Welcome back to Tales from the Turntable! In this column and several other articles that I’ve written, there’s one specific band almost always enters the conversation. Avid readers will notice how often the Beatles come up in these stories. Whether it be the “Paul is dead” theory, their supposed rivalry with the Beach Boys, or just an offhand reference to “Sgt. Pepper’s” or “Revolver,” there’s been a plethora of Beatles references made.
While I will admit The Beatles aren’t my favorite band (though I did go through a phase some years ago), for whatever reason, they come up frequently in my writing. This story will hopefully be the last mention of the Liverpudlian lads for quite a bit.
With that out of the way, this story isn’t about anything directly related to the Beatles. Today we’ll be talking about how just six years after their breakup, they unknowingly ended the career of an incredibly promising band out of Canada.
In August o 1976, Capitol Records put out an album only known as “3:47 EST,” by an unknown band out of Toronto called Klaatu, named after a character from “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” In the United States, the record was renamed to just be self-titled, as the original name was considered too weird and obscure for American taste.
The record featured sophisticated harmonies and heavily progressive rock-influenced instrumentals complete with catchy hooks. In the album’s liner notes, no credit was given to any songwriters or players, which led Steve Smith of the Providence Journal to speculate the true songwriters.
Just a year after the record’s release, Smith published an article in The Journal speculating that Klaatu was in fact The Beatles under a new pseudonym. He cited evidence such as the album being released by Capitol Records, who put out all of The Beatles’ albums in the United States before 1968. This was just seven years after the band had officially and unexpectedly parted ways, causing many to jump at even the slightest chance of the Fab Four still making music together.
The album spawned the surprising hit, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” a seven-minute psychedelic odyssey with melodies and vocal hooks reminiscent of what Paul McCartney had been doing with his band Wings at the time. Coupled with the fact that Klaatu’s vocalist, Dee Long, had a voice strikingly similar to McCartney’s, many began to speculate the band’s true origin.
While rumors circulated in the United States, the British were far less receptive to such gossip. Famously, a cynical writer for the British media magazine New Musical Express penned an article focusing on the rumor titled “Deaf Idiot Journalist Starts Beatle Rumor.” At this time, Klaatu was in the middle of recording their second album, “Hope.” Shortly before releasing the record, the rumor would quickly be snuffed out by one radio station out of Washington D.C.
Dwight Douglas, program director for WWDC, checked copyright records of the band’s debut album, discovering the band’s real names. “Hope” was definitely an anticipated release, however, since many had already figured out that Klaatu were in fact not the Beatles, the record flopped. The same fate would befall their next album and the next two after that. The band would receive praise and decent commercial success in their home country of Canada, but dismal album sales in the rest of the world.
The band that started out with one of the most talked about albums of 1976 and ended with a whimper in 1981, all thanks to a journalist for a small newspaper out of Rhode Island. Klaatu was undoubtedly a band that was far ahead of their time, blending psychedelia and progressive rock with a whole host of other influences, like baroque pop, jazz and even synth-pop. All five of the band’s albums had exceptionally lush production, courtesy of their producer, Terry Brown (known for his work with fellow Canadian prog-rock trio Rush).
The band reunited a handful of times for a series of one-off performances; however, they didn’t record any new material during their reunions. Six years after their final reunion in 2011, the band launched Klaatunes Records, re-releasing their original albums on vinyl, CD and streaming services.