magical mystery tour all you need is love

Register / Create an Account

All You Need Is Love

From beatles wiki - interviews, music, beatles quotes.

Watch the live broadcast from Olympic Studios (June 14, 1967):

• John Lennon
• Magical Mystery Tour (album)
• View source

Personal tools

Main sections.

• The Beatles
• The Singles
• The Remasters
• Beatle Boots
• Beatles Books
• Books by Beatles
• Beatles Links
• Recent Changes
• What links here
• Related changes
• Special pages
• Printable version
• Permanent link

• Website Design, Web Development & SEO by HyperArts | webhosting provided by Media Temple
• This page was last modified on 7 August 2011, at 14:12.
• Privacy policy
• About Beatles Wiki - Interviews, Music, Beatles Quotes
• Disclaimers

The Global Meaning Behind The Beatles Hit Song ‘All You Need Is Love’ 

by Matthew Leimkuehler August 28, 2023, 9:00 am

The Beatles went viral way before it was cool. … Well, kind of viral. In 1967, the band participated in “Our World,” a first-of-its-kind global television event that embraced satellite technology to connect international viewers to a singular broadcast. Spearheaded by the European Broadcasting Union, the program included a globetrotting lineup: Mexican singer Antonio Aguilar, influential American conductor Leonard Bernstein, Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli … and the list goes on . In Britain, the BBC enlisted – you guessed it – the Beatles to represent its country during the show. 

Videos by American Songwriter

The Fab Four’s contribution? A new song with a simple meaning, “All You Need Is Love.” 

The program reached 170 million televisions in 24 countries, according to the BCC . And, for music fans today, it introduced one of the most memorable numbers in the Beatles’ storied catalog. 

Performance 

Tasked with performing a simple song that could be digested by international audiences, Paul McCartney initially suggested the Beatles play “Hello, Goodbye,” an unreleased tune at the time that later became a chart-topping hit. The idea didn’t stick, and instead, the band opted to debut John Lennon’s “All You Need Is Love” (both songs were credited to Lennon-McCartney, as was common throughout the band’s hit-making tenure). 

[RELATED: John’s Journey: The Story Behind “In My Life” by The Beatles]

On June  25, 1967, after days of recording backing tracks and layered overdubs, the Beatles – Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr – entered the Abbey Road studios to debut the song to viewers across much of the world. In a room decorated with flowers and balloon clusters, a small audience gathered around the band and 13 accompanying orchestra members for the performance. Among the onlookers? A venerable cast of musicians, including Mick Jagger, Keith Moon, Keith Richards, and Eric Clapton. 

“It was the first worldwide satellite broadcast ever,” Starr said years later, according to Rolling Stone . “It’s a standard thing that people do now, but then, when we did it, it was a first. That was exciting – we were doing a lot of firsts.”

Sitting on a high-top stool, Lennon delivered a message that in the years to come would be ingrained in the Beatles ethos: All you need is love. Love is all you need.

In “All You Need Is Love,” Lennon sings : 

There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done. Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung. Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game. It’s easy.

Nothing you can make that can’t be made. No one you can save that can’t be saved. Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time. It’s easy

All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.  

Given a global timeslot long before days dominated by TikTok feeds and Instagram reels, Beatles manager Brian Epstein encouraged the band to deliver a universal performance, according to a 2017 interview with band historian Martin Lewis in the Los Angeles Times . Using the broadcast to promote a new album or film? That would’ve been the easy choice. 

Instead, “ … Brian’s instinct was that this was a platform,” Lewis told the LA Times . “John had an idea for a song — just a doodle at that time — but Brian’s thought was, ‘You have a platform, why don’t you use it for this universal message?’ I love what that says about Brian.”

In subtle composition nods to the cross-continental audience, the song included notes from the French national anthem, as well as callbacks to famous works from Glenn Miller, Johann Sebastian Bach, and the Beatles’ own “She Loves You.” 

Legacy 

The song debuted at the height of the so-called “Summer of Love,” a cornerstone of the anti-war hippie movement in 1967. At the time, “All You Need Is Love” grew to become synonymous with the movement. 

[RELATED: 7 Beatles Deep Cuts to Revisit]

As a stand-alone single, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 sales chart (Lennon-McCartney’s “Baby, You’re A Rich Man” appeared on the B-side of the single release). It returned to record stores a year later as an album track on the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” and inspired the big-picture message behind the 1968 animated film “Yellow Submarine.” 

Today, five-and-a-half decades after the broadcast, “All You Need Is Love” may be one of the most recognizable refrains in popular music history. Often found on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and wall-covering street art, many embrace it as a bridge-building message in an often-divided world. 

Photo by Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Only members can comment. Become a member . Already a member? Log In .

Writer’s Block: HunterGirl on Finding Inspiration—“I Get A Lot from Other People”

© 2024 American Songwriter

Share this website

Magical mystery tour.

Release date: 27 November 1967

"It was like we were in another phase of our career you know we'd done all the live stuff and that was marvellous, now we were into being more artists. We got more freedom to be artists." PAUL

"If you think it was good, keep it, if you don't, scrap it." JOHN

"You have success with something that might have seemed like a far out idea, people had said wow this is great and so when we'd come back again George would be really quite keen to try, what other ideas have you got?" GEORGE

"And now we are going to play a track from Magical Mystery Tour which is one of my favourite albums because it was so weird I Am The Walrus, one of my favourite tracks because I did it of course but also cos it's one of those that has enough little bitties going to keep you interested even a hundred years later." JOHN

"The Beatles songs had started to sound more individual from Revolver onwards or even before then." GEORGE MARTIN

The Beatles devised, wrote and directed a television film called Magical Mystery Tour which was broadcast on BBC Television at Christmas, 1967

Even before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, had hit the shops, the idea of the programme had been born and work had commenced on the title track.

It was decided that the soundtrack for the programme would be released on two seven inch discs which would be packaged with a booklet in a gatefold sleeve. The booklet contained stills from the show along with a comic strip telling the story. A lyric sheet was also stapled into the centrespread of the booklet. The EP was a runaway success and reached no. 2 in the UK singles chart, held off the top spot by their own single... "Hello, Goodbye".

In the US, the double-EP format was not considered viable so instead, Capitol Records created an album by placing the six songs from the EP on side one of an album and drawing side two from the titles that had appeared on singles in 1967. These titles were "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", "All You Need Is Love" - their anthem that had been broadcast around the world via Satellite in June. "Baby, You're A Rich Man" and their current single, "Hello, Goodbye". The US release made # 1 in early January 1968 and stayed there for eight weeks. Its initial chart run lasted 59 weeks.

1967 had certainly been a year of great achievement but it was also tinged with sadness. Brian Epstein, The Beatles' manager since 1961 passed away on 27th August, 1967 at the age of 32.

The US configuration for Magical Mystery Tour was later adopted by many other countries (including the UK in 1976). When the Beatles catalogue was first issued on Compact Disc in 1987, Magical Mystery Tour joined the core list of titles.

If they aren't already planning so, the Beatles should start planning their next full-length film immediately. After watching a rough cut of their 'Magical Mystery Tour', which BBC viewers can see on Boxing Day. I am convinced they are extremely capable of writing and directing a major movie for release on one of the major cinema circuits. The film sequences for the musical numbers are extremely clever. For 'Blue Jay Way' George is seen sitting cross-legged in a sweating mist which materialises into a variety of shapes and patterns. It's a pity that most TV viewers will be able to see it only in black and white. 'I Am The Walrus' has four of them togged up in animal costumes switching at times to them bobbing across the screen as egg-men. A special word of praise for Ringo, who more than the others comes over very, very funnily. But praise to all of them for making a most entertaining film. I only wish they would now put out a sequel made up from the parts they left on the cutting-room floor. NME July 20, 1967

• ABBREVIATIONS
• BIOGRAPHIES
• CALCULATORS
• CONVERSIONS
• DEFINITIONS

      PDF       Playlist    

All You Need Is Love

The beatles.

About All You Need Is Love

"All You Need Is Love" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in July 1967. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The song was Britain's contribution to Our World, the first live global television link, when the Beatles were filmed performing it at EMI Studios in London on 25 June 1967. The programme was broadcast via satellite and seen by an audience of over 400 million in 25 countries. Lennon's lyrics, which were deliberately simplistic to allow for the show's international audience, captured the utopian sentiments of the Summer of Love era. The single topped sales charts in Britain, the United States and many other countries, and became an anthem for the counterculture's embrace of flower power philosophy. Rather than perform the song entirely live on Our World, the Beatles played to a pre-recorded backing track. The released recording featured a new lead vocal by Lennon but was otherwise little changed from this performance. With an orchestral arrangement by George Martin, the song opens with a portion of the French national anthem and ends with musical quotations from works such as Glenn Miller's "In the Mood", "Greensleeves", and Bach's Invention No. 8 in F major, as well as the chorus of the Beatles' 1963 hit "She Loves You". Adding to the festive atmosphere of the broadcast, the studio was adorned with signs and streamers, and filled with guests dressed in psychedelic attire, including members of the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Small Faces. The performance took place at the height of the Beatles' popularity and influence, following the release of their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and was described by Brian Epstein, their manager, as the group's "finest" moment."All You Need Is Love" was later included on the US Magical Mystery Tour album. It also appears in a sequence in the Beatles' 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine and on the accompanying soundtrack album. Originally broadcast in black-and-white, the Our World performance was colourised for inclusion in the Beatles' 1995 Anthology documentary series. While the song remains synonymous with the 1967 Summer of Love ethos, this quality led to criticism from several commentators, particularly during the 1980s, that the lyrics and general sentiment are naive. Global Beatles Day, an international celebration of the Beatles' music and social message, takes place on 25 June each year in tribute to the Our World performance of the song.   more »

 Become A Better Singer In Only 30 Days , With Easy Video Lessons!

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. They became the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed act in the history of popular music. Their best-known lineup consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Rooted in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, they later utilised several genres, ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, often incorporating classical and other elements in innovative ways. In the early 1960s, their enormous popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania", but as their songwriting grew in sophistication, they came to be perceived by many fans and cultural observers as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era's sociocultural revolutions. more »

Follow 58 fans

Sheet Music       PDF     Playlist  

Written by: John Lennon, Paul Mccartney

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

12 facts about this song

Discuss the all you need is love lyrics with the community:.

Report Comment

We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe. If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.

You need to be logged in to favorite .

Create a new account.

Your name: * Required

Your email address: * Required

Pick a user name: * Required

Username: * Required

Password: * Required

Forgot your password?    Retrieve it

Use the citation below to add these lyrics to your bibliography:

Style: MLA Chicago APA

"All You Need Is Love Lyrics." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. < https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/35639936/The+Beatles/All+You+Need+Is+Love >.

Missing lyrics by The Beatles?

Know any other songs by the beatles don't keep it to yourself, image credit, the web's largest resource for, music, songs & lyrics, a member of the stands4 network, watch the song video, top hot 100 songs 1967, billboard #1, more tracks from the album, magical mystery tour.

• #1 Magical Mystery Tour
• #2 The Fool on the Hill
• #4 Blue Jay Way
• #5 Your Mother Should Know
• #6 I Am the Walrus
• #7 Hello Goodbye
• #7 Hello, Goodbye
• #8 Strawberry Fields Forever
• #9 Penny Lane
• #10 Baby You're a Rich Man
• #10 Baby, You're A Rich Man
• #11 All You Need Is Love
• #12 Magical Mystery Tour Mini-Documentary [Multimedia]

Browse Lyrics.com

Our awesome collection of, promoted songs.

Get promoted 

Are you a music master?

What's elvis presley middle name, free, no signup required :, add to chrome, add to firefox, don't miss the beatles's, upcoming events.

On Radio Right Now

Powered by OnRad.io

Think you know music? Test your MusicIQ here!

Movies soundtrack

• Across the Universe   2007
• Imagine That   2009
• Love Actually   2003
• Magical Mystery Tour   1967
• Yellow Submarine

• The Beatles’ songs – complete A-Z list

Magical Mystery Tour

Recorded just four days after the completion of the Sgt Pepper album, ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ was Paul McCartney ’s attempt to maintain momentum within The Beatles and to give them a new direction and sense of purpose.

John and I remembered mystery tours, and we always thought this was a fascinating idea: getting on a bus and not knowing where you were going. Rather romantic and slightly surreal! All these old dears with the blue rinses going off to mysterious places. Generally there’s a crate of ale in the boot of the coach and you sing lots of songs. It’s a charabanc trip. So we took that idea and used it as a basis for a song and the film.

Inspired by Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters and their LSD-fuelled bus, McCartney decided The Beatles should try something similar. He devised a rough concept for the new project, which would involve the group travelling around the England in their own coach, filming whatever took place.

I used to go to the fairgrounds as a kid, the waltzers and the dodgems, but what interested me was the freak shows: the boxing booths, the bearded lady and the sheep with five legs, which actually was a four-legged sheep with one leg sewn on its side. When I touched it, the fellow said, ‘Hey, leave that alone!’ these were the great things of your youth. So much of your writing comes from this period; your golden memories. If I’m stuck for an idea, I can always think of a great summer, think of a time when I went to the seaside. Okay, sand sun waves donkeys laughter. That’s a pretty good scenario for a song.

The resulting TV film was a mess, and critically panned, though the soundtrack double EP (expanded to a full album in the US) was a best-seller.

‘Magical Mystery Tour’ was co-written by John and I, very much in our fairground period. One of our great inspirations was always the barker. ‘Roll up! Roll up!’ The promise of something: the newspaper ad that says ‘guaranteed not to crack’, the ‘high class’ butcher, ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ from Sgt Pepper . ‘Come inside,’ ‘ Step inside, Love ‘; you’ll find that pervades a lot of my songs. If you look at all the Lennon-McCartney things, it’s a thing we do a lot.

The title track was McCartney’s initial idea, based on ideas written on an overnight flight from America on 11 April 1967 , though what he took to the studio was little more than the title and three chords. He attempted to rouse the other Beatles into contributing lyrics, but their enthusiasm was low and later completed the lyrics alone.

Because those were psychedelic times it had to become a magical mystery tour, a little bit more surreal than the real ones to give us a licence to do it. But it employs all the circus and fairground barkers, ‘Roll up! Roll up!’, which was also a reference to rolling up a joint. We were always sticking those little things in that we knew our friends would get; veiled references to drugs and to trips. ‘Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away ,’ so that’s a kind of drug, ‘it’s dying to take you away’ so that’s a Tibetan Book of the Dead reference. We put all these words in and if you were just an ordinary person, it’s a nice bus that’s waiting to take you away, but if you’re tripping, it’s dying, it’s the real tour, the real magical mystery tour. We stuck all that stuff in for our ‘in group’ of friends really. ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ was the equivalent of a drug trip and we made the film based on that. ‘That’ll be good, a far-out mystery tour. Nobody quite knows where they’re going. We can take ’em anywhere we want, man!’ Which was the feeling of the period. ‘They can go in the sky. It can take off!’ In fact, in the early script, which was just a few fireside chats more than a script, the bus was going to actually take off and fly up to the magicians in the clouds, which was us all dressed in red magicians’ costumes, and we’d mess around in a little laboratory being silly for a while.

In the studio

The first ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ session took place on 25 April 1967 . The Beatles spent much time rehearsing and improvising the song, with Paul McCartney at the piano suggesting ideas to the others in the group.

Eventually they recorded three takes of the basic rhythm track: two guitars, piano and drums. Take three was the best. After this they raided the Abbey Road sound effects collection, creating a tape loop of the sound of coaches to be added at the mixing stage.

On 26 April McCartney recorded his bass part, and all The Beatles plus Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans played percussion instruments, including tambourine, maracas and cowbell. McCartney, John Lennon , and George Harrison also taped extra vocals.

The following day still more vocals were added. McCartney taped his lead, with backing from Lennon and Harrison.

An overdub of four trumpets was added on 3 May . The session began by McCartney humming notes to the brass players to let them know what he wanted, but he mostly failed to get his intentions across.

In the end the players were sent away while McCartney and George Martin worked out the notation on the piano in Abbey Road’s studio three. One of the trumpeters, Gary Howarth, reportedly became so impatient that he wrote a score himself. According to Philip Jones, a friend of the session musicians, that was the idea The Beatles ended up using.

The recording of ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ was completed on 7 November . During the editing of the film, Lennon had added a spoken introduction: “Roll up, roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour! Step right this way! Hurry, hurry, hurry!” It was decided that this should be added to the record release too.

McCartney recreated Lennon’s spiel, although he left out the “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” section. A tape loop of traffic noise, assembled back on 25 April, was also added. The song was then mixed in stereo and mono.

Latest Comments

Hi all! Does anyone know what mix of this song was used in the ‘Anthology’? I have the original vinyl (Canadian) and the remasters, and the mix in ‘Anthology’ definitely has different panning; in my two versions the electric guitar is on the left with the drums, percussion, etc. In the ‘Anthology’ clip (chapter 7, 23:20-24:06,) the drums appear in both speakers, the percussion and piano remain on the left and the electric guitar is hard-panned to the right with the trumpets. By giving greater exposure to the electric guitar, piano and percussion in this way (the guitar and piano notes being in roughly the same range,) the mix “moves” more than the other one, creating more of a rock song. Does anyone A) notice this difference and B) know where to find this mix in its entirety? Thanks…

i’ve just checked my Anthology and it’s not on there as i thought, but the version of this song in the film is different to the released version, maybe it’s this mix you refer to? as it has been widely bootlegged.

i think the Anthology was the movie version. I myself have 3 versions of the song.

‘Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away,’ so that’s a kind of drug, ‘it’s dying to take you away’ so that’s a Tibetan Book of the Dead reference.’

I love Paul as a musician, but quotes like this are just stupid.

no its not. its really true. with a comment like that we can see , you know nothing about the beatles…

It’s not so stupid… ingesting LSD and other psychedelics produces a state of consciousness paralel to the one the brain experiences when it is dying. Hence the tibetan book of the dead reference.

No you are stupid not him. You clearly know nothing about the drug and the book yet u made a silly clueless comment.

Thank you dude Someone had to say it

Yeh I agree, I feel the fact John is constantly held up as the lyrical genius gets to him, and he feels the need to prove himself (including with his new book!). Such a talented musician, he doesn’t need to prove himself to anyone.

Yeah, I feel that way too. It’s the same as with “Got To Get You Into My Life”, which I don’t really believe was a love-letter to pot, despite Paul’s claims. Paul, to me, seems to feel the need to prove his edginess and counteract any suggestion that he’s a lightweight – like it’s not enough to be a brilliant musician and songwriter

Agreed, 100%. A real shame Paul made these retrospective comments…or felt he needed to. Lyrically, the songs don’t even fit the story he put out. ‘Got to get you into my life’ is the classic example…it’s a great uptempo love song and that’s it.

I disagree completely… just read the lyrics of the first verse! Even John posited that Got To Get You Into My Life was about LSD, so if anything Paul is retreating and making himself less edgy by saying it was pot. I think it’s telling when people conclude deceitful motives when none are apparent… sometimes you see what you want to see.

You are correct. It’s about acid, but Paul has downplayed that to say it’s an ode to weed, which is fine. Whoever said it’s just a love song is clueless.

I Think Paul knows what He wrote his songs about than us. Even Lennon said Got To Get You Into My Life was a drug song.

The rest of the song is good, but oh God just that coda in the end is sooo magical… incredible really. 😮

That’s always been my favorite part of the song, the haunting piano coda!

Who wrote/played that coda? It has a very emotional effect on me

Paul played the piano at the end there, I believe

Isn’t it, though? Amazing little thing. Beautiful

It really is, sounds like something that The Doors might do :] But what’s most impressive to me is drumming and this part, kind of 8 when Paul sings: “You got everything you need…”. It’s really good.

That piano coda sure sounds like Mike Garson. Listen to the piano solo in Aladdin Sane.

Paul gave John significant credit for helping to write this “Paul” song – one of the few examples where he does that.

Love Me Do, Paperback Writer, What You’re Doing, Here There And Everywhere, Good Day Sunshine, Penny Lane — even When I’m 64 could also be mentioned, but you’re right; there aren’t *that* many…songs that Paul seems to give John more credit than John himself seemed to feel he deserved.

John, it has to be said, did take *a lot* of credit. Was he right to? Possibly, but slightly more would be pushing it a bit, and I guess the same goes for Paul.

I am one of the rare people who actually likes this song better than SGT. Pepper. You gotta love the raw, heavy guitar on Pepper but there is just something about MMT, especially on the remasters. Also, its obvious that the beatles (other than Paul, and maybe Ringo) quit on there potential on some of their later songs. Too bad because MMT could have really been a masterpiece. I love Johns chorus at the end. His voice tone really cuts into me and I absolutely love the second part where he says “…dying to take you away…” Just think how much better this song could have been if he and George werent so distracted by this point.

Is that really John singing the last two “The Magical Mystery Tour is … “? I always thought so.

I agree, Nolan. Just think about how much better the entire MMT ALBUM would have been if John and George had been at least a LITTLE more enthusiastic. I imagine these recording sessions being dominated by Paul (partly out of necessity), while John and George yawned and constantly glanced at their watches. If they had been more “into it,” the whole album would have ended up more, uh… “magical.” Of course, Paul probably DID come off like an overbearing alpha dog, so the distaction of the rest of the group is not surprising.

Frankly the only “magic” in the soundtrack portion of MMT for me is John’s “I Am The Walrus” and George’s “Blue Jay Way”. I am grateful for the contributions of the “distracted” ones. As for the 1967 singles portion of MMT, John’s contributions of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “All You Need Is Love” (plus his half of “Baby, You’re A Rich Man”) are outstanding to say the least.

I agree with you, Joseph Brush. I think “Strawberry Fields Forever” and especially “All You Need Is Love” are the great songs. But I don’t like Blue Jay Way.

well Fool on the Hill and Your Mother Should Know, not to mention the previously-released Hello Goodbye, are all very typical Paul songs with great sing-along qualities and each has a bit of weirdness to keep it in line with the whole concept of the film/album. Add the singles and it’s really a great, great album. I don’t know if it’s fair to single out the John and George compositions and simply write off Paul’s efforts on this one.

I have to say that “Walrus” and “Strawberry Field” are phenomenal compositions by John and George Martin with the rest of the band doing their thing to back them up flawlessly. I just give Paul the slight overall edge in his contributions. He represents the frontman for me…Looking at all the beatles post work including Paul’s, it doesn’t even matter. Without all 4 of them together with the chemistry they had in relationship to one another, inspiring and demanding eachothers A+ game no matter what was going on, we wouldn’t even be having ongoing conversations like this 40 years later. Granted there are exceptions and if I ever get bored enough with their compact and complete catalogue, I would get a kick in naming the top 50 or 100 worst beatles songs. Paul would dominate that list as well but he also takes the cake in many of my all time favorite beatles songs. That’s why I love Paul’s work the most. He could afford produce some real clunkers because he could always make up for it ten times over with masterpiece after masterpiece. Hearing the remastered mono recording of MMT is really like experiencing this song for the first time for me. Comparing it to the 87’s is simply put an absolute disaster vs and absolute work of art. I always liked this song as a young boy. But I never loved it like the seemingly hundreds of other fantastic Beatles songs I got to experience over and over growing up.

“I am the Walrus” is certainly a fantastic song, but the most magical moment on MMT is the title song’s coda melting into “Fool on the Hill.”

I always liked the Walrus , Strawberry Fields and A Day in the Life. Lennon’s backing vocals make certain songs sound quite awesome. See how they run? It couldn’t get no worse? She’s leaving home ,bye,bye. I too felt the impact The Beatles made in the 60’s. They definitely had a different sound than their contemporaries. Obviously they were better together than apart. MMT was an interesting album. Capital records made a good decision by putting 1967’s singles on one side. Baby You’re a Rich Man is underrated. I agree with you regarding the mono mixes.

Dying is the ultimate Magical Mystery experience.

Love this song. It is just so fast paced and catchy.Basically a McCartney song. I also love the EP , film and album of the same name.

And the bassline, all the way through. One of Macca’s absolute best performances

Great title track for film, E.P. and album. Very 1967, would have been a hit if released as a single.

favorite song of all time, especially love John’s slow verse

Needless to say, I did ‘roll-up’ for the Magical Mystery Tour.

Which Beatle is the one giving the “Roll up” introduction at the beginning of the song? Does anyone out there know?

It was John in the film, but Paul on the record. Paul’s version was recorded on 7 November 1967 .

On the Cheap Trick cover of this song, on the bridge section I can clearly hear two voices overlapping, one is saying “Mystery Tour”, the other “Taking aTrip”. It’s harder to disentangle on the Beatles’ version, but is that what is happening? It actually sounds like Mystery Trip, but I think Cheap Trick have done us all a favour ?

Wow! I clearly hear “taking a trip” at slightly less volume than “mystery tour”. For years I’ve wondered what that garbled sounding second vocal was singing and now I know. Thanks!

It always sounded like ” a mystery trip” to me. (shrug).

There is no lead guitar in this song. Just two rhythm guitar parts.

Hello everyone! Can anyone explain why Magical Mystery Tour (song) is not treated as a Beatles hit, since the double EP with this recording as the title track entered the singles chart and shot to number 2. After all, this is an achievement equal to the success of the singles Please Please Me, SFF/PL or Let It Be. Moreover, like the single Please Please Me, in top music weekly newspaper Melody Maker, it reached number 1 for one week (January 13, 1968).

Even though the Magical Mystery Tour EP got to number 2 in the UK singles chart it is considered an EP and not a 45 stand alone single and therefore it does not qualify as a hit single.

Thanks for your reply, I know all of what you wrote, but my question still doesn’t have a clear, convincing answer. It is obvious that MMT was a double EP from a formal or technical point of view, but in terms of musical competition, i.e. classification on the charts, it was undoubtedly treated as a single. Thus, the title track should be considered another huge hit by The Beatles.

I understand what you say and ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ is a very well known song but as I said previously it was not a single. It was a Double EP. EP’s would often climb into the singles chart as all the early Beatles EPs did. ‘Long Tall Sally’ EP from 1964 is another example. It got to No.1 in the singles charts but is not considered a huge hit in the UK. The ‘All My Loving’ EP from 1964 also reached No.1 but ‘All My Loving’ is not considered a single. The fact that they wrote ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ makes no difference. All EPs were considered as singles in as much as they got into the singles chart in the UK and they all had single chart placings. ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ gets plenty of airplay on radio. I don’t think it gets treated any differently apart from the fact that it was not a single so is therefore not included on Beatles single compilations. See Here for more info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_play?wprov=sfti1

Sheldon, thank you kindly. The matter is clear to me now.

Leave a Reply

Magical Mystery Tour (Remastered)

The Beatles

11 SONGS • 36 MINUTES • NOV 27 1967

• TRACKS TRACKS
• DETAILS DETAILS

So much has been said and written about the Beatles -- and their story is so mythic in its sweep -- that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and they introduced more innovations into popular music than any other group of their time. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline who were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and didn't let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity and never losing the ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience. Their supremacy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970.

It's hard to convey the scope of the Beatles' achievements in a mere paragraph or two. They synthesized all that was good about early rock & roll and changed it into something original and even more exciting. They established the prototype for the self-contained rock group that wrote and performed its own material. As composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were second to none; they were key to the evolution of rock from its blues/R&B-based forms into a style that was far more eclectic, but equally visceral. As singers, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney were among the best and most expressive vocalists in rock, and the group's harmonies were intricate and exhilarating. As performers, they were (at least until touring wore them down) exciting and photogenic. When they retreated into the studio, they proved instrumental in pioneering advanced techniques and multi-layered arrangements. They were also the first British rock group to achieve worldwide prominence, launching a British Invasion that made rock truly an international phenomenon.

More than any other top group, the Beatles' success was very much a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Their phenomenal cohesion was due in large degree to most of the group having known each other and played together in Liverpool for about five years before they began to have hit records. Guitarist and teenage rebel John Lennon got hooked on rock & roll in the mid-'50s, and formed a band, the Quarrymen, at his high school. Around mid-1957, the Quarrymen were joined by another guitarist, Paul McCartney, nearly two years Lennon's junior. A bit later they were joined by another guitarist, George Harrison, a friend of McCartney. The Quarrymen would change lineups constantly in the late '50s, eventually reducing to the core trio of guitarists, who'd proven themselves to be the best musicians and most personally compatible individuals within the band.

The Quarrymen changed their name to the Silver Beatles in 1960, quickly dropping the "Silver" to become just the Beatles. Lennon's art college friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined on bass, but finding a permanent drummer was a vexing problem until Pete Best joined in the summer of 1960. He successfully auditioned for the combo just before they left for a several-month stint in Hamburg, Germany.

Hamburg was the Beatles' baptism by fire. Playing grueling sessions for hours on end in one of the most notorious red-light districts in the world, the group was forced to expand its repertoire, tighten up its chops, and invest its show with enough manic energy to keep the rowdy crowds satisfied. When they returned to Liverpool at the end of 1960, the band -- formerly also-rans on the exploding Liverpudlian "beat" scene -- were suddenly the most exciting act on the local circuit. They consolidated their following in 1961 with constant gigging in the Merseyside area, most often at the legendary Cavern Club, the incubator of the Merseybeat sound.

They also returned for engagements in Hamburg during 1961, although Sutcliffe dropped out of the band that year to concentrate on his art school studies there. McCartney took over on bass, Harrison settled in as lead guitarist, and Lennon had rhythm guitar; everyone sang. In mid-1961, the Beatles (minus Sutcliffe) made their first recordings in Germany, as a backup group to a British rock guitarist/singer based in Hamburg, Tony Sheridan. The Beatles hadn't fully developed at this point, and these recordings -- many of which (including a couple of Sheridan-less tracks) were issued only after the band's rise to fame -- found their talents in a most embryonic state. The Hamburg stint was also notable for earning the Beatles sophisticated, artistic fans such as Sutcliffe's girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr, who influenced all of them (except Best) to restyle their quiffs into the moptops that gave the musicians their most distinctive visual trademark. (Tragically, Sutcliffe would die of a brain hemorrhage in April 1962).

Near the end of 1961, the Beatles' exploding local popularity caught the attention of local record store manager Brian Epstein, who was soon managing the band as well. He used his contacts to swiftly acquire a January 1, 1962, audition at Decca Records that has been heavily bootlegged (some tracks were officially released in 1995). After weeks of deliberation, Decca turned them down as did several other British labels. Epstein's perseverance was finally rewarded with an audition for producer George Martin at Parlophone, an EMI subsidiary; Martin signed the Beatles in mid-1962. By this time, Epstein was assiduously grooming his charges for national success by influencing them to smarten up their appearance, dispensing with their leather jackets and trousers in favor of tailored suits and ties.

One more major change was in the offing before the Beatles made their Parlophone debut. In August 1962, drummer Pete Best was kicked out of the group, a controversial decision that has been the cause of much speculation since. There is still no solid consensus as to whether it was because of his solitary, moody nature; the other Beatles' jealousy of his popularity with the fans; his musical shortcomings (George Martin had already told Epstein that Best wasn't good enough to drum on recordings); or his refusal to wear his hair in bangs. What seems most likely was that the Beatles simply found his personality incompatible, preferring to enlist Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey), a drummer with another popular Merseyside outfit, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. Starr had been in the Beatles for a few weeks when they recorded their first single, "Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You," in September 1962. Both sides of the 45 were Lennon-McCartney originals, and the songwriting team would be credited with most of the group's material throughout the Beatles' career.

The single, a promising but fairly rudimentary effort, hovered around the lower reaches of the British Top 20. The Beatles phenomenon didn't truly kick in until "Please Please Me," which topped the British charts in early 1963. This was the prototype British Invasion single: an infectious melody, charging guitars, and positively exuberant harmonies. The same traits were evident on their third 45, "From Me to You" (a British number one), and their debut LP, Please Please Me. Although it was mostly recorded in a single day, Please Please Me topped the British charts for an astonishing 30 weeks, establishing the group as the most popular rock & roll act ever seen in the U.K.

What the Beatles had done was take the best elements of the rock and pop they loved and make them their own. Since the Quarrymen days, they had been steeped in the classic early rock of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and the Everly Brothers; they'd also kept an ear open to the early-'60s sounds of Motown, Phil Spector, and the girl groups. What they added was an unmatched songwriting savvy (inspired by Brill Building teams such as Gerry Goffin and Carole King), a brash guitar-oriented attack, wildly enthusiastic vocals, and the embodiment of the youthful flair of their generation, ready to dispense with postwar austerity and claim a culture of their own. They were also unsurpassed in their eclecticism, willing to borrow from blues, popular standards, gospel, folk, or whatever seemed suitable for their musical vision. Producer George Martin was the perfect foil for the group, refining their ideas without tinkering with their cores; during the last half of their career, he was indispensable for his ability to translate their concepts into arrangements that required complex orchestration, innovative applications of recording technology, and an ever-widening array of instruments.

Just as crucially, the Beatles were never ones to stand still and milk formulas. All of their subsequent albums and singles would show remarkable artistic progression (though never at the expense of a damn catchy tune). Even on their second LP, With the Beatles (1963), it was evident that their talents as composers and instrumentalists were expanding furiously, as they devised ever more inventive melodies and harmonies, and boosted the fullness of their arrangements. "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" established the group not just as a popular music act, but as a phenomenon never before seen in the British entertainment business, as each single sold over a million copies in the U.K. After some celebrated national TV appearances, Beatlemania broke out across the British Isles in late 1963, and the group generating screams and hysteria at all of their public appearances, musical or otherwise.

Capitol, which had first refusal of the Beatles' recordings in the United States, had declined to issue the group's first few singles, which ended up appearing on relatively small American independents. Capitol took up its option on "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which stormed to the top of the U.S. charts within weeks of its release on December 26, 1963. The Beatles' television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964 launched Beatlemania (and the entire British Invasion) on an even bigger scale than it had reached in Britain. In the first week of April 1964, the Beatles had the Top Five best-selling singles in the U.S.; they also had the first two slots on the album charts, as well as other entries throughout the Billboard Top 100. No one had ever dominated the market for popular music so heavily; it's doubtful that anyone ever will again. The Beatles themselves would continue to reach number one with most of their singles and albums until their 1970 breakup.

Hard as it may be to believe today, the Beatles were often dismissed by cultural commentators of the time as nothing more than a fad that would vanish within months as the novelty wore off. The group ensured this wouldn't happen by making A Hard Day's Night in early 1964, a cinéma vérité-style motion picture comedy/musical that cemented their image as "the Fab Four": happy-go-lucky, individualistic, cheeky, funny lads with nonstop energy. The soundtrack was also a triumph, consisting entirely of Lennon-McCartney tunes, including such standards as the title tune, "And I Love Her," "If I Fell," "Can't Buy Me Love," and "Things We Said Today." George Harrison's resonant 12-string electric guitar leads were hugely influential; the movie helped persuade the Byrds, then folksingers, to plunge all-out into rock & roll, and the Beatles (along with Bob Dylan) would be hugely influential on the folk-rock explosion of 1965. The Beatles' success, too, had begun to open the U.S. market for fellow Brits like the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks, and inspired young American groups like the Beau Brummels, Lovin' Spoonful, and others to mount a challenge of their own with self-penned material that owed a great debt to Lennon-McCartney.

Between riotous international tours in 1964 and 1965, the Beatles continued to squeeze out more chart-topping albums and singles. (Until 1967, the group's British albums were often truncated for release in the States; when their catalog was transferred to CD, the albums were released worldwide in their British configurations.) In retrospect, critics have judged Beatles for Sale (late 1964) and Help! (mid-1965) as the band's least impressive efforts. To some degree, that's true. Touring and an insatiable market placed heavy demands upon their songwriting, and some of the originals and covers on these records, while brilliant by many groups' standards, were filler in the context of the Beatles' best work.

But when at the top of their game, the group continued to push forward. "I Feel Fine" had feedback and brilliant guitar leads; "Ticket to Ride" showed the band beginning to incorporate the ringing, metallic, circular guitar lines that would be appropriated by bands like the Byrds; "Help!" was their first burst of confessional lyricism; "Yesterday" employed a string quartet. John Lennon in particular was beginning to exhibit a Dylanesque influence in his songwriting on such folky, downbeat numbers as "I'm a Loser" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." And tracks like "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" and "I've Just Seen a Face" had a strong country flavor.

Although the Beatles' second film, Help!, was a much sillier and less sophisticated affair than their first feature, it too was a huge commercial success. By this time, though, the Beatles had nothing to prove in commercial terms; the remaining frontiers were artistic challenges that could only be met in the studio. They rose to the occasion at the end of 1965 with Rubber Soul, one of the classic folk-rock records. Lyrically, Lennon, McCartney, and even Harrison (who was now writing some tunes on his own) were evolving beyond boy-girl scenarios into complex, personal feelings. They were also pushing the limits of studio rock by devising new guitar and bass textures, experimenting with distortion and multi-tracking, and using unconventional (for rock) instruments like the sitar.

As much of a progression as Rubber Soul was relative to their previous records, it was but a taster for the boundary-shattering outings of the next few years. The "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" single found the group abandoning romantic themes entirely, boosting the bass to previously unknown levels, and fooling around with psychedelic imagery and backward tapes on the B-side. Drugs (psychedelic and otherwise) were fueling their already fertile imaginations, but they felt creatively hindered by their touring obligations. Revolver, released in the summer of 1966, proved what the group could be capable of when allotted months of time in the studio. Hazy hard guitars and thicker vocal arrangements formed the bed of these increasingly imagistic, ambitious lyrics; the group's eclecticism now encompassed everything from singalong novelties ("Yellow Submarine") and string quartet-backed character sketches ("Eleanor Rigby") to Indian-influenced swirls of echo and backward tapes ("Tomorrow Never Knows"). Some would complain that the Beatles had abandoned the earthy rock of their roots for clever mannerism. But Revolver, like virtually all of the group's singles and albums from "She Loves You" on, would be a worldwide chart-topper.

For the past couple of years, live performance had become a rote exercise for the group, tired of competing with thousands of screaming fans that drowned out most of their voices and instruments. A 1966 summer worldwide tour was particularly grueling: the group's entourage was physically attacked in the Philippines after a perceived snub of the country's first lady, and a casual remark by John Lennon about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus Christ was picked up in the States, resulting in the burning of Beatles records in the Bible Belt and demands for a repentant apology. Their final concert of that American tour (in San Francisco on August 29, 1966) would be their last in front of a paying audience, as the group decided to stop playing live in order to concentrate on their studio recordings.

This was a radical (indeed, unprecedented) step in 1966, and the media was rife with speculation that the act was breaking up, especially after all four spent late 1966 engaged in separate personal and artistic pursuits. The appearance of the "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever" single in February 1967 squelched these concerns. Frequently cited as the strongest double A-side ever, the Beatles were now pushing forward into unabashedly psychedelic territory in their use of orchestral arrangements and Mellotron, without abandoning their grasp of memorable melody and immediately accessible lyrical messages.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in June 1967 as the Summer of Love dawned, was the definitive psychedelic soundtrack. Or, at least, so it was perceived at the time: subsequent critics have painted the album as an uneven affair, given a conceptual unity via its brilliant multi-tracked overdubs, singalong melodies, and fairy tale-ish lyrics. Others remain convinced, as millions did at the time, that it represented pop's greatest triumph, or indeed an evolution of pop into art with a capital A. In addition to mining all manner of roots influences, the musicians were also picking up vibes from Indian music, avant-garde electronics, classical, music hall, and more. When the Beatles premiered their hippie anthem "All You Need Is Love" as part of a worldwide TV broadcast, they had been truly anointed as spokespersons for their generation (a role they had not actively sought), and it seemed they could do no wrong.

Musically, that would usually continue to be the case, but the group's strength began to unravel at a surprisingly quick pace. In August 1967, Brian Epstein -- prone to suicidal depression over the past year -- died of a drug overdose, leaving them without a manager. They pressed on with their next film project, Magical Mystery Tour, directed by themselves; lacking focus or even basic professionalism, the picture bombed when it was premiered on BBC television in December 1967, giving the media the first real chance they'd ever had to roast the Beatles over a flame. (Another film, the animated feature Yellow Submarine, would appear in 1968, although the Beatles had little involvement with the project, either in terms of the movie or the soundtrack.) In early 1968, the Beatles decamped to India for a course in transcendental meditation with the Maharishi; this too became something of a media embarrassment as each of the four would eventually depart the course before its completion.

The Beatles did use their unaccustomed peace in India to compose a wealth of new material. Judged solely on musical merit, the White Album, a double LP released in late 1968, was a triumph. While largely abandoning their psychedelic instruments to return to guitar-based rock, they maintained their whimsical eclecticism, proving themselves masters of everything from blues-rock to vaudeville. As individual songwriters, too, it contains some of their finest work (as does the brilliant non-LP single from this era, "Hey Jude"/"Revolution").

The problem, at least in terms of the group's long-term health, was that these were very much individual songs, as opposed to collective ones. Lennon and McCartney had long composed most of their tunes separately (you can almost always tell the composer by the lead vocalist). But they had always fed off of each other not only to supply missing bits and pieces that would bring a song to completion, but to provide a competitive edge that would bring out the best in the other. McCartney's romantic melodicism and Lennon's more acidic, gritty wit were perfect complements for one another. By the White Album, it was clear (if only in retrospect) that each member was more concerned with his own expression than that of the collective group: a natural impulse, but one that was bound to lead to difficulties.

In addition, George Harrison was becoming a more prolific and skilled composer as well, imbuing his own melodies (which were nearly the equal of those of his more celebrated colleagues) with a cosmic lightness. Harrison was beginning to resent his junior status, and the group began to bicker more openly in the studio. Ringo Starr, whose solid drumming and good nature could usually be counted upon (as was evident in his infrequent lead vocals), actually quit for a couple of weeks in the midst of the White Album sessions (though the media was unaware of this at the time). Personal interests were coming into play as well: Lennon's devotion to romantic and artistic pursuits with his new girlfriend (and soon-to-be wife) Yoko Ono was diverting his attentions from the Beatles. Apple Records, started by the group earlier in 1968 as a sort of utopian commercial enterprise, was becoming a financial and organizational nightmare.

These weren't the ideal conditions under which to record a new album in January 1969, especially when McCartney was pushing the group to return to live performing, although none of the others seemed especially keen on the idea. They did agree to try recording a "back-to-basics," live-in-the-studio-type LP, the sessions being filmed for a television special. That plan almost blew up when Harrison, in the midst of tense arguments, left the group for a few days. Although he returned, the idea of playing live concerts was put on the back burner; Harrison enlisted American soul keyboardist Billy Preston as kind of a fifth member on the sessions, both to beef up the arrangements and to alleviate the uncomfortable atmosphere. Exacerbating the problem was that the Beatles didn't have a great deal of first-class new songs to work with, although some were excellent. In order to provide a suitable concert-like experience for the film, the group did climb the roof of their Apple headquarters in London to deliver an impromptu performance on January 30, 1969, before the police stopped it; this was their last live concert of any sort.

Generally dissatisfied with these early 1969 sessions, the album and film -- at first titled Get Back, and later as Let It Be -- remained in the can as the group tried to figure out how the projects should be mixed, packaged, and distributed. A couple of the best tracks, "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down," were issued as a single in the spring of 1969. By this time, the Beatles' quarrels were intensifying in a dispute over management: McCartney wanted their affairs to be handled by his new father-in-law, Lee Eastman, while the other members of the group favored a tough American businessman, Allen Klein.

It was something of a miracle, then, that the final album recorded by the group, Abbey Road, was one of their most unified efforts (even if, by this time, the musicians were recording many of their parts separately). It certainly boasted some of their most intricate melodies, harmonies, and instrumental arrangements; it also heralded the arrival of Harrison as a composer of equal talent to Lennon and McCartney, as George wrote the album's two most popular tunes, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun." The Beatles were still progressing, but it turned out to be the end of the road, as their business disputes continued to magnify. Lennon, who had begun releasing solo singles and performing with friends as the Plastic Ono Band, threatened to resign in late 1969, although he was dissuaded from making a public announcement.

Most of the early 1969 tapes remained unreleased, partially because the footage for the planned television broadcast of these sessions was now going to be produced as a documentary movie. The accompanying soundtrack album, Let It Be, was delayed so that its release could coincide with that of the film. Lennon, Harrison, and Allen Klein decided to have celebrated American producer Phil Spector record some additional instrumentation and do some mixing. Thus the confusion that persists among most rock listeners to this day: Let It Be, although the last Beatles album to be released, was not the last one to be recorded. Abbey Road should actually be considered the Beatles' last album; most of the material on Let It Be, including the title track (which would be the last single released while the group was still together), was recorded several months before the Abbey Road sessions began in earnest, and a good 15 months or so before its May 1970 release.

By that time, the Beatles were no more. In fact, there had been no recording done by the group as a unit since August 1969, and each member of the band had begun to pursue serious outside professional interests independently with the Plastic Ono Band, Harrison's tour with Delaney & Bonnie, Starr's starring role in the Magic Christian film, and McCartney's first solo album. The outside world for the most part remained almost wholly unaware of the seriousness of the group's friction, making it a devastating shock for much of the world's youth when McCartney announced that he was leaving the Beatles on April 10, 1970. (The "announcement" was actually contained in a press release for his new album, in which his declaration of his intention to work on his own effectively served as a notice of his departure.)

The final blow, apparently, was the conflict between the release dates of Let It Be and McCartney's debut solo album. The rest of the group asked McCartney to delay his release until after Let It Be; McCartney refused and, for good measure, was distressed by Spector's post-production work on Let It Be, particularly the string overdubs on "The Long and Winding Road," which became a posthumous Beatles single that spring. Although McCartney received much of the blame for the split, it should be remembered that he had done more than any other member to keep the group going since Epstein's death, and that each of the other Beatles had threatened to leave well before McCartney's departure. With hindsight, the breakup seemed inevitable in view of their serious business disagreements and the growth of their individual interests.

As bitter as the initial headlines were to swallow, the feuding would grow much worse over the next few years. At the end of 1970, McCartney sued the rest of the Beatles in order to dissolve their partnership; the battle dragged through the courts for years, scotching any prospects of a group reunion. In any case, each member of the band quickly established a viable solo career. In fact, at the outset it could have been argued that the artistic effects of the split were in some ways beneficial, freeing Lennon and Harrison to make their most uncompromising artistic statements (Plastic Ono Band and All Things Must Pass). George's individual talents in particular received acclaim that had always eluded him when he was overshadowed by Lennon-McCartney. Paul had a much rougher time with the critics, but continued to issue a stream of hit singles, hitting a commercial and critical jackpot at the end of 1973 with the massively successful Band on the Run. Ringo did not have the songwriting acumen to compete on the same level as the others, yet he too had quite a few big hit singles in the early '70s, often benefiting from the assistance of his former bandmates.

Yet within a short time, it became apparent both that the Beatles were not going to settle their differences and reunite, and that their solo work could not compare with what they were capable of creating together. The stereotype has it that the split allowed each of them to indulge in their worst tendencies to their extremes: Lennon in agit-pop, Harrison in holier-than-thou mysticism, McCartney in cutesy pop, Starr in easy listening rock. There's a good deal of truth in this, but it's also important to bear in mind that what was missing the most was a sense of group interaction. The critical party line often champions Lennon as the angry, realist rocker and McCartney as the melodic balladeer, but this is a fallacy: each of them was capable, in roughly equal measures, of ballsy all-out rock and sweet romanticism. What is not in dispute is that they sparked each other to reach heights that they could not attain on their own.

Despite periodic rumors of reunions throughout the '70s, no group projects came close to materializing. It should be added that the Beatles themselves continued to feud to some degree, and from all evidence weren't seriously interested in working together as a unit. Any hopes of a reunion vanished when Lennon was assassinated in New York City in December 1980. The Beatles continued their solo careers throughout the '80s, but their releases became less frequent, and their commercial success gradually diminished as listeners without first-hand memories of the combo created their own idols.

The popularity of the Beatles, however, proved eternal. In part, this is because the group's 1970 split effectively short-circuited the prospects of artistic decline; the body of work that was preserved was uniformly strong. However, it's also because, like any great works of art, the Beatles' records carried an ageless magnificence that continues to captivate new generations of listeners. So it is that Beatles records continue to be heard on radio in heavy rotation, continue to sell in massive quantities, and continue to be covered and quoted by rock and pop artists through the present day.

Legal wrangles at Apple prevented the official issue of previously unreleased Beatles material for over two decades (although much of it was frequently bootlegged). The situation finally changed in the '90s, after McCartney, Harrison, Starr, and Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, settled their principal business disagreements. In 1994, this resulted in a double CD of BBC sessions from the early and mid-'60s (a second volume followed nearly two decades later). The following year, a much more ambitious project was undertaken: a multi-part film documentary, broadcast on network television in 1995, and then released (with double the length) for the home video market in 1996, with the active participation of the surviving Beatles.

To coincide with the Anthology documentary, three double-CDs of previously unreleased/rare material were issued in 1995 and 1996. Additionally, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr (with some assistance from Jeff Lynne) embellished a couple of John Lennon demos from the '70s with overdubs to create two new tracks ("Free as a Bird" and "Real Love") that were billed as actual Beatles recordings. Whether this constituted the actual long-awaited "reunion" is the subject of much debate. Certainly these cuts were hardly classics on par with the music the group made in the '60s. Some fans, even diehards, were inclined to view the whole Anthology project as a distinctly '90s marketing exercise that maximized the mileage of whatever could be squeezed from the Beatles' vaults. If nothing else, though, the massive commercial success of outtakes that had, after all, been recorded 25 to 30 years ago, spoke volumes about the unabated appeal and fascination the Beatles continue to exert worldwide.

That fascination didn't fade in the new millennium. At the dawn of the 2000s, the Beatles released 1, a compilation of the 27 number one singles the group charted in the United Kingdom and United States. 1 was a runaway success, topping the charts around the world. It remained at number one for several weeks in the U.K. and U.S. (nine and eight, respectively), and continued to be a strong catalog item for years. By the end of the 2000s, it had sold over 31 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest album of the decade.

George Harrison died of lung cancer on November 29, 2001, leaving Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as the only surviving Beatles. The first Beatles project to arrive after Harrison's death was 2003's Let It Be... Naked, a revision of the original 1970 album that stripped away Phil Spector's string arrangements and shuffled the track order. Next up was LOVE, a collaboration with the Cirque du Soleil dance troupe. The stage revue, based in Las Vegas, was accompanied by an ambitious remix album produced by George Martin and his son Giles; the soundtrack was another significant international success, going double platinum in several countries, including the U.S. and U.K. In 2009, the Beatles reissued their original catalog in new remastered editions, highlighted by two separate box sets containing their complete works in stereo and in mono (although the latter did not contain their last two studio albums); in 2012, the stereo remasters were released on vinyl. In 2010, the Beatles catalog made its digital debut. In 2013, the long-awaited second volume of BBC recordings, On Air: Live at the BBC, Vol. 2, was released. Not long afterward, the digital-only The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963 presented unreleased material from 1963, including studio outtakes and BBC performances. In 2014, all of the group's American Capitol albums from the '60s were released as the box set The U.S. Albums. The following year saw a reissue of 1, containing new stereo mixes by Giles Martin, along with 5.1 mixes and a DVD/Blu-ray containing the first commercial release of the Beatles' promotional films. In 2016, the Beatles' years as a touring band became the subject of a Ron Howard documentary called Eight Days a Week; its release was accompanied by the first-ever CD reissue of Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

The 50th Anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 2017 was marked with a deluxe reissue containing a new stereo remix by Giles Martin and a host of unreleased alternate takes. The next year, the Beatles received a similar deluxe edition, which included the first-ever official release of the Esher demos where Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison sketched out the songs that would become the White Album. In 2019, the Beatles celebrated the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road with a deluxe reissue containing a new stereo mix by Giles Martin and two discs of outtakes.

Director Peter Jackson revisited the original Let It Be film footage and audio tapes for The Beatles: Get Back, a multi-part documentary released in November 2022. Capturing the Beatles at work in the studio as they wrote and recorded Let It Be, The Beatles: Get Back upended the conventional wisdom surrounding the sessions and received considerable acclaim, including winning five Emmys. The documentary was accompanied by a deluxe reissue of Let It Be that featured the first official release of Get Back, the version of the album assembled by producer Glyn Johns. After wrapping up the Let It Be sessions, it was back to the mid-'60s for a Super Deluxe Edition of Revolver, featuring alternate takes and working versions of many of the album's songs.

During the making of Get Back, Peter Jackson's team developed a machine language technology that allowed them to isolate individual audio tracks from the murkiest source material. The procedure allowed Giles Martin to remix early mono Beatles recordings for a remixed and expanded 50th anniversary version of 1962-1966, which was accompanied by a similarly revised 1967-1970. More dramatically, the technology allowed McCartney and Starr to complete "Now and Then," a John Lennon demo they attempted to build into a full Beatles reunion track during the Anthology sessions in the '90s. McCartney played the lion's share of the instruments on "Now and Then" and produced the track alongside Giles Martin. Billed as "the last Beatles song," "Now and Then" appeared in early November 2023 as a single and also as part of the revised 1967-1970. ~ Richie Unterberger

How are ratings calculated?

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Magical Mystery Tour

Though wedged between the comparatively giant Sgt. Pepper’s and 1968’s White Album, Magical Mystery Tour nevertheless played a part in The Beatles' story, and put a cap on a year in which the band made yet more music nobody was totally prepared for them to make. The album was released as a companion to a meandering, band-directed movie, and its first half is probably one of the lowest-stakes sides in the band’s catalogue—a relief, in a way, from how high-stakes their music had become. Still, this was The Beatles in 1967—momentum was strong. What had started out as a string of acid playground rhymes turned into Lennon’s angriest song this side of 1970 (“I Am the Walrus”), while McCartney’s simple sentimentality had taken on a quality that felt stoic, almost abstract (“The Fool on the Hill”). There was a rare instrumental (“Flying”), a foggy Harrison drone (“Blue Jay Way”), and an invocation of the past by McCartney that blurred lines between sweet and eerie (“Your Mother Should Know”). While the band had helped rechristen the album format as an artistic statement unto itself, they were still releasing singles—as in tracks that weren’t associated with any album. Designed primarily as a consumer service, the second half of Magical Mystery Tour collected what they’d offered in 1967. The yin-yang of McCartney’s “Penny Lane” and Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” (originally released on the same 7-inch record) arguably says more about what ground the band covered in seven minutes than any other two songs in their catalogue—the former baroque, charming, and upbeat; the latter dense and melancholy—variations on a theme of seemingly simple pasts refracted, dreamlike, through the present. And if “I Am the Walrus” was Lennon’s dark foray into contradiction and surreality, McCartney’s “Hello, Goodbye” was its bright counterpart. “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” probably doesn’t get the credit it deserves. “All You Need Is Love,” debuted to an estimated 400 million people in the world’s first live international satellite TV production (Our World), did receive wide acclaim, and while cynicism and embarrassment about 1967’s Summer of Love would set in as soon as a few years later, it probably deserves more. As for the movie that gave the album its name, press coverage of it was so uniformly hostile (not to mention viewer feedback to the BBC switchboard so sustained) that McCartney went on the BBC the day after it first aired to defuse the tension. Asked why he thought people didn’t like it, McCartney said he wasn’t sure—he liked it fine.

November 27, 1967 12 Songs, 40 minutes This Compilation ℗ 2009 Calderstone Productions Limited (a division of Universal Music Group)

Music Videos

The Beatles

Audio Extras

Exploring the origins of the classic on John Lennon’s birthday.

More By The Beatles

Featured on.

Apple Music Rock

Apple Music Pop

Apple Music

Africa, Middle East, and India

• Côte d’Ivoire
• Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The
• Guinea-Bissau
• Niger (English)
• Congo, Republic of
• Saudi Arabia
• Sierra Leone
• South Africa
• Tanzania, United Republic Of
• Turkmenistan
• United Arab Emirates

Asia Pacific

• Indonesia (English)
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Malaysia (English)
• Micronesia, Federated States of
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Solomon Islands
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• France (Français)
• Deutschland
• Luxembourg (English)
• Moldova, Republic Of
• North Macedonia
• Portugal (Português)
• Türkiye (English)
• United Kingdom

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina (Español)
• Bolivia (Español)
• Virgin Islands, British
• Cayman Islands
• Chile (Español)
• Colombia (Español)
• Costa Rica (Español)
• República Dominicana
• Ecuador (Español)
• El Salvador (Español)
• Guatemala (Español)
• Honduras (Español)
• Nicaragua (Español)
• Paraguay (Español)
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• St. Vincent and The Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turks and Caicos
• Uruguay (English)
• Venezuela (Español)

The United States and Canada

• Canada (English)
• Canada (Français)
• United States
• Estados Unidos (Español México)
• الولايات المتحدة
• États-Unis (Français France)
• Estados Unidos (Português Brasil)
• 美國 (繁體中文台灣)