“You’ve got everything you need … satisfaction guaranteed” …

Fifty-one years ago today those lyrics (above) blasted out of record players and radios across America with the release of The Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour” album on Capitol Records.

In the UK and other parts of the world the songs from Magical Mystery Tour (a one hour TV special by The Beatles broadcast only in the UK in December of 1967) were released in a double E.P. (extended play) set.

Seeing as how E.P.’s sold poorly in the U.S. Capitol decided to gather all the Magical Mystery Tour songs on one side of an Lp and then place all The Beatles 1967 singles which hadn’t been released on an album on the other side.

In celebration of the 51st anniversary of the release of the Capitol album I thought it might be fun to take a look at the Deluxe “Magical Mystery Tour” (Blu-Ray, DVD and E.P.) set that came out in 2012.

This set really focuses on the UK perspective of the film and music as the original UK E.P. set is included in a lovely repressed version as well as a nifty transfer of the TV film (on both Blu-Ray and DVD) along with out-takes from the special and a nice oversized booklet telling about the making of the film and music.

While Magical Mystery Tour has never been my favorite Beatles films, it does have its charms and the musical sequences are first rate! The transfer on the Blu-Ray and DVD is quite good as well and probably the best this film will ever look.

For anyone interested in a “Magical Mystery” fix and have never seen the film this box set (which is still available) is a great way to experience the weirdness and great music from this rather strange Beatles odyssey from 1967.

The excellent sounding repressed double E.P. in the box is in mono by the way and features the 2009 mono transfers of the “Magical Mystery Tour” songs.

While not quite as fun a listen as the Capitol album (which is now officially part of The Beatles canon worldwide) this set is a blast and a great way to experience the film and music as they originally came out in Britain.

If you want a glimpse of how well done this set is just check some of the photos above. I love the small size of the set and everything was done with great taste and looks and sounds terrific!

Until next time and more music collecting adventures be well and … Roll up!