By the late ’70s, the Bees Gees and Peter Frampton were at the peak of their careers, having sold millions of records and selling out concerts worldwide. Their careers were making tremendous progress, as they amassed lots of fans and had their faces in magazines everywhere until it all took a downward turn.
The Sgt. Pepper’s movie of 1978 cost the Bees Gees and Peter Frampton much of what they had built over the years. Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood thought it was a good idea to make a movie on the legendary Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, along with casting Bees Gees and Peter Frampton. However, the idea turned out to be a career suicide of some sort.
The ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ movie was released 45 years ago with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton
The film Sgt. Pepper was released 45 years ago and received backlash from fans and movie critics. A few years earlier, Stigwood produced a Broadway adaptation of The Beatles’ album and decided to expand on it. The movie featured a soundtrack produced by original Beatles producer George Martin, who doubled as the movie’s musical director.
RELATED: It Was The Bee Gees vs. Peter Frampton on the Set of the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Movie (EXCLUSIVE)
George Burns played the narrator, detailing the story of Billy Shears and the band and even sang “Fixing a Hole” to entertain the audience. As fate would have it, the movie was still a flop as there was no dialogue aside from Burns’ narration. It was up to some Beatles classics to tell the story of the Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ soundtrack was, ironically, a hit
Despite being a big fail, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had a soundtrack album that people loved. The album made platinum status, with singles of Aerosmith’s take on “Come Together” and Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Got to Get You Into My Life” managing to score Top 40 hits.