Jim Sturgess as Jude in "Across The Universe"
Photo: Sony Pictures

Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe," a story of love and rebellion in the turbulent 1960s, uses characters, situations, words and music from the songs of the Beatles. You can forgive fans of the Fab Four if they're skeptical; the last time someone attempted something similar, things got ugly.

Following 1968's animated "Yellow Submarine" (with which the Beatles had very little involvement) and the bizarre "All This and World War II" (a 1976 documentary juxtaposing vintage newsreel footage with covers of Beatles songs), came an attempt at a big-budget musical fantasy based on what many considered the Beatles' greatest album: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Partially based on a 1974 stage musical, the 1978 movie (which also included songs from Abbey Road and Revolver) was produced by Robert Stigwood, a top-flight rock manager and label head who'd had prior rock movie successes with "Jesus Christ Superstar" (1973), the Who's "Tommy" (1975), "Saturday Night Fever" (1977) and then-current smash "Grease." People trusted Stigwood's instincts. Maybe the idea of putting '70s chart-toppers Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees in front of the camera to bring Beatles songs to life wasn't so horrible. What ended up onscreen proved otherwise.

During World War I, the town of Heartland U.S.A. sends Sgt. Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club (marching) Band into a European theater in order to bring inspiration to the fighting forces, helping to win the war. Upon his death in 1958, Pepper leaves the custody of his magical instruments, which guarantee the ongoing happiness of mankind, in the care of Heartland's mayor, Mr. Kite (George Burns, wearing the first of the film's many bad toupees).

Thirty years later, Pepper's grandson, Billy Shears (Frampton) starts a new Lonely Hearts Club Band with his pals, Mark, Dave and Bob Henderson (the Bee Gees). Almost instantly, the band gets an offer from Big Deal Records' head honcho B.D. Hoffler (Donald Pleasence in another bad wig). So off they jet to Hollywood, separating Billy for the first time from his true love, Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina in her first and last performance).

As soon as the band hits L.A., the debauchery of the music biz is in evidence: the booze, the drugs, the sex, the payola, the convertible limousines. After signing with B.D., the band quickly records and releases a record that becomes an overnight smash, putting them on a sellout tour and the cover of Time magazine.

Meanwhile, Heartland has fallen prey to the mean Mr. Mustard (British character actor Frankie Howerd in bad rug #3), an agent of the FVB (Future Villain Band), which instructs him to steal the original Sgt. Pepper's magical instruments and distribute them to various evil accomplices. Without the instruments' guarding force, Heartland falls into an iniquitous spiral not seen since Bedford Falls became Pottersville. Casinos, liquor stores and — horrors! — video arcades pop up on the streets, which are now frequented by hookers, pimps and punk rockers!

Desperate to save the town, the wide-eyed (literally) Strawberry boards a bus for Hollywood, only to find the salacious Lucy and the Diamonds trying to taint the purity of Billy and the LHCB. But when she explains what's happened to Heartland, they all go in search of the stolen instruments.

Their first stop is the lair of Dr. Maxwell, played by a wild 'n' crazy Steve Martin (in his big-screen debut). Maxwell, who uses his magical silver hammer to turn old people into young automatons in servitude to FVB, loses possession of Sgt. Pepper's heart-shaped cornet in a tepid battle with our satin-clad heroes. After finding the drum left in Mustard's van, the band retrieves the tuba from FVB's brainwasher, Father Sun, played by an obviously bored Alice Cooper.

Finally, the LHCB attacks and somehow manages to defeat the corruptive FVB, played by the Bee Gees' antithesis, Aerosmith. However, Strawberry is killed in the melee. After a funeral befitting Snow White (including glass coffin), a suicidal Billy leaps off the Fields home roof. But wait! A weather vane magically transforms into the reincarnated Sgt. Pepper (now mysteriously black in the form of Billy Preston), who shoots lasers from his fingers that in turn save Billy, transform the villains into Catholic clergy, return the town to its former wholesome self and resurrect the dead Strawberry! Talk about a deus ex machina!

Abruptly, the film ends with a huge singalong of the title theme, as the cast is joined by a bizarre menagerie of '70s stars (some super, some not), including Robert Palmer, José Feliciano, Helen Reddy, Heart, Hank Williams Jr., Peter Allen and, uh, Sha Na Na?! Additionally (adding to the bad wig count), we have Carol Channing, Wolfman Jack, Tina Turner, Frankie Valli, Connie Stevens and, again, uh, Dame Edna!?

It's a perfectly strange cap to a perfectly strange film. For one thing, aside from George Burns' narration, there's no dialogue at all in the movie other than sung lyrics. While this was partially done to avoid having the leads' very British accents come out of the mouths of very American characters, the fact that the inexperienced "actors" were left stranded in the land of broad pantomime doesn't help the film. On top of that, some of the more abstract lyrics ("He wear no shoeshine, he got toe jam football!") don't quite work in a film that's using them as the literal screenplay.

So what's left is the music — and with precious few exceptions, that's a miss as well. Frampton's presence and voice are both too slight to carry the weight of Lennon and McCartney, and the Bee Gees' lovely harmonizing has no place to go. Earth, Wind & Fire pull off an entertaining (if funk-lite) version of "Got to Get You Into My Life," but Alice Cooper's mere recitation of "Because" is as embarrassing as George Burns' soft-shoe take on "Fixing a Hole." Doing a down-and-dirty version of "Come Together," Aerosmith are the only act to emerge from the film with their reputation unscathed, probably because they got to play the bad guys in this train wreck!

Frequent Beatles guest player Billy Preston's "Get Back" sounds great (and he's got moves that rival James Brown's), but his involvement in this project feels almost like a betrayal. But not as much as the soundtrack's producer and arranger, actual Beatles producer George Martin!

Ultimately, the movie feels like a '70s TV variety show à la "Donny and Marie," comprised of awkward skits featuring non-acting musicians cut together with splashy musical numbers. Perhaps not surprisingly, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was a critical and box-office dud.

Over the years, the film has slowly built a minor cult of the "so bad it's good" variety. The lack of dialogue makes shout-along viewings difficult, but there are still plenty of jaw-dropping elements (Billy's white overalls! Completely inaccurate lip-synching! Female robot massage!) that make this a great DVD to throw on at a party.

The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album remains a controversial touchstone. While many (including Rolling Stone magazine) cite it as the greatest rock album of all time, there is a school of thought that says its ambitious structure and inventive recording methods took rock into the more serious realm of art, making it more pretentious and less vital (The New York Times compared the record to a spoiled child).

Certainly no one ever has or will argue that the movie version is anything close to "art," but you can't totally hate a movie that answers the question, "What would Ed Wood have done if he lived in the disco era?"

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• 'Across The Universe': Beatles, Bono And More

• "Across The Universe"

• The Beatles
• The Bee Gees
• Aerosmith

Bee Gees Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb
Photo: MTV News

In the wake of Maurice Gibb's death earlier this month, his brother and bandmate Robin has decided that the Bee Gees will no longer continue as a group.

During an interview with the U.K. morning television show "GMTV," Maurice's twin brother, Robin, said he and older brother Barry will persevere musically, though not collectively as the trio that helped ignite the disco explosion in 1977 with the soundtrack to "Saturday Night Fever."

"The Bee Gees, to us, was the three brothers," Robin said. "In Maurice's name, we would respect that and not be the Bee Gees anymore."

Robin's announcement runs counter to Barry's statement that the Bee Gees, a long-form acronym for Brothers Gibb, would continue as a tribute to Maurice.

For the brothers to carry on making music is what Maurice would have wanted, Robin said. "Anything [Barry and I] do, we will do together, but it'll be as brothers and not under the name of the Bee Gees. We don't want to be the Bee Gees again."

The group's U.S. manager didn't return calls by press time.

Maurice died of a heart attack on January 12 in Miami. He was 53 (see "Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees Dead At 53").

• The Bee Gees

Norah Jones
Photo: Blue Note

Norah Jones' five Grammy nominations continue to help lift her Come Away With Me above all other albums on the Billboard albums chart.

With 47 weeks of good words behind it, Jones' debut LP sold more than 114,000 copies last week, up 6,000 copies from the week before, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (January 22). The new tally puts Come Away With Me above the 3 million mark in total sales.

Fellow Grammy nominees Avril Lavigne and the Dixie Chicks each increased weekly sales of their respective current albums, Let Go and Home, to take the #2 and #3 slots. The Canadian pop star arrives from a previously held #3 spot, with a sizable boost of more than 21,000 copies, while the Chicks' Home increased its seven-day draw by more than 7,000 copies.

In its first week in stores, the soundtrack to the Golden Globe-gobbling "Chicago," featuring songs from the movie sung by actors Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Renée Zellweger, debuted at #4 with more than 83,000 copies sold.

Ja Rule's The Last Temptation, sparked by the emergence of its second single "Mesmerize," will re-enter the top 10 at #10, with more than 52,000 in sales. It marks the first time the album placed in the top 10 since the LP debuted at #4 when it was released in late November.

The remainder of the top 10 finds no new entries or exits, as Jennifer Lopez's This Is Me ... Then drops three spots to #5 (78,000); the "8 Mile" soundtrack also drops a notch to #6 (68,000); Missy Elliott's Under Construction moves up a place to #7 (57,000); Aaliyah's I Care 4 U drops a spot down to #8 (56,000); and Christina Aguilera takes a step ahead to #9 with Stripped (54,000).

Good Charlotte lead the pack of bands that felt an impact from being featured on MTV's Spankin' New Bands week. The group's second album, The Young and the Hopeless, will jump from #25 to #12, while its weekly sales increased by nearly 15,000 copies to reach a 49,000-copy pull. Simple Plan are enjoying the 15-spot leap that will place No Pads, No Helmets ... Just Balls at #44, and the 6,000-copy bump that made it possible. Further down, the Used's self-titled debut will move up 33 spots to #63, the Donnas' Spend the Night will sail 50 spots higher to #67 and New Found Glory's Sticks & Stones will ascend 20 places to #102.

Using more conventional promotional tactics, Kid Rock's Cocky has been on a major upswing thanks to the crossover success of its fourth single, "Picture," an acoustic country duet. While the rap-rocker's rock audience hasn't responded tremendously to previous hybrid singles "Forever" and "You Never Met a Motherf---er Quite Like Me," "Picture," with Sheryl Crow on the album cut and Allison Moorer on the single version (due to the inability of Rock's label to secure single rights to the tune from Crow's label), has re-introduced the pimp of the nation to adult contemporary formats, where his "Only God Knows Why" once had a home, and established his place on country radio. As such, Cocky, released in November 2001, has moved into the top 20 for the first time in over a year. It will stand at #15, up from #24, with a 14,000-copy weekly increase.

Following the death of Maurice Gibb on January 12 (see "Maurice Gibb Of The Bee Gees Dead At 53" ), the Bee Gees' 2001 two-disc retrospective, Their Greatest Hits: The Record, re-entered the top 200 at #55 with more than 17,000 in sales, nearly six times its previous weekly total.

All the hype generated from his beef with Eminem didn't translate into record sales for rapper Benzino. His second solo album, Redemption, will debut on the chart at #65, with more than 14,000 in sales.

• Norah Jones
• Avril Lavigne
• Dixie Chicks
• Ja Rule
• Jennifer Lopez

Bee Gees Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb
Photo: MTV News

Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, one of pop's best selling and longest enduring acts, died Sunday (January 12) after undergoing abdominal surgery in Miami. The singer was 53.

Twin brother of Bee Gee Robin Gibb, Maurice collapsed at home on Wednesday and was taken to the city's Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he was operated on for an intestinal blockage. He experienced cardiac arrest before the surgery began.

The singer's family issued a statement to fans on Sunday. "With great sadness and sorrow we regretfully announce the passing of Maurice Gibb this morning. His love, enthusiasm and energy for life remain an inspiration to all of us. We will all deeply miss him."

Along with older brother Barry, Robin and Maurice created the Bee Gees as teens in Brisbane, Australia, in 1958. They made their initial impact on pop during the Beatles-led British invasion of the mid-'60s, sending "New York Mining Disaster 1941" into the top 20 and beginning a string of hits that would last through 1972's "Run to Me." The '71 smash "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" reached the top of the charts.

The Bee Gees' style shifted during the disco era, and their success with funky, dance-oriented pieces such as "Jive Talkin'" and "You Should Be Dancing" set them up for the pop juggernaut of Saturday Night Fever.

With falsetto vocals and irresistible rhythms, the trio became one of disco's most resonant symbols. Three Bee Gees songs from the film's soundtrack, "How Deep Is Your Love," "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever," reached #1 on the Billboard chart. The Saturday Night Fever album is pop's best-selling soundtrack, having moved over 40 million copies.

Maurice's voice was crucial to the Bee Gees' singular harmonies during all phases of the group's career. He also played bass and keyboards with the band. The Bee Gees were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Their latest release is the 2001 double-disc package Their Greatest Hits: The Record.

• The Bee Gees
• Andy Gibb
• Robin Gibb

The Bee Gees
Photo: MTV News

If you're one of the poor lost souls waiting breathlessly for the Abba-inspired "Mamma Mia!" to open on Broadway, you'll probably be tickled pink by news that the Bee Gees will release the two-disc set Their Greatest Hits: The Record on November 20.

The career-spanning package will feature four previously unreleased songs that were #1 tracks the group wrote for other artists: "Emotion" (Samantha Sang), "Heartbreaker (Dionne Warwick), "Islands in the Stream" (Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton) and "Immortality" (Celine Dion). The Brothers Gibb's "Emotion" is also the current Destiny's Child single.

Their Greatest Hits: The Record will contain 40 tracks and more than two and a half hours of music. Highlights include the megahits "Stayin' Alive," "Emotion," "Night Fever" and "Jive Talkin'" as well as "Guilty," the group's chart-topping duet with Barbra Streisand.

Since their formation in Brisbane, Australia, in 1958, the Bee Gees have sold more than 110 million records. They were a fixture of the disco era, virtually spearheading the movement's popularization with their music for the 1977 film "Saturday Night Fever," which included the hits "Stayin' Alive," "How Deep Is Your Love" and "Night Fever."

The group has landed 19 #1 singles during its career and earned numerous awards. A four-CD anthology of the group's career, Tales From the Brothers Gibb, was released in 1990.

Track list for Their Greatest Hits: The Record, according to the Bee Gees' publicist:

• "New York Mining Disaster 1941"
• "To Love Somebody"
• "Holiday"
• "Massachusetts"
• "World"
• "Words"
• "I've Gotta Get a Message to You"
• "I Started a Joke"
• "First of May"
• "Saved by the Bell"
• "Don't Forget to Remember"
• "Lonely Days"
• "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"
• "Run to Me"
• "Jive Talkin'"
• "Nights on Broadway"
• "Fanny Be Tender"
• "Love So Right"
• "If I Can't Have You"
• "Love Me"
• "You Should Be Dancin'"
• "Stayin' Alive"
• "How Deep Is Your Love"
• "Night Fever"
• "More Than a Woman"
• "Emotions"
• "Too Much Heaven"
• "Tragedy"
• "Love You Inside Out"
• "Guilty"
• "Heartbreaker"
• "Islands in the Stream"
• "You Win Again"
• "One"
• "Secret Love"
• "For Whom the Bell Tolls"
• "Alone"
• "Immortality"
• "This Is Where I Came In"
• "Spicks and Specks"

• The Bee Gees

Destiny's Child's Beyoncé Knowles
Photo: Sony

In addition to their cover of the Bee Gees-penned Samantha Sang hit "Emotion," Destiny's Child will treat fans to snippets from Stevie Nicks, Baltimora and a medley of gospel songs on the R&B trio's new album, Survivor, due out on May 1.

For their third LP, the follow-up to the group's 1998 self-titled debut and 1999's The Writing's on the Wall (see "Destiny's Child Cover Bee Gees, Set Survivor Release Date"), DC's Beyoncé Knowles steps even further into the band's musical forefront. (For a full-length interview with the group, check out "Destiny's Child: Survivors".) "We're excited about the album," Knowles told MTV News recently, "and I got a chance to co-write and produce all of the songs." "And she did an incredible job," the group's Kelly Rowland added.

"But everybody is a part of the music," Knowles said. "Everybody is singing lead on every song, and it's so great — because now Destiny's Child is at the point vocally and mentally that it should be at. It's just great to be a part of this group." Knowles has co-production credits on 14 of Survivor's 15 tracks, including "Bootylicious," which samples Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen," and another new track, "Nasty Girl," which incorporates a snippet of "Tarzan Boy" from '80s one-hit wonder Baltimora.

Knowles was also the sole producer on one track, a four-song gospel medley that features "You've Been So Good" (also written by Beyoncé) as well as the trio's versions of Kirk Franklin's "Now Behold the Lamb" and Richard Smallwood's "Total Praise." The final track listing for Destiny's Child's Survivor, due out on May 1:

• "Independent Women Part I"
• "Survivor"
• "Bootylicious"
• "Nasty Girl"
• "Fancy"
• "Apple Pie à la Mode"
• "Sexy Daddy"
• "Independent Women Part II"
• "Happy Face"
• "Emotion"
• "Dangerously in Love"
• "Brown Eyes"
• "The Story of Beauty"
• "Gospel Medley" ("You've Been So Good/ Now Behold the Lamb/ Jesus Loves Me/ Total Praise")
• "Outro (DC-3) Thank You"

• Destiny's Child
• Stevie Nicks
• The Bee Gees

The Bee Gees

Stayin' alive for more than 35 years, harmonious sibling trio the Bee Gees will kick out their first studio recording since 1997's Still Waters on April 24.

This Is Where I Came In features 12 new tracks, many of which were recorded in the manner of the group's 1960's hits — with Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb singing around a single microphone.

While the Bee Gees are a stadium-filling band around the world, in American they have had a harder time making a comeback from their disco days. But "This Is Where I Came In," the new album's first single, has garnered airplay on pop radio staples KIIS-FM in Los Angeles and WTLW-FM in New York, according to Universal Records.

Overseas the song is a top-20 hit, and This Is Where I Came In debuted at #3 in Germany and #6 in the United Kingdom.

The Bee Gees recorded the album at their own Middle Ear Studios in Miami Beach, Florida, focusing on their rock, soul and ballad roots as conveyed by their trademark harmonies.

This Is Where I Came In follows the 1999 live album One Night Only, which has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.

The Bee Gees, whose genre-spanning hits include "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," "Lonely Days" and "Stayin' Alive," are the only songwriters to have five songs in Billboard's top-10 singles chart at the same time and to have #1 hits in four decades.

• The Bee Gees

Destiny's Child
Photo: MTV News

After contributing the lead single to the "Charlie's Angels" soundtrack, Destiny's Child will borrow from another '70s staple on their upcoming album, Survivor. The sultry trio have recorded a rendition of disco dynamos the Bee Gees' "Emotion." "It's acoustic guitar and everybody has their verse and it is so great how the arrangement is and it's just a great song," singer Beyonce Knowles recently told MTV News. "Thank you for writing that song, Bee Gees. Y'all is tight." Though Bee Gees Barry and Maurice Gibb penned "Emotion," Australian singer Samantha Sang sang it, with the Bee Gees producing. The song charted in 1978, becoming Sang's only U.S. hit.

Destiny's Child plan on releasing "Emotion" as the third single from Survivor, following the title track and a number titled "Bootylicious," Knowles said. The album, which follows the seven-times platinum The Writing's on the Wall (1999), hits stores May 1.

Meanwhile, the Bee Gees will release This Is Where I Came In, the follow-up to 1997's Still Waters, on April 17.

Destiny's Child are scheduled to perform at the Soul Train Awards on Wednesday (February 28) and will turn up on "The Queen Latifah Show" on Friday. The Texas trio will likely preview new music during a U.S. tour that kicks off March 18 in Farmington, Missouri.

• Destiny's Child
• The Bee Gees

Pink Floyd<BR><I>Delicate Sound Of Thunder</I>
Photo: Andy Earl

Music fans may not recognize Andy Earl's name, but they're probably well-acquainted with his work.

The photographer's imaginative concepts and attention to detail have captured the personas of artists ranging from Prince (royally introducing himself with an outstretched hand on the cover of Q magazine in 1994) to Johnny Cash (in the dusty, road-weary pose that graced the cover of his American Recordings album).

Seventy-nine of Earl's most acclaimed photos have been assembled in "Vista," a coffee-table book hitting stores January 15. Within its pages are instantly recognizable shots that have been used for album covers (Pink Floyd's lightbulb-laden Delicate Sound of Thunder and the Cranberries' eye-in-the-sky Bury the Hatchet, among others), in advertising campaigns, art galleries and magazine layouts.

Coinciding with the book's release, the London lensman will be the subject of a photo exhibit at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum from January 15 to 19. Among the photos on display will be images of Madonna, Jon Bon Jovi, Courtney Love, the Bee Gees, Elton John, Sting and the Rolling Stones — not all of which are included in the book. Earl will be on hand to autograph copies of "Vista" on January 19.

The 45-year-old Earl had been taking photographs professionally for a few years before Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren commissioned him in 1981 to shoot his latest creation, new-wave group Bow Wow Wow. Rolling Stone declared Earl's first attempt at album cover art, Bow Wow Wow's See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah! City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!, one of the top 30 album covers of the past 25 years.

Earl was also responsible for the covers of the U.K.'s best-selling albums of the past three years: 1997's Life Thru a Lens by Robbie Williams, 1998's This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours by the Manic Street Preachers, and 1999's Boyzone ... By Request. Images of Madonna, Alanis Morissette, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Mick Jagger and the Red Hot Chili Peppers also appear in "Vista."

• Johnny Cash
• Pink Floyd
• Madonna
• Bon Jovi
• Jon Bon Jovi

Chumbawamba, a.k.a. the original "Tubthumpers," have just hit stores with a new album titled "WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)."

The album features 22 new tracks including the first single, "She's Got All The Friends," and a rather interesting cover, as the group chose to rework the Bee Gees' 1967 song "New York Mining Disaster 1941," recorded long before the brothers Gibb donned white suits and went disco.

According to Chumbawamba guitarist Boff, he and the rest of the group really appreciate that particular song, since most people forget what the Bee Gees did in their pre-disco days.

"To me it's just like an English folk song with some political lyrics, and it's a beautiful tune and everything," Boff told the MTV Radio Network.