Recorded: November 1966-November 1967
Producers: George Martin, Dave Harries
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Dave Harries, Malcolm Addey, Keith Grant, Eddie Kramer, John Timperley, Peter Vince, Ken Scott
Released: 8 December 1967 (UK), 27 November 1967 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, organ, Mellotron, electric piano, clavioline, harpsichord, banjo, harmonica, Jew's harp, bongos, congas, percussion, handclaps
Paul McCartney: vocals, piano, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, double bass, Mellotron, recorder, harmonium, bongos, conga, timpani, tambourine, percussion
George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ, harmonica, svarmandal, violin, timpani, maracas, percussion, handclaps
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, maracas, finger cymbals, tambourine, handbell, percussion
George Martin: piano
Mal Evans: tambourine, percussion
Neil Aspinall: guiro, percussion
Terry Doran: maracas
Eddie Kramer: vibraphone
Sidney Sax, Jack Rothstein, Ralph Elman, Andrew McGee, Jack Greene, Louis Stevens, John Jezzard, Jack Richards, Patrick Halling, Eric Bowie, John Ronayne: violins
Kenneth Essex, Leo Birnbaum: violas
Lionel Ross, Eldon Fox, Bram Martin, Terry Weil, John Hall, Derek Simpson, Norman Jones, Jack Holmes: cellos
Frank Clarke: double bass
David Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake, John Wilbraham, Tony Fisher, Greg Bowen, Derek Watkins, Stanley Roderick, Leon Calvert, Freddy Clayton, Bert Courtley, Duncan Campbell, Stanley Woods: trumpets, flugelhorn
Rex Morris, Don Honeywill: tenor saxophone
Evan Watkins, Harry Spain: trombone
Neil Sanders, Tony Tunstall, Morris Miller: horns
Gordon Lewin: clarinet
Dick Morgan, Mike Winfield: oboes, cor anglais
Christopher Taylor, Richard Taylor, Jack Ellory, Ray Swinfield, P Goody, Manny Winters, Dennis Walton: flutes, piccolos
Jack Emblow: accordion
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, Pattie Harrison, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, Keith Moon, Hunter Davies, Gary Leeds, 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, J Fraser: backing vocals
Tracklisting:
Magical Mystery Tour
The Fool On The Hill
Flying
Blue Jay Way
Your Mother Should Know
I Am The Walrus
Hello, Goodbye
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Baby You're A Rich Man
All You Need Is Love
Released as a six-song double EP in the United Kingdom and an 11-song album in the US and elsewhere, Magical Mystery Tour was the soundtrack to the television film of the same name, which was first broadcast by the BBC on 26 December 1967.
In the wake of the death of Brian Epstein on 27 August 1967, The Beatles found themselves suddently without direction. Whereas since 1962 they had been carefully guided by their manager, at the peak of their career they were unused to making their own business decisions or having absolute autonomy over their future.
On 1 September 1967, five days after Epstein's body was discovered in his London home, The Beatles met at Paul McCartney's house at 7 Cavendish Avenue, St John's Wood. The previous day an announcement had been issued stating that they would continue to be managed by NEMS Enterprises - now under the guidance of Epstein's brother Clive - until further notice.
During the 1 September meeting The Beatles agreed to continue with Magical Mystery Tour, a project begun in April shortly after the completion of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Crucially, this was a time when Paul McCartney began steering many of the group's decisions, encouraging them to continue during a period in which they might easily have collapsed amid a lack of direction.
I was still under a false impression. I still felt every now and then that Brian would come in and say, 'It's time to record,' or, 'Time to do this.' And Paul started doing that: 'Now we're going to make a movie. Now we're going to make a record.' And he assumed that if he didn't call us, nobody would ever make a record. Paul would say, well, now he felt like it - and suddenly I'd have to whip out twenty songs. He'd come in with about twenty good songs and say, 'We're recording.' And I suddenly had to write a fucking stack of songs.
Anthology
McCartney's concept for Magical Mystery Tour was to produce a television special about a group of ordinary people taking a mystery trip on a coach. The film would take in various locations in England and France, and would be mostly improvised and take advantage of the encounters they had on the road.
Magical Mystery Tour was Paul's idea. It was a good way to work. Paul had a great piece of paper - just a blank piece of white paper with a circle on it. The plan was: 'We start here - and we've got to do something here...' We filled it in as we went along.We rented a bus and off we went. There was some planning: John would always want a midget or two around, and we had to get an aircraft hangar to put the set in. We'd do the music, of course. They were the finest videos, and it was a lot of fun. To get the actors we looked through the actors' directory, Spotlight: 'Oh, we need someone like this, and someone like that.' We needed a large lady to play my auntie. So we found a large lady.
Anthology
Related articles:
- US LP release: Magical Mystery Tour
- Recording, mixing, editing: Blue Jay Way, Flying, Magical Mystery Tour
- US single release: Hello, Goodbye
- Filming: Magical Mystery Tour
- UK EP release: Magical Mystery Tour
Absolutely underrated in so many ways.
best beatle album
a collection of hits
Such a master piece, along with revolver, rubber soul, sgt pepper, and white album
and help.
and a hard days night
and well all beatle music.
The only Capitol release that improved upon a British release. (Or even equalled it, for that matter, since the UK "Pepper" was ever-so slightly better than the US version, which excluded the inner-groove gibberish and for-dogs-only tone.)
How can you not love MMT? It gives me a warm, magical, mysterious feeling just thinking about it. The only downer is Blue Jay Way which is tough to get all the way through. They should have put "It's All Too Much" on this instead of Yellow Submarine. Then it would be spotless!
Yellow Submarine isn't on Magical Mystery Tour. Did you mean Blue Jay Way?
I think he means they shoud have put the song It's All Too Much on the album MMT istead of the album Yellow Submarine.
I love all the Beatle albums, but between this one and Beatles for sale, they are my least favorite.I find it suprising that John Lennon said it was his favorite.I heard that in the Anthology DVD and I assumed it was from an interview at the time of MMT's release but on here it says from a Rolling Stone 1974 interview.I am the Walrus is definetly one of Lennons best works, but the album as a whole just doesnt stand up there for me.It's still a great record, just not one of their better ones in my opinion.
In the states, MMT was a Christmas release, 6 months after Sgt. P. It was seen as the next Beatles album, when in fact it was an extension of Sgt. P. That the White Album was in fact the next Beatles album has been lost on the American public's consciousness.
One has to wonder what might have happened if they didn't feel the need or succumb to the pressure to churn out album after album in the wake of Brian's death. The massive White Album, then 5 months later convening for Get BAck/Let It Be... then Abbey Road right after. Bands today could never maintain the pace of recording/movies/business pressures as did the Beatles. Perhaps, if... they might have... oh well. There are a lot of "perhaps' " in the history of the Beatles.