Star Wars and The Beatles were two of the reigning forces of pop culture during the 1970s, with both properties making a huge mark on the entertainment landscape during the decade. But through the combined factors of logic and separate genres, in the past the two titans have never met to create any sort of hybrid mixing them together. That ends today, as we present to you "Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans," a play on a rather famous Beatles album you'll have the chance to identify.
If you guessed that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the inspiration for this series of videos, you're absolutely correct. And not only were the title track and "With A Little Help From My Friends" part of the re-imagination process, but the entire album is revised in this more humorous context. Using A New Hope as the backdrop for the thirteen tracks of Beatles gold, this visual album of sorts is good for those who want to revisit the origins of Star Wars, but also want a good laugh.
The musical maven behind "Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans" is a YouTube user by the name of Palette-Swap Ninja, and we'd like to take this moment to congratulate them on something that's hopefully a sign of future Star Wars entertainment to come. After all, this concept album only covers Episode IV out of the entire canon, and the possibilities are endless. Even if full albums don't come out related to other Lucasfilm treasures, we can still hope for Star Wars: The Force Awakens to get its own cover of "Golden Slumbers," and "Let It Be" could very well become "BB-8" with the right writing.
To show you just how wonderfully this Star Wars gem works out, here's a direct comparison between both an original track from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the re-written track from "Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans." First, take a listen to The Beatles' original version of, "Getting Better," a classic song about recognizing one's childhood flaws, and admitting you're slowly improving upon them.
Now feel free to enjoy the Star Wars revised version, "Never Better," in which Luke complains about his life on Tatooine.
It might just be a good pairing of tracks we've selected, but it seems like "Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans" runs roughly along the same thematic lines as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The similarities between the two angry young men with lives slowly improving are enough to make a person really take a good hard look at this parody album, just to see how it maps out.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi gives us our next fix of that galaxy far, far away on December 18th. In the meantime, we're going to see if we can't crank out a Rogue One inspired tune to the music of "Come Together," or "Phasma's Silver Armor," whichever idea gets more traction first.
