Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine

In the introductory pages of my last published book, The Beatles Finally Let It Be, I paraphrased the ending of the James Bond films from the sixties by stating that "The Beatles Album Series Shall Return..." When I wrote those words, I thought I knew what book would be next, but when travel restrictions were imposed due to Covid 19, I needed to work on a book that I could research from home.

I quickly determined that there was a lot of information on the Beatles' activities during 1967 and 1968 that was available online. That led me to switch plans and produce a book covering Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine. As the songs for both projects were recorded after Sgt. Pepper and before The White Album, the pairing seemed quite natural, particularly since the four new Beatles songs appearing on the Yellow Submarine album would have made for a very small book!

You will notice that, unlike the first four books published in the Beatles Album Series, the British section precedes the American section. The previous books covered albums that were essentially the same in both countries, so I started with the American records because they were the ones I grew up with and because the United States was the Beatles' biggest market. For this book, I started with England because the Capitol Magical Mystery Tour LP was an expansion of the British EP.

When I get around to the remaining books in the series, which will cover the Beatles albums released before 1967, they will also start with the British perspective followed by what went on in America.