The Beatles Story is celebrating 50 years since the release of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film with the launch of an exciting new exhibit!
Magical Mystery Tour was first aired on British television on Boxing Day (December 26) 1967, as a 52-minute-long, largely improvised, surreal comedy film featuring the Fab Four and other guests.
Paul McCartney wanted to create a film based upon the group and their music, in which various “ordinary” people were to travel on a coach and take a journey of spontaneous “magical” adventures.
The film was poorly received by critics and audiences at the time, but the soundtrack, which included six new Beatles songs, released in the UK as an EP on 8th December 1967, was a huge success, held only off the top spot by the band’s own single, ‘Hello, Goodbye’.
The EP format was not considered viable in the US, so instead Capitol Records created an album by placing the six songs from the EP on side one and adding the band’s 1967 singles onto the other. The soundtrack spent eight weeks at number one in the US album charts and was nominated album of the year in 1968.
1967 had certainly been a year of great achievement for The Beatles, considered by many to be at their most creative with the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in February, but it was also a year of sadness for the Liverpool band. Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager, passed away on 27th August 1967 at the age of 32, which delayed filming for Magical Mystery Tour and threw the band into uncertain times.
This exciting new exhibit opens at The Beatles Story 50 years to the day of the soundtrack’s UK release (8th December), and features revealing information, facts and figures about the Magical Mystery Tour film and soundtrack.
Visitors will also be able to view parts of film through the window of a replica tour bus. It will become a permanent fixture within the attraction’s Main Exhibition located on the UNESCO World heritage site at the Albert Dock, Liverpool.
The Magical Mystery Tour film and soundtrack are available to purchase in multiple formats from our Fab4 Store, the perfect way to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary this Christmas.
To visit Liverpool’s leading Beatles’ attraction, visitors can book online.
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It turned out to be a wacky, impromptu romp that puzzled a few people at the time but as the years have gone by it now stands as a fond reminder of that period in our lives.
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