Rock Flashback: The Rutles

Neil Innes (L) and Eric Idle (R) appear as Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly of the Rutles on the cover of the fictional album "Let It Rot."

In 1978, a British invasion happened, when the Beatles parody group the Rutles came to the United States. It was the brainchild of Monty Python member Eric Idle and Python collaborator Neil Innes. Thirty-two years ago this month, the Rutles’ story was featured in a TV movie.

All You Need Is Cash had its beginnings in a 1975 British TV sketch. The Rutles are the “Prefab Four” — Dirk McQuickly (played by Idle), Ron Nasty (Innes), Stig O’Hara (sometime Beach Boy Ricky Fataar), and Barrington Womble, better known as Barry Wom (John Halsey). The film also featured Saturday Night Live stars  John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner. Also appearing were Michael Palin of Monty Python, Mick Jagger and his wife Bianca, Paul Simon, and George Harrison as a TV interviewer.

The most remarkable thing about All You Need Is Cash is the songs, which are devastatingly accurate parodies of the Beatle sound — so accurate that Innes was eventually required to give them part of his royalties. Here’s “Hold My Hand,” edited into a clip from The Ed Sullivan Show.

Any similarity between “Doubleback Alley” and “Penny Lane” is completely intentional.

In 1996, as the Beatles’ Anthology series captured public attention, the Rutles came back with Archaeology, although Idle didn’t participate. He was involved in a remake of All You Need Is Cash in 2002.

Before there was Spinal Tap, there were the Rutles.

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