The Rutles. A legend that will last a lunchtime.

An inspired parody of The Beatles, The Rutles, quite apart from their music and comedy, were notable for three reasons. They were the first “mockumentary”, several years before This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show and many other films, mostly made by fellow comedian Christopher Guest. They were also the first successful fusion between British and American comedy, which when done well has produced some of the funniest moments in comedy’s history. Finally, thanks to the assistance of Beatle George Harrison, they gave the world a parody of The Beatles Anthology years before it was actually released.

The Prefab Four–Dirk, Nasty, Stig and Barry–made their debut in 1976 on Monty Python member Eric Idle’s series Rutland Weekend Television1Rutland is an actual British county, the smallest in England.. Idle had an idea for a send-up of A Hard Day’s Night, and produced it with fellow Rutland/Python associate Neil Innes writing the song I Must Be In Love. The black and white clip, starring Kevin instead of Barry, made its American TV debut on October 2nd, 1976, when Idle hosted the new hit show NBC’s Saturday Night.2It didn’t become Saturday Night Live until midway through the first season, due to copyright issues. The Rutles were a smash hit, and upon Idle’s return the following April, he brought Nasty (Innes) along to sing a solo piano rendition of the Rutles classic Cheese And Onions. Lorne Michaels, SNL’s3For the sake of convenience.producer, petitioned Idle and Innes to collaborate on a Rutles special, along with Gary Weis who had done short films for the show. Innes went into the studio with musician friends Rikki Fataar (Stig), John Halsey (Barry; Kevin, like Pete Best, was dropped), and Ollie Halsall (bass and vocals; he appeared in a tiny part as Leppo, Nasty’s best friend) to record twenty songs, of which eighteen were used.4You Need Feet is not an Innes original; it was recorded by British comedian Bernard Bresslaw in 1958 as a parody of the song You Need Hands.Idle did not participate in the sessions as he was recovering from an emergency appendectomy; he lip-synced while filming to Halsall’s vocals.

The resultant film, entitled All You Need Is Cash, starred members of Monty Python, Saturday Night Live and Rutland Weekend Television, as well as guest stars like Paul Simon (Lorne Michaels’ friend), Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger, Ron Wood and Roger McGough.5He did some ghostwriting for Yellow Submarine, but he is far better known as a poet, being a member of the Royal Society of Literature and president of the British Poetry Society. I had no clue who he was when I first saw the film. He also was a member of the British comedy/musical group Scaffold, along with Paul’s brother, Mike McGear. It premiered on NBC as a ninety-minute special on March 22nd, 1978. Programmed as it was against ABC’s Charlie’s Angels, it came in dead last in the Nielsen ratings that week and was one of the lowest rated shows that season. This was America’s loss, as those of us who watched saw a brilliant parody of the Beatles’ story with songs that came so close to the originals that ATV sued Neil Innes for copyright infringement. (Alas, Innes lost, and aside from the settlement had to credit Lennon/McCartney on several songs for later record releases.)

George Harrison not only gave the project his blessing, he showed Idle a number of film clips from The Long And Winding Road, the work-in-progress which later became The Beatles Anthology. This enabled the producers to create almost exact replicas of famous moments in Beatle/Rutle history. Harrison also starred uncredited in the film as a TV reporter who interviews Eric Manchester (a Derek Taylor parody).6I’m ashamed to say I had no idea that it was him until my brother pointed it out. Take away my Beatle credentials. Harrison did fix Idle and Innes with a glare and proclaimed, “Instant Karma’s gonna get you!” when he first heard the song parodies. John, Paul and Ringo did not participate. John and Yoko loved the film and got themselves a copy after seeing it, which was quite surprising considering that Yoko is portrayed as a Nazi. Paul was ambivalent, but warmed up to the movie with Linda’s help, who loved it. Ringo thought the Rutles were great “after 1968”, whatever that means.

Despite the failure of the film and album in the States, Rutlemania did much better in Britain, and over the years the project gained a cult status. When released on video (and later DVD) it did well enough to spawn The Rutles Archeology, following on the heels of The Beatles Anthology. Sadly, at this point Dirk and Stig, aka Idle and Innes, had fallen out over credits on All You Need Is Cash (entitled The Rutles on later releases), and the Archeology album was Innes’s project alone. Idle used some of its material for The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch in 2002; it’s generally considered to be a disappointing sequel.7Which is to say, I’ve not seen it, and don’t intend to buy the DVD just to review it for you lot.

The Rutles album, first released in March of 1978, contained fourteen songs. The lineup below contains the songs parodied in parentheses.

Hold My Hand (All My Loving, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Back In The U.S.S.R.)8This version contained an airplane sound at the song’s beginning, which was really a hair dryer. This was removed for the CD release as the song no longer opened the record.

Number One (Twist And Shout)

With A Girl Like You (If I Fell)

I Must Be In Love (This I can’t pin down. AHDN era.)

Ouch! (Help!, duh)

Living In Hope (Don’t Pass Me By)

Love Life (All You Need Is Love)

Nevertheless (Within You Without You)

Side Two: Good Times Roll (Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds)

Doubleback Alley (Penny Lane)

Cheese And Onions (A Day In The Life)

Another Day (Martha My Dear)

Piggy In The Middle (I Am The Walrus)

Let’s Be Natural (Dear Prudence)

The CD release on Rhino Records in 1990 added six songs (two unused in the TV special) and rearranged the running order.

Goose Step Mama (Some Other Guy)

Number One

Baby, Let Me Be (again, no idea)

Hold My Hand (without the plane sounds and count-in)

Blue Suede Schubert (Roll Over Beethoven)

I Must Be In Love

With A Girl Like You

Between Us (If I Fell)

Living In Hope

Ouch!

It’s Looking Good (I’m Looking Through You)

Doubleback Alley

Good Times Roll

Nevertheless

Love Life

Piggy In The Middle

Another Day

Cheese And Onions

Get Up And Go (Get Back; this is the song that got Innes sued)

Let’s Be Natural

All of these songs are marvelous parodies and a delight even in their own right. The soundtrack easily stands on its own, whereas the film would be poorer without the songs. I can see why Innes felt slighted when Idle took most of the credit.

All Beatles fans owe it to themselves to see All You Need Is Cash. It’s a legend which will be around long after other living legends have gone.