Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour is an LP and a double EP by the English rock group The Beatles, produced by George Martin, both including the six-song soundtrack to the 1967 film of the same name. The record format released in the United Kingdom on 8 December 1967, was a six-track double EP on the Parlophone label, whilst in the United States the record, released 11 days earlier, on 27 November 1967, was an eleven-track LP created by Capitol Records, adding the band's 1967 single releases. The EP was also released in Germany, France, Spain, Yugoslavia, Australia and Japan.^[1]

The US LP was later adopted as the official version of the record when The Beatles' catalogue was updated for the 1980s digital Compact Disc releases. The album was remastered 9 September 2009 for the first time since its CD release. The soundtrack was a critical and commercial success, a #1 album in the US and Grammy-nominated, despite the relative critical and commercial failure of the Magical Mystery Tour film.

History of the project

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 were to travel on a coach and have unspecified "magical" adventures. The Magical Mystery Tour film was made and included six new Beatles songs. The film originally screened on BBC-TV over the 1967 Christmas holidays but was savaged by critics.^[2]

Initial release formats

The number of songs used in the film posed a problem for The Beatles and their UK record company EMI, as there were too few for an LP album but too many for an EP.^[3] One idea considered was to issue an EP which played at 33⅓ rpm but this would have caused a loss of fidelity that was deemed unacceptable. The solution chosen was to issue an innovative format of two EP's packaged in a gatefold sleeve with a 28-page booklet containing the lyrics and colour pictures.^[3] Of the package, Bob Neaverson wrote "While it certainly solved the song quota problem, one suspects that it was also partly born of The Beatles' pioneering desire to experiment with conventional formats and packaging".^[4] The package was released in the UK on 8 December, in time for the Christmas market, at the sub £1 price of 19s 6d^[3] (equivalent to £13 today).

In the US, EPs were not popular at the time so (and against The Beatles' wishes) Capitol Records decided to release the soundtrack as an LP by adding some recent non-album singles.^[3] The first side of the LP was the film soundtrack (like earlier British Beatles soundtrack albums), and the second side was a collection of A-side and B-sides released in 1967, with the songs "Penny Lane", "Baby, You're a Rich Man" and "All You Need Is Love" presented in duophonic, fake "processed" stereo, sound.^[3][5]

"I Am the Walrus" is in true-stereo only part way through, after which the sound becomes fake stereo, on all stereo releases of both packages.

Release history

In 1969 and 1971, the previously unavailable true-stereo mixes were created^[3] that allowed the first true-stereo version of the LP to be issued (in Germany in 1971^[9]).

Due to public demand for the LP in the UK—as an American import, it had peaked on the British album charts at number 31 in January 1968^[10][11]—in 1976, EMI released it in the UK ^[3] but reusing the Capitol masters with the fake-stereo.

When standardising The Beatles' releases for the worldwide Compact Disc release in 1987, the LP version of Magical Mystery Tour (in true-stereo) was included with the otherwise British album line-up. ^[12]

The inclusion of the 1967 singles on CD with this album meant both that the Magical Mystery Tour CD would be of comparable length to the band's other album CDs, and that those three singles would not need to be included on Past Masters, a two-volume compilation designed to accompany the initial CD album releases and provide all non-album tracks (mostly singles) on CD format.^[13]

The album (along with The Beatles' entire UK studio album catalogue) was remastered and reissued on CD in 2009. In homage to the album's conception and first release, the CD incorporates the original Capitol LP label design. The remastered CD features a mini-documentary about the album. Initial copies of the album accidentally list the mini-documentary to be one made for Let It Be.

Reception

The soundtrack was far more favourably received than the film. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for best album in 1968^[17] and reached number 1 in the US for eight weeks. The original review by Rolling Stone consisted of a one-sentence quote from John Lennon: "There are only about 100 people in the world who understand our music."^[18]

Track listing

Album

All songs written and composed by Lennon–McCartney except where noted. 

Double EP

• Side 1: "Magical Mystery Tour", "Your Mother Should Know"
• Side 2: "I Am the Walrus"
• Side 3: "The Fool on the Hill", "Flying"
• Side 4: "Blue Jay Way"

Total length: 19:08

Personnel

• John Lennon – lead, harmony and backing vocals, acoustic, rhythm and lead guitars, acoustic and electric piano, mellotron, harmonica on "The Fool on the Hill"
• Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, piano, mellotron, recorder on "The Fool on the Hill"
• George Harrison – lead and rhythm guitars, lead on "Blue Jay Way", harmony and backing vocals, harmonica on "The Fool on the Hill", Hammond organ on "Blue Jay Way"
• Ringo Starr – drums, percussion, vocals (shared with Lennon, McCartney and Harrison) on "Flying"

Engineers

• Geoff Emerick & Ken Scott

Additional musicians

• "Magical Mystery Tour" – Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall on percussion, David Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake and John Wilbraham on trumpets
• "The Fool on the Hill" – Christoper Taylor, Richard Taylor and Jack Ellory on flute^[19]
• "I Am the Walrus" – 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 Neill 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
• "Hello, Goodbye" – Ken Essex, Leo Birnbaum on violas.
• "Strawberry Fields Forever" – Mal Evans on percussion, Tony Fisher, Greg Bowen, Derek Watkins and Stanley Roderick on trumpets and John Hall, Derek Simpson, Norman Jones on cellos.
• "Penny Lane" – 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
• "Baby, You're a Rich Man" – Eddie Kramer on vibraphone
• "All You Need Is Love" – George Martin on piano, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Boyd Harrison, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, Maureen Starkey, 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

Notes

References

• Davis, Randall (1980). Album notes for Rarities by The Beatles. London: Apple Records.
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. 
• MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3. 
• Marinucci, Steve. "The Beatles' Grammy and Academy and Emmy Award Nominations". AbbeyRd's Beatles Page. http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/grammy.htm. Retrieved 20 November 2007. 
• Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6. 
• Neaverson, Bob. "Magical Mystery Tour Part 1 - Background and Production". The Beatles Movies. http://www.beatlesmovies.co.uk/magical-mystery-tour/background.asp. Retrieved 19 September 2009. 
• Russell, Jeff (1982). The Beatles Album File and Complete Discography. J.P. Russell and Blanford Books Ltd. 
• "Magical Mystery Tour Reference and Price Guide". RareBeatles.com. http://www.rarebeatles.com/photospg/mmtep.htm. Retrieved 5 November 2009. 
• Penman, Ross (2009). The Beatles in New Zealand...a discography. Ross Penman. ISBN 978-0-47-315155-3. 

External links

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