Listen To Sgt. Pepper’s, Except Every Song Is Now A Parody of Star Wars

There is no limit to creativity in the universe, and this proves it. Earlier this week, a geek-parody group called Palette-Swap Ninja released a re-work of the entire Beatles masterpiece Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…as a Star Wars retelling. That’s right. Track by track, beat by beat, lyric by lyric – each and every moment from Sgt. Pepper’s has been re-written to tell the tale of A New Hope, the first Star Wars.

Titled ‘Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans’ (say that to the same rhythm as the Beatles original), the project was in the works for about five years. Time well-spent, as Palette-Swap Ninja cut no corners: in a blog post explaining the album, the group explains that they matched details from each source as faithfully as possible to do both justice. And you can really tell, too. Bits of dialogue, sound effects, and orchestral hits from Star Wars are spliced in to satisfy any fan. Plus the re-worked Beatles songs are accurately reverse-engineered and recorded to sound as much as the Fab Four as possible, while telling the story of the entire movie in order. That’s right, they’re synced up.

Although it’s a parody album, the tie-ins really are quite clever. Vader berating the Rebels in time to ‘With Illicit Help From Your Friends’ actually sounds like Ringo’s lilt. “Luke is in the desert and whining” somehow makes the scene even funnier, especially when it’s sang to the tune of “Lucy in the sky with diamonds.” And having the Death Star exploding to that soul-splitting final chord really drives home the climatic scene.

It’s something that must be seen to be believed. And thankfully, the entire album is available for free! Palette-Swap Ninja’s preferred method is through the accompanying YouTube lyric videos, matched up in time with the movie by graphic designer Katrin Auch. Be sure to flip through the entire playlist, as every track of Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans is there!