Волшебное таинственное путешествие: История песни The Beatles

"Magical Mystery Tour" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles and the title track to the December 1967 television film of the same name. It was released on the band's Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack record, which was a double EP in Britain and most markets but an album in America, where Capitol Records supplemented the new songs with tracks issued on the Beatles' 1967 singles. The song was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The Beatles recorded the track in April and May 1967, soon after completing work on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and several months before committing to make the Magical Mystery Tour film. The song serves as an introduction to the audience, in the style of McCartney's opening title track to Sgt. Pepper, and includes ringmaster calls, a trumpet fanfare and traffic sounds.

"Magical Mystery Tour" is credited to Lennon–McCartney, although written primarily by Paul McCartney. McCartney said it was co written by the pair. John Lennon said, "Paul's song. Maybe I did part of it, but it was his concept." In 1972, Lennon said, "Paul [wrote it]. I helped with some of the lyric." According to Hunter Davies' contemporary account of the recording sessions for the song, McCartney arrived with the chord structure but only the opening refrain ("Roll up / Roll up for the mystery tour"). McCartney asked Mal Evans, the Beatles' assistant and former road manager, to search local bus stations for posters with text that could be adapted for the song, in the manner of Lennon's "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" When Evans was unsuccessful, a brainstorming discussion took place in the studio the following day to complete the lyrics. The lyrics explain in a general way the premise of the film: a charabanc mystery tour of the type that was popular in Britain when the Beatles were young. McCartney said that he and Lennon expanded the tour to make it magical, which allowed it to be "a little more surreal than the real ones", and that the song was "very much in our fairground period". There are also interpretations of the lyric as an explicit reference to drugs, since the Beatles were experimenting with acid in those years. McCartney himself said about the song:

The first session for "Magical Mystery Tour" took place at EMI Studios in London on 25 April 1967, less than a week after the final sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Since the song was not complete, much of the time was spent rehearsing before the group attempted a recording. Three takes were required to achieve a basic track, with a line up comprising McCartney on piano, Lennon on acoustic guitar, George Harrison on lead guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums. During reduction mixing of this performance, flanging effect was added to Harrison's guitar part and to the piano over the song's coda. On 26 April, McCartney overdubbed his bass guitar part and the four band members, together with Evans and Neil Aspinall, added percussion such as maracas, tambourine, cowbell and extra drums; Lennon, McCartney and Harrison then taped heavily echoed, vocalised shouts. The following night, McCartney added his lead vocal while Lennon and Harrison sang backing vocals, including the "Roll up / Roll up for the mystery tour" lines. The backing vocals were recorded at a far slower speed so that the voices sounded higher when the tape speed was corrected. On 3 May, a brass fanfare and other trumpet parts were added in a disorganised session where the four trumpet players, including David Mason and Elgar Howarth, began the evening without a score. According to Philip Jones, a friend of the session players, they became so impatient at the lack of activity that Howarth wrote out the score himself. A glockenspiel part was also overdubbed over the coda. In author Ian MacDonald's description, the slow progress on the recording was indicative of the Beatles' drug intake during this period and, in the case of Lennon and Harrison, their disinterest in McCartney's film project at the time. The band committed to making Magical Mystery Tour in early September, after the death of their manager, Brian Epstein. The sessions for the soundtrack music ended on 7 November, when McCartney recorded a new barker style introduction for "Magical Mystery Tour" and traffic sounds were added. The tape loop of traffic sounds was taken from a recording made on a bridge overlooking the M1 motorway and mixed to pan across the stereo image. The spoken introduction replaced an effort by Lennon, which was nevertheless retained in the version heard in the film. The latter version, which includes Lennon promising "the trip of a lifetime", in the middle of the track, also had additional applause and different bus sounds. Although he did not participate in the song, The Moody Blues member Mike Pinder recalls being in the studio, just a few feet away from the microphone, during the recording of the vocal intro ("Roll up! Roll up! ").

"Magical Mystery Tour" was released as the title track to a six song double EP in the United Kingdom on 8 December 1967. It was the first example of a double EP in Britain. The format was chosen over a single disc EP playing at 33⅓ rpm because the Beatles were unwilling to accept the loss of audio fidelity inherent in the latter option. In the United States, the double EP was stretched to an LP by adding five songs previously released as singles. Although Billboard magazine announced that the US release was to take place in mid December, the album was issued on 27 November. The song plays over the opening scene in the Magical Mystery Tour film, which was broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on 26 December, and as a reprise at the end. Although the television film was savaged by critics, earning the Beatles their first public and critical failure, the soundtrack record was highly successful. With regard to the unusual format, Nick Logan of the NME referred to it as "the Beatles' new six track EP, mini LP or extended single, whatever you like to call it!" In the UK, it peaked at number 2 on the singles chart compiled by Record Retailer (later adopted as the UK Singles Chart) while the band's "Hello, Goodbye" held the top position. The EP was number 1 on Melody Makers singles chart, demoting "Hello, Goodbye" for a week. The song itself reached number two on Sweden's Tio i Topp chart. "Magical Mystery Tour" later appeared on the Beatles' 1973 greatest hits compilation 1967–1970 and their 1982 themed compilation Reel Music. During the CD era, the LP version of Magical Mystery Tour was issued on CD in all markets.

The song was featured in the 2023 film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, in which the title character is awoken by the song being loudly played by his neighbours.

In 1976, the American band Ambrosia covered "Magical Mystery Tour" for All This and World War II, a film that set new recordings of 30 Lennon–McCartney compositions to newsreel footage from World War II. The song appears at the start of the film, accompanied by footage of German cavalry advancing into Poland in September 1939. Released as a single in the US, Ambrosia's version peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has also been covered by Cheap Trick, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, and Don Latarski. McCartney performed "Magical Mystery Tour" throughout his 1993 New World Tour. A live version from the tour was included on his album Paul Is Live and in the accompanying concert film, directed by Aubrey Powell.