This month marks the 30th anniversary of The Rutles, the pre-fab four who took the world by storm in the 1960s.
Wait… let me check my math…
Oh, yeah. I forgot. The Rutles was not a real band, but an ingenious parody of the Beatles from musical genius Neil Innes and Monty Python’s Eric Idle. Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels produced the “documentary” All you need is cash in 1978. It showed all those caught up in Rutlemania a behind the scenes glimpse and history of the band (please note this is several years before another favorite of mine, Spinal Tap, was produced).
It was – and is – very funny, and was well received even by the Beatles themselves (George Harrison appears in the documentary, though not as himself, and John Lennon loved it so much he refused to return the screener copy they sent to him).
VH1 just broadcast the original film and the (somewhat weak) direct-to-ideo follow-up from 2002 this week, and on March 17th a live performance/salute/reunion took place in Hollywood. Here’s a great report from that event. And here’s some more details on the musical reunion on stage of the Rutles for the first time.
Long live the Rutles!