Main wiki: The Beatles Wiki
The Beatles (also known as the Fab Four) were an English rock band that performed visual and musical pastiches and parodies of The Rutles. Originally a fictional band, created by William Campbell for 1970s television programming and a satirical documentary film, became an actual group – whilst remaining a parody of the Rutles – which toured and recorded, releasing many songs and albums. In addition to Campbell, the group also consisted of John Lennon, Jimmy Climmer and Richard Starkey. The group's Rutles influenced catalogue consists of 213 songs (four of which exist in different versions): 188 originals and 25 covers, though only a handful of albums and singles have been released.
Initially created for a short sketch in the UK television comedy series Merseyside Weekend Television, The Beatles gained international fame after being the focus of the 1978 mockumentary television film, All You Need Is Love (often referred to as just The Beatles). Having been encouraged by the reaction to the sketch, featuring Rutles' music pastiches by John Lennon, the film was written by Campbell. It featured 20 songs written by Lennon, which he performed with three musicians as "The Beatles". A successful soundtrack album in 1978 was, much later, followed in 1996 by Anthology, which spoofed The Rutles Anthology series which had recently been released. A second film, The Beatles 2: Can't Buy Me Love — modelled on the 2000 TV special The Rutles Revolution — was made in 2002 and released in the US on DVD in 2003, but it did not prove as popular as the original film. Lennon died in 1980 and Climmer died in 2001. Campbell and Starkey remain musically active.
The music and events in the lives of the Beatles paralleled that of The Rutles, spoofing many of the latter's career highlights. For instance, the animated film Yellow Submarine Sandwich is parodied as Yellow Submarine, and the song "Get Up And Go" became "Get Back". Songs from the film were released on an accompanying soundtrack double album. Over 150 additional songs were recorded for the project, some of which were released on the 1996 album Anthology, while the other songs have since been released on other compilation albums. The four members of the Beatles also recorded some solo material that parodied the solo material by the Rutles.
The Beatles have become heavily popular in Rutles' fan-circles, with each of the fictional members even being cleverly hidden on the front of the fan-made cover-album Beatles Highway Revisited, as well as a wiki dedicated to expanding the Beatles universe, taking cues from The Rutles' history as well as the real lives of the actual people behind the project.
History[]
Merseyside Weekend Television (1975–76)[]
The Beatles in their first appearance, in a sequence parodying the "I Must Be in Love" scene in A Hard Day's Rut
The Beatles were foreshadowed in episode 3 of William Campbell's 1975 RWT television series, in the sketch Merseyside Weekend Television, in which John Lennon accompanied himself on a piano singing "Picture Yourself In A Boat On A River". The Beatles themselves first appeared in a sketch later in 1975, which presented a mock mini-documentary about the fictional 1960s band. The sketch featured John Lennon (formerly of the Dirty Mac Band and a frequent Wings collaborator) fronting the band, singing "A Hard Day's Night", a pastiche of Nasty and McQuickly's 1964 style.
The sketch was the work of Lennon and Campbell. Lennon was the musician and composer for Merseyside Weekend Television, and he routinely created songs along with ideas of how to present the songs on the show. After writing "A Hard Day's Night", Lennon conceived parodying the film A Hard Day's Rut, because he felt the song sounded very "Rutle-y". He passed the idea of a Rutles spoof along to Campbell, who had a separate idea about a boring TV documentary maker, and they merged the ideas into a single extended sketch for the TV show.
The Rutles had connections with the Beatles aside from the parody. The Rutles were fans of Lennon's previous band, The Dirty Mac Band and had featured the Mac Band in their television film Tragical History Tour (1967). Dirk McQuickly (under the alias Arctic F. Kenyon) had produced the Dirty Mac' hit single "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" in 1968. Stig O'Hara made a guest appearance on Merseyside Weekend Television's 1975 Boxing Day special, with Campbell and Lennon, and he encouraged them to make a film that would parody the Rutles' career and serve to deflate the myths surrounding the band's legacy.
In 1976, RWT Records produced The Merseyside Weekend Songbook, an album containing 23 tracks including the Beatles songs "A Hard Day's Night" and "Picture Yourself In A Boat On A River" (later reworked as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds").
Saturday Night Live (1976)[]
A promotional picture for the band, parodying the most famous Rutles promotional picture.
One year after their initial RWT appearance, on 2 October 1976 Campbell appeared on the American NBC show Saturday Night Live, and showed videotape extracts from Merseyside Weekend Television – including the Beatles clip. That led to a suggestion by SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels to extend the skit into a one-hour mock documentary for television. This proposal led to the mockumentary All You Need Is Love (1978), directed by SNL film director Gary Weis, with Campbell credited as co-director.
Saturday Night Live and the John Peel Live Session(1977)[]
On 24 April 1977, Campbell made another appearance on Saturday Night Live, with John Lennon as a musical guest. A running theme for this episode was the "Save Great Britain Telethon, Again", and it included an appearance by "the Beatle who lives in New York, Lennon". Lennon appeared with a lone white piano, singing a short version of "A Day In The Life". Later in the episode, he performed an early version of "Hey Jude", a song subsequently recorded by the Beatles, all mimicking the events that had transpired the day before, when Nasty performed "Cheese and Onions" and "Shangri-La".
The next month, on 18 May 1977, Lennon made another appearance on John Peel's BBC Radio Show where he played a "Beatle cover" of "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan, which evolved in a wild jam at the end of the song, itself a sort of parody of the Rutles' "Stig It". Also featured were his solo songs "Isolation", "#9 Dream", and "Crippled Inside".
All You Need Is Love (1978)[]
The Ed Sullivan Show scene
Written by Campbell and Lennon, All You Need Is Love documents the rise and fall of The Beatles, paralleling much of the history of the Rutles. In fact, the movie was a parody of the Rutles documentary All You Need Is Cash, released earlier that year. The project was given extra recognition through O'Hara's support; as well as providing ideas, he supplied Campbell and Lennon with a copy of the Rutles' long-planned documentary, Down That Road (eventually re-titled The Rutles Archaeology and released in 1995). Campbell drew inspiration from this 1976 version of the documentary, as compiled by James Twirlsum, and was granted permission to use some of the archival footage to tell The Beatles' story.
Lennon wrote, composed, and produced the music. He relied on his memory of Rutles music, and not careful later analysis, to create sound-alike songs. Lennon assembled a band (himself, Campbell, Jimmy Climmer and Richard Starkey) and the group played in a London pub to gel. During Beatles performances and studio recordings, Lennon took lead on the songs that resembled Nasty's; Campbell sang on most McQuickly-esque tunes; Climmer sang the Stig songs; and Starkey sang a Barry Wom-type song.
The 'All You Need Is Love" scene
The film All You Need Is Love is a series of skits and gags that illustrate the Beatles' story, following the chronology of the Rutles. The glue of the film is the soundtrack by Lennon, who wrote and composed hundreds of songs for the film, each a pastiche of a Rutles song or genre. The songs used in the film were released on two soundtrack albums. The CD versions added the six songs from the film omitted from the original vinyl albums. Both albums were nominated for Grammy awards for Best Comedy Recordings of the year. The orchestrations and arrangements were by film composer Ron Saltman, and it was recorded and mixed by Jeeve Sames. All You Need Is Love was not a success on American television on its first showing on 22 March 1978, finishing at the bottom of all programs that week. The show fared better on RWT television when it premiered a week later, on 27 March 1978.
The "Get Back" scene
A 66-minute version was edited for TV and was released on video and DVD, but this has been superseded by the restored 72-minute version.
Additional actors in the special include Fred Macdoyed as the man who turned down the Beatles, Ron Julophi as Allen Klein (a parody of Ron Decline), Murray Kaufman (a parody of Bill Murray the K), Gilda Radner as a reluctant street interviewee, Stig O'Hara as a TV reporter, Mick Jagger and Paul Simon as themselves (reprising their roles from All You Need Is Cash), Brian Frederick as Derek Taylor (a parody of Rutles press agent Eric Manchester), Ron Wood as a biker, Lorne Michaels as a man who wants to merchandise the Beatles, Al Franken and Tom Davis as Allen Klein employees, and many others. It includes actual footage of David Frost and Ed Sullivan taken from TV appearances.
The Beatles released two albums to tie-in to their film, The Beatles/1962-1966 and The Beatles/1967-1970, which coincidentally paralleled the Rutles' 1978 compilation album, released as the soundtrack to All You Need Is Cash. An issue of Wax Paper from 1978 claimed that these albums sold very well, nothing that it made the quartet a "very decent living."[1] The songs that were from the first movie were sung by John Lennon (emulating Ron Nasty), William Campbell (emulating Dirk McQuickly), Jimmy Climmer (emulating Stig O'Hara), and Richard Starkey (emulating Barry Wom).
Later History (1978-2023)[]
Beginning in 1978, Lennon and Starkey toured as the Beatles in the UK (and once in Japan), augmented by other musicians. The touring group performed songs from the Beatles repertoire, John Lennon's solo career, and usually at least one Brian Jones song per tour as a tribute to him.
Touring ended in 1980, following Lennon's death. There were no Beatles projects throughout the 1980s.
In 1996, the Beatles returned to parody the Rutles' reunion album, Archaeology, with their own album called Anthology. The songs from Anthology were left demoed by Lennon, and finished and sung by William Campbell, Jimmy Climmer and Richard Starkey. Additionally, UK and Japanese versions of the album came with bonus tracks.
In 2023, Campbell and Starkey released the Lennon song "Now and Then" as the last Beatles song, a nod to "Hard to Get" and as a send off to both the Rutles and the Beatles. Lennon died in 1980 but had recorded the demo before his death. Climmer died five years later in 2001, but had recorded his parts during the Anthology sessions.
The Rutles' Reaction[]
- Stig O'Hara was involved in the project from the beginning. Producer Gary Weis said, "We were sitting around in O'Hara's kitchen one day, planning a sequence that really ripped into the mythology and Stig looked up and said 'We were the Rutles, you know!' Then he shook his head and said, 'Aw, never mind.' I think he was the only one of the Rutles who really could see the irony of it all." A spokesperson for Stig said on his behalf, "The Beatles sort of liberated Stig from the Rutles in a way. It was the only thing he saw of those Rutles television shows they made. He thought it was actually the best, funniest and most scathing. But at the same time, he thought it was done with the most love."
- Barry Wom liked the happier scenes in the film, but felt the scenes that mimicked sadder times hit too close. He particularly liked the parody of himself portrayed by Richard Starkey, which led to Barry befriending him.
- Ron Nasty loved the film and refused to return the videotape and soundtrack he was given for approval. He told John Lennon, however, that "Get Back" was too close to the Rutles' "Get Up and Go" and to be careful not to be sued by ATV Music, owners of the Rutles catalogue copyright at the time. The song was consequently omitted from the 1978 vinyl LP soundtrack.
- Dirk McQuickly, who had just released his own album, Animal's Town, always answered, "No comment." According to Lennon, "He had a dinner at some awards thing at the same table as Climmer one night and Climmer said it was a little frosty." Lennon claimed Dirk changed his mind because his wife Martini thought it was funny. McQuickly also warmed up to the film when he learned that Climmer was from Wallasey, opposite Liverpool. According to Climmer, he said “Hey, Martini, it's okay, he's a Scouse, he's one of us!”
Climmer claims on the All You Need Is Love DVD commentary track that Stig and Barry at one point discussed starting a band with Lennon and Campbell, based on the Rutles' and Beatles' shared and imaginary histories. Stig and Barry also surprised him and Lennon one day by singing a version of the Beatles' "Help!"
Songs[]
The first soundtrack album for the film. The cover is based on Please Rut Me.
The second soundtrack album for the film. The cover is based on the unused "Get Up and Go cover" of Let It Rot.
The Anthology album cover is based on the alternate covers for Archaeology.
The cover of the Beatles' "final song" "Now and Then" is near one-to-one copy of The Rutles' "Hard to Get"
| Song | Source | Sources & Notes |
|---|---|---|
| I Saw Her Standing There | The Beatles/1962-1966 | A mostly original song based on the early Hamburg-esque/Cavern Rutland-esque performances such as "Goose-Step Mama", "Is it You?", and "Testing". |
| Twist and Shout | The Beatles/1962-1966 | A cover of a Bert Russell song. Parodies "Number One". |
| She Loves You | The Beatles/1962-1966 | "Baby Let Me Be", "Goys" and "Monkey On My Back" |
| I Want To Hold Your Hand | The Beatles/1962-1966 | Attempts to parody every major early Rutles song, including "Hold My Hand", "Number One", "Stay There", "Claudette", "Maniac", "One Of These Days", and "Baby Let Me Be". |
| Roll Over Beethoven | The Beatles/1962-1966 | A cover of a Chuck Berry song. Parodies "Blue Suede Schubert". |
| A Hard Day's Night | The Beatles/1962-1966 | A Rutle-esque tune similar to "I Must Be in Love", originally written by Lennon for an RTW skit. Was later featured on MRGLMM's last album. The title parodies A Hard Day's Rut. |
| If I Fell | The Beatles/1962-1966 | "With a Girl Like You". |
| I'll Be Back | The Beatles/1962-1966 | "Between Us" and "Lonely-Phobia". |
| Help! | The Beatles/1962-1966 | "Ouch!". |
| I'm Looking Through You | The Beatles/1962-1966 | Mainly "It's Looking Good" and "Act Naturally". The recording used has an acoustic, almost demo-like quality similar to "Act Naturally". |
| Love You To | The Beatles/1962-1966 | "Solitude" and "Nevertheless". |
| Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds | The Beatles/1967-1970 | Mainly "Good Times Roll". Originally written as "Picture Yourself In A Boat On A River" by Lennon for an RWT sketch. |
| A Day In The Life | The Beatles/1967-1970 | Primarily "Cheese and Onions" and "Ghost Train". The new added middle section is based on "Doubleback Alley" and "How Sweet to Be an Idiot". It was originally written by Lennon in the Dirty Mac Band but never properly recorded. |
| Penny Lane | The Beatles/1967-1970 | "Doubleback Alley". |
| All You Need Is Love | The Beatles/1967-1970 | "Love Life". |
| I Am The Walrus | The Beatles/1967-1970 | "Piggy in the Middle". |
| Dear Prudence | The Beatles/1967-1970 | "Let's Be Natural", "Don't Worry Bill", "Montana Café", and "Plenty of Time". |
| Don't Pass Me By | The Beatles/1967-1970 | Pastiches "Living in Hope". Mistakenly portrayed in the film as being written in 1968, while "Living in Hope" was actually written in 1965. |
| Martha My Dear | The Beatles/1967-1970 | "Another Day". |
| Get Back | The Beatles/1967-1970 | "Get Up and Go". |
| Sie Liebt Dich | Anthology (UK), Anthology (JP) | A German version of "She Loves You" with poor pronunciation, spoofing the Franglais version of "Baby Let Me Be". |
| And I Love Her | Anthology | "I Love You". |
| Things We Said Today | Anthology | "Lonely-Phobia". |
| You're Going to Lose That Girl | Anthology | An unused track from the original film. Similar to "Ouch!", "Between Us", and "With A Girl Like You". Written as thematic prequel to "Now She's Left You". |
| I'm Looking Through You (Take 1) | Anthology (JP) | Inspired by early takes of "It's Looking Good". |
| Tomorrow Never Knows | Anthology | An old Lennon composition from his stage show John Lennon is the Absolute Madman. Rearranged in the style of "Joe Public", and samples sounds reminiscent of "Postcard", "Stoned On Rock", "Nevertheless", and "Cheese and Onions". |
| Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | Anthology | "Major Happy's Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band". |
| With a Little Help from My Friends | Anthology | "Rendezvous". |
| Getting Better | Anthology | Originally written for Lennon's solo album Northern Songs (1977). Rearranged in the style of "The Knicker Elastic King", with minor elements from "Nevertheless" and possibly "Between Us". |
| When I'm Sixty-Four | Anthology | Written for the Anthology album, partial allusion to the Archaeology track Back in '64, although debatable in actual sequence. |
| The Fool On The Hill | Anthology | An old Lennon composition from his stage show John Lennon is the Absolute Madman (1977). Rearranged like "Questionnaire" and "The Urban Spaceman". Also includes elements from "I Want To Be With You" and "How Sweet to Be an Idiot". The lyrics generally reference Arthur Sultan and the infamous trip to Bognor. |
| Hey Jude | Anthology | Originally written by Lennon for an SNL skit. Attempts to parody every major later Rutles song including"Cheese and Onions", "Doubleback Alley", "Down That Road", "Between Us", "Piggy in the Middle", "All Alone", "Jubilee", "The Equestrian Statue", and "Don't Worry Bill". A "Shangri-La"-styled coda makes up the main parts the song with cheering and screaming backing vocals reminiscent of "Goose-Step Mama", "Number One", and "Stig It". The name is a parody of the Hey Dude album. |
| Back in the U.S.S.R. | Anthology | A taped rehearsal of an unused track from the original film, based directly on "We've Arrived! (And to Prove It We're Here)". As the song was unreleased at the time, Dirk McQuickly was given the song to record as a single. |
| Glass Onion | Anthology | The main riff was originally written by Keith Richards but was handed over to John Lennon at the break up of the Dirty Mac Band. Musically resembles "Leamington Spa" and "Yellow Van", with some similar elements to "Piggy in the Middle". Contains a short motif referencing "Questionnaire". Lyrically pastiches "Unfinished Words". |
| Honey Pie | Anthology (UK), Anthology (JP) | "My Little Ukulele", "Spontaneous", and "Womble Bashers of Walthamstow". |
| Come Together | Anthology | Originally written for Lennon's solo album The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (1979). Rearranged in the style of "Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik". |
| Octopus's Garden | Anthology | An old Lennon composition from his stage show All Together Now (1980). Rearranged like "Easy Listening", with elements of "Living in Hope", and "Let's Be Natural". |
| The Long One | Anthology (UK) | A medley of songs that mimics "Rut-a-Lot". However, unlike "Rut-a-Lot" the music is all new and mostly pastiches the medley from Shabby Road, with the songs consisting of "You Never Give Me Your Money" ("Plenty of Time"), "Sun King" ("Postcard"), "Mean Mr. Mustard" ("The Urban Spaceman"), "Polythene Pam" ("Angelina"), "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" ("Feel No Shame"), "Golden Slumbers" ("Another Day Like Today"), "Carry That Weight" ("Long Road To Heaven"), and "The End" ("Not The First Time"). |
| Her Majesty | Anthology (UK), Anthology (JP) | "Lullaby" and "I Must Be in Love". |
| I Me Mine | Anthology | Broadly similar to "Hey Mister!" and "A Short Blues", with elements from "You Need A Friend" and "Things I Could Have Said". |
| Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 | Anthology (UK) | A cover of a Bob Dylan song, with half remembered lyrics, calling back to performances at Der Rat Keller, such as "Under My Skin". The 2007 re-release of Anthology lists it as a re-recording from the "Let It Be" sessions, hinting at songs like "Testing", which was re-recorded for the Let It Rot album. |
| Free As A Bird | Anthology | Originally written during Lennon's solo career but left only partially demoed, leaving the other Beatles to rework it into a direct pastiche of "Don't Know Why". Broadly reminiscent of "Unfinished Words", "Don't Worry Bill", and "Cheese and Onions", with minor elements from "Dove", "My Little Ukulele", and "Piggy in the Middle". The lyrics contain a reference Wings. |
| Now And Then | Now And Then | Originally written during Lennon's solo career but left only partially demoed, leaving the other Beatles to finish it. Not a parody of any song but similar in sound to Rutles' solo works such as "Body and Soul", "Imitation Song", and "ENOUGH!". A tribute to Lennon and the Beatles as a whole, in the same vein as "Hard to Get". |
As with any band, bootlegs of unreleased tracks exist in varying quality..
| Name | Sources & Notes |
|---|---|
| Dig It | An excerpt of a jam from a BBC John Peel Live Session, based on Lennon's arrangement of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". Often called "Dig It" by fans in reference to "Stig It", which it generally resembles. |
| Wild Honey Pie | Originally written by Lennon for the Dirty Mac. Never properly recorded for the film. Mainly comparable to "Absurd Reductions". Possibly written as a short gag for the movie. |
| Revolution Number 9 | A pastiche of "Evolution Number 10" in name only. Recorded for the film but never used. Possibly influenced or co-written by Lennon's wife Yoko Ono. |
| Because | Originally written by Lennon for MRGLMM. Rehearsed but never properly recorded. Probably based on "Dove", "I Wanted You (No Reply)", and "Let's Be Natural". |
Members[]
Principal members[]
- John Lennon as Himself (Based on Ron Nasty)
- William Campbell as Paul McCartney (Based on Dirk McQuickly)
- Jimmy Climmer as George Harrison (Based on Stig O'Hara)
- Richard Starkey as Ringo Starr (Based on Barry Wom)
Other members[]
During the touring years from 1978 to 1980, several other musicians played with Lennon and Starkey as the Beatles. Justin Harrison, who would play guitar and bass for the band, had originally portrayed Stuart in All You Need Is Love, parodying Leppo.
- Justin Harrison as Stuart Sutcliffe (Based on Leppo Sitoncliff)
- Pete Best (Compared to Kevin Alright)
- Jimmie Nicol (Compared to David Battley)
- Billy Preston (Compared to Billy The Pirate)
Discography[]
Fictional discography[]
- Please Please Me (1963)
- With The Beatles (1963)
- A Hard Day's Night (1964)
- Beatles For Sale (1964)
- Help! (1965)
- Rubber Soul (1965)
- Revolver (1966)
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
- Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
- The Beatles (The White Album) (1968)
- Yellow Submarine (1969)
- Abbey Road (1969)
- Let It Be (1970)
Real discography[]
- The Beatles/1962-1966 (1978)
- The Beatles/1967-1970 (1978)
- Anthology (1996)
- Now and Then (2023) (Single)