Next on Vinyl Monday...Magical Mystery Tour, Side 2

What can be said about The Beatles that hasn't already been said a few hundred thousand times? Here's my take one of my favorite albums of theirs, which we'll feature Monday Morning at 9a on Vinyl Monday:

1967 was a pivotal year in many ways, especially in music. The Beatles made such a huge splash with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that it's easy to forget about that year's other release: Magical Mystery Tour.

It started life as a double EP in England, the six-song soundtrack to an English TV Special the band produced after Pepper's. For the US release, it was fattened into a full-length LP with some of the band's most recent non-album singles: all hits, and all on side two. They (Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever, Baby You're A Rich Man, and All You Need Is Love) represent the band at an amazing creative point, in the shadows of a legendary album from earlier in the year.

Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields were actually left off Sgt. Pepper's, recorded at the beginning of those sessions earlier in '67, and their deletion from the Pepper's lineup was a decision producer George Martin had regretted. Rich Man was the first song written for the upcoming Yellow Submarine cartoon, and All You Need was the anchor of the band's famous Our World satellite broadcast that served as an anthem for the up and coming flower-power movement. It also featured Mick & Keith from the Stones, Ketih Moon from The Who, Eric Clapton, and many others. Side two began with Hello, Goodbye, which was McCartney's point-counterpoint to Lennon's I Am The Walrus that had wrapped up side one.

Eventually, there was an English album that mirrored the run-list from the American album.

It can be argued that this album, and not The White Album that followed it, shows the band at their absolute creative peak, still hvaing plenty of gas in the tank after Sgt. Pepper's and before the fights and arguments that plagued their last three years together. 1967 was arguably their year, despite strong work from The Who, The Stones, even The Beach Boys that year.

Side Two:

Hello, Goodbye

Strawberry Fields Forever

Penny Lane

Baby You're A Rich Man

All You Need Is Love