Back in 1976, even though the Beatles had been disbanded for a half-dozen years or so, there was a continuing hope among fans that the Fab Four would reunite at some point in the future. That’s when radio programmers became aware of a band called Klaatu that arrived on the scene with an album that sounded kind-of sort-of like something the Beatles might record. Listeners took to examining this album (titled just Klaatu in the U.S. and 3:47 EST in the rest of the world) with the proverbial fine-toothed comb, playing the record forwards and literally backwards to decipher any hidden clues that might indicate that the album was secretly created by four guys named John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
This quest to discover Klaatu’s alleged secret identity was helped along by the total lack of musician credits, photos, or individual bios on the album. Such information was also not forthcoming from the group’s record label, Capitol Records (the Beatles’ old label—another clue?), which no doubt sought to piggyback on all the speculation and sell a few more records.
I can vouch for all the interest at the time. I bought the album, as did many of my friends, and we spent many long substance-infused evenings listening to it in depth, even playing certain tracks backwards to hopefully discover any backward masking or subliminal messages. (We thought we found a few, but we were probably just imagining things.) We listened to the album over and over and over, coming to the conclusion that this track sounded like John, that one like Paul, this other one like George. There was even the obligatory track for Ringo, so so we thought. We spent a lot of time and effort on this.
To cash in on all this attention, Capitol released a double-sided single from the album. The A-side, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” was the better of the two, peaking at #62 on the Billboard Hot 100. The B-side, the very Beatles-esque “Sub-Rosa Subway” wasn’t half-bad, either.
It turns out, to no surprise, that Klaatu was not the second coming of the Beatles. They were a trio of Canadian musicians (John Woloschuk, Dee Long, and Terry Draper) who named the band after the benevolent alien emissary played by Michael Rennie in the 1951 science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still. The trio obviously were influenced musically by the Beatles and had a nice sense of melody and good production values. But they weren’t the Beatles and really didn’t have much staying power after the rumors died out.
“Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” which was written by Woloschuk and Long, was all about trying to contact visitors from another planet. Here’s how Mr. Woloshuk recalls it:
“The idea for this track was suggested by an actual event that is described in The Flying Saucer Reader, a book by Jay David published in 1967. In March 1953 an organization known as the ‘International Flying Saucer Bureau’ sent a bulletin to all its members urging them to participate in an experiment termed ‘World Contact Day’ whereby, at a predetermined date and time, they would attempt to collectively send out a telepathic message to visitors from outer space. The message began with the words… ‘Calling occupants of interplanetary craft!'”
It was a different time.
The song, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” got a new lease on life when it was covered by that sibling act called the Carpenters. Sung by sister Karen, with production and keyboards by brother Richard, their single was released in September of 1977 and peaked at #32 on the Billboard Hot 100, #23 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #18 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It was just as trippy as Klaatu’s original.
Klaatu released a few more albums, some even listing the individual bandmembers’ names, but refused to perform live. They broke up in 1982, but got together in various permutations over the years. The Beatles never did get back together, nor have we ever been visited by occupants of interplanetary craft—that we know of.
