Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/04/peter-sellers-recites-the-beat.html
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Also:
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I’ve seen and heard other spoofs from the early sixties. I think I had an album of Alvin and the Chipmunks making fun of this newfangled rock-and-roll. I like Sellers, but he’s really saying get off my lawn, isn’t he? Nobody knew what to do with it.
There’s similar satires out there of hip-hop by people like Weird Al. I’m afraid they won’t age well.
I think you’re missing the point. Sellers was showing the the lyric could work on a conversational level. Doing it with accents just makes it funny. Of course, Firesign Theater did the first four lines of the Beatles “The Word” as a dirge-like chant, followed by, “P.U!! That stinks!!” And actually, it did. It took some before it sank in that that was an actual Beatles song. Also, there’s Shatner doing “Lucy in the Sky” which is so bad it will nevah grow old.
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Worth also noting that Sellers was mates with George Martin and through him, was friends with The Beatles. Ringo even gave him a copy of an early mix of The White Album.
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Good impression of Sir Lawrence.
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It’s quality work.
Not just any old Sir Larry, either. Peter Sellers doing Laurence Olivier doing Richard III doing the Beatles*. He’s got the whole lot nailed. 
*And in my alternate universe, that actually happened at a party in Soho one night.
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I disagree. This still makes me laugh.
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It’s not just the Beatles.
Here’s Peter Sellers singing George Gershwin:
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Respectfully disagree.
Satires and spoofs work best if the one doing the spoofing has some understanding of and affection for the subject.
On the positive side, you’ve got "Spinal Tap."
I think Sellers demonstrates some of that. If you want to check out a miss, try the old Spike Jones recordings making fun of this new “Rock and/or Roll.” You can tell he just didn’t like it, didn’t think much of it, and didn’t understand its appeal.
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I very much agree, maybe I missed the affection there.
Another awful example: Archie comics, which have been making fun of hippie music for fifty years. (I know I know some of his best friends are gay, but they still hate the rocknroll.)
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