Track Listing

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13597 in Music
• Released on: 1987-09-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The album feels even more like a collection of singles (instead of an actual movie soundtrack) than Help! or A Hard Day's Night, but maybe that's because every song sounds like it could have been a hit single--with the natural exception of the goofy/weird instrumental "Flying". Even George's "Blue Jay Way" paints a vivid sound-portrait in fascinating detail. And although the goofy TV movie may have been mostly Paul's baby, this album features the two 45 rpm masterpieces that sum up the quintessential best of Lennon and McCartney at this stage of their development: Paul's "Penny Lane" and John's "I Am the Walrus". --Jim Emerson

CD Description
The first six songs on MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR were the soundtrack to the Beatles' TV movie of the same name. The film wasan experimental mess, but the experimental pop of the albumincluded some of their most memorable productions. The soundtrack side was dominated by Paul McCartney pop tunes, including the bittersweet piano ballad "Fool On The Hill" and "Your Mother Should Know", an impossibly catchy bit of Vaudevillian pop. But it also featured George Harrison's mystical "Blue Jay Way" (about his house in Hollywood) and John Lennon's "I Am The Walrus", which wedded a stream-of-consciousness lyric to a fierce drum beat, layers of strings, odd voices and some dialogue from Shakespeare's "King Lear".
McCartney's "Hello Goodbye", which led off the assorted singles, featured some neatly arranged contrapuntal vocals, and may wellhave been about the dissolving partnerships (songwriting and otherwise) between McCartney and Lennon. Lennon's strangely arranged "Strawberry Fields Forever", whose two halves blend different takes of the same song, one slowed down to match the pitch of the other, was a trippy reverie; its bridges,orchestrated with horns, cellos, and backward cymbals, are sheer brilliance. "Penny Lane", a wistful fantasy featuring a beautiful trumpet solo, was McCartney at his melodic best,the AM foil to Lennon's FM headiness.

Customer Reviews

THERE IS PLENTY OF MAGIC IN THIS CD...
The psychedelic epiphany in which The Beatles indulged brought forth some of their best and most innovative efforts. While only six of the tracks were written for The Beatles' television film, "Magical Mystery Tour", and the other five tracks, comprised of their singles' releases for 1967, were later added for purposes of an album release, it all works. In fact, two of the songs, "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", originally were written for their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album but were ultimately dropped, as they did not fit the creative concept upon which they were working at the time. It is almost hard to believe that these two great songs were originally each a side of the same single release.

There are, however, a lot of other great songs on this CD. Each and every one of them stands alone on its own merits. While "Penny Lane", a richly evocative, nostalgic refrain, is my own personal favorite, there is a variety from which to choose. From the haunting "The Fool On The Hill" to the psychedelic drug infused "Strawberry Fields Forever" to the rocking rythms of "Baby You're A Rich Man", there is a song for everyone. This a CD no avid music collector should be without. For those who love The Beatles, this CD will serve to remind them as to why they love them.

Jam packed with classic Beatles recordings
If it is even possible for a Beatles album to be somewhat underappreciated, Magical Mystery Tour is that album. Maybe it's the cover image of the Fab Four dressed in wholly ridiculous garb; that image is rather offsetting. As for the music, it's something of an odd mix of songs. The first six tracks come from the rather obscure television film Magical Mystery Tour, and the remaining five are made up of singles added to the pot in order to cook up enough material for an American album release. Thus, what you end up with is not a concept album such as the incredible Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band but rather a densely packed collection of huge hits complemented by several other very fine songs in their own right. Of the seven tracks, seven are bonafide Beatles classics: Magical Mystery Tour, The Fool On the Hill, I Am the Walrus, Hello Goodbye, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, and All You Need Is Love. The last of these songs became a veritable theme song for the culture of love thriving at the time of this album's release in 1967. I Am the Walrus is unquestionably the strangest song the Beatles ever released, but John's unique delivery of the seemingly nonsense lyrics is inherently fascinating. I don't even need to expound upon the fascinating, psychedelic, and wholly unique Strawberry Fields Forever. Besides being two of the Beatles' most amazing songs, I Am the Walrus and Strawberry Fields Forever also hold an important place in the mythology of the Beatles, supposedly containing clues pointing to the "death" of Paul.

The four less familiar tracks are rather remarkable in themselves. Your Mother Should Know and Baby You're a Rich Man are fun and somewhat bouncy little tunes. Flying is a short instrumental (short being the best kind of instrumental in my opinion) that is notable for its existence as such among the Beatles discography. Then there is Blue Jay Way, George Harrison's sole contribution to the album. It is a terrific song wholly in keeping with the strange, oriental-influenced type of psychedelic sound showcased in Sgt. Pepper's Within You, Without You. It is a pity that George Harrison was never allowed to contribute more than one or two songs to any Beatles release because his songs prove the most fascinating and oddly compelling of all the group's recordings.

Clearly, this is an album all Beatles fans should cherish and listen to on a fairly regular basis. Few Greatest Hits albums can boast as many chart toppers as Magical Mystery Tour can.

THERE IS PLENTY OF MAGIC IN THIS CD...
The psychedelic epiphany in which The Beatles indulged brought forth some of their best and most innovative efforts. While only six of the tracks were written for The Beatles' television film, "Magical Mystery Tour", and the other five tracks, comprised of their singles for 1967, were later added for purposes of an album release, it all works. In fact, two of the songs, "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", were originally written for their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album but were, ultimately, dropped, as they did not fit the creative concept upon which they were working at the time. It is almost hard to believe, however, that these two great songs were originally each a side of the same single release.

There are a lot of great songs on this CD. Each and everyone of them stands alone on its own merits. While "Penny Lane", a richly evocative, nostalgic refrain, is my own personal favorite, there is a variety from which to choose. From the haunting "The Fool On The Hill" to the psychedelic "Strawberry Fields Forever" to the rocking rythyms of "Baby, You're A Rich Man", there is a song for everyone. This is a CD no avid music lover should be without. For those who love The Beatles, this CD will serve to remind them as to why they love them.