Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (soundtrack)

Critical reception

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."

According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, the album suffers from clumsy performances by the Bee Gees, Frankie Howerd and Peter Frampton, as well as performers who were poorly suited to their song, including Steve Martin, George Burns and Alice Cooper. Erlewine says that the soundtrack has become "a legend in its own right" due to its unenviable reputation and adds that, while it has attracted a cult following, "there's no erasing the fact that this is an absolutely atrocious record".

Commercial performance and fallout

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band debuted at number 5 on the U.S. Billboard album charts and stayed there for six weeks, becoming a multi-platinum album. Although there was reported resistance to the interpretation of The Beatles' songs, such as Martin's comedic take on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", Earth, Wind & Fire's version of "Got To Get You Into My Life" became a million selling single, while Robin Gibb's "Oh! Darling" and Aerosmith's "Come Together" both charted in the top 40.

Radio airplay trailed off when the film was released with poor reviews, only five weeks later. The album immediately dropped out of the top 100 and pre-sale shipments to USA failed to sell in the quantities predicted. Owing to low box office receipts the film failed to make back its production costs, but profits from the soundtrack album and the successful singles it spawned later covered those losses.

The Bee Gees blamed their declining popularity in part on their involvement with the whole project, coupled with their mutual struggles with drug addiction. The latter was exacerbated by the environment of making the film and its soundtrack, with Maurice Gibb expressing shock at seeing crew members carrying around bags full of cocaine. Robin Gibb in particular spent much of this period having to dose himself with barbiturates to even be able to sleep. Some of the most vicious criticism of the soundtrack was leveled at them, and the musicians felt a particularly painful sting at being labeled as mere "Beatles imitators" since that sort of pejorative tag had been with them since they began their pop rock work in the 1960s. (Although the Bee Gees would continue to be popular into 1979, that year's backlash against disco, a genre in which the band had made their biggest impact, marred their careers permanently.)

George Martin had agreed to become involved in the project due partly to the amount of money offered for his services, and to his wife's suggestion that any other producer might afford the songs less respect than they were due. The selections by Earth Wind & Fire and Aerosmith were the only tracks he did not work on. According to author Robert Rodriguez, Martin later rued his involvement in Sgt. Pepper.

Side one

1. "Introducing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (4:42)
2. "Here Comes the Sun" — Sandy Farina (3:45)
3. "Getting Better" — Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees (2:46)
4. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" — Dianne Steinberg and Stargard (3:41)
5. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" — The Bee Gees, Dianne Steinberg, Paul Nicholas, Donald Pleasence, Stargard (6:31)

Side two

1. "Good Morning Good Morning" — Paul Nicholas, Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees (1:58)
2. "She's Leaving Home" — The Bee Gees, Jay MacIntosh and John Wheeler (2:41)
3. "You Never Give Me Your Money" — Paul Nicholas and Dianne Steinberg (3:07)
4. "Oh! Darling" — Robin Gibb (3:21)
5. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" — Steve Martin (4:31)
6. "Rise to Stardom Suite" (5:11)

Side three

1. "Got to Get You into My Life" — Earth, Wind & Fire (3:36)
2. "Strawberry Fields Forever" — Sandy Farina (3:31)
3. "When I'm Sixty-Four" — Frankie Howerd and Sandy Farina (2:40)
4. "Mean Mr. Mustard" — Frankie Howerd (2:46)
5. "Fixing a Hole" — George Burns (2:25)
6. "Because" — Alice Cooper and The Bee Gees (2:45)
7. The Death of Strawberry (3:24)

Side four

1. "Come Together" — Aerosmith (3:46)
2. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" — Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, and George Burns (3:12)
3. "The Long and Winding Road" — Peter Frampton (3:40)
4. "A Day in the Life" — Barry Gibb and The Bee Gees (5:11)
5. "Get Back" — Billy Preston (2:56)
6. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Finale)" — The cast (2:13)

Singles