Magical Mystery Tour
	Produced by Big George Martin
	Released on December 1967
	UK CHART POSITION #2 (double EP) and #31 (LP) . . . UK RE-CHART POSITION #52 (1987) . . . US CHART POSITION #1 . . . GOLD RECORD (12/15/67), 6x PLATINUM (7/25/00)
	Find it at GEMM
SMAL-2835 cover [high resolution photo]

P ure magic, this music. However it’s not an album proper, but rather a string of brilliant singles from 67 pinned to the tail of songs from the Magical Mystery Tour movie. Whatever its origin, the issue is one of inspiration, as these songs represent the pinnacle of The Beatles’ pop achievement. The earliest songs, “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever,” actually pre-date their last album, Sgt. Pepper’s. That pair ushered in the age of four-track recording, which The Beatles and George Martin put to full use on opi like “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I Am The Walrus.” Spoken voices found their way into the mix, tapes were played backwards to create creepy effects, snippets of orchestra snuck into the party at perfect intervals, and the whole thing was like looking at music in color for the first time. The Tour also coincided with John Lennon’s most creative period as a songwriter: “I Am The Walrus,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “All You Need Is Love.” As a counterbalance to Lennon’s counterculture treatises, Paul McCartney plays the outmoded tunesmith on tracks like “Penny Lane” and “Your Mother Should Know” with delightful results. In the middle you’ll find Ringo warbling on the instrumental throwaway “Flying” (which might have otherwise ended up on Paul’s first solo album) and George bringing the whole thing to a screeching halt (again) with the trippy “Blue Jay Way.” As for the movie, I’ve never seen the whole thing. In fact, I didn’t even get the 24-page booklet, this despite the advertisement on the front of the album: “Includes 24-page full color picture book.” Unwrapping the cellophane at home as a child and finding no booklet inside was one of the earliest disappointments I can recall as a collector. Oh well, disappointment soon turned to rapture, and the magic potentialities of music was planted into the head of a young boy, to sprout strange weeds years later.

SMAL-2835 lyric gatefold	SMAL-2835 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR    2:48
2. THE FOOL ON THE HILL    3:00
3. FLYING    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney/George Harrison/Ringo Starr)    2:16
4. BLUE JAY WAY    (George Harrison)    3:50
5. YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW    2:33
6. I AM THE WALRUS    4:35
7. HELLO GOODBYE    3:24
8. STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER    4:05
9. PENNY LANE    2:57
10. BABY YOU'RE A RICH MAN    3:07
11. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE    3:57
    
    All songs written by John Lennon/Paul McCartney unless noted

CREDITS

GEORGE HARRISON --
JOHN LENNON --
PAUL McCARTNEY --
RINGO STARR --

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