BeatlesTube

1. Magical Mystery Tour (Lennon/McCartney)
2. The Fool On The Hill(Lennon/McCartney)
3. Flying (Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey)
4. Blue Jay Way (Harrison)
5. Your Mother Should Know (Lennon/McCartney)
6. I Am the Walrus (Lennon/McCartney)
7. Hello, Goodbye (Lennon/McCartney)
8. Strawberry Fields Forever (Lennon/McCartney)
9. Penny Lane (Lennon/McCartney)
10. Baby You’re A Rich Man (Lennon/McCartney)
11. All You Need Is Love (Lennon/McCartney)

Magical Mystery Tour is the name of the 11-song album and 6-song double EP by The Beatles, first released as a double EP on 27 November 1967 and on 8 December 1967 as an LP. It is the soundtrack to a one-hour television film of the same name that was originally aired, in black and white, in the UK in 1967. Initially released as a double EP in the UK, the recording was expanded to a full album on subsequent U.S. release, adding several recent singles to the B-side. This has since been adopted by Apple and EMI when the Beatles’ discography was being put on Compact Disc, and is the only US release of theirs to do so.

While the songs on the EP proved popular, critical and popular response to the television film proved negative. Plans to air it on ABC television in the U.S. were cancelled, and Magical Mystery Tour was first shown in the United States only in a special showing as a fundraiser for the Liberation News Service in 1968. This was held at the Fillmore East in New York City. There was no other showing in the U.S. until 1974, as a theatrical release on the midnight movies and college circuits, both of which were mainly underground.

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 (including John Lennon’s uncle Charlie) were to travel on a charabanc bus and have unspecified "magical" adventures, in the manner of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters.

The Magical Mystery Tour movie was made, but the hoped-for "magical" adventures never happened. During the filming, an ever greater number of cars followed the hand-lettered bus, hoping to see what its passengers were up to, until a running traffic jam developed. The spectacle ended after Lennon angrily tore the lettering off the sides of the bus.

Magical Mystery Tour was the first Beatles film project following the death of manager Brian Epstein in August 1967, and there has been much speculation that the absence of Epstein’s judgement contributed to its undisciplined production, as seen, for instance, in the absence of a screenplay and professional direction. The film originally appeared twice on BBC-TV over the 1967 Christmas holidays (first in black and white, then in colour on BBC2), but was savaged by critics on its release; it was, however, noted by Steven Spielberg in film school (according to McCartney in one of the interviews for The Beatles Anthology: "I’ve read that people like him have sort of said, ‘When I was in school that was a film we really took notice of…’ like an art film, you know, rather than a proper film.)

Film soundtrack

The movie’s soundtrack was far more favourably received, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for best album in 1968. and reached number 1 in the U.S for eight weeks. It was released in the UK in December 1967 as a double EP housed in a 24-page book featuring pictures from the film and a comic strip based on events of the film. The American version was released in late November 1967 as an LP; its cover depicts the EP’s artwork in an orange border, with a list of song titles above it. Capitol Records released Magical Mystery Tour as full-length album because EPs were not as popular in the US as they were in the UK. The Magical Mystery Tour LP was divided into two halves: The first side was the film soundtrack, and the second side was a collection of A- and B-sides released in 1967.

[From Wikipedia - Original page is here]