Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour is the name of the 11-song album and 6-song double EP by the English rock band The Beatles, first released as an LP on 27 November 1967 and on 8 December 1967 as a double EP. It is the soundtrack to a one-hour television film of the same name that was filmed in color, but originally aired in black and white in the UK, in 1967. Initially packaged as a double EP in the UK, the recording was expanded to a full album on concurrent 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 for which this was done.

Release

Compact Disc in the late 1980s, the American LP version (which was imported into the UK, peaked on the British album charts at #31 as an American import, and was issued by Parlophone Records in Britain in 1976) was included with the British album line-up instead of the British EP, with true stereo recordings replacing the earlier processed ones (except for the portion of "I Am the Walrus"). (The true-stereo version of the Magical Mystery Tour LP was first issued in Germany in 1971, but the 1976 Parlophone issue used the Capitol masters with the fake stereo.) Capitol quietly reissued the Magical Mystery Tour LP using the German masters in the US with catalogue number C1-48061 in true stereo. The remaining Beatles non-LP single sides were compiled in the two-volume Past Masters compilation.

Personnel

George Harrison – guitar, vocals, harmonica on "The Fool on the Hill" John Lennon – guitar, vocals, harmonica on "The Fool on the Hill" Paul McCartney – bass guitar, piano, vocals, recorder on "The Fool on the Hill" Ringo Starr – drums, vocals ;Additional musicians "Magical Mystery Tour" – Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall on percussion, David Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake and John Wilbraham on trumpets "The Fool on the Hill" – Christoper Taylor, Richard Taylor and Jack Ellory on flute "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 and Neil Sanders, Tony Tunstall and Morris Miller on horns, 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 Hello Goodbye" – Ken Essex, Leo Birnbaum on violas. "Strawberry Fields Forever" – Mal Evans on percussion, Tony Fisher, Greg Bowen, Derek Watkins and Stanley Roderick on trumpets and John Hall, Derek Simpson, Norman Jones on cellos. "Penny Lane" – 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 and 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 McCartney, Maureen Starkey, Graham Nash and wife, Gary Leeds and Hunter Davies on backing vocals, Sidney Sax, Patrick Halling, Eric Bowie and Jack Holmes on violins, Rex Morris and Don Honeywill on sax, David Mason and Stanley Woods on trumpets, Evan Watkins and Henry Spain on horns, Jack Emblow on accordion and Brian Martin on cello