Roll up . . . . . 

On this day in music history: November 27, 1967 - “Magical Mystery Tour” by The Beatles is released in the US (UK release date is on December 8, 1967). Produced by George Martin, it is recorded at Abbey Road Studios and Olympic Studios in London from April 25 - November 7, 1967. The album serves as the soundtrack to an hour long film shown on the BBC on December 26, 1967. After receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews following its UK airing, plans for broadcast in the US are immediately canceled. While the record is issued in the UK as a six track double EP, it is released in the US as an eleven track LP duplicating the picture book included with the EP, except blown up to 12 x 12 size. The US LP also includes the A and B sides of all of the band’s singles released during 1967. It is the last Beatles album to be issued with separate mono and stereo mixes in the US, with the mono LP being pressed in small quantities, it becomes a rare and sought after collector’s item in later years. Three of the albums’ five songs “Penny Lane”, “Baby You’re A Rich Man”, and “All You Need Is Love” are originally presented on the original US pressing in “duophonic” re-channelled stereo since none of these had been mixed into true stereo at the time. Between 1969 and 1971, stereo mixes for these tracks are made and first surface on the German EMI release of the album in 1971. The US version of the LP is finally released in the UK in 1976 after years of strong import sales. The rare US mono version of the album makes its CD debut in September of 2009 on the “Beatles In Mono” box set, replicating the original vinyl LP artwork (in a mini LP gatefold jacket), with the vinyl being reissued in September of 2014. “Magical Mystery Tour” spends eight weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 200, and is certified 6x Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

This film meant a great deal to me and still does! It was actually broadcast twice over the Christmas break in the UK after it was inadvertently broadcast in Black & white it was then re-shown the following day in full colour. I loved it and would have enjoyed anything I guess put out by the 'boys' but I still rate it and found it hilarious not least for who it included (a live long fan of Ivor Cutler! for example) for me it was a generational thing and if you didn't 'get it' clearly you were square!

thanks to the most excellent Jeff Harris' blog 'Behind The Grooves