Magical Mystery Tour is a record by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a double EP in the United Kingdom and an LP in the United States. It includes the soundtrack to the 1967 television film of the same title. The EP was issued in the UK on 8 December 1967 on the Parlophone label, while the Capitol Records LP release in the US and Canada occurred on 27 November and features an additional five songs that were originally released as singles that year. In 1976, Parlophone released the eleven-track LP in the UK.
When recording their new songs, the Beatles continued the studio experimentation that had typified Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) and the psychedelic sound they had pursued since Revolver (1966). The project was initiated by Paul McCartney in April 1967, but after the band recorded the song "Magical Mystery Tour", it lay dormant until the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, in late August. Recording then took place alongside filming and editing, and as the Beatles furthered their public association with Transcendental Meditation under teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The sessions have been characterised by some biographers as aimless and unfocused, with the band members overly indulging in sound experimentation and exerting greater control over production. McCartney contributed three of the soundtrack songs, including the widely covered "The Fool on the Hill", while John Lennon and George Harrison contributed "I Am the Walrus" and "Blue Jay Way", respectively. The sessions also produced "Hello, Goodbye", issued as a single accompanying the soundtrack record, and items of incidental music for the film, including "Flying". Further to the Beatles' desire to experiment with record formats and packaging, the EP and LP included a 24-page booklet containing song lyrics, colour photos from film production, and colour story illustrations by cartoonist Bob Gibson.
Despite the mixed reception of the Magical Mystery Tour film, the soundtrack was a critical and commercial success. In the UK, it topped the EPs chart compiled by Record Retailer and peaked at number 2 on the magazine's singles chart (later the UK Singles Chart) behind "Hello, Goodbye". The album topped Billboards Top LPs listings for eight weeks and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1969. With the international standardisation of the Beatles' catalogue in 1987, Magical Mystery Tour became the only Capitol-generated LP to supersede the band's intended format and form part of their core catalogue.
Background
After the Beatles completed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in April 1967, Paul McCartney wanted to create a film that captured a psychedelic theme similar to that represented by author and LSD proponent Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters on the US West Coast. Titled Magical Mystery Tour, it would combine Kesey's idea of a psychedelic bus ride with McCartney's memories of Liverpudlians holidaying on coach tours. The film was to be unscripted: various "ordinary" people were to travel on a coach and have unspecified "magical" adventures. The Beatles began recording music for the soundtrack in late April, but the film idea then lay dormant. Instead, the band continued recording songs for the United Artists animated film Yellow Submarine and, in the case of "All You Need Is Love", for their appearance on the Our World satellite broadcast on 25 June, before travelling over the summer months and focusing on launching their company Apple.
In late August, while the Beatles were attending a Transcendental Meditation seminar held by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Wales, their manager Brian Epstein died of a prescription drug overdose. During a band meeting on 1 September, McCartney suggested they proceed with Magical Mystery Tour, which Epstein had given his approval to earlier in the year. McCartney was keen to ensure the group had a point of focus after the loss of their manager. His view was at odds with his bandmates' wishes, with George Harrison especially eager to pursue their introduction to meditation. According to publicist Tony Barrow, McCartney envisaged Magical Mystery Tour as "open[ing] doors for him" personally and as a new career phase for the band in which he would be the "executive producer" of their films. John Lennon later complained that the project was typical of McCartney's "tendency" to want to work as soon as he had songs ready to record, yet he himself was unprepared and had to set about writing new material.
Recording and production
Recording history
The Beatles first recorded the film's title song, with sessions taking place at EMI Studios in London between 25 April and 3 May. An instrumental jam was recorded on 9 May for possible inclusion in the film, although it was never completed. According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, the Magical Mystery Tour sessions "began in earnest" on 5 September; filming started on 11 September, and the two activities became increasingly "intertwined" during October. Most of the 16 September session was dedicated to taping a basic track for McCartney's "Your Mother Should Know", only for McCartney to then decide to return to the version he had previously discarded, from 22 to 23 August. The latter sessions marked the Beatles' first in close to two months and took place at a facility new to the band – Chappell Recording Studios in central London – since they were unable to book EMI at short notice.
Many Beatles biographers characterise the group's post-Sgt. Pepper recording sessions of 1967 as aimless and undisciplined. The Beatles' use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD was at its height during that summer and, in author Ian MacDonald's view, this resulted in a lack of judgment in their recordings as the band embraced randomness and sonic experimentation. The composition marked a rare example of the Lydian mode being used in pop music and, in Reck's view, incorporates scalar elements from the Carnatic raga Ranjani.
Singles
Because EPs were not popular in the US at the time, Capitol Records released the soundtrack as an LP by adding tracks from that year's non-album singles. The first side contained the film soundtrack songs, although in a different order from the EP. Side two contained both sides of the band's two singles released up to this point in 1967, along with "Hello, Goodbye", which was issued as a single backed by "I Am the Walrus". Three of the previously released tracks – "Penny Lane", "Baby, You're a Rich Man" and "All You Need Is Love" – were presented in duophonic (or "processed") stereo sound on Capitol's stereo version of the LP. The previously released single "Strawberry Fields Forever" got a new mix for the LP, with a greater stereo separation.
The Beatles were displeased about this reconfiguration, since they believed that tracks released on a single should not then appear on a new album. Lennon referred to the LP at a May 1968 press conference to promote Apple Corps in the US, saying: "It's not an album, you see. It turned into an album over here, but it was just [meant to be] the music from the film."
Artwork and packaging
thumb|The booklet's still from the scene for "Your Mother Should Know". McCartney's black carnation served as a clue for proponents of the "[[Paul is dead" conspiracy theory.]]
As part of the unusual format, the Beatles decided to package the two EPs in a gatefold sleeve with a 24-page booklet. The record's cover featured a photo of the Beatles in animal costumes, taken during the shoot for "I Am the Walrus", and marked the first time that the band members' faces were not visible on one of their EP or LP releases. The booklet contained song lyrics, photographer John Kelly's colour stills from the filming, and colour story illustrations in the comic strip style by Beatles Book cartoonist Bob Gibson. It was compiled by Barrow, with input from McCartney. Of the double-EP package, film studies academic Bob Neaverson later commented: "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." In line with the band's wishes, the packaging reinforced the idea that the release was a film soundtrack rather than a follow-up to Sgt. Pepper, which was still receiving critical plaudits and enjoying commercial success in late 1967.
When preparing the US release, Capitol enlarged the photos and illustrations to LP size inside a gatefold album sleeve. The cover design was done by John Van Hamersveld, the head of Capitol's art department, working from the artwork sent from EMI in London. He recalled that Capitol's vice-president of distribution was concerned about how to market a record where the Beatles' faces were hidden behind their costumes, since cover portraits had been key to the success of the group's US LPs. Van Hamersveld therefore augmented the "underground graphic" cover image with a design concept that highlighted the songs.
In Gould's description, the LP cover "had the garish symmetry of a movie poster" through the combination of the Beatles' animal costumes, the "rainbow" film logo, and the song titles rendered in art-deco lettering "amid a border of op-art clouds". The artwork was later cited by proponents of the Paul is dead theory as evidence of McCartney's alleged demise in November 1966. Clues included the appearance of a black walrus (Lennon in costume) on the front cover, which was thought to signify death in some areas of Scandinavia; McCartney wearing a black carnation in an image from the "Your Mother Should Know" film sequence; and, on another page from the booklet, McCartney seated behind a sign reading "I WaS".
Release
In advance of the EP's release, Lennon promoted the soundtrack in an interview on the BBC Radio 1 show Where It's At. Lennon discussed the studio effects used on the new songs, including "I Am the Walrus", which received its only contemporary airing on BBC radio when disc jockey Kenny Everett played it as part of the interview broadcast on 25 November 1967. According to author John Winn, because the lyrics included the word "knickers", the song "remained unofficially prohibited from BBC playlists for the time being". "I Am the Walrus" was also banned from American airwaves.
Magical Mystery Tour was issued in the UK on 8 December, the day after the opening of their Apple Boutique in central London, and just over two weeks before the film was broadcast by BBC Television. It retailed at the sub-£1 price of 19s 6d (equivalent to £ today). It was their thirteenth British EP and only their second, after 1964's Long Tall Sally, to consist of entirely new recordings. With the broadcast rights for North America assigned to NBC, the Capitol album was scheduled for a mid-December release. The company instead issued the album on 27 November. In Britain only, the film was then screened on Boxing Day to an audience estimated at 15 million. It was savaged by reviewers, giving the Beatles their first public and critical failure. As a result, the American broadcaster withdrew its bid for the local rights, and the film was not shown there at the time.
In its first three weeks on sale in the US, Magical Mystery Tour set a record for the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP. It was number 1 on Billboards Top LPs listings for eight weeks at the start of 1968 and remained in the top 200 until 8 February 1969. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1969.
In Britain, the EP peaked at number 2 on the national singles chart, behind "Hello, Goodbye", and became the Beatles' ninth release to top the national EPs chart compiled by Record Retailer. In the UK singles listings compiled by Melody Maker magazine, it replaced "Hello, Goodbye" at number 1 for a week. The EP sold over 500,000 copies there. Walter Everett highlights its UK chart performance as a significant achievement, given that the EP's retail price far exceeded that of the singles with which it was competing at the time. As an American import, the Capitol album release peaked on the Record Retailer LPs chart at number 31 in January 1968. In the US, the album sold 1,936,063 copies by 31 December 1967 and 2,373,987 copies by the end of the decade.
According to music historian Clinton Heylin, the release of Magical Mystery Tour and of the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request, which was the Stones' answer to Sgt. Pepper, inadvertently brought an end to psychedelic pop. Music journalist John Harris cites the critical maligning of the film as the excuse the British authorities were looking for to begin targeting the Beatles, despite the band's status as MBE holders, for their wayward influence on youth. Within the Beatles, McCartney's role as the group's de facto leader, a role he had assumed with Lennon's withdrawal before Sgt. Pepper, was destabilised as individual creative agendas were increasingly pursued over 1968.
In 1968, jazz musician Bud Shank released the album Magical Mystery, which included five of the EP's tracks and "Hello, Goodbye". "The Fool on the Hill" was highly popular among other artists, particularly cabaret performers, and became one of the most covered Lennon–McCartney compositions.
Critical reception
Contemporary reviews
Reviewing the EP a month before the film's screening, Nick Logan of the NME enthused that the Beatles were "at it again, stretching pop music to its limits". He continued: "The four musician-magicians take us by the hand and lead us happily tripping through the clouds, past Lucy in the sky with diamonds and the fool on the hill, into the sun-speckled glades along Blue Jay Way and into the world of Alice in Wonderland ... This is The Beatles out there in front and the rest of us in their wake." Bob Dawbarn of Melody Maker described the EP as "six tracks which no other pop group in the world could begin to approach for originality combined with the popular touch". In Record Mirror, Norman Jopling wrote that, whereas on Sgt. Pepper "the effects were chiefly sound and only the album cover was visual", on Magical Mystery Tour "the visual side ... has dominated the music", such that "Everything from fantasy, children's comics, acid (psychedelic) humour is included on the record and in the booklet."
Among reviews of the American LP, Mike Jahn of Saturday Review hailed Magical Mystery Tour as the Beatles' best work yet, superior to Sgt. Pepper in emotion and depth, and "distinguished by its description of the Beatles' acquired Hindu philosophy and its subsequent application to everyday life". Hit Parader said that "the beautiful Beatles do it again, widening the gap between them and 80 scillion other groups." Remarking on how the Beatles and their producer "present a supreme example of team work", the reviewer compared the album with Their Satanic Majesties Request and opined that "I Am the Walrus" and "Blue Jay Way" alone "accomplish what the Stones attempted". Rolling Stone was launched in October 1967 with a cover photo of Lennon from How I Won the War; in its fourth issue, the magazine's review of Magical Mystery Tour consisted of a single-sentence quote from him: "There are only about 100 people in the world who understand our music."
Having been one of the few critics to review Sgt. Pepper unfavourably, Richard Goldstein of The New York Times rued that the new songs furthered the gap between true rock values and studio effects, and that the band's "fascination with motif" was equally reflected in the elaborate packaging. Goldstein concluded: "Does it sound like heresy to say that the Beatles write material which is literate, courageous, genuine, but spotty? It shouldn't. They are inspired posers, but we must keep our heads on their music, not their incarnations." Rex Reed of HiFi/Stereo Review wrote a scathing critique in which he derided the group's "farcical, stagnant, helpless bellowing" and "confused musical ideas". Reed said that exchanging drugs for meditation as their subject matter had left the Beatles "totally divorced from reality", and he especially ridiculed "I Am the Walrus" on an LP he deemed a "platter of phony, pretentious, overcooked tripe". In his May 1968 column in Esquire, Robert Christgau considered three of the new songs to be "disappointing", among which "The Fool on the Hill" "may be the worst song the Beatles have ever recorded". Christgau still found it a valid album, "for all the singles, which are good music, after all; for the tender camp of 'Your Mother Should Know'; and especially for Harrison's hypnotic 'Blue Jay Way,' an adaptation of Oriental modes in which everything works, lyrics included".
Retrospective assessments
In his review for Blender, Paul Du Noyer writes: "They lost the plot with their dopey TV film, but 1967 was still their zenith as songwriters. For once, the U.S. release went better than the British original ... The result was simply the best set of Beatles tunes so far on a single disc." In 2000, it was voted 334th in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In his book The Ambient Century, Mark Prendergast describes it as "the most psychedelic album The Beatles ever released" and, along with Revolver, an "essential purchase". He ranks the album at number 27 in his list of "Twentieth-century Ambience – the Essential 100 Recordings". In 2007, the album was included in Robert Christgau and David Fricke's "40 Essential Albums of 1967" for Rolling Stone. Christgau wrote in an accompanying essay: "Because it begins with the lame theme to their worst movie and the sappy 'Fool on the Hill,' few realize that this serves up three worthy obscurities forthwith – bet Beck knows the sour-and-sweet instrumental 'Flying' by heart. Then it A/Bs three fabulous singles."
Release history
In 1968 and 1971, true-stereo mixes were created for "Penny Lane", "Baby, You're a Rich Man" and "All You Need Is Love", which allowed the first true-stereo version of the Magical Mystery Tour LP to be issued in West Germany in 1971. In the face of continued public demand for the imported Capitol album, EMI officially released the Magical Mystery Tour LP in the UK in November 1976, although it used the Capitol fake-stereo masters of the same three singles tracks. In 1981, the soundtrack EP was reissued in both mono and stereo as part of Parlophone's 15-disc box set The Beatles EP Collection.
When standardising the Beatles' releases for the worldwide compact disc release in 1987, EMI issued Magical Mystery Tour as a full-length album in true stereo. It was the only example of an American reconfigured release being favoured over the EMI version. The inclusion of the 1967 singles on CD with this album meant that the Magical Mystery Tour CD would be of comparable length to the band's CDs of its original albums, and that the additional five tracks originally featured on the American LP 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.
The 2012 remastered Magical Mystery Tour DVD entered the Billboard Top Music Video chart at number 1. The CD album climbed to number 1 on the Billboard Catalog Albums chart, number 2 on the Billboard Soundtrack albums chart, and re-entered at number 57 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the week ending 27 October 2012.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Lennon–McCartney, except "Blue Jay Way" by George Harrison, and "Flying" by Harrison–Lennon–McCartney–Starkey.
Double EP
LP
Personnel
According to Mark Lewisohn and Ian MacDonald, except where noted:
The Beatles
- John Lennon – lead, harmony and backing vocals; wordless vocals on "Flying"; rhythm and acoustic guitars; piano, Mellotron, Hammond organ, electric piano, clavioline, harpsichord; bass harmonica, Jew's harp, banjo, percussion
- Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and backing vocals; wordless vocals on "Flying"; bass, acoustic and lead guitars; piano, Mellotron, harmonium; recorder, penny whistle, percussion
- George Harrison – harmony and backing vocals; lead vocals on "Blue Jay Way"; wordless vocals on "Flying"; lead, rhythm, acoustic and slide guitars; Hammond organ, bass harmonica, swarmandal, violin, percussion
- Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; backing vocals on "Hello, Goodbye"; wordless vocals on "Flying"
Additional musicians and production
- "Magical Mystery Tour" – Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall on percussion; David Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake and John Wilbraham on trumpets (trumpet arrangement by Elgar Howarth)
- "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; Neill Sanders, Tony Tunstall and Morris Miller on horns; Mike Sammes Singers (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
- "The Fool on the Hill" – Christoper Taylor, Richard Taylor and Jack Ellory on flute
- "Blue Jay Way" – unidentified session musician on cello
- "Hello, Goodbye" – Ken Essex and Leo Birnbaum on violas
- "Strawberry Fields Forever" – Mal Evans on percussion; Tony Fisher, Greg Bowen, Derek Watkins and Stanley Roderick on trumpets; John Hall, Derek Simpson, Peter Halling and Norman Jones on cellos
- "Penny Lane" – George Martin on piano; 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; 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 McGear, Graham Nash, Gary Leeds, Hunter Davies and others on backing vocals; Sidney Sax, Patrick Halling, Eric Bowie and John Ronayne on violins; Lionel Ross and Jack Holmes on cellos; Rex Morris and Don Honeywill on tenor saxophones; David Mason and Stanley Woods on trumpets and flugelhorn; Evan Watkins and Henry Spain on trombones; Jack Emblow on accordion
- Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott – audio engineering
Charts
Original release
EP
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!Chart (1967–70)
!Position
|-
|align="left"|Australian Go-Set National Top 40
|3
|-
|align="left"|Dutch MegaChart Singles
|2
|-
|align="left"|Irish Singles Chart
|17
|-
|align="left"|New Zealand NZ Listener Chart
| style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|align="left"|Norwegian VG-lista Singles
|5
|-
|align="left"|Swedish Kvällstoppen Chart
|3
|-
|align="left"|Swiss Hitparade
|align="center"|6
|-
|align="left"|Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)
|align="center"|17
|-
|align="left"|UK Melody Maker Singles Chart
|1
|-
|align="left"|UK Record Retailer EPs Chart
|1
|-
|align="left"|UK Record Retailer Singles Chart
|2
|-
|align="left"|West German Musikmarkt LP Hit-Parade
|8
|}
2009 remaster
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!Chart
!Position
|-
|align="left"|Austrian Ö3 Top 40 Longplay (Albums)
|59
|-
|align="left"|Belgian Ultratop 200 Albums (Flanders)
|43
|-
|align="left"|Belgian Ultratop 200 Albums (Walloonia)
|61
|-
|align="left"|Dutch MegaChart Albums
|89
|-
|align="left"|Finnish Official Albums Chart
|37
|-
|align="left"|Italian FIMI Albums Chart
|44
|-
|align="left"|Japanese Oricon Albums Chart
|34
|-
|align="left"|New Zealand RIANZ Albums
|37
|-
|align="left"|Portuguese AFP Top 50 Albums
|24
|-
|align="left"|Spanish PROMUSICAE Top 100 Albums
|86
|-
|align="left"|Swedish Sverigetopplistan Albums Top 60
|29
|-
|align="left"|Swiss Hitparade Albums Top 100
|64
|-
|align="left"|UK Albums Chart
|33
|}
Album
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!Chart
!Position
|-
|align="left"|New Zealand Albums Chart <small>(1975)</small>
|12
|-
|align="left"|Norwegian VG-lista Albums
|13
|-
|align="left"|UK Albums Chart <small>(1987 CD)</small>
|1
|-
|align="left"|US Cash Box Top 100 Albums
|1
|}
Certifications
See also
- Outline of the Beatles
- The Beatles timeline
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
- No page numbers appear.
- (Text also available, in three parts, at beatlesmovies.co.uk.)
External links
- Beatles comments on each song
- Recording data and notes on mono/stereo mixes and remixes
- The real Blue Jay Way