Hits All The Wrong Notes Musical
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)
Inducted 2018
Making a motion picture is not quite a science. Louis B. Mayer tried to make it one at MGM, but even he never quite succeeded. It’s hard to figure out how an audience will react to any particular film. Sometimes a particular director or producer will have only one epic film in them. The smarter ones will stop while they’re ahead; others will get their one big hit and assume they’re invincible. That was what led to one of the most disastrous films of the 1970’s- Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Robert Stigwood was on the top of the Hollywood heap after making Saturday Night Fever and Grease. As a result, he thought he could do no wrong when it came to making musicals. He thought he had a guaranteed hit when he combined the songs from the biggest band of the 1960’s with the voices of the biggest band of the 1970’s. Having The Bee Gees singing the Beatles hits seemed like a surefire box office success. It ended up being one of the biggest misfires ever.
The film is an overlong music video and a visually tacky mess. It would sour Hollywood on Robert Stigwood and the world on The Bee Gees. Nobody leaves this film with their dignity intact.
