Sgt. Pepper as a double album | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

So basically you have the Sgt Pepper album in it’s order, and then more or less the Magical Mystery Tour album plus a few extra tracks.  What is the point?  If you were doing a true double album, most of the Pepper running order would be thrown out.

Quarryman – I am sorry but you can’t do a 16 track two sided what-if album if you were releasing it in 1967.  It would have been too long in 1967 plus the vinyl quality would be sonically inferior with that many tracks.  Albums up until the mid-late 80’s were usually around 40 minutes long.

What you might see in a future box set (should Apple go that route) similar to the upcoming Pepper box.

Magical Mystery Tour Super Deluxe Box (though I am not sure what you’d call it)

Disc One – Newly remixed stereo tracks

6 song Magical Mystery Tour EP plus All You Need Is Love , Baby You’re A Rich Man , Hello Goodbye , plus Yellow Submarine tracks All Together Now , It’s All Too Much , Only A Northern Song plus February 1968 tracks Lady Madonna , Inner Light, Across The Universe and Hey Bulldog .  16 tracks make up the main CD.  You wouldn’t want to have a Yellow Submarine Box because there are so few tracks for it. 

Discs Two and Three – Unreleased sessions April 1967-February 1968

Disc Four – Original mono mixes of the 16 tracks

Disc Five – DVD of Surround Sound, Hi-Res stereo tracks

Disc Six – Blu-ray of Surround Sound, Hi-Res stereo track

It could also include Magical Mystery Tour film, promo films and even Yellow Submarine

A White Album Super Deluxe Box (including the album in mono as well would make this 10 discs)

Discs 1-2 : New stereo remixes

Discs 3-5: Sessions including Hey Jude and Revolution remixes

Disc 6: The Esher Demos

Disc 7-8: DVD and Blu-ray

Dark Overlord said
Why would you put Lady Madonna and Hey Bulldog with Magical Mystery Tour , I think they would fit much better with The Beatles because those songs are more classic rock than psychedelic rock and I consider The Beatles a classic rock album.  

Ron Nasty said

Because that is the split The Beatles decided to make?

The Lady Madonna  sessions finish disc 2 of Anthology 2 , the 1967 disc. Disc 1 of Anthology 3  contains no recordings made they went to India. The LM sessions close a chapter, while the Esher demos open a new one.  

That’s where I was coming from Ron, but Dark Overlord asks a good question.  The February 1968 sessions were the end of the pre-Yoko era and while they were somewhat of a transition, you still get two songs that were very much like 1967 material (Across The Universe and The Inner Light ) which we all agree with, and two songs that pointed the way towards the 1968 sound (Lady Madonna and Hey Bulldog ) that would fit better with the White Album .  A second reason is if you combine the 1967 Yellow Submarine tracks into this box, wouldn’t Hey Bulldog make sense as well since it was part of that soundtrack?  And another reason is space.  Those four songs fit better with the 1967 material on a box set as you have limited material to work with.  The White Album doesn’t need any more material to go with it besides Hey Jude and Revolution .

I would have suggested a new Past Masters box, but if they did each album in a box set fashion (with MMT and YS combined), then they can easily add the singles and EP tracks to each album’s box as bonus material.  And if you really want to split hairs – Lady Madonna was recorded and released much closer to Magical Mystery Tour than the White Album .  It could honestly go either way, but like Anthology 2 , it’s a good way to close that chapter.

Dark Overlord said
Agreed, although I think Across The Universe sounds more 1968 than 1967 because it reminds me of songs like Dear Prudence , Julia , and Cry Baby Cry where John is singing and playing his acoustic guitar.  

I think it bridges both years precisely when it was recorded – February 1968.  The Anthology 2 version has sitar/tamboura on it which really feels 1967 and psychedelic.  The Past Masters version of Across The Universe still sounds closer to ’67 to me as well when you include the teenage girls on the chorus along with the Take One-ish of Strawberry Fields ahhh’s by the Beatles plus the early Wah-Wah work by George.  So I still would put it with Magical Mystery Tour /1967 comp vs. the White Album .

Dear Prudence and Julia were the result of him being taught fingerpicking while in India by Donovan, so I don’t feel the connection aside from the intro.  But Cry Baby Cry does feel similar to Across The Universe .