Klaatu was a Canadian rock group formed in 1973. They named themselves after an ambassador, Klaatu, from an extraterrestrial confederation who visits Earth with his companion robot Gort in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. In Canada, the band is remembered for several hits, including "California Jam" (1974), "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" (1976) and "Knee Deep in Love" (1980). Internationally, the group's pop-influenced style of progressive rock has led to them being known as the "Canadian Beatles".
In 1977, a rumour started that Klaatu's 1976 debut studio album 3:47 EST could actually be a release by a secretly reunited Beatles recording under a pseudonym. These rumours were fueled by a number of factors, including the fact that their album was released by Capitol Records (also the Beatles' label in North America), the lack of artist and producer credits or photographs in the album packaging, Klaatu's avoidance of public performances, and the fact that the group's vocal and musical style was reminiscent of the Beatles. Capitol Records tried to make as much of the rumours as possible, by issuing ambiguously worded statements that failed to make the band's identity entirely clear.
Hope is Klaatu's second studio album and their first concept album. Released in September 1977, it won a Juno Award for Best Engineered Album and a Canadian Music Critics award for Best Album that same year. The album follows the loose concept of space travelers visiting a distant planet. An alternate version of Hope was released in 2005 as part of the group's Sun Set collection of rarities. The alternate version on Sun Set includes the complete contributions of the London Symphony Orchestra, which had largely been removed from the original version. Hope was remastered and re-issued in 2012 by the band's members, and was released on the band's independent record label Klaatunes.
"We're Off You Know" received a total of 67,3% yes votes!
HE SOLD HIS SOUL FOR ROCK N ROLL
Got sidetracked from sewing together my Phoenix costume doing this, whoops. I mean hey, at least this was sort of productive. That's two Phantom tracks down, 43 to go.
Happy 49th anniversary, Phantom Of The Paradise!
i must have a crap ton of space between my ears because it took me this long to figure out why some folks (myself included) may not have recognized "Somebody Super Like You" as a rework/musical mutilation of "Phantom's Theme"
The chord progression of Phantom's Theme's verses is altered slightly in Somebody Super, so the brunt of the similarity comes from the "i-VI-i-VI" heard at the very start of each verse - and from a musical standpoint, those chords on their own aren't terribly unique. You can hear them in the guitar riff of Echoes and the overture to ALW's Phantom Of The Opera, among oodles of other examples.
Interestingly, within the film, the progression is also in the verses of "Old Souls" (albeit in the key of C minor), which'd lead one to think that Somebody Super and Life At Last were both ripping it off, just different parts of it, when this wasn't actually the case
The similarities between Somebody Super and Phantom's Theme would've been made obvious during the bridge, which introduces a key change and a contrasting, major chord progression, kept identical in both songs. Issue being: the bridge of Phantom's Theme wasn't included in the film, likely for the sake of pacing. it's a creative decision that 100% made sense for the scene, but would unfortunately have musical repercussions later down the line.
probably common knowledge but that's my autism for the day