Customer Reviews

Sgt. Pepper's

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4 star:		(4)
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Big Daddy made of name for themselves playing contemporary songs in the style of pre-Beatles rock and roll. Well, in this case they don't reinterpret recent songs. Instead, they reach all the way back to 1967 and remake the Beatles entire Sgt. Pepper's album. This is amusing stuff, with the songs being performed in the styles of different stars of yesteryear. For instance, the title song(s) is played in the style of the Coasters, "With a Little Help From My Friends" is played in the manner of Johnny Mathis, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" is performed like Jerry Lee Lewis and so on. My personal favorites are "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" in the style of Freddie Cannon and "A Day in the Life" a la Buddy Holly. I would recommend this CD to any Beatles fan with a good sense of humor.

Big Daddy is a retro doo-wop group that first appeared in 1983 with their debut What Really Happened to the Band of '59. The band's fictional backstory involved an aborted USO tour of Vietnam that resulted in their being held captive through the `60s and `70s. Given only sheet music to work from, they spent the years applying their `50s stylings to contemporary songs. Their debut featured `70s and `80s hits cleverly reworked in the style of well-known 1950s acts. Barry Manilow's "I Wrote the Songs" was taken up-tempo in tribute to Danny and the Juniors' "At the Hop," Rick James' "Super Freak" was given an Everly Brothers harmony treatment, The Cars' "Just What I Needed" is mellowed with the sound of the Fleetwoods' "Come Softly to Me," and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" is sung as a cappella street corner doo-wop. The new arrangements were impressive in their own right, but the group's musical talents made the results both terrific novelties and surprisingly listenable music.

Additional albums in 1985 (Meanwhile... Back in the States) and 1991 (Cutting Their Own Groove) extended the joke by mashing up Bruce Springsteen with Pat Boone, the Talking Heads with Harry Belafonte, Dire Straits with Tennessee Ernie Ford, and A Taste of Honey (or Kyu Sakamoto, originally) with the Beach Boys. As on their debut, the depth of the group's imagination and the quality of their musicianship merited listening past the novelty. In 1992 the band waxed their final album, a tour de force recreation of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as if it had been waxed in the late `50s. In place of the fab four's psychedelia you get the title tune as it would have been rendered by the Coasters, "With a Little Help From My Friends" as crooned by Johnny Mathis, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" as a Jerry Lee Lewis barn burner, "Lovely Rita" given the Bo Diddley beat of Elvis' "His Latest Flame," and a Freddy Canon-styled, sound effects-filled take on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite."

There's sax-lined doo-wop, Dion-inspired braggadocio, Spector-styled baion beats, beatnik poetry, baritone-voiced R&B, a cappella jazz vocalizing, and the album closes with a brilliant Buddy Holly styled recreation of "A Day in the Life" that blends "Peggy Sue" and "Everyday" into Lennon and McCartney's individual sections of the original. The piano sustain of the Beatles' original is given over to the descending sound of the music dying. Unfortunately, only two of Big Daddy's original albums ever made it to CD, along with a greatest hits collection, and all are currently out of print. You can find them on the secondary market, though, and they're all worth the hunt. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

This is one hard disc to track down (I own the cassette). If you are lucky enough to stumble across it in your travels, and you like the Beatles, oldies, parody CDs or comedy on disc, this is a must have. In my mind Big Daddy did some of the most spot-on spoofs of contemporary hits done in an early rock 'n roll style.

The idea here is to match up Johnny Mathis' voice with Beatles classics off Sgt. Pepper album. In this case, "A Little Help From My Friends" to the tune of "Chances Are". It works. Or "The Dominoes chestnut "60 Minute Man" done to the beat of "When I'm 64" is a perfect knock off. The CD ends, pitting the famous 'Day the Music Died' (Buddy Holly, Big Bopper) plane crash, over "A Day in the Life", and it is also very well concieved. There are a coupel of mis-steps here; the beat poet "Within WIthout" (not a Beatle classic to begin with) falls flat. Points for trying though. More successful is when Daddy goes uptempo with a Dion &d the Belmonts styled "Fixing a Hole", a-la "The Wonderer". All in all a splendid time is guarented by all. Go Big Daddy, Go!

Released in time for the 25th anniversary of the Beatles' seminal Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Sgt. Pepper's by Big Daddy is not only one of the best Beatles cover albums, I consider it one of the best cover works, period. What makes this album work is that by nature of marrying the original Beatles works with musical styles (and in some cases specific pop songs) of the 50's and early 60's, Big Daddy succeeds in truly putting their own unique spin on the songs. And, the band succeeds admirably; most artists who cover Beatle songs usually just end up paling in comparison.

As fun as the covers are, half the fun of this album is figuring out which artists were emulated in performing the tracklist. Where else could you hear "With A Little Help From My Friends" as performed by Johnny Mathis; "Within You Without You" as a piece of beat poetry with jazz accompaniment; "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" set to Freddy Cannon's "Palisades Park"; or "A Day In The Life" in the style of (McCartney idol) Buddy Holly? This album is for Beatle fans who also have a great love and appreciation for 50's-60's pop music, and can have a sense of humor about the whole thing. Don't miss it.

Fun takes on a classic. Varying, but mostly fifties genres. For example "Within You Without You" is turned into a cool beat poetry bongo thing...

... it would sound like this. You will never hear Sgt. Pepper's the same again !!! This is one of those albums to put on at a party and watch the reaction of people saying, What the ??? If you are a fan of Weird Al or Stan Freberg, this is the album for you, I will guarantee it!!! Enjoy and Stay 2nd :-)

Quirky just isn't the word for this recording! Think Sgt Peppers played in the style of Buddy Holly, Del Shannon and anyone else you can think of from that era and you might be getting somewhere near. I loved Sgt Peppers when it was released and still do, having recently purchased the re-mastered cd. This recording by Big Daddy is as fresh as Sgt Peppers was back in 1967 despite being recorded in the style of 50's do-wop singers and bands.

As I say, if you can get hold of a copy, you won't be disappointed. It might sound a strange mixture, but on the whole I think it works well and is little gem in it's own right. My personal favourite is'Within You,Without you', George Harrison's mystical Indian influenced track that was reputedly shoe-horned in the original Sgt Peppers at the last minute. This is the biggest surprise of the cd.

To hear is to believe!

In the wake of THE SMITHEREENS celebrating the 43rd Anniversary of MEET THE BEATLES by rerecording the whole album in its entirety (MEET THE SMITHEREENS), Big Daddy's SGT PEPPER'S (almost 15 years older) is another Beatles tribute worthy of mention in an ocean of Beatle tribute albums. The novelty of this album is Big Daddy's arrangement of the classic album into styles of the late 50's early 60's music styles and it works. From "Doo-Wop" to Johnny Mathis. From Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly to "Beatnik-Poetry-Reading". The styles are as diverse as how the Beatles used to always record their songs on each of their albums. To this reviewer, Big Daddy's choice of arrangements for each song works out perfectly for each song and some match the lyrical sense of a particular song. Case in point, George Harrison's "Within You, Without You" is simply read as beatnik poem with bongos, flutes, and stand-up base in the background. For those who love the Beatles and have the common sense to enjoy diverse styles of music, this is one great album. Ranks up there with the aforementioned MEET THE SMITHEREENS and 2002's CHRISTMAS WITH THE FAB FOUR: ULTIMATE TRIBUTE.