The Rutles 30th Anniversary

Thirty years ago tonight on WNBC-TV, All You Need Is Cash, the story of The Rutles, Dirk, Nasty, Stig and Barry, premiered on national TV in the United States.

Now, this tri-decade anniversary of this historic event may have passed unnoticed were it not for the live revival concert in New York later this week of the faux four.

For those of you who may not have been around 30 years ago when the show debuted, below are a collages from the record album (a 12-inch disc with a hole in the middle that spun on a turntable and through a direct contact diamond head needle produced sound through one or more woofers and tweeters - but that's not important right now) artwork.



The joke was that the Rutles was a parody of The Beatles, a four-man group quite popular at the time although they had split up several years earlier.



After all these decades, the faux four have a web site - which has lyrics to a half-dozen songs that weren't the LP release - "This page last updated September 1, 1997" - which has been around awhile - we suppose while they worked out the royalties and reunion pay distribution, no doubt.

It wouldn't have occured to me that this was the 30th anniversary of the show, except that Ken Dashow's Sunday morning show Breakfast With The Beatles had on as guests two of the four Rutles.

So, thanks, Ken, for the heads-up. I'm busy this week, otherwise I'd love to drop in and see the live show.



Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

The Rutles All You Need Is Cash DVD

The Rutles Soundtrack - Audio CD

PS - Yes, the artwork is from a promotional copy of the original LP - your favorite uncle was a music critic at the time. I can't see that I wrote anything about The Rutles at the time. In fact, it looks like my review career was waning.