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Cover Art Soundtrack
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
[Polydor]
Rating: 2.2

At one time or another in our lives, we've all witnessed a band doing a really bad cover of a song we love. It's a terrible thing, isn't it? Especially when it's done by a band you like. Well, the soundtrack to the 1978 non-classic film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees in lieu of the much more talented Beatles) is 80 straight minutes of that, except you probably don't even like the people covering the songs. "Oh, come on," you might say. "What's wrong with the Bee Gees doing verbatim versions of Beatles songs?" And you might not.

At the very least, the album's got a few interesting moments (which isn't to say they're enjoyable ones). Earth, Wind and Fire funk up "Got To Get You Into My Life;" George Burns (yes, the dead guy), who was cast in the film as "Mr. Kite," comes to life on "Fixing A Hole;" Steve "The Jerk" Martin goes way overboard with enthusiasm on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer;" Aerosmith do their thing to "Come Together," and the vocoder-driven "She's Leaving Home" is just completely insane. But the album's weirdest moment by far comes with "Believe," which pairs Alice Cooper with the Bee Gees in a moment of total weirdness.

For those of you out to collect the weirdest music you can find (yeah, you guys that own albums of choirs from schools for "special children" and William Shatner records), this would make a kooky addition. For those of you looking for artistic integrity and quality, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

-Ryan Schreiber

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RATING KEY
10.0: Indispensable, classic
9.5-9.9: Spectacular
9.0-9.4: Amazing
8.5-8.9: Exceptional; will likely rank among writer's top ten albums of the year
8.0-8.4: Very good
7.5-7.9: Above average; enjoyable
7.0-7.4: Not brilliant, but nice enough
6.0-6.9: Has its moments, but isn't strong
5.0-5.9: Mediocre; not good, but not awful
4.0-4.9: Just below average; bad outweighs good by just a little bit
3.0-3.9: Definitely below average, but a few redeeming qualities
2.0-2.9: Heard worse, but still pretty bad
1.0-1.9: Awful; not a single pleasant track
0.0-0.9: Breaks new ground for terrible
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