McCartney asked Mal Evans, the Beatles' assistant and former road manager, to search local bus stations for posters with text that could be adapted for the song, in the manner of Lennon's "Being for the Benefit of Mr.

[15] In author Ian MacDonald's description, the slow progress on the recording was indicative of the Beatles' drug intake during this period and, in the case of Lennon and Harrison, their disinterest in McCartney's film project at the time.

The sessions for the soundtrack music ended on 7 November, when McCartney recorded a new barker-style introduction for "Magical Mystery Tour" and traffic sounds were added.

[17] The tape loop of traffic sounds was taken from a recording made on a bridge overlooking the M1 motorway[10] and mixed to pan across the stereo image.

[15][nb 2] Although he did not participate in the song, The Moody Blues member Mike Pinder recalls being in the studio, just a few feet away from the microphone, during the recording of the vocal intro ("Roll up!

[22][23] The format was chosen over a single-disc EP playing at 33⅓ rpm because the Beatles were unwilling to accept the loss of audio fidelity inherent in the latter option.

[28] The song plays over the opening scene in the Magical Mystery Tour film, which was broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on 26 December,[29] and as a reprise at the end.

[11] With regard to the unusual format, Nick Logan of the NME referred to it as "the Beatles' new six-track EP, mini-LP or extended single, whatever you like to call it!

There's a lot of rollicking "Sergeant Pepper"-type roll and swing about this one, with an almost Herb Alpert trumpet in the background and a piano break ... We fade out to tinkling bells and what sounds like the clatter of milk bottles.

[33] In Melody Maker, Bob Dawbarn cited the sound quality of the EP as an example of why singles should be available in stereo in the UK, and he described "Magical Mystery Tour" as "a massive storming piece with Paul singing lead over a tom-tom beat.

"[42] Hit Parader's reviewer said that the soundtrack showed the Beatles extending their supremacy over "80 scillion other groups" and displaying a self-discipline in their arrangements and production that was absent on the Rolling Stones' new album, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Pepper unfavourably,[44] Richard Goldstein of The New York Times complained that the Beatles were once more relying on studio artifice at the expense of true rock values and were over-focused on motif.

"[46] Robert Christgau of Esquire described the title song as "disappointing" and "perfunctory", although he conceded that the Beatles' new music should be viewed in the context of the television film.

[47] Writing in The Village Voice in 1976, in his retrospective on albums released during 1967, Christgau dismissed "Magical Mystery Tour" as "the lame theme to their worst movie" and said that along with "The Fool on the Hill", which followed it on the US LP, it had led listeners to overlook the quality of the remaining soundtrack songs.

[48] In his book Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald writes of the song: "While energetic, the result is manufactured, its thin invention undisguised by a distorted production tricked out with unconvincing time and tempo changes ...

"[49] Writing for Rough Guides, Chris Ingham describes it as "the bare bones of a song accompanied by faintly tired brassy parping".

"[51] Reviewing for Mojo in 2002, Charles Shaar Murray admired the song, saying that "[McCartney's] lead vocal at its richest and most 'blaring' meets Lennon's filtered, vinegary backing part in one of the most inspired juxtapositions of Britain's two most distinctive rock voices".

He added: "The sheer enthusiasm and excitement with which the song welcomes an uncharted but benign future represents the same archetypal '60s vision which informed the original Star Trek: that there is a better world ahead, and that it's gonna be fun.

"[52] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone cites the track as an example of how the 2009 remasters of the Beatles' CDs transformed their sound, particularly with regard to Starr's drums.