The way I alphabetically see it, this toppermost Beatles parody falls not under R for the Rutles but A for ‘All You Need Is Cash,’ as that’s the actual title of the mockumentary that premiered on NBC and then BBC2 five days apart in March ’78. Just as easily could file under B, however — for bloody brilliant.
Longtime fans (I’ve been mad for it since high school) have memorized the songs from this ingenious homage just as much as the originals they cleverly reinvent, from the youthful Merseybeat of ‘Hold My Hand’ and the ‘Twist & Shout’-isms of ‘Number One’ to the psychedelia of ‘Piggy in the Middle’ and the ‘Dear Prudence’ rewrite ‘Let’s Be Natural.’ (Wish the ones listed on ‘Tragical History Tour’ were real; I’d love to hear ‘I Am the Waitress’ and ‘Your Mother Must Go.’) I watched this Eric Idle/Neil Innes & co. creation for the umpteenth time last night and was reminded all over again how spot-on it remains. The attention to satirical detail is so exact it’s dumbfounding; Idle’s writing and delivery is as fully committed to the bit as Innes’s little marvels of musical mimicry; and when this tall tale of the Prefab Four finally gets to the animation for ‘Yellow Submarine Sandwich,’ I’m still close to doubled over. If you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, couldn’t tell a Rutle from a rattle but definitely know a thing or two about the Beatles, well, you really ought to have seen this by now. Wait no longer. It’s on DVD and streaming in full on YouTube — that’s about it, but that’s enough. Also: were it not for Steve Martin’s standup classic ‘A Wild and Crazy Guy,’ this very well might have won the Grammy for best comedy recording. All due respect to Martin’s pinnacle performance, I’d have voted for the Rutles.
#SoundtrackSunday 011:
‘All You Need Is Cash’
Warner Bros., 1978
d: Eric Idle & Gary Weis