Reprise » My Only and One: Magical Mystery Tour

With this month’s release of The Beatles U.S. albums by Capitol Records and my ongoing re-appreciation of the group’s library of songs, I’ve decided to reprise a series arc from the archives. Each a short post of the British albums on The Lads official list.

From these, in the order as they are in 2009’s remastered stereo set, I’ll list their songs from the spotlighted album and pick two:

• the only – if I could only listen to one track, the best song that exemplifies the album, it would be this number
• the one – if I could pick a single tune that doesn’t get either the play or the credit it deserves, it’s this one

Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour
The Fool On The Hill
Flying
Blue Jay Way
Your Mother Should Know
I Am The Walrus
Hello, Goodbye
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Baby You’re A Rich Man
All You Need Is Love

My thoughts about the album cover art aside, in 1967 The Beatles wrote and directed a TV film for a BBC broadcast at Christmas. For its American release, Magical Mystery Tour included the six songs from the British EP soundtrack on one side, and paired with singles on the other. The latter U.S. configuration eventually incorporated as official in their discography.

My Only: I Am The Walrus. For this trippy album — and I concentrated on the original songs specifically for the one hour British TV program — I’ve selected this hallucinatory and demented track by John Lennon. Brimming with audio layers, sound effects, and phantasmal vocals throughout, it is one of a kind. It’s the perfect example of their work in the short film, and the psychedelic late-60s.

My One: Baby You’re A Rich Man. Just about the whole B-side of the album was released as a hit single. Hello, Goodbye, Strawberry Fields Forever, an All You Need Is Love. And I daresay Penny Lane is heard more now on Oldies radio than back then. Yet, it’s this other Lennon tune, especially its distinctive clavioline, that truly marked Baby You’re A Rich Man as the one that needs more play today.

What would be your Only and One for this album?

The entire series can be found here.