's judgment contributed to its undisciplined production, as seen, for instance, in the absence of a screenplay and professional direction. The film originally appeared twice on BBC-TV over the 1967 Christmas holidays, but was savaged by critics on its release^[1]; it has, however, been praised by filmmakers like Steven Spielberg.

Film soundtrack

The movie's soundtrack was far more favourably received, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for best album in 1968.^[2] It was released in the UK in December 1967 as a double EP. The American version was released in late November 1967 as an LP; its cover depicts the EP's artwork in an orange border, with a list of song titles above it. Capitol Records released MMT as full-length album because EPs were not as popular in the US as they were in the UK. The Magical Mystery Tour LP was divided into two halves: The first side was the film soundtrack, and the second side was a collection of A- and B-sides released in 1967.

Side one

The first side, identical to the British EP, is a prime example of music from the psychedelic era, opening with the grandly rollicking title track, followed by McCartney's wistful "Fool on the Hill"; "Flying", one of only two commercially released Beatles instrumentals up until that time (the first being the very early, and often forgotten Harrison-Lennon composition "Cry for a Shadow"); "Blue Jay Way", an evocative mood piece by George Harrison; and the nostalgic "Your Mother Should Know."

Rounding out side one, "I Am the Walrus" — full of crashing orchestrations and dubbed vocals — is one of the Beatles' more startling, avant-garde creations. The lyrics, filled with maddening juxtapositions of words and phrases, were Lennon's sardonic response to learning that an English master at his alma mater, Quarry Bank Grammar School, was requiring his students to analyse Beatles songs. Lennon was particularly inspired by 'Alice in Wonderland' during this period and the title comes from 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'.

Side two

The songs on side two were the band's non-album singles from the period. To keep to its release schedule, Capitol Records used a stereo simulator on the monaural master tapes of the last three songs, rather than waiting for the stereo tapes to be sent over from Britain. Even so, the seemingly random choice of songs showed the band at its creative peak.

Side two is anchored by two starkly contrasting, semi-autobiographical songs: Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever" and McCartney's "Penny Lane". Originally released as a double A-side single, Lennon's "Strawberry Fields" was a surreal account of childhood memories, while McCartney's "Penny Lane" was more light-hearted. Both songs were recorded at the beginning of the Sgt. Pepper sessions, but had been left off that album, a decision that producer George Martin later regretted.^[3]

The remaining tracks on side two include McCartney's counter (and A-side) to "I Am the Walrus" — the relentlessly upbeat, "Hello Goodbye", and the Lennon-McCartney collaboration "Baby You're a Rich Man" (the first song recorded specifically for The Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine, which would be released in theatres one year later). The LP concludes with Lennon's jaunty anthem "All You Need Is Love" — the centrepiece of the historic Our World satellite broadcast — which coincided with 1967's Summer of Love and encapsulated the sentiments of the flower power movement.

Release

When standardising The Beatles' releases for compact disc in the late 1980s, the American LP version (which was imported into the UK, peaked on the British album charts at #31 as an American import, and was issued by Parlophone Records in Britain in 1976) was included with the British album lineup instead of the British EP, with true stereo recordings replacing the earlier processed ones. (The true-stereo version of the Magical Mystery Tour LP was first issued in Germany in 1971, but the 1976 Parlophone issue used the Capitol masters with the fake stereo.) Capitol quietly reissued the Magical Mystery Tour LP using the German masters in the US with catalogue number C1-48061 in true stereo. The remaining Beatles non-LP single sides were compiled as Past Masters, Volume One and Past Masters, Volume Two.

Although the British version of the LP released in 1976 used the same fake stereo on the last three songs as the Capitol LP, it did feature “I am the Walrus” with the intro riff repeated the world standard six times rather than the American LP’s four times. The German LP used a different (and generally preferred) mix for “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Possibly because of this, but more likely because it was in true stereo throughout, it was popular as an import with many well informed American and British fans. In fact, the German LP was well on its way to becoming the world standard for this album even before the compact disk releases, being the version used on the British and the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs cassette tapes. It is therefore quite logical and appropriate that when the CD was released it used the German masters, although the artwork and packaging suggested the American LP (or the British near copy of it). It should be noted however that the “German masters” are German only in that they were made for the German LP, not necessarily by anyone in Germany.

Track listing

All songs credited to Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.

LP release

Side one

1. "Magical Mystery Tour" – 2:51
2. *Featuring Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall on percussion, David Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake and John Wilbraham on trumpets.
3. "The Fool on the Hill" – 3:00
4. *Featuring Christoper Taylor, Richard Taylor and Jack Ellory on flute.^[4]
5. "Flying" (Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey) – 2:16
6. "Blue Jay Way" (Harrison) – 3:56
7. "Your Mother Should Know" – 2:29
8. "I Am the Walrus" – 4:36
9. *Featuring Sidney Sax, Jack Rothstein, Ralph Elman, Andrew McGee, Jack Greene, Louis Stevens, John Jezzard and Jack Richards on violins, Lionel Ross, Eldon Fox, Brian Martin and Terry Weil on cellos and Neil Sanders, Tony Tunstall and Morris Miller on horns, Peggie Allen, Wendy Horan, Pat Whitmore, Jill Utting, June Day, Sylvia King, Irene King, G. Mallen, Fred Lucas, Mike Redway, John O'Neill, F. Dachtler, Allan Grant, D. Griffiths, J. Smith and J. Fraser on backing vocals.

Side two

1. "Hello Goodbye" – 3:31
2. *Featuring Ken Essex, Leo Birnbaum on violas.
3. "Strawberry Fields Forever" – 4:10
4. *Featuring Mal Evans on percussion, Tony Fisher, Greg Bowen, Derek Watkins and Stanley Roderick on trumpets and John Hall, Derek Simpson, Norman Jones on cellos.
5. "Penny Lane" – 3:03
6. *Ray Swinfield, P. Goody, Manny Winters and Dennis Walton on flutes, Leon Calvert, Freddy Clayton, Bert Courtley and Duncan Campbell on trumpets, Dick Morgan and Mike Winfield on English horns, Frank Clarke on double bass and David Mason on piccolo trumpet.
7. "Baby You're a Rich Man" – 3:03
8. *Featuring Eddie Kramer on vibraphone.
9. "All You Need Is Love" – 3:48
10. *Featuring George Martin on piano, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Boyd Harrison, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, Graham Nash and wife, Gary Leeds and Hunter Davies on backing vocals, Sidney Sax, Patrick Halling, Eric Bowie and Jack Holmes on violins, Rex Morris and Don Honeywill on sax, David Mason and Stanley Woods on trumpets, Evan Watkins and Henry Spain on horns, Jack Emblow on accordion and Brian Martin on cello.

Double EP release

Side one

1. "Magical Mystery Tour"
2. "Your Mother Should Know"

Side two

1. "I Am the Walrus"

Side three

1. "The Fool on the Hill"
2. "Flying" (Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey)

Side four

1. "Blue Jay Way" (George Harrison)

Release history

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United States	November 27 1967	Capitol Records	mono LP	MAL 2835
			stereo LP	SMAL 2835
United Kingdom	December 8 1967	Parlophone	mono double EP	MMT 1-2
			stereo double EP	SMMT 1-2
New Zealand	1970	World Record Club	LP	SLZ 8308
United Kingdom	November 19 1976	Apple Records, Parlophone	LP	PCTC 255
Worldwide reissue	August 8 1987	Apple, Parlophone, EMI	CD	CDP 7 48062 2
Japan	March 11 1998	Toshiba-EMI	CD	TOCP 51124
Japan	January 21 2004	Toshiba-EMI	Remastered LP	TOJP 60144

References

See also

• Magical Mystery Tour (film)
• ''The Magical Mystery Tour (coach trip)

External links

• Beatles comments on each song
• Recording data and notes on mono/stereo mixes and remixes
• The real Blue Jay Way

•  • [ e] The Beatles
Members	John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr Pete Best Stuart Sutcliffe
Management	Allan Williams Brian Epstein Allen Klein Lee Eastman Neil Aspinall Mal Evans Alistair Taylor Apple Records
Production	George Martin Geoff Emerick Norman Smith Ken Scott Phil Spector Jeff Lynne Abbey Road Studios
Official studio albums	Please Please Me (1963) With The Beatles (1963) A Hard Day's Night (1964) Beatles for Sale (1964) Help! (1965) Rubber Soul (1965) Revolver (1966) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) Magical Mystery Tour (U.S., 1967 / U.K., 1976) The Beatles (The White Album) (1968) Yellow Submarine (1969) Abbey Road (1969) Let It Be (1970)
Official post-breakup albums	Live at the BBC (1994) Anthology 1 (1995) Anthology 2 (1996) Anthology 3 (1996) Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999) Let It Be… Naked (2003)
Official compilations	1962–1966 (1973) 1967–1970 (1973) Past Masters, Volume One (1988) Past Masters, Volume Two (1988) 1 (2000) Love (2006)
Filmography	A Hard Day's Night (1964) Help! (1965) Magical Mystery Tour (1967) Yellow Submarine (1968) Let It Be (1970)
Videography	The Compleat Beatles (1984) The Beatles Anthology (2003) (2003)
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