Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulysses
Erm, that's not quite true is it? Whilst I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, I think there were only a couple of tunes recorded during the time that Sgt Pepper was being recorded that turned up elsewhere: 'Only a Northern Song' and 'Magical Mystery Tour' itself, both from April 1967. The next Magical Mystery Tour tune that was recorded was 'Your Mother Should Know' and that wasn't recorded until after Sgt Pepper was actually released.
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You're right... mostly.
There are five songs that appeared on the U.S. version
Magical Mystery Tour that originally were singles that were recorded at various sessions in 1966 and 1967 and released at different dates in 1967.
Here's the correct cronological order of the recording and release dates of the Beatle's 1967 catalog:
- Strawberry Fields Forever was recorded in November 1967 shortly before Sgt. Pepper's sessions were convened. It was released as a single on February 13 1967.
- Penny Lane was recorded in December 1966 and released on the B side of Strawberry Fields Forever on February 13, 1967. There's some overlap in session dates and it's not that clear if Penny Lane was recorded before or during the Sgt. Pepper's sessions. But Penny Lane was released for months prior to the appearance of Sgt. Pepper's.
- The songs on Sgt. Peppers were recorded between Dec. 1966 and April 1967 and released on June 1, 1967.
- Baby You're A Rich Man was recorded May 11 1967 and released on July 7 1967. It was released as the B Side of the single All You Need Is Love.
- All You Need Is Love was recorded on June 25, 1967 and released on July 7th, 1967.
- Hello Goodbye was recorded in Oct/Nov 1967 and released on November 24, 1967.
- The actual six song soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour was recorded between between November 4 and November 24 and released as a full album in the USA on November 27, 1967. In the UK, Magical Mystery Tour wasn't released as a full album, but instead was released on December 8, 1967 as a six song EP with only the soundtrack to the film. British audience got I am the Walrus, Fool on the Hill, Bluejay Way, Magical Mystery Tour, Your Mother Should Know and Flying on an EP without the hit singles. Hello Goodbye played during the closing credits of Magical Mystery Tour but wasn't included in the British EP. Presumably, UK fans were expected to buy the single of Hello Goodbye which was released two weeks prior to the the UK release of Magical Mystery Tour EP. American audiences got the better deal.
My confusion had to do with the editing delays on
Magical Mystery Tour. The hour long film was shown on schedule on December 26th 1967 on British television.
Magical Mystery Tour got such horrendous reviews by the British press that the Beatles decided to extensively edit the film before releasing it in America. That editing process went on for almost a year as American Beatles fans waited eagerly for the American release of
Magical Mystery Tour. Eventually the Beatles scrapped the editing project and
Magical Mystery Tour wasn't shown in America until well after the Beatles' break up.
Those editing delays are what really confused me about the recording dates of nearly all the songs recorded in 1967, although the editing of the film was actually irrelevant to the recording dates of the songs on the soundtrack of
Magical Mystery Tour.
I've been wrong before and I'm glad when somebody is astute enough to call me out on mistakes. Most my posts on MB aren't fact check or reviewed by an editor and I don't posess total recall as some folks do. I know quite a bit about the Beatles but there are quite a few people on MB that have far more expertise on their music than I do. Historical accuracy in reporting is important no matter what the subject is and I'll stand by that statement even when I'm wrong.