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Magical Mystery Tour

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Magical Mystery Tour is the name of the 11-song album and 6-song double EP by the English rock band The Beatles, first released in late 1967. It is the soundtrack to a one-hour television film that was originally aired, in black and white, in the UK in 1967. Initially released as a double EP in the UK, the recording was expanded to a full album on subsequent U.S. release, adding several recent singles to the B-side. This has since been adopted by Apple and EMI when the Beatles' discography was being put on Compact Disc, and is the only US release of theirs to do so.

While the songs on the EP proved popular, critical and popular response to the television film proved negative. Plans to air it on ABC television in the U.S. were cancelled, and Magical Mystery Tour was first shown in the United States only in a special showing as a fundraiser for the Liberation News Service in 1968. This was held at the Fillmore East in New York City. [citation needed] There was no other showing in the U.S. until 1974, 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 judgement 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 (primarily in black and white), but was savaged by critics on its release[1]; it was, however, noted by Steven Spielberg in film school (according to McCartney in one of the interviews for The Beatles Anthology: "I've read that people like him have sort of said, 'When I was in school that was a film we really took notice of...' like an art film, you know, rather than a proper film.)

Film soundtrack

The movie's soundtrack was far more favourably received, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for best album in 1968.[2] and reached number 1 in the U.S for eight weeks. 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 Magical Mystery Tour 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.

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 line-up 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 six times rather than the American LP’s four times.[citation needed]

Track listing

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

LP release

Side one

  1. "Magical Mystery Tour" – 2:51
    • Featuring Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall on percussion, David Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake and John Wilbraham on trumpets.
  2. "The Fool on the Hill" – 3:00
    • Featuring Christoper Taylor, Richard Taylor and Jack Ellory on flute.[3]
    • John Lennon and George Harrison on harmonicas
    • Paul McCartney on recorder
  3. "Flying" (Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey) – 2:16
  4. "Blue Jay Way" (Harrison) – 3:56
  5. "Your Mother Should Know" – 2:29
  6. "I Am the Walrus" – 4:36
    • 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
    • Featuring Ken Essex, Leo Birnbaum on violas.
  2. "Strawberry Fields Forever" – 4:10
    • 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.
  3. "Penny Lane" – 3:03
    • 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.
  4. "Baby You're a Rich Man" – 3:03
    • Featuring Eddie Kramer on vibraphone.
  5. "All You Need Is Love" – 3:48

Double EP release

Side one

  1. "Magical Mystery Tour" - 2:51
  2. "Your Mother Should Know" - 2:29

Side two

  1. "I Am the Walrus" - 4:36

Side three

  1. "The Fool on the Hill" - 3:00
  2. "Flying" (Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey) - 2:16

Side four

  1. "Blue Jay Way" (Harrison) - 3:56

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

See also

References

  1. ^ Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company. pp. 368–369. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
  2. ^ "The Beatles' Grammy and Academy and Emmy Award Nominations". abbeyrd.best.vwh.net. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
  3. ^ MacDonald, Ian (1994). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 217–218. ISBN 0-8050-2780-7.
Preceded by Billboard 200 number-one album
January 6 - March 1, 1968 		Succeeded by
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