The Rutles

About The Rutles

The Rutles is a soundtrack album to the 1978 telemovie All You Need Is Cash. The album contains 14 of the tongue-in-cheek pastiches of Beatles songs that were featured in the film. 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 film performing "Death Cab for Cutie". Innes credits the three musicians he recruited to assist him on the project as having been 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. Eric Idle, who devised the Rutles concept and co-wrote the film, did not play or sing on any of the recordings. He lip-synced "Dirk" vocals that were in fact sung by Halsall. Innes says that Idle, who had recently had an appendectomy, offered to help but was encouraged to recuperate. Having encouraged Idle and Innes to make a film that satirised the Beatles' history, and lent them archival footage for inclusion in the film, George Harrison facilitated the album's release by introducing them to the chairman of Warner Bros. Records, Mo Ostin. The pastiches mimic the Beatles' sound to the degree that a 1978 Beatles bootleg, Indian Rope Trick, included the Rutles' "Cheese and Onions", 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. more »