The release of the Beatles on Compact disc in the late 1980s were basically released in a chronological order with the exception of one disc: "Magical Mystery Tour". This CD was originally released on or about September 21 1987 in the latest of the series. The version of this CD was based on the Capitol version of the LP with the "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields", "All You Need Is Love/Baby, You're a Rich Man" and "Hello Goodbye/ I Am The Walrus" singles thrown into the mix along with the "MMT" television special soundtrack. The catalogue number for "Magical Mystery Tour" is CCT 7 48062 2.
The CD was released in a long box that features the artist's name in multi-colours "red, yellow, green, blue" respectively. The bottom of the front box graphics feature the word "stereo" in red. The artist and title on the side of the long box are also written in red. On the back of the box are the UPC code, the tracklisting split in two with the back cover of the Capitol LP in the middle. The Capitol, Compact Disc and Parlophone labels are on the bottom of the back of the long box.
The reproduction of the front cover LP artwork (Capitol version) does not include the words: "Includes 24-page full color picture book" as on the original LP front cover sleeve. With good reason. The CD booklet within the jewel case has only 8 pages and contains the front cover reproduction, a reproduction of the left inner LP sleeve (without the Capitol/EMI logo), lyrics, the middle section photograph of the Beatles miming to "I Am the Walrus", more lyrics and finally the back cover photo of the back LP cover (halfed) shared with the tracklisting. There is a Parlophone logo at the bottom right hand side.
When this CD was first released, it was a joy to hear the tracks in true stereo and nicely cleaned up. The original Capitol LP had done an amazing bad job on the whole sound of the second side including having some of tracks in duo-phonic and the EQ job was terrible. This made the release of the music on Compact Disc a nice reprieve from the earlier, dismal listening experience (unless, of course...you had the German Apple version which is a whole other subject coming soon...).
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