Then, on February 17, 1977, a feature headlined \u2018Could Klaatu Be Beatles? Mystery Is A Magical Tour\u2019, written by Steve Smith, a young journalist working for Rhode Island daily newspaper the Providence Journal, changed everything.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe used to get a bunch of albums to review. If they weren\u2019t reviewed they went in a pile, and if you wanted anything you grabbed it,\u201d Smith tells Classic Rock. \u201cI saw the Klaatu album, took it home and listened to it. It had Beatle-sounding stuff, so I started researching. And couldn\u2019t get any answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 245, published in January 2018. (Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n
The main question Smith wanted an answer to was simply: why did the album sound so much like the Fab Four? \u201cIt struck me almost immediately,\u201d he says. \u201cThe track Sub-Rosa Subway is completely Beatlish.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n In his 1977 review, Smith wrote that the song\u2019s vocals are \u201cexactly like Paul McCartney<\/a>\u201d, the drumming \u201clike Ringo Starr\u2019s\u201d and \u201cthe guitar work like George Harrison<\/a>\u2019s and John Lennon<\/a>\u2019s\u201d. Doctor Marvello, said Smith, sounded like Blue Jay Way-period George Harrison, \u201cwith the rest of The Beatles backing\u201d. Other songs had \u201cdigs from The Beatles<\/a>\u2019 past, such as singing through fuzz effects, \u2018Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs\u2019 and unmistakable harmonies\u201d.<\/p>\n The sleeve of Ringo Starr\u2019s 1974 solo album Goodnight Vienna had the drummer standing in the doorway of the spaceship from the 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still, next to the giant robot and dressed in the outfit that actor Michael Rennie wore as Klaatu, the alien peace emissary in the film. Smith wondered if the name of the band was a clue in itself.<\/p>\n Summing up (and hedging his bets), Smith concluded that this mystery band could be: 1. The Beatles. 2. A couple of The Beatles with other people. 3. A Beatles-backed band. 4. A completely unknown but ingenious and talented band.<\/p>\n \n Left: A publicity still for The Day the Earth Stood Still | Right: Ringo Starr’s Goodnight Vienna album (Image credit: Silver Screen Collection\/Getty Images | Apple)<\/p>\n Smith contacted Capitol Records for more information but got nothing. \u201cCapitol told me they didn\u2019t know anything. I didn\u2019t believe them. You don\u2019t just sign a band blind. They said they\u2019d signed these guys through Frank Davies, who\u2019d released them on Daffodil Records in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d recorded and produced two or three of the Daffodil artists at [Rush producer] Terry Brown\u2019s studio in Toronto,\u201d Davies says today. \u201cHe played me two or three of the Klaatu tracks and I told him he didn\u2019t need to play me anything else, I wanted to sign them. My label was centred in Canada, and what I would do with my artists back then was go out and put together a US deal, or deals around the world. I played the tracks to Rupert Perry who was head of A&R at Capitol Records in the US. He loved them and said he\u2019d like to sign the band.\u201d<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n But Klaatu weren\u2019t going to go down the tried and tested route. \u201cThe guys wanted to try a new approach,\u201d says Davies. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t do photos, or interviews, or have a bio. I was cool with that. It was different. They weren\u2019t going to play live, either.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were three unknown guys from Toronto and didn\u2019t want the focus to be on us as individuals,\u201d says Klaatu vocalist\/bassist\/keyboard player John Woloschuk. \u201cWe really wanted the music to be the focal point. Also, we knew that the music we wanted to record couldn\u2019t possibly be replicated on stage by three people.\u201d<\/p>\n For his article, Steve Smith asked Frank Davies whether Klaatu were The Beatles. \u201cNo,\u201d Davies replied. Smith then went through some of the \u2018clues\u2019 he\u2019d, found and Davies told him vaguely that he\u2019s \u201cpretty accurate\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI was definitely playing coy!\u201d Davies says today. \u201cBy this time the album had been out six months. We did have some great press on it, but it had only sold seven or eight thousand copies in the US. We\u2019d reached a point where we thought the first album was over, and the band had already started working on the second, which was shaping up beautifully. Then Steve\u2019s story was published and all hell broke loose sales-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n Klaatu formed when John Woloschuk began working at English producer\/engineer Terry Brown\u2019s Toronto Sound Studio in September 1974. Brown heard and liked the demos Woloschuk had made with guitarist Dee Long and signed them to his production company.<\/p>\n Drummer Terry Draper joined in February 1975 and the trio began recording what became the Klaatu album in studio downtime. \u201cTerry Brown was our engineer and co-producer,\u201d says Draper. \u201cThe fourth member of the band. He made us sound fabulous. The album was recorded over three years. We all had regular jobs so we used to record in the evenings and late at night.\u201d<\/p>\n With the full album recorded and ready to go, Frank Davies signed Klaatu to Capitol. \u201cThey didn\u2019t know who we were,\u201d Woloschuk confirms, adding: \u201cThey signed us on the strength of hearing the first album. It was Frank that swung that deal on those conditions. They must have believed in the music enough to take a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCapitol never got to meet the band,\u201d says Davies. \u201cRupert [Perry, A&R] went along with the conditions because he wanted the band. He said that he at least had to meet them and watch them sign the record agreement. I told him he didn\u2019t have to because I\u2019d warrant that they were signed to me, my label and my production company. \u2018The lawyers will be involved \u2013 my lawyers, their lawyers. They\u2019re signing to you, through me and that\u2019s that.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt took a little while, particularly when we got to Capitol\u2019s Business Affairs. It was one of those things where you needed to have the confidence with the music. Which I did. Island had previously put out a one-off single and I had other labels interested. I said: \u2018If you don\u2019t want them under these conditions, don\u2019t sign them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Capitol took the chance and started sending out Steve Smith\u2019s review all over the world. The gamble of signing the band paid off, and the rumours generated by Smith\u2019s article soon began to take on a life of their own.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were in England, recording,\u201d remembers Terry Draper. \u201cSomebody told us about The Beatles rumour, and we all had a good laugh and went back to work. When we returned to Canada, it went ridiculous. Cashbox, Billboard, all the magazines, everybody was talking about it. It went around the world via the United Press agency. We didn\u2019t know what to do. Frank started having to field the calls.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody who was making money \u2013 including us \u2013 was quite delighted that we were selling records and people were talking about us. So, did we want to come out of the closet, squash the rumour and stop record sales? The whole anonymity thing was to have private lives, be a normal person, still make music and millions of dollars. That was the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n As the story gathered momentum, more Fab Four-related clues began to emerge. \u201cEverybody investigating the story found out I used to work for EMI Records in London, who The Beatles were signed to,\u201d remembers Davies. \u201cThey then found out that Terry Brown had been an engineer at Olympic Studios in London, and they starting putting all these little pieces together, with Capitol ending up with the record.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, AM and FM radio in Providence began to play tracks from the album and they interviewed Smith on air. Other stations caught on to the story, and within weeks Klaatu were being played all across the US. The band themselves were keeping out of the rumour mill and beavering away on their second album, Hope.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that point we didn\u2019t know how much impact it was going to have on our career,\u201d says Woloschuk. \u201cIt was a global thing. I\u2019m not sure how many pressing plants Capitol had assigned to the [first] album but they had to go into emergency mode. They didn\u2019t have enough copies to go round and missed a lot of sales. It turned into a monster that was beyond our power and control.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll sorts of press did interviews with Rupert Perry,\u201d Davies continues. \u201cThey didn\u2019t believe that Capitol didn\u2019t know who the group was, which added to the situation. \u2018This record label is sinking money into this band, so they must have met them. So there must be something behind this\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n By now the \u2018Klaatu \u2013 are they\/aren\u2019t they?\u2019 rumours had reached The Beatles and their inner circle. Tony Bramwell was one of The Beatles\u2019 childhood friends and had worked closely with them and manager Brian Epstein during the 60s.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople started saying that Klaatu sounded Beatley, and Capitol would neither confirm nor deny it,\u201d says Bramwell. \u201cCapitol in America weren\u2019t that bright at the time. They were being coy about it and hoping people would be taken in. I thought: \u2018What the bollocks is all this about?\u2019 I was working for Polydor Records in 1977 but still also doing promotions for the individual Beatles, so I knew what they were doing \u2013 and knew that Klaatu wasn\u2019t them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Klaatu billboard painted on the side of the Whisky A Go Go on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, CA (Image credit: Robert Landau)<\/p>\n Frank Davies was originally from the UK and had worked for Parlophone in the 1960s. After the Klaatu story hit, he received a postcard from his former EMI colleague Paul McCartney, on which the ex-Beatle said he was \u201chaving a laugh watching all the rumours swirling\u201d. Capitol continued to stoke the flames by placing an advert in the music trade magazines with a picture of the sun from the Klaatu album cover and the slogan \u2018Klaatu is Klaatu\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a weak way of denying the rumour,\u201d says Woloschuk. \u201cThere was never any intention of milking the rumour on our part. We were trying to hold on to our anonymity, though. We were young and idealistic and thought we could weather the storm. Which turned out to be incorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n At the height of the media storm, Klaatu and Terry Brown were in the UK working on Hope, a cosmic-themed concept album that had its orchestral parts recorded over three afternoons at Olympic Studios with the London Philharmonic Orchestra<\/a>. Because of the ongoing sales of the Klaatu album, Capitol put back the release of Hope by several months. \u201cWe were delighted,\u201d says Draper. \u201cIt gave us more time to finish it.\u201d<\/p>\n Several months after the Klaatu story had broken worldwide, over at the Providence Journal Steve Smith had seen the light. He\u2019d done some digging and had located an former girlfriend of one of the band. \u201cShe said: \u2018If you\u2019d contacted me a couple of months ago I\u2019d have told you the truth! But now I think it\u2019s funny.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Dwight Douglas, the Programme Director of WWDC-FM radio station in Washington DC, took a more academic approach to unmasking Klaatu. He visited the Library Of Congress and discovered that the songs from the album were copyrighted not to Lennon, McCartney, Harrison or Starkey, but to Draper, Long, Woloschuk and his then songwriting partner Dino Tome.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people found out we weren\u2019t The Beatles, they thought we\u2019d perpetrated the rumour and duped them,\u201d recalls Terry Draper. \u201cAnd that came back to haunt us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole world resigned themselves that we weren\u2019t The Beatles,\u201d says Woloschuk. \u201cRolling Stone magazine gave us their \u2018Hype Of The Year\u2019 award!\u201d<\/p>\n Released in September 1977, Hope was Klaatu\u2019s most ambitious and mature work and went on to sell a respectable 400,000 copies. But despite this, the writing was clearly on the wall for the band.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got some great reviews on the Hope album,\u201d says Frank Davies. \u201cBut for every great review, we\u2019d get a newspaper article saying: \u2018Hoax!\u2019 or \u2018Scam!\u2019 and a lot of negative press. We\u2019d release an album and it would go virtually unnoticed. We couldn\u2019t get arrested, no matter what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n Klaatu – A Routine Day (1978 Upscaled Music Video) – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n Klaatu\u2019s third album, Sir Army Suit, had cover drawings by artist Hugh Syme of a group of people that included the three Klaatu members, along with Frank Davies, Terry Brown and his wife and the Queen. \u201cWe buried ourselves among other people,\u201d says Draper.<\/p>\n \u201cCapitol were now asking us to do interviews, so our names became known to them,\u201d adds Woloschuk. \u201cWith every successive album they wanted to open the door a little bit wider.\u201d<\/p>\n Capitol picked up the option for a fourth album, on the condition that it was recorded in Los Angeles with a producer of the label\u2019s choice. Chris Bond, who had produced Rich Girl for Hall & Oates and also had success with The Knack, was brought in and used his own preferred musicians on many of the tracks rather than Klaatu themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWe resisted it,\u201d says Davies. \u201cHe was trying to make a pop album. It didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n The result, 1980\u2019s Endangered Species, credited to Long, Draper and Woloschuk for the first time, was released in the US but then withdrawn. After the success of the first Klaatu album, it would have been logical for the label to suggest the band ramp up their inner Lennon and McCartney and make another Beatle-esque record. But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cThey never asked us that,\u201d Woloschuk says. \u201cIf anything, they wanted us to sound more American. They told us they wanted us to write songs that could be played live. They wanted us to go on a radio tour, which we did in Canada, and the album did moderately well here. In the States they buried the album.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere was someone in Capitol\u2019s marketing department who didn\u2019t like the band at all,\u201d says Draper, \u201cand when the album was about to ship he said: \u2018If I have to promote this album, I quit!\u2019 So Capitol didn\u2019t market the album, and let it die so this fella would stay.\u201d<\/p>\n Klaatu – Hot Box City (Live, 1981) (Remastered, HD 60fps) – YouTube![\"Lock](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HANfxADDYdKz6DgoNdKZ9a.jpg\")
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