The Rutles

The Rutles
Soundtrack by The Rutles
Released	1978
Genre	Comedy
Length	50:27
Label	Warner Brothers
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Allmusic link
The Rutles chronology
The Rutles (1978) The Rutles Archaeology (1996) US Reissue cover The cover to the CD reissue of 'The Rutles'. From Left to right: Dirk McQuickly, Barry Wom, Stig O'Hara, and Ron Nasty.

The Rutles is a soundtrack album to the 1978 telemovie All You Need Is Cash. The album contains over 14 of the tongue-in-cheek, pastiches of Beatles' songs that were featured in the film.

Multiple listenings are required to discern all the sources referenced in titles, lyrics, melodies, and song structures. The primary creative force of the Rutles music was Neil Innes, the sole composer and arranger of the songs. Innes had been the 'seventh' member of Monty Python, as well as one of the main artists behind the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in the late 1960s, who had been featured in the real Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour performing "Death Cab For Cutie".

Innes himself credits the three musicians he recruited to assist him on the project as having been enormously important in helping him capture the feel of the Beatles. Guitarist/singer Ollie Halsall and drummer John Halsey had played together in the groups Timebox and Patto. Multi-instrumentalist Rikki Fataar had played with The Flames before joining the Beach Boys in the early 1970s.

Not commonly known is that Eric Idle is not heard at all on the music soundtrack of the film. He did not play or sing on any of the recordings. He is skillful at lip-syncing the 'Dirk' vocals that were in fact sung by Ollie Halsall. Innes says that Idle, who had recently had an appendectomy, offered to help but was encouraged to recuperate. Were it not for the inherently ironic lyrics, it might be difficult to distinguish the songs from true Beatles numbers (indeed, the 1978 Beatles bootleg Indian Rope Trick included The Rutles' "Cheese and Onions", incorrectly — and perhaps jokingly — attributing it to John Lennon). In the early 1980s, Innes was accused by one American Beatle fan of stealing unreleased Beatles tracks to use in the film; this was based on a recording of "Cheese And Onions" obtained by the fan which he believed to be by John Lennon. When the recording was played to Innes, he was amused to discover that it was actually his own demo of the song - a tribute to his skills as a parodist.

The songs written by Innes so cleverly parodied the original source material that he was taken to court by the owners of The Beatles catalogue. Innes had to testify under oath that he had not listened to the songs at all while composing The Rutles songs, but had created them completely originally based on what he remembered various Beatles songs sounding like at different times.

The cover art of the album suggested the existence of a number of other Rutles albums: "Meet The Rutles", "Tragical History Tour", "Sgt. Rutter's Darts Club Band" and "Let It Rot"".

Tracklisting

Background

The album contains some obvious send-ups of Beatles numbers such as "Ouch!" ("Help!"), "Love Life" ("All You Need is Love"), "Piggy in the Middle" ("I Am the Walrus"), "Doubleback Alley" ("Penny Lane") and "Get Up And Go" (CD reissue only —"Get Back"). However, many of the other songs require a thorough understanding of the Beatles' entire discography in order to decipher which song(s) they resemble. Below is a track listing as it appeared on several different releases, with Rutles songs accompanied by the Beatles song(s) they resemble (according to the best guesses of anonymous Wikipedia users).

All songs were actually written by Neil Innes. Songwriter attributions are the 'fictional' writing credits listed as they would have been in the 'Rutles universe.' Reflecting the balance of songwriting credits on most Beatles albums, the vast majority of the songs are credited to Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly (the 'John and Paul' of The Rutles), with one composition each credited to the rivals for 'George' (Stig O'Hara) and 'Ringo' (Barry Wom). The liner notes of the album give the names of the Warner Brothers as "Stan & Reg". The actual names of the four founders of the Warner Bros. film company are Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner and Jack L. Warner.

The only song from the film that did not end up on the soundtrack is You Need Feet. It was not included because it was not actually a Rutles piece, but an existing song written & performed by Bernard Bresslaw.

1978 vinyl album

The original 1978 vinyl release of the soundtrack omitted some of the material due to time restrictions of the medium (20 minutes on each side = 40 minutes complete).

Side 1:

1. "Hold My Hand" (Nasty/McQuickly) - ("Eight Days a Week", "She Loves You", "All My Loving", "I Want to Hold Your Hand")
2. "Number One" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:52 ("Twist and Shout", "It Won't Be Long", "She Loves You")
3. "With A Girl Like You" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 1:53 ("If I Fell")
4. "I Must Be In Love" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:06 (In the film, this appears to be a parody of "A Hard Day's Night", but the song borrows more heavily from "If I Needed Someone", "You Won't See Me", "From Me To You" )
5. "Ouch!" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 1:52 ("Help!")
6. "Living In Hope" (Womble) - 2:39 ("Don't Pass Me By", "Octopus's Garden", "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Act Naturally")
7. "Love Life" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:52 ("All You Need Is Love")
8. "Nevertheless" (O'Hara) - 1:29 ("Love You To", "Within You Without You", "Blue Jay Way")

Side 2:

1. "Good Times Roll" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 3:05 ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds")
2. "Doubleback Alley" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:57 ("Penny Lane")
3. "Cheese And Onions" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:42 ("A Day in the Life")
4. "Another Day" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:13 ("Martha My Dear")
5. "Piggy In The Middle" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 4:11 ("I Am the Walrus")
6. "Let's Be Natural" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 3:22 ("Julia", "Dear Prudence", "Strawberry Fields Forever")

The remaining songs floated about as bootlegs until the 1990 re-release on CD.

1990 CD re-release

The 1990 CD re-release not only restored the full Rutles canon, but also changed some of the order of the tracks (this time intending to obviously align the songs chronologically as they would have been released individually in the "Rutles universe"). This broke some resemblance to track orders on original Beatles albums where the ending of a Rutles song closely resembled the ending of a Beatles song, and the same for the beginning of the next song.

Additionally, Hold my hand had originally featured a fake "airplane" intro sound (a nod to Back in the U.S.S.R.) which actually was a hairdryer, along with a count-in to the song. Due to the fact it wasn't the first song on the CD re-release anymore as it had been on the original vinyl, this intro was removed.

1. "Goose-Step Mama" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:18 (not on LP) ("Some Other Guy", "I Saw Her Standing There")
2. "Number One" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:52
3. "Baby Let Me Be" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 1:57 (not on LP) ("Slow Down")
4. "Hold My Hand" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:11 (shorter than LP version, which has an "airplane" sound-effect intro)
5. "Blue Suede Schubert" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:13 (not on LP) ("Roll Over Beethoven", "Boys")
6. "I Must Be In Love" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:06
7. "With A Girl Like You" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 1:53
8. "Between Us" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:03 (not on LP) ("Baby It's You", "And I Love Her", "Till There Was You")
9. "Living In Hope" (Womble) - 2:39
10. "Ouch!" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 1:52
11. "It's Looking Good" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:02 (not on LP) ("I'm Down", "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party", "I'm Looking Through You", "I'm a Loser")
12. "Doubleback Alley" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:57
13. "Good Times Roll" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 3:05
14. "Nevertheless" (O'Hara) - 1:29
15. "Love Life" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:52
16. "Piggy In The Middle" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 4:11
17. "Another Day" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:13
18. "Cheese And Onions" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:42
19. "Get Up And Go" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 3:19 (not on LP) ("Get Back")
20. "Let's Be Natural" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 3:22

All lead vocals by Neil Innes except: Ollie Halsall on tracks 7/12/17/19, Rikki Fataar on tracks 5/8/14, and John Halsey on track 9.

The Rutles (Soundtrack) Alternate Versions & Re-Issues

"The Rutles" / Warner Brothers Records / WB- W5 3151 (1978 Cassette Version)

Side 1: "Good Times Roll", "Doubleback Alley", "Cheese And Onions", "Another Day", "Piggy In the Middle", "Let's Be Natural"

Side 2: "Hold My Hand", "Number One", "With A Girl Like You", "I Must Be In Love", "Ouch!", "Living In Hope", "Love Life", "Nevertheless"

• The Canadian version, on cassette, is the only version of this release to actually be titled, "Meet The Rutles"

"The Rutles" / Warner Brothers Records/ S 142137/ M8 3151 (1978 8-Track Tape Version)

Track 1: "Hold My Hand", "With A Girl Like You", "I Must Be In Love", "Love Life"

Track 2: "Number One", "Ouch!", "Nevertheless", "Doubleback Alley"

Track 3: "Living In Hope", "Good Times Roll", "Let's be Natural"

Track 4: "Cheese And Onions", "Another Day", "Piggy In The Middle"

"The Rutles" / Rhino Records / 1990 / R2 75760 / U.S. only release / 1st CD issue

• Contains the original 14 tracks + "Goose Step Mama", "Baby Let Me Be", "Blue Suede Schubert", "Between Us", "It's Looking Good" and "Get Up & Go"
• Airplane sound effects and count in missing from "Hold My Hand"
• Insert folds out into "Rutlemania" memorabilia mini-poster.
• First appearance of catalogue numbers for each track.
• First mention of "The Silver Rutles Demos" & "Rutle Soul" albums.
• CD label designed to look like Capitol Records Yellow & Orange Swirl 45 RPM Label

"The Rutles" / Rhino Records / 2007 / 8122-79968-9 / U.K. only release / 1st U.K. CD issue

• Same material as U.S. CD (including edited "Hold My Hand" as noted above.)
• Digi-pack designed to open as a gatefold album with alternate front cover.
• Booklet contains most of the original Rutles booklet. (Paul Simon interview is missing.)
• CD in Mini-Sleeve that duplicates the "other artistes on the Rutle label" album sleeve.
• Does not include song lyrics.

See also

• All You Need Is Cash
• List of The Rutles fictional albums
• The Rutles
• The Rutles Archaeology
• The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch

v • d • e The Rutles Neil Innes · Eric Idle · John Halsey · Ricky Fataar · Ollie Halsall · David Battley TV series Rutland Weekend Television Films All You Need Is Cash · The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch Music The Rutles OST · The Rutles Archaeology · List of The Rutles fictional albums