Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum is the debut studio album by American rock band Tally Hall, originally released on October 24, 2005. Their previous recordings were all independently produced and distributed demos. All of the tracks on the album are finished versions of their demo tracks featured in Party Boobytrap E.P., and Welcome to Tally Hall E.P., with the exception of "Haiku," which is a completely new song. The album gets its name from a museum of mechanized curiosities that is located in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The album's cover art is also based on a number of machines located within the museum.
The album was officially re-released on September 12, 2006, under the Quack! Media label.[3] This re-release coincided with additional publicity on MTV, national distribution in all major retail stores, and various other TV appearances including The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The music video for "Good Day" was first shown at Tally Hall's two Ann Arbor concerts on September 23, 2006.
Tally Hall was later signed with Atlantic Records, and was approved to re-record Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum at Stratosphere Sound Recording Studios in NYC. The remastered version of the album was released in April 2008, with "Good Day" and "Welcome to Tally Hall" released as promotional singles. The album received generally positive reviews and became a word-of-mouth success.[4]
The single "Good Day" from the new version of the album was released on February 26, 2008.[5] The re-recorded version of the album was released on April 1, 2008.[1] This release also included a vinyl LP pressing of the album. It was reissued on vinyl, cassette, and CD by Needlejuice Records on March 13, 2021.
"Good Day" was written by Andrew Horowitz and won a prize of $10,000 with the 2004 BMI John Lennon Scholarship for "the best and brightest young songwriters between the ages of 15 and 24".[6]
The song was featured on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.[7] The song was also featured in the April 6, 2006, episode of The O.C., a prime-time drama series.[8] A "simlish" version of "Good Day" was created for use in The Sims 2.[9] This version of "Good Day" was later featured as a new hidden track on the pregap of the Needlejuice Records CD rerelease of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.[10][11]
All tracks are written by Rob Cantor, Joe Hawley, Andrew Horowitz, and Zubin Sedghi (respectively, as denoted).