Running Time: 55 minutes

Release Date: December 26, 1967

Producer: The Beatles

Director: The Beatles

Starring: The Beatles, Jessie Robbins, Ivor Cutler, Derek Royle, Mandy Weet, Victor Spinetti

Availability: Video Cassette, Laserdisc, DVD

The summer of love, 1967, brought the Beatles return to film making with Magical Mystery Tour. This film follows the Beatles and an oddly assorted cast on a "magical" coach trip throughout the English countryside. The film begins with Ringo buying tickets for himself and his Aunt Jessie (Jessie Robbins). After they board the bus, the Magical Mystery Tour begins. The unique stops of the bus are intertwined with several rare performances of Beatle songs such as "I am the Walrus" and "The Fool on the Hill."

The British soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour was released as an extended EP (sleeve pictured above, left) on December 8, 1967, on the Parlophone label. The track listing for this EP is as follows:

Magical Mystery Tour, Your Mother Should Know, I Am The Walrus, The Fool On The Hill, Flying, Blue Jay Way

The U.S. soundtrack for Magical Mystery Tour (pictured above, right) was released on November 27, 1967 on the Capitol Records label. The track listing for this LP are as follows:

Side 1: Magical Mystery Tour, The Fool On The Hill, Blue Jay Way, Your Mother Should Know, I Am The Walrus

Side 2: Hello, Goodbye, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Baby You're A Rich Man, All You Need Is Love

Paul: "...when we did Magical Mystery Tour, for instance, I ended up kind of directing it, even though we said, well, the Beatles had directed it at the end. Just 'cause I was there most of the time and all the late night chats with the cameramen about what we were going to do tomorrow would tend to be me more than the others..."

George: "It was Paul's idea. It was basically a Schauerbang trip which people used to go on from Liverpool to see the Blackpool lights. And they'd get, you know, loads of crates of beer and an accordion player and all get pissed, basically, pissed in the English sense meaning drunk, and you just go to see Blackpool lights. And it was kind of like that, it was a very flimsy kind of thing..."

John: "...and he came and showed me what his idea was, and this is how it went around like this, the story, and it had all, I think, production, and he said here's a segment, you write a little piece for that..."

Ringo: "In my brain it was Paul's idea. He came with a piece of paper. It was just a great way we used to work."

Paul: "I'm not sure, uh, it could've been mine, I'm not sure whether I wanna (laughs) take the blame for it, you know. Umm, we were all in on it, but a lot of that stuff at that time could've been my ideas 'cause I was coming up with a lot of, sort of concepts, like, you know, Sgt. Pepper, we could pretend to not be..and I'm not saying it was my album, obviously we all worked on all the stuff, but I was coming up with a lot of ideas."

Ringo: "Now I remember Paul saying, you know, 'cause to get the actors we looked through that actors book, the Spotlight or whatever, uh 'we need someone like that and someone like that,' and we needed the large lady as my auntie 'cause I was gonna play this person with this auntie.."

Paul: "We knew we weren't doing a regular film. We were doing a crazy, rolly polly sixties film, where I am the walrus and you are the...and I just wandered off to France and did that 'Fool on the Hill' stuff just one morning with a couple of mates, you know, it wasn't quite union.."

George: "I remember quite a bit of it, really, in the big hangar down in Kent. We were driving around this air field in the Mini Cooper, your mother should know. That was quite interesting, I quite enjoyed that...But, you see, there was alywas good songs, there's a couple of good songs and there was a few funny scenes. I mean, the scene that to me that stands out is the one of John shoveling the spaghetti on the fat woman's plate. I mean, that was the best bit of the movie for me."

Paul: "That was an actual dream he'd had. And so he'd come in and said, 'Hey, I had this wild dream last night, I'd like to do it. I'm a waiter...' you know, so we just put them in, you know, and it was very haphazard. You know, looking back on it, it's how you learn kind of thing, by your mistakes...but I think, you know, in the end it came out, I think it's quite interesting now, looking back on it as a period piece. And people like Spielberg, 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. But of course, we then released it and got it shown on the BBC on Boxing Day."

Ringo: "...and of course they showed it in black and white and so it was hated. Now they all had their chance then to say, 'They've gone too far! Who do they think they are?! What does it all mean?' So that was really slated, but of course, when people started seeing it in color, they realized that it was a lot of fun. Especially that aerial ballet shot. You know, we went all over Iceland and sent a guy out filming."

Paul: "I think we thought it was okay. I mean, looking back on it, I think we were quite pleased with it. At the time, it was alright, you know, it wasn't the greatest thing we'd ever done. I defend it on the lines that nowhere else do you see a performance of 'I am the Walrus.' That's the only performance ever. So things like that, I think, are enough to make it an interesting film."