With a little help from my friends

So much has been written about the Beatles, it’s difficult to say anything new without resorting to clichĂ©s.

The Fab Four were the most influential band of the pop-rock era. The Beatles were the best at what they did and they were relentlessly creative and experimental. As the mop tops, they intrigued the international psyche and always stayed ahead of the pack.

Like the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus (EMC), they were a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

This coming Saturday and Sunday, the EMC’s 100-plus members perform a moving tribute to the Liverpool foursome who started as an embryonic band and rose to become the most commercially successful band in the world with an estimated one billion units sold.

Under the direction of David Garber, a former St. Albert music teacher, the choir performs A Hard Day’s Night: A Sing-Along Cabaret. Joining the chorus from St. Albert are Christine Campbell, Marilyn Metcalfe and Barbara Rogers.

For the last two years, EMC has mounted a cabaret. Last year’s Julie Andrews was a sold-out hit.

“This year someone suggested a Beatles cabaret and I thought it was a wonderful idea. Besides being the world’s most popular group, their music is so singable and doable,” said Garber.

The program’s repertoire is divided into three parts: an audience sing-along led by the Kevin Smith Band; the EMC accompanied by resident pianist Remi Do; and members of EMC divided into smaller groups and soloists paying their own salute.

Garber extensively researches his repertoire and was amazed to discover how prolific the Beatles were, especially in the mid-sixties.

“I was amazed at the quick turnaround at releasing a song. One week they’d write and two weeks later they record it and a month later it was released. They were so prolific they could do it while touring.”

He adds that from 1960 to 1970 they wrote about 400 songs.

“A lot of people wrote songs, but they had the natural skill to write beautiful melodies and popular harmonies. The songs were simple and unstudied, and so easy to record by many art disciplines – string quartets, saxophone quartets, orchestras, choirs.”

Indispensible in this affair is St. Albert’s Trent Worthington, who tinkered and created the choral arrangements all the while retaining the spirit of the original band.

“This is a great opportunity to sing and hear some great Beatles tunes with ingenious arrangement. It’ll be a treat for the voice and the ears.”