Video News CNNChat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out whats happening in the world as it unfolds. The phrase guilty pleasure has long outlived its usefulness. If you really like a song or a movie or a TV show, no matter how cheesy the conventional. Why Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is better on Blu ray. Arts greatest sin is to be unmemorable, pop culture historian Russell Dyball says on the commentary track of the coming ShoutFactory Blu ray reissue of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. On that end, the 1. Bee Gees Peter Frampton musical that was built on Beatles songs from the landmark 1. Abbey Road, Let It Be and Revolver, is sin free. More Read an interview with Barry Gibb from 2. Watch The Hole Movie Plan Bee ' title='Watch The Hole Movie Plan Bee ' />Forty years after director Michael Schultz filmed the musical in L. A. in the fall of 1. Watch 911 call from teen charged with livestreaming fatal crash in Merced County. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is anything but unmemorable. So does that make it great In July 1. Robert Stigwood produced musical opened in theaters with a George Martin produced 1. LP soundtrack, the project was savaged. Janet Maslin, film critic for The New York Times, summed up the prevailing view of the movie in her review where she called it a business deal set to music. Bee Gees, from left, Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb, at a party following the Hollywood premiere of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in July 1. Lennox Mc. Lendon AP We reached out to Bee Gee Barry Gibb at his Miami Beach home, but he was unavailable. It was his birthday and wedding anniversary. Gibb probably wasnt thinking of reliving the Pepper experience. Leave that to Shout Factory, which is releasing the home video on Sept. Junes 5. 0th anniversary restoration and reissue of the Beatles original 1. On Dyballs informative audio commentary on the Blu ray we hear of ego clashes on the set between its leads, Frampton and the Bee Gees. Cheap Megamind Movie there. Frampton was hot from his Frampton Comes Alive LP in 1. Gibb and his late brothers, twins Robin and Maurice, were about to be Beatles hot from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, which hit No. January 1. 97. 8. Bee Gees singles, How Deep Is Your Love, Stayin Alive and Night Fever, all topped the charts for the next six months. Robin Gibb, Peter Frampton, Maurice Gibb and Barry Gibb are Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in the film of the same name. Shout Factory Dyball calls the movie absurd and delightful. We get it. Now. In 1. Sgt. Pepper felt like an abomination. The four Beatles were still alive then so many had hoped for a reunion. Fans, instead, had to settle for a silly jukebox musical that didnt replicate the success of earlier Stigwood musical productions like Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, Saturday Night Fever or Grease, for which Barry Gibb provided the title tune. But with the patina of nostalgia now going for it, ShoutFactorys reissue reveals a peskily overlong film of, get this, some charm. Heres why unearthing the Sgt. Pepper film musical as it approaches its 4. The songs. Earth, Wind Fires cover of Got to Get You Into My Life is better than the Beatles original from the Revolver album. Everybody knows that. Back then we knew it even if admitting this in the high school cafeteria led to a dunking in a bowl of steaming Chef Boyardee. Aerosmith in Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Aerosmith scored a Top 4. Beatles Come Together in 1. Shout Factory Aerosmiths sleazy Come Together is less embarrassing than lead singer Steven Tylers late career turn as an American Idol judge or reinvention as a country singer on his solo album. The Bee Gees harmonies on A Day in the Life, Nowhere Man and Because, the latter with Alice Cooper who was on a two day pass from rehab to film his part as a cult leader, were spot on. Robin Gibbs solo on the Top 2. Oh Darling is arguably more soulful than Paul Mc. Cartneys oversung original. John Lennons voice would have been better suited to the raw Abbey Road track in 1. Pauls anyway. George Burns, clearly Sgt. Peppers highlight, played God in a hit movie a year earlier. Hed get away with singing Fixing a Hole, too. OK, Framptons thin, whiny voice reeked and his best scenes were the times his Billy Shears character was unconscious. Yet Sgt. Pepper didnt kill his career as commonly believed. His Comes Alive follow up, the feckless Im in You, managed that feat in 1. Sgt. Pepper just confirmed his live album was a fluke. The commentary. Pop culture historian Russell Dyball is having a good time telling tales of Pepper and you will enjoy sharing your living room with the born storyteller. We knew that Olivia Newton John had been offered the role of Strawberry Fields, a part played by film novice Sandy Farina who earned the unfortunate nickname 1. Sandy because thats how many takes it took for her to convincingly walk through a door. Newton John made the right choice. Grease, released a month earlier in June 1. Farina never acted again but would go on to become a songwriter. In 1. 97. 9, Barbra Streisand recorded Farinas Kiss Me in the Rain. The new Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Blu ray reveals that Stevie Nicks was offered a leading role in the 1. She turned it down. Neal Preston We didnt know, however, that Fleetwood Macs Stevie Nicks was offered the part, too. Wed have to wait 3. Nicks to make her acting debut on American Horror Story Coven. Donna Summer was offered the part of Lucy, played memorably by Dianne Steinberg, but shed opt instead for a small role in the 1. Thank God Its Friday. That film flopped but its hit song, Last Dance, won on Oscar. Even the Bee Gees were cheated out of an Oscar for Saturday Night Fever the year before. A time capsuleSgt. Pepper isnt a defining film of the 1. For better or worse, this is how pop culture rolled in 1. And Sgt. Pepper was far from the worst film of its type of 1. That year also saw the TV release of Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park and The Star Wars Holiday Special. Thank God Its Friday wasnt better. And Roller Boogie, Xanadu and Cant Stop the Music were yet to come. See Steve Martin before he became The JerkSteve Martin sings Maxwells Silver Hammer as Dr. Maxwell in Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1. Shout Factory The comedian scrubbed Sgt. Pepper from his filmography in favoring The Jerk in 1. Maybe Martin meant in a leading role where the whole movie hinged on his performance. But he did Sgt. Pepper and a few other movies first. And we kinda like his wild and crazy guy take on Maxwells Silver Hammer. Mend a broken heart. Bee Gee Maurice Gibb once said, While we were filming Sgt. Pepper, we wrote songs like Tragedy and Too Much Heaven and then Shadow Dancing all in one day. Thats three hit singles in less than 2. So the drugs must have been good that day. Maurice Gibb second from right winks in a scene from Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Even Mo knew this was a silly lark. Just go with it. Universal He even winks at the camera in a scene from the film. How can you mend a broken heart Cue up the late and beloved Maurice Gibb. And in the end. Catch the pop star cameo in the grand finale of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Universal Have fun playing spot the pop star of 1. We found plenty, including Tina Turner, Helen Reddy, John Stewart, members of Heart, George Benson, Carol Channing, Etta James, Steven Bishop, percussionist Joe Lala, Curtis Mayfield, Frankie Valli, Anita Pointer, Bonnie Raitt, Seals Crofts, Hank Williams Jr., Al Stewart, Leif Garrett and Peter Allen.