Magical Mystery Tour

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Magical Mystery Tour
Image:TheBeatlesMagicalMysteryTouralbumcover.jpg
LP and Double EP by The Beatles
Release	November 27 1967
Recorded	Abbey Road November 1966 - November 1967 (LP, CD) April - November 1967 (EP)
Genre(s)	Rock
Length	36 min 52 s (LP, CD) 19 min 12 s (EP)
Label	Parlophone, Capitol, EMI
Producer	George Martin
Professional reviews
All Music Guide Image:5 out of 5.png link Q Image:4 out of 5.png link
The Beatles chronology
Image:Pepper's.jpg Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)	Image:TheBeatlesMagicalMysteryTouralbumcover.jpg Magical Mystery Tour (1967)	Image:Whitealbum.jpg The Beatles (1968)

Magical Mystery Tour is an album by British rock band The Beatles, first released in late November 1967. The album is the culmination of an extremely creative 18 month period. It was created with the band manager's increasing use of the hallucinagenic drug LSD.

1 History of the project
- 1.1 Track listing (LP, CD)
  - 1.1.1 Side one
  - 1.1.2 Side two
- 1.2 Track listing (double EP)
2 See also
3 Release history
4 External link

History of the project

After Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Paul McCartney wanted to create a film based upon the Beatles and their music. This film was to be unscripted; various "ordinary" people (including John Lennon's uncle Charlie Lennon) 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 it turned out that no interesting adventures actually occurred. (At least, none that would have suited the original concept; during the shoot, more and more cars followed the hand-lettered bus to see what its passengers were up to, until a running traffic jam had developed. The spectacle ended after John Lennon angrily tore the lettering off the sides of the bus.)

The film, appearing twice on BBC-TV over the 1967 Christmas holidays, was a bomb according to critics; however, it is often praised by filmakers like Steven Spielberg. The soundtrack itself was an undisputed masterpiece, released in December 1967 as a double EP in the UK.

The American version was released in late November 1967 as a LP; its cover depicts the original EP in an orange border, with a list of song titles above it. The LP Magical Mystery Tour was divided into two halves; the first side being the actual movie soundtrack, and the second side being a collection of A and B-sides released in 1967.

The first side, identical to the British EP, was a prime example of music from the psychedelic era, with "Flying", one of two Beatles instrumentals (the first being the often forgotten and very early "Cry For a Shadow"); "Blue Jay Way", a George Harrison mood piece; and the title track itself. "I Am the Walrus", at the end of side one and full of crashing orchestras and dubbed vocals, was Lennon's response to learning that an English master at his alma mater Quarry Bank Grammar School was making his class analyze Beatles songs. The song, which appears very deep but in fact means nothing at all, was created to mock the fans who overanalysed the meanings of the Beatles' songs.

The songs on the second side 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 single master tapes, rather than wait for the stereo tapes to be sent from Britain. Even so, the seemingly random choice of songs shows the band at its creative peak. It included two starkly contrasting, semiautobiographical songs, Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever" and McCartney's "Penny Lane". Originally released as a double A-side single, Lennon's "Fields" was a dark and troubled account of a childhood memory, while "Penny Lane" was about the same subject, but light and poppy. Both songs were in fact recorded during the Sgt. Pepper sessions, but had been left off that album, a decision that producer George Martin later regretted.

The remaining tracks on side two include McCartney's counter (and A-side) to "I Am the Walrus" with one of the brightest pop songs ever (despite its lyrical dismay), "Hello Goodbye". John also offers "Baby You're a Rich Man" (actually the first song recorded specifically for the Beatles' animated Yellow Submarine, which would be released to theatres one year later), and the anthem of the Our World program and psychedelia itself, "All You Need Is Love" finishes the LP.

When standardizing the Beatles' releases for compact disc in the late 1980s, the American LP version (which had actually sold better in the UK as an import than the double EP, and was issued by Parlophone Records in Britain during 1977) was included with the British album lineups instead of the British EP. Their remaining non-LP single sides were compiled as Past Masters, Volume One and Past Masters, Volume Two.

Track listing (LP, CD)

All songs written by Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.

Side one

Side two

Track listing (double EP)

Image:MagicalMysteryTourDoubleEPcover.jpg

All songs written by Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.

Side one

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
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