Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | |
---|---|
Soundtrack album by various artists | |
Released | 17 July 1978 |
Recorded | September 1977–May 1978 |
Studio |
|
Genre | Glam rock, pop, disco, hard rock |
Length | 83:08 |
Label | RSO, A&M (UK/Canada) |
Producer | George Martin, Maurice White, Jack Douglas |
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a double album produced by George Martin, [1] featuring covers of songs by the Beatles. It was released in July 1978 by RSO Records as the soundtrack to the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , which starred the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Steve Martin.
The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and remained at No. 5 for six weeks. It also spawned three hit singles: Earth, Wind & Fire's "Got to Get You into My Life", Aerosmith's "Come Together" and Robin Gibb's "Oh! Darling". Despite this, the album was deemed a commercial and critical failure, with over four million copies being returned to distributors and thousands more destroyed by RSO, who experienced a financial loss after its release.
The project was managed by the Robert Stigwood Organisation (RSO). In 1975, the original plans for the album were suspended due to a dispute between Columbia and RSO. [2] RSO invested $12 million into this soundtrack and the profit offset set against costs such as $1 million for promotion. [3] The creation of the soundtrack was marked with tension from the beginning, with Frampton and the Bee Gees both feeling wary of the other artist as well as being unsure as to how their music would work together on the same album. [4]
The release made history as being the first record to "return platinum", with over four million copies of it taken off store shelves and shipped back to distributors. [5] Hundreds of thousands of copies of the album ended up being destroyed by RSO. The company itself experienced a considerable financial loss and the Bee Gees as a group had their musical reputation tarnished, though other involved bands such as Aerosmith were unscathed in terms of their popularity. [4]
The album has been released on compact disc. Despite being performed primarily by the Bee Gees, it and the Staying Alive soundtrack remained the property of Universal Music when the band gained control of its catalogue.
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [7] |
The Rolling Stone Record Guide | [8] |
The Village Voice | D+ [9] |
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice , music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a D+ rating with an added "Must to Avoid" warning. He wrote that, apart from the Earth, Wind & Fire and Aerosmith songs, "most of the arrangements are lifted whole without benefit of vocal presence (maybe Maurice should try hormones) or rhythmic integrity ('Can't we get a little of that disco feel in there, George?')" [9] Writing in The Rolling Stone Record Guide in 1983, Dave Marsh dismissed the soundtrack as an "utter travesty" and "[e]asily the worst album of any notoriety in this book." Marsh identified Aerosmith's "Come Together" and Earth, Wind & Fire's "Got to Get You into My Life" as the only competent renditions and concluded: "Two million people bought this album, which proves that P.T. Barnum was right and that euthanasia may have untapped possibilities." [8]
In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said the album suffers from clumsy performances by the Bee Gees, Frankie Howerd and Peter Frampton, as well as performers who were poorly suited to their song, including Steve Martin, George Burns and Alice Cooper. He added that the soundtrack has become "a legend in its own right", due to its unenviable reputation, and that, while it has attracted a cult following, "there's no erasing the fact that this is an absolutely atrocious record". [6]
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band debuted at number 7 on the U.S. Billboard album chart [10] and stayed at number 5 for six weeks. [11] Although there was reported resistance to the interpretation of the Beatles' songs, such as Martin's comedic take on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", Earth, Wind & Fire's version of "Got to Get You into My Life" became a million selling single, [12] while Robin Gibb's "Oh! Darling" and Aerosmith's version of "Come Together" [13] both charted in the top 40.
Radio airplay trailed off when the film was released with poor reviews, only five weeks later. The album immediately dropped out of the top 100 and pre-sale shipments to the USA failed to sell in the quantities predicted. [14] Owing to low box office receipts, the film failed to make back its production costs, but profits from the soundtrack album and the successful singles it spawned later covered those losses. [15]
The Bee Gees blamed their declining popularity in part on their involvement with the whole project, coupled with their mutual struggles with drug addiction. The latter was exacerbated by the environment of making the film and its soundtrack, with Maurice Gibb expressing shock at seeing crew members carrying around bags full of cocaine. Robin Gibb in particular spent much of this period having to dose himself with barbiturates to even be able to sleep. [4] Some of the most vicious criticism of the soundtrack was leveled at them, and the musicians felt a particularly painful sting at being labeled as mere "Beatles imitators" since that sort of pejorative tag had been with them since they began their pop rock work in the 1960s. (Although the Bee Gees would continue to be popular into 1979, that year's backlash against disco, a genre in which the band had made their biggest impact, marred their careers for the next eight years.)[ citation needed ]
George Martin had agreed to become involved in the project due partly to the amount of money offered for his services, and to his wife's suggestion that any other producer might afford the songs less respect than they were due. [16] The selections by Earth Wind & Fire and Aerosmith were the only tracks he did not work on. According to author Robert Rodriguez, Martin later rued his involvement in Sgt. Pepper. [17]
All tracks are written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except "Here Comes the Sun", by George Harrison.
No. | Title | Artist(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" "With a Little Help from My Friends" | Bee Gees, Paul Nicholas Peter Frampton, Bee Gees | 4:42 |
2. | "Here Comes the Sun" | Sandy Farina | 3:05 |
3. | "Getting Better" | Peter Frampton, Bee Gees | 2:46 |
4. | "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" | Dianne Steinberg, Stargard | 3:41 |
5. | "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" | Bee Gees, Steinberg, Nicholas, Donald Pleasence, Stargard | 6:31 |
No. | Title | Artist(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Good Morning Good Morning" | Nicholas, Frampton, Bee Gees | 1:58 |
2. | "She's Leaving Home" | Bee Gees, Jay MacIntosh, John Wheeler | 2:40 |
3. | "You Never Give Me Your Money" | Nicholas, Steinberg | 3:07 |
4. | "Oh! Darling" | Robin Gibb | 3:29 |
5. | "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" | Steve Martin & Chorus | 4:00 |
6. | "Polythene Pam" "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" | Bee Gees Frampton, Bee Gees | 5:11 |
No. | Title | Artist(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Got to Get You into My Life" | Earth, Wind & Fire | 3:36 |
2. | "Strawberry Fields Forever" | Sandy Farina | 3:31 |
3. | "When I'm Sixty-Four" | Frankie Howerd, Farina | 2:40 |
4. | "Mean Mr. Mustard" | Howerd | 2:39 |
5. | "Fixing a Hole" | George Burns | 2:25 |
6. | "Because" | Alice Cooper, Bee Gees | 2:45 |
7. | "Golden Slumbers" "Carry That Weight" | Frampton Bee Gees | 3:24 |
No. | Title | Artist(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Come Together" | Aerosmith | 3:46 |
2. | "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" | Maurice Gibb, Frampton, Burns, Bee Gees | 3:12 |
3. | "The Long and Winding Road" | Frampton | 3:40 |
4. | "A Day in the Life" | Barry Gibb, Bee Gees | 5:11 |
5. | "Get Back" | Billy Preston | 2:56 |
6. | "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Finale)" | The Cast | 2:13 |
Total length: | 83:08 |
Credits adapted from LP liner notes. [18]
Musicians
Technical
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [33] | Silver | 60,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [34] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26 May 1967, Sgt. Pepper is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composition, extended form, psychedelic imagery, record sleeves, and the producer in popular music. The album had an immediate cross-generational impact and was associated with numerous touchstones of the era's youth culture, such as fashion, drugs, mysticism, and a sense of optimism and empowerment. Critics lauded the album for its innovations in songwriting, production and graphic design, for bridging a cultural divide between popular music and high art, and for reflecting the interests of contemporary youth and the counterculture.
The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in the mid-to-late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies: Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s. The group wrote all their own original material, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists, and are regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop-music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain's First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Along with his younger twin brothers, Robin and Maurice, he rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popular music. Gibb is well known for his wide vocal range including a far-reaching high-pitched falsetto. Gibb's career has spanned over 60 years.
Robert Colin Stigwood was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer, and impresario, best known for managing musicians such as Cream, Andy Gibb, and the Bee Gees; theatrical productions such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar; and film productions, including Grease and Saturday Night Fever.
RSO Records was a record label formed by rock and roll and musical theatre impresario Robert Stigwood and record executive Al Coury in 1973. The letters "RSO" stood for the Robert Stigwood Organisation.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a 1978 American jukebox musical comedy film directed by Michael Schultz, written by Henry Edwards and starring an ensemble cast led by Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. Depicting the loosely constructed story of a band as they wrangle with the music industry and battle evil forces bent on stealing their instruments and corrupting their hometown of Heartland, the film is presented in a form similar to that of a rock opera, with the songs providing "dialogue" to carry the story. George Burns has most of the spoken lines that act to clarify the plot and provide further narration but there are a few other lines throughout the movie.
"Stayin' Alive" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was released in December 1977 by RSO Records as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It is one of the Bee Gees' signature songs. In 2004, "Stayin' Alive" was placed at No. 189 by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The 2021 updated Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Songs placed "Stayin' Alive" at No. 99. In 2004, it ranked No. 9 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In a UK television poll on ITV in December 2011 it was voted fifth in The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song.
"Jive Talkin'" is a song by the Bee Gees, released as a single in May 1975 by RSO Records. This was the lead single from the album Main Course. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and top-five on the UK Singles Chart in the middle of 1975. Largely recognised as the group's comeback song, it was their first US top-10 hit since "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" (1971).
Children of the World is the fourteenth studio album by the Bee Gees, released in 1976 by RSO Records. The first single, "You Should Be Dancing", went to No. 1 in the US and Canada, and was a top ten hit in numerous other territories. The album was re-issued on CD by Reprise Records and Rhino Records in 2006. This was the first record featuring the Gibb-Galuten-Richardson production team which would have many successful collaborations in the following years. Many consider this a "prologue" to the band's foray into disco, which would culminate with the iconic Saturday Night Fever soundtrack the following year.
"How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" is a song released by the Bee Gees in 1971. It was written by Barry and Robin Gibb and was the first single on the group's 1971 album Trafalgar. It was their first US No. 1 single and also reached No. 1 in Cashbox magazine for two weeks.
"Kings and Queens" is a song by American hard rock band Aerosmith. It was written by Steven Tyler, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, and Jack Douglas, their producer, who helped the band write many of the songs on Draw the Line. Douglas also played the mandolin featured in the song. The song first appeared on the album Draw the Line in December 1977 and was released as a single on February 21, 1978. The song was also used as a B-side to Aerosmith's version of The Beatles' "Come Together", released to promote the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film and soundtrack.
"Grease" is a song written by Barry Gibb and recorded by Frankie Valli : it was released as a single in May 1978. It is the title song for the musical motion picture Grease of that year, which was in turn based on the 1971 stage play Grease. The song celebrates the greaser lifestyle. It sold over seven million copies worldwide and appeared twice on the film's soundtrack, first as the opening track and again as the closing track. "Grease" is one of four songs written specifically for the film that had not been in the stage production.
Best of Bee Gees Vol. 2 is a compilation album of hits by the Bee Gees released in 1973. The album, briefly revived on CD in the late 1980s, went out of print, but was reissued by Rhino in November 2008.
Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live is the first live album by the Bee Gees. It was recorded on December 20, 1976 at the LA Forum and was released in May 1977 by RSO Records. It reached No. 8 in the US, No. 8 in Australia, No. 1 in New Zealand, and No. 2 in Spain.
Shadow Dancing is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Andy Gibb, released by RSO Records in June 1978 in the United States and September 1978 in the United Kingdom. It was Gibb's highest charting album in some countries including America and in Canada. This LP was his only album to chart in the UK. Four singles, including the three US Top 10 singles, were released from the album.
Spirits Having Flown Tour was the eighth concert tour by the Bee Gees in support of their fifteenth studio album Spirits Having Flown (1979). The tour began on 28 June 1979 in Fort Worth, Texas reaching a total of 38 cities before coming to a close on 6 October 1979 in Miami, Florida. It was their most lavish and successful tour during the height of their popularity following two straight number-one albums and six number-one singles and grossed over $10 million from 49 shows, as reported by Billboard by the end of its run. The tour was organized and promoted by Jerry Weintraub and Concerts West.
"Fanny (Be Tender with My Love)" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees for their Main Course album in 1975. It was the third single release from the album, peaking at number 12 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and number two in Canada. According to Maurice Gibb, producer Quincy Jones called "Fanny" one of his favorite R&B songs of all time.
Grease 2: Original Soundtrack Recording is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 1982 film Grease 2 starring Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer. It was originally released by RSO Records in 1982, with Polydor Records re-issuing it in 1996.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: 50th Anniversary Edition is an expanded reissue of the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 26 May 2017, the album's 50th anniversary. It includes a new stereo remix of the album by Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin.
The following is a list of albums released by the now defunct record label RSO Records.