Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (soundtrack)
| Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Original Soundtrack) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | 23 July 1978 |
| Recorded | September 1977–May 1978 |
| Studio | Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles; Northstar Studios, Boulder, CO; Record Plant, New York City; Abbey Road Studios, London; Air Studios, London |
| Genre | Glam rock, pop, disco, hard rock |
| Length | 83:08 |
| Label | RSO, A&M (UK/Canada) |
| Producer | George Martin |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| The Rolling Stone Record Guide | |
| The Village Voice | D+ |
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a multi-platinum double album produced by George Martin, featuring covers of songs by The Beatles. It was released in July 1978, as the soundtrack to the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which starred the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Steve Martin.
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. RSO invested $12 million into this soundtrack and the profit offset set against costs such as $1 million for promotion. 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.
Regarded as one of the worst albums ever recorded, 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. 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.
The album has been released on compact disc.
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?')" Writing in The Rolling Stone Record Guide in 1983, Dave Marsh dismissed the soundtrack as "An utter travesty" and "Easily 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."
...
Wikipedia