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 EP), 27 November 1967 (US LP)
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
Peter Willison, 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 suddenly 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
Absolutely underrated in so many ways.
Problem is… it’s not really an album. Just a collection of songs already recorded
But isn’t that what the definition of an album is? A collection of songs already recorded?
Kind of hard to make an album if none of the songs have been recorded already.
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.)
Yep, I agree that Capitol finally did the Beatles right by adding all those wonderful 1967 singles. For once they didn’t butcher the EP, (like all the previous LP’s) they just added to it. But I also really love the EP for what it is. Never saw it growing up in Canada until I finally got my own UK EP import.
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 agree with you about MMT being a supreme beatles album , but i dont agree about blue jay way … when you consider how hari wrote it , he was took out to a friends house in (america i think) by whoever and the friend was not at home so george waited at the house entrance while (whoever) went to look for the friend or a phone …. it was getting towards dusk a little dark and george being on his own in the unfamiliar surroundings of a foreign country got a little scared and the lane/road was called Blue Jay Way and the song was born…. you might say written with the help of fear !!!
Blue Jay Way was not meant to be a Top 40 hit. It was first & foremost a vehicle to tell us the story of Paul’s death, and its video was likewise a vehicle to show you quick flashes of his corpse, his damaged face after the accident, and even his displaced jawbone flying around. These grisly images are presented against a busy background of people dancing & darting across the scene, so you must freeze frames to see them. But they are all there to tell the story as The Beatles intended.
Nonsense.
Pure bullocks. George told the story many times as to what this song is about. You simply haven’t a clue I’m afraid.
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.
Yeah, it’s UNCANNY (and terribly stupid on their part) that less than ONE MONTH AND A HALF after releasing the White Album, these crazy workaholics should convene again for the drudgery of more recording AND filming. Even without the alleged “tensions” attending the recording of The Beatles, any four human beings should have been exhausted after such strenuous work. Why not wait at least until spring/early summer to resume work, have a good rest of writing/rehearsing/recording (and putting up with each other!), and then “get back” with renewed energy? I’m sure The Beatles wouldn’t have split up if they had respected themselves a little bit more. They seemed to have gotten caught up into a masochistic groove: what sense does it make to play LIVE in the middle of the winter on a windswept rooftop in London!!!? That, despite all the odds, that performance should have been SO good is yet another proof of how great The Beatles were, but they simply seem to have stretched human nature too far…. What a waste!
The band had a very work a day attitude to what they did. Essentially they saw being recording artists the same way as being a Teacher,Nurse,Engineer, Postman or any other job. You went to work everyday and had some days off for weekends or holidays. Paul particularly had this attitude. Although their hours of work were unusual they were more like shift workers working a backshift.
The Beatles got it right. They split up while they were a YOUNG band & will always be remembered as such……Unlike the rolling stones.
It is very simple why they did so much work in November 1966 to August 1969 in the studio. They were not touring and could spend the time recording as much material as they could release.
I live in the US and close to 40 years ago read that the White Album was meant as a follow-up to Sgt. Pepper’s, with the stark cover and relative simplicity of the songs countering the extravagance and complexity of Pepper.
well, bear in mind that side 2 was mostly songs that had gotten lots of radio play during the year before, so even in the U.S. it was clear to me, as an 11 year old, that it included a lot of re-packaged material. Compared to my experience of the White Album which was like getting this amazing toy chest, every single song was unfamiliar, the whole thing had a vibe, and what a treat to discover them all from scratch. And there was an obvious difference between the fun but ultimately kind of commercial comic book in MMT and the much more interesting packaging of the White Album and Sgt Pepper. Kind of the same thing with Let It Be…when I got THAT for Christmas it was exciting to have a new bit of Beatles product and i gleaned pleasure from various tracks. But every single thing about it signaled that it wasn’t a major work in the canon. Starting with the banal packaging.
This album has its similarities to the white album not pepper think about it The Fool On The Hill and Mother Natures Son or Flying and Wild Honey Pie, Strawberry Fields Forever and Glass Onion, Baby Your A Rich Man and Happiness Is A Warm Gun!!
strawberry fields forever was originally wrote for pepper penny lane also but the big wigs moneymen who all but owned the Beatles were impatient pepper took so long to make that they demanded a release so EMI released SFF/PL so it does have similarities to pepper. the information can be found in the “complete abbey road recordings” which was put out by EMI/HAMLIN.
I saw ‘MMT’, the color version, in a small ‘art’ theatre in my city in early 1968…I was quite intrigued as it had a dreamlike and slightly ‘down’ air about it, quite different from ‘HDN’ & ‘Help’.
I can only imagine what the UK Boxing Day audience who saw the black & white version thought.
Very ‘surrealistic’ and way ahead of later MTV rubbish.
MMT was not distributed in North America until late 1968-early 1969 in small theatres with Eric Anderson doing a short concert as well as introducing the movie.
The MMT movie best moment is definettly Jonh serving sppaghetti to the big lady! That’s so genius!. I like the album very very much! Except for “Hello Goodbye”(I hate it, but fits the purposes of the movie/album I guess), all the songs are great and fit within The Beatles best work!
Outstanding album; really better than other higher-profile albums like SPLHCB.
This has to be said: MMT is NOT a Beatles album. It is an American COMPILATION of Beatles music. Nothing to do with them apart from that.
Since its entry to the “official canon” the attitude seems to have grown that it should be considered as if one of the UK albums that they put so much thought and effort into. Comparing it to those albums is just wrong.
I love the album. It is one the great COMPILATION albums – but to see how the group wanted the music on it presented at the time, look to the UK double-ep (which is a fantastic package) and the relevant singles.
However much I love it as an album, one of my big disappointments is that it made the original CD reissue series in the ’80s. That gave the impression there were 13 albums instead of 12.
What would Mark have done? I would have had “Past Masters” live up to its job description – to collect ALL recordings not featured on the 12 albums they recorded and released as they envisioned them. You could then have a “Past Masters” that made sense, instead of having a big 1967-shaped hole at its centre.
And if anyone’s wondering, it would easily fit. “Past Masters” is about 94 minutes, MMT 36, giving a “Past Masters” that would be around 130 minutes. Volume/Disc 1: 1962-66, Volume/Disc 2: 1967-70 (think I’ve heard that split somewhere before).
A later release of MMT could have been done later, as has happened with other Capitol albums.
Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t dislike the album or anything, I just dislike it’s elevated status alongside the 12 albums they did record.
I dread the day when I come across a comment telling me that The Beatles never recorded a better album than “1”!
It’s a nice idea. However, having MMT incorporated into Past Masters may have meant we didn’t get the MMT artwork – the booklet is really worth having. Personally I’m glad they kept it as a standalone release, but it’s all personal preference. I do think there’s quite a big hole in PM because MMT hoovered up all the amazing 1967 singles.
True it’s technically not a Beatles album although I believe Parlophone did decide to start pressing copies of it in the U.K. at some point like it was a Beatles album. It’s a great companion album to Sgt. Pepper since those two albums basically give you 99% of their 67 output.
I totally agree, it was an EP and should have gone down in history as an EP. When they released the new 2014 mono LP set, they should included the EP and put the remaining singles Past Masters.
No I think they got it right releasing it as an album when it came time to standardise the albums throughout the world as there was packaging especially for it, and for once Capitol got it right in putting all the 1967 singles on the second side, It would have left Past/Mono Masters as lop sided from 1965 onwards with the 11 songs that are on the album.
However i do agree that they could release Magical Mystery Tour as a stand alone Double EP in both stereo and mono, and maybe release it as a twelve inch singles as well in stereo and mono. So you could have four options in which to buy it.
Another detail to clarify who wore which animal suit…look for the wristwatch.
I got this album in June 1980. It is great that the songs on the British EP and the1967 singles and Bsides could be included on one album. It compliments Sgt Pepper in that regard. I Am The Walrus is one of my favorite songs of all time and a great example of John Lennons offbeat genius. And for that matter The Fool On The Hill is one of McCartneys finest. And then you have other masterpieces like All You Need Is Love, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever on side two. Thats not to forget Baby Youre A Rich Man.
Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane belong on Sgt Pepper, but as usual EMI couldn’t wait and needed a single before Pepper was finished. and the Beatles didn’t put their singles on albums to that point.The iconic album would have been truly awesome with.their best two songs of 1967
Agreed, what I have done is make my own albums, So Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane are on my version of Pepper, likewise I added Rain to Revolver and removed Yellow Submarine.
Havent seen the mmt movie, but excluding hello goodbye, & blue jay way its great back to back
I have the original 1967 MMT EMI in mint condition, can some one tell me the value of this record?
Thanks!
Check around a little bit but I have seen a quote of up to $750 on moneymusic.com
If we allow that MMT is indeed a Beatles album, then it clearly is in their very top-most in the canon. It has at least 5 of what would be considered universally accepted of the top 25 Beatles songs of all time. SFF, AYNIL, IATW, PL, and FOTH
The first Beatle album I ever owned at the age of 13 and for that it will also have a nostalgic place in my heart.
It is fabulous.
Just brilliant.
Frankly, it should be seen for what it is, very serious music.
Because “Strawberry Fields Forever” is so good, I really think that this is the best album of all, well, I suppose, along with “Sgt. Pepper”.
“I Am the Walrus” and “Fool on the Hill’ are so good that I find myself playing this more than any other of their albums. Yes, I prefer the old vinyl one though I also have the CD and I believe the EP somewhere as well.
If it is serious music you want, and not necessarily pop entertainment, then this one really stands out.
Forget about the costumes, the movie, the inside information, and just focus on the 11 songs.
I have no problem with any of the songs that people who have commented on dislike. It’s all great.
The album version stated here to not be released was everywhere in the U. K., yes, everywhere as soon as 1968 and all through the 70’s. Import? That’s silly, since it’s their album. The cover maybe, perhaps, but certainly not the music. It’s a bit like saying an American printing of a Shakespeare play is American when the play isn’t.
As for the reason I find this to be their best, well it certainly has nothing to do with the film. I’ve never seen it and that’s all right.
It’s all about the brilliant music herein.
Cheers!
Yeah but my question is, where are the costumes and masks today? Were they donated or does the current Beatle members have it?
A lot of you guys doesn’t have a clue about MMT.
The US album was fully supported by The Beatles. Before 1967 they couldn’t do anything about Capitol’s releases, but by renewing their contract with EMI, one of their demands was that they could control releases overseas. If the Beatles had put their foot down before Capitol, the US album would not have happend. They did not.
The whole movie was a rent party. The bus, the sets, actors, costumes; all rented.Only the music was bought and paid for…by the fans. And we (Americans) didn’t even get to see the movie.
Nigel – the movie did play here in the states but probably in sporadic and random theaters. I saw it somewhere in Connecticut in the 70’s.
I was totally nuts about “I Am The Walrus” when it came out and it’s still a favorite. But beyond that I feel that the other songs from the movie (Side “A” of the US album) are collectively about the weakest material the Beatles ever put out. It feels to me as though they wanted to keep the innovation and magic of Sergeant Pepper going but were just trying too hard. Also I wonder if Brian Epstein’s death and resulting lack of “grown up” direction didn’t contribute to the muddle.
Instead of “Magical Mystery Tour” I refer to this album as “Whoa! Way Too Much Acid!”.
Did anyone know that in magical mystery tour Paul is wherein a flashers coat during the song fool on the hill and you can actually see for a fleeting moment his junk.
This was thought to be as one could not tell due to the quality of the VHS tapes .Now its on Blu ray and DVDone can tell that this information is wrong.