Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a 1978 American jukebox musical comedy film directed by Michael Schultz, written by Henry Edwards and starring an ensemble cast led by Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees.

The film's soundtrack, released as an accompanying double album, features new versions of songs originally written and performed by the Beatles.

RSO Records also released the soundtrack to the film Grease in 1978, which had Barry Gibb producing and Peter Frampton playing lead guitar on the title track.

In 1976, the Bee Gees had recorded three Beatles cover songs, "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight", "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" and "Sun King", for the musical documentary All This and World War II.

Before the film's release, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees announced: "Kids today don't know the Beatles' Sgt.

Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club Band brought happiness through its music, even causing troops in World Wars I and II to stop fighting.

Pepper left the band's magical musical instruments to the town; so long as they remain in Heartland, its people will live happily ever after.

Billy forms a new Lonely Hearts Club Band with his three best friends: brothers Mark, Dave, and Bob Henderson (the Bee Gees).

Hoffler (Donald Pleasence) invites them to Hollywood with the promise of a record deal ("Fixing a Hole"), which the band accepts ("Getting Better").

introduces the band to their new labelmates, sexy singers Lucy (Dianne Steinberg) and the Diamonds (Stargard), and they negotiate the contract over a sex-and-drug-fueled dinner ("I Want You (She's So Heavy)").

Strawberry takes an early morning bus to Hollywood ("She's Leaving Home") to warn the band ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"/"Oh!

In Hollywood, the band and Strawberry steal Mustard's van and use its computer to locate the stolen instruments, recovering the cornet from the deranged, money-driven anti-aging specialist Dr. Maxwell Edison (Steve Martin) ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer"), and the tuba from mind-controlling cult leader Father Sun (Alice Cooper) ("Because").

Mustard and the Brute suddenly arrive and take back the van, containing the recovered instruments and the benefit money, and also kidnap Strawberry ("When I'm Sixty-Four").

To turn Strawberry into a "mindless groupie", FVB chains her up onstage while the band plays, ("Come Together") and the lead singer (Steven Tyler) fondles her.

The town of Heartland, now cleaned up and the instruments returned, holds an elaborate funeral for Strawberry ("Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight").

The depressed Billy attempts to get Strawberry off his mind ("The Long and Winding Road"); when he cannot, the Hendersons worry for him ("A Day in the Life").

The scene was filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios on December 16, 1977; indeed, according to co-star Carel Struycken (Mustard's henchman Brute), Sgt.

[12] Filming started in October 1977 on the backlot of MGM Studios in Culver City, where the set of Heartland, USA was built.

According to film historian Leonard Maltin's TV, Movie & Video Guide, the picture "just doesn't work" and "ranges from tolerable to embarrassing.

As for the Bee Gees' acting, well, if you can't say something nice..." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 11% score based on 27 reviews with an average rating of 3.9/10.

The site's critical consensus reads "I thought you might like to know that the Beatles (aka the act you've known for all these years) are ill-served by this kitschy, aggressively whimsical fantasy film that's most certainly not a thrill".

[17] A more positive review came from The Valley Independent, whose Ron Paglia called the film "Good, campy fun", citing Steve Martin's performance as "a high point" and the celebrity-filled finale as "something special" before concluding "there's much to enjoy.

When asked about the film in a 1979 interview, George Harrison expressed his sympathy for Stigwood, Frampton and the Bee Gees, acknowledging that they had all worked hard to achieve success before making Sgt.