The original intention of the filmmakers was to use actual Beatles music in the film. The decision to use other artists covering Beatles music was made by the film's producers after they realised additional money could be made through a soundtrack album.
The decision was a sound one, as the soundtrack actually generated more revenue than the film.
The album was released on 25th October 1976 and the film was released on the 11th November 1976.
All but lost to the footnotes of pop culture history largely due to its unavailability on home video, 1976's
All This and World War II was, to put it mildly, an odd film. Cobbled together almost entirely from newsreel footage of World War II, all taken from the vaults of Movietone News, the film wasn't a documentary or an exercise in nostalgia, it was constructed as an anti-war film thanks to the presence of
Beatles music which functioned as commentary on the events as they unfolded.
Beatles music it may have been, but it wasn't performed by
the Beatles: the Fab Four's classic tunes were covered by an all-star cast of pop and rock stars, assembled under the direction of record exec
Russ Regan and produced by
Lou Reizner. These artists were teamed up with a bunch of studio pros, highlighted by pianist
Nicky Hopkins, along with the
London Symphony Orchestra, who gave this music the bombastic pomp a project like this deserved. If the film itself was quite odd -- most notoriously, it featured Nazi soldiers being run in reverse as "Get Back" played on the soundtrack -- the soundtrack itself isn't particularly strange or compelling. Far from being as fascinatingly grotesque as the disco-fied soundtrack to 1978's
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, this is nevertheless similar to that fiasco in how it epitomizes the sound of its era. Only two years separated
Sgt. Pepper's and
All This and World War II, but where the former was a gaudy tacky embodiment of disco-rock and burned-out arena rock, the latter is a self-important, humorless encapsulation of pre-punk album-oriented rock.
This is a Brit-centric soundtrack -- it was a British production after all -- so it shouldn't be a surprise that it's heavy on British prog rockers and pop songwriters with an arty bent:
Peter Gabriel,
Bryan Ferry,
Roy Wood,
Jeff Lynne,
Elton John,
David Essex and
Leo Sayer are all here, as are
Ambrosia who may not be British but fit in well with that contingent. Then, there are mainstream superstars and middle-of-the-road artists like
the Bee Gees,
Rod Stewart,
Helen Reddy,
Frankie Laine,
Frankie Valli and
the Four Seasons (separately, mind you), the forgotten
Lynsey de Paul,
Henry Gross, with
the Brothers Johnson and
Tina Turner added for some diversity. But the fact of it is, it doesn't really matter who is singing here: it all sounds roughly the same thanks to the
London Symphony Orchestra, who gives every song here altogether too much pomp and circumstance. That means that anybody enticed by the prospect of
Peter Gabriel reinventing "Strawberry Fields Forever" or
Roy Wood running wild on "Lovely Rita" will be disappointed by the perfectly fine versions here because they are, at the core,
Reizner and the
London Symphony Orchestra's interpretations of these songs;
Gabriel and
Wood are merely invited guests.
That's the case throughout
All This and World War II: with the exception of
Elton John's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which existed prior to this soundtrack, and
Rod Stewart's "Get Back," the only cut here that features electric guitars playing loudly. The rest all mushes together in a hazy murk of pompous strings and blaring brass. As a reinterpretation of
the Beatles, it's a bit muddy: it's as if all involved decided that since this was for an important film -- a film that really is trying to say something -- the music should be treated in a stodgy fashion, as if it were middlebrow classical music. But as a curio, it certainly evokes its time; and almost too well, as a matter of fact, since once it's done it's hard not to see exactly why punk rock happened.
Side A
A1. Ambrosia - Magical Mystery Tour - 3:52
A2. Elton John - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - 6:11
A3. Bee Gees - Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight - 3:12
A4. Leo Sayer - I Am The Walrus - 3:49
A5. Bryan Ferry - She’s Leaving Home - 3:07
A6. Roy Wood - Lovely Rita - 1:13
A7. Keith Moon - When I’m Sixty-Four - 2:36
Side B
B1. Rod Stewart - Get Back - 4:24
B2. Leo Sayer - Let It Be - 3:43
B3. David Essex - Yesterday - 2:44
B4. Jeff Lynne - With A Little Help From My Friends / Nowhere Man - 6:56
B5. Lynsey De Paul - Because - 3:24
B6. Bee Gees - She Came In Through The Bathroom Window - 1:54
B7. Richard Cocciante - Michelle - 4:00
Side C
C1. The Four Seasons - We Can Work It Out - 2:39
C2. Helen Reddy - The Fool On The Hill - 3:37
C3. Frankie Laine - Maxwell’s Silver Hammer - 3:27
C4. Brothers Johnson - Hey Jude
(Vocals – The Watts Line) - 4:58
C5. Roy Wood - Polythene Pam - 1:30
C6. Bee Gees - Sun King - 2:03
C7. Status Quo - Getting Better - 2:19
Side D
D1. Leo Sayer - The Long And Winding Road - 4:45
D2. Henry Gross - Help - 3:07
D3. Peter Gabriel - Strawberry Fields Forever - 2:30
D4. Frankie Valli - A Day In The Life - 4:04
D5. Tina Turner - Come Together - 4:08
D6. Wil Malone & Lou Reizner - You Never Give Me Your Money - 3:04
D7. The London Symphony Orchestra - The End - 2:26
Personnel
Companies, etc.
- Arranged By, Orchestrated By – Wil Malone
- Bass – Les Hurdle
- Composed By – John Lennon-Paul McCartney
- Conductor – David Measham, Harry Rabinowitz
- Design, Illustration – Clyde Terry, Jack Room
- Drums – Barry Morgan, Ronnie Verrell
- Engineer – Anton Matthews, Bruce Swedian, Dave Smith, Dee Robb, Doug Bennett, John Kelly, Phil Chapman, Sheridan Eldridge, Steve Maslow, Tom Trefethen
- Engineer [Assistant] – Benny King, Nigel Brooke-Hart
- Orchestra – The London Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
- Piano – Nicky Hopkins
- Producer – Lou Reizner
- Recorded By, Mixed By – Keith Grant
Notes
Released: 1976
Format: 2LP
Genre: Rock, Pop
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Catalog# WB 66 049
Prijs : €9,99
Vinyl: Good
Cover: Good
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