We Love the Beatles: "I Must Be in Love" by the Rutles

Detail of cover illustration from The Funnies, October 1939

As usual, I'm using "We Love the Beatles" as a crutch because I don't have time to post something more interesting. I'd also like to finish up the series (I had about twelve in mind when I started) so that I can move on to "We Love the Beach Boys". So far, I've talked about the Rooks, the Spongetones, Olivia Tremor Control, Cleaners from Venus, and Off Broadway, but I have neglected to feature THE "We Love the Beatles" band - the only band to have recreated the Beatles sound so well that one of their songs was featured on Beatles bootlegs for years (listed as a rare Lennon demo.) The Rutles!

The Rutles started out as a one-off parody of the Beatles featured on Rutland Weekend Television, a BBC sketch comedy show with former Python Eric Idle. The brain behind the Rutles was Neil Innes, member of the Bonzo Dog Band, a great songwriter gifted with a good Lennon impression and a fairly intimate knowledge of everything Beatles (he was in the cast of Magical Mystery Tour!) Innes wrote a great Hard Day's Night-era sound-alike called "I Must Be in Love", and it led eventually to two mockumentaries and two albums of Beatles parodies. Maybe I should be ashamed to admit that I like The Rutles as well as any Beatles album, but the songwriting and performances are really top notch. One detail a lot of people don't know is that Eric Idle is not on any of the original Rutles recordings - Neil Innes and his buddies recorded all the songs without him. Some of the rips of early annoying Beatles numbers like "Roll Over Beethoven" (with jokey titles like "Blue Suede Schubert" and "Goose Step Mama") are grating, but the parodies are presented in "chronological" order and get better as they go on, arguably peaking with the perfect "Cheese and Onions".

I think, though, that their first attempt sounds the best - "I Must Be in Love" is not exactly a ripoff of the song "A Hard Day's Night", but it captures the sound of that album perfectly.

"I Must Be in Love" by the Rutles