[Today: The accidental parody...]
“Disaster” is a word that should be reserved for the Hindenbergs and Titanics of the world – actual life-consuming accidents of epic proportions. To my knowledge, nobody was killed during the making of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Original Soundtrack, which is rather a shame. The movie that spawned this album is laughably bad – a musical featuring the songs of The Beatles and starring Peter Frampton as Billy Shears and The Bee Gees as The Lonely Hearts Club Band, with cameos from Steve Martin (Dr. Maxwell Edison), George Burns (Mr. Kite), Alice Cooper (Father Sun), and dozens more who wish they’d just said no.
Amazingly, Martin’s leering, jackass take on ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’, Burns’ pathetic ‘Fixing A Hole’ and Cooper’s confusing duet with the Bee Gees on ‘Because’ don’t come close to qualifying for Worst Moment status. That’s reserved for everything featuring Paul Nicholas and Diane Steinberg, who sing with over-emotive, off-off-Broadway voices that radiate fake good cheer and turn songs like ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ and ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ – great songs, let me remind you – into accidental parodies of The Beatles.
There are a few good moments here – Aerosmith’s ‘Come Together’ is perfectly wicked, Earth Wind & Fire’s ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ is a top-shelf Beatles cover, and Billy Preston’s ‘Get Back’ is a worthy, funkified rival to the original. There are even a few unintentionally hilarious moments that work – Donald Pleasance does a weird rap in the middle of ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ that almost redeems the number, and my LP copy skips during Frankie Howard’s acrid ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’, so that the phrase “dirty old man” plays over and over. But truly, there are so many misguided, careless covers on this album that pointing out its bright spots is akin to saying that, while it did turn into gaseous fireball, The Hindenburg provided some killer views.
This project was produced and bankrolled by Robert Stigwood, who was coming off back-to-back blockbusters with Saturday Night Fever and Grease. And on the strength of massive, expensive hype, this double LP actually went double platinum, which is one reason it can be found in every dollar bin in America today. But buyer beware – Sgt. Pepper’s… OST is more travesty than tribute – the musical equivalent of repainting Picasso’s masterpieces using only cow dung and glitter.
Tags: Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Diane Steinberg, Donald Pleasance, Earth Wind & Fire, Frankie Howard, George Burns, Grease, Paul Nicholas, Peter Frampton, Picasso, Robert Stigwood, Saturday Night Fever, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Steve Martin, The Beatles, The Bee Gees
1 November 2009 at 12:48 pm |
Whatever happened to Robert Stigwood anyway? Wasn’t he involved in Xanadu too? Is he living on a beach somewhere in the Bahamas on the soundtrack royalties from his hits?
2 November 2009 at 11:06 am |
Stigwood had no involvement in Xanadu. However, he was involved in the theatrical productions of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, and managed Cream, among others.
Regarding the beach in the Bahamas and soundtrack royalties – hardly. Here’s a tidbit on the demise of RSO (Robert Stigwood Organization), his 70’s powerhouse record label, via Wikapedia:
RSO is currently flying this strangely hypnotic website. If anyone can figure out how to get past the front page, let me know…
Stigwood’s last screen credit was for the 1996 movie Evita, which “starred” Madonna. Here’s the last line of his Wikipedia entry:
So it sounds like he’s doing OK for himself, in spite of the Sgt. Pepper’s debacle.
His name has also been popping up in the trade papers lately because there’s talk of a (ridiculously unnecessary and ill-advised) remake of his classic film Saturday Night Fever…
1 November 2009 at 7:04 pm |
That movie was pure hubris. I remember seeing a bit of it on network television as a kid (late ’70s or early ’80s). Frightening that it might have been the first medium that introduced those Beatles tunes to me.
2 November 2009 at 9:44 am |
ahhh…this is why every time I hear “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” I think of Steve Martin tiptoeing around with a little hammer! I didn’t know – I think I was too young to have clear memories. Sounds like my lack of clear memory is a good thing in this instance!