Category: Moldy Oldies and Guilty Pleasures

beat the idea into the ground. I just got around to seeing and listening to the latest Beatles musical, Julie Taymor’s “Across The Universe” on DVD. It’s not as bad as the movie critics made it, but even a real Beatles fan must admit if you shoehorn as many songs into one movie, you will get a bit of a mess. To be honest, it is a spectaular triumph when you consider that the last Beatles musical that worked was “Yellow Submarine” in 1968 (and the fab four were actually involved in it). So here is a list of attempts in chronological order – I do not count stage shows like “Beatlemania” or Circ de Soleil’s “Love” or The Beatles own movies like “Help”- just filmed attempts using Beatles music:

1. All this and World War II (1976) A real mess that was an attempt to meld together Beatles cover songs and World War II footage. Soundtrack included Jeff Lynne, Peter Gabriel and The Bee Gees doing awful versions of your favorite songs. Because the movie never had a real theatrical release (although the soundtrack did) – the idea would live on…
   
2. Rolling Stone Magazine: The 10th Anniversary (1977) A monument to bad 70’s variety shows, and another example of famous singers doing rotten versions of Beatle covers. Starring Ted Neeley (fresh from Jesus Christ Superstar), and including Patti LaBelle, Richie Havens, and other celebs embarrassing themselves. Steve Martin was also included in this stinker.
   
3. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)Then they take the musical badness above and try to attach as story to it. Too bad the movie made no sense and induced vomiting from the audience. The some of covers are much better here (i.e. “Come Together” by Aerosmith and “Got To Get You Into My Life” by Earth, Wind & Fire) but they are surrounded by crap and Steve Martin returns doing “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”!
   
4. Across The Universe (2007) After looking at the previous treatments, this is like Citizen Kane. The story and songs sometimes work, and at other points feel forced. The actors do a good job on a lot of the covers, but much of it feels like a group of music videos strung together. Part of the problem (like the others) is mixing songs from different eras that don’t match well. If they had taken a single album (like Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”) it would have been a better movie. Here is my favorite clip from it (very Wall-like). Best of all no sign of Steve Martin…
   

So why were three attempts made to add Beatles music to film in the late seventies? Keep in mind, when they broke up the music loving public were suffering from Fab withdrawl, and nostalgia always sells well. In my opinion, as each member of the band passes on, the urgency to keep the music alive to a new generation increases among those who lived through their heyday.

The Parade were Murray MacLeod (also a member of The Roger Nichols Trio/Small Circle of Friends), Jerry Riopelle (Phil Spector protégé and former Philles staff producer), and Smokey Roberds (songwriter and actor). Originally signed to A&M Records, and recorded with session legends including drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye and saxophonist Steve Douglas, “Sunshine Girl” cracked the Billboard Top 20 in 1967, emerging as one of the first and most successful records to embody the summery, harmony-rich sound that would later be dubbed “Sunshine Pop”. Other than Curt Boettcher, and his groups Sagittarius and Millennium – The Parade was it. The Parade was very talented and highly commercial without being completely derivative. Most aspects of the Sunshine Pop era (1967-1968) live on in today’s power pop artists. I’ve owned a rare UK import CD of the first album, and here it’s been remastered and sounds even better. This new re-release includes a pile of bonus tracks. You can get this album at most retailers now (Not Lame and Itunes included).

I saw this on the Bolus Blog a few days ago. It listed You Tube Videos for the most painful pop music ever. I disagree here, as all these are basic “one-hit wonders” from the seventies that became extremely uncool to listen to soon after they fell off the charts. To some this is a guilty pleasure, but to most who lived through 1970’s pop music this is torture by extreme pop schmaltz. It’s difficult to differentiate between true badness and an acquired taste.

White Plains “My Baby Loves Lovin”
Terry Jacks — Seasons in the Sun
Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods — Billy Don’t Be a Hero
Captain & Tenille — Muskrat Love
Tony DiFranco & the DiFranco Family — Heartbeat (It’s a Love Beat)
Bobby Goldsboro — Honey
Sammy Johns — Chevy Van
Debbie Boone — You Light Up My Life
The Buoys — Timothy (written by Rupert Holmes, a pop ballad about cannibalism?)
Rupert Holmes – Him (I kinda like this one)
Rupert Holmes – Escape (The Pina Colada Song)
Tony Orlando “Tie a Yellow Ribbon”
Charlene “I’ve Never Been To Me”
Coven “One Tin Soldier”
Starland Vocal Band “Afternoon Delight”
Vicki Lawrence “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”
Paper Lace “The Night Chicago Died”

Now if we started talking about painful songs with the worst lyrics… It’s a whole new list – I’ll start it with:
Donna Summer “MacArthur Park” (someone left the cake out in the rain) and I like the Richard Harris non-disco version better.

Personally I love this song, as it’s a guity pleasure of mine. Before Randy did a lot of political grandstanding or Disney soundtracks, he did this wonderful ditty that pissed a lot of overly PC people off. Notice no one said a thing when the song “Rednecks” took the same sarcastic approach to the subject. Like most pop icons, it’s very easily parodied, and below is my favorite Randy Newman parody, where he’s just singing about “everything he sees”. Enjoy.
Add to My Profile | More Videos