It was 1 year ago today...Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans

One year ago, a duo called Pallette-Swap Ninja did the unthinkable—they merged two of the most well-loved and influential pieces of media of the last 50 years into one seamless whole. They did this by completely rewriting the lyrics to all the songs from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with lyrics about Star Wars, Episode 4: A New Hope. And further, each song follows chronologically in order the plot of Star Wars. And then they made a *video* of the whole thing. Yes, I know I already blogged about Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans as one of my Favorite New Pop Albums of 2017. But it deserves revisiting on its anniversary date. I hope you didn't miss out on this amazing album last year. If you did miss out, I'm here for you. If you have already experienced it once, now is a good time to revisit!

The more I listen to Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans, the more impressive the feat is to me. Here are just a few examples of the amazing parody writing:

• "Luke is in the desert and whining," is followed by "Whaaahh!"
• "She's Leaving Home" is about Luke leaving Tatooine
• Several times, instrumental solos are replaced with Star Wars themes—probably most effectively by inserting the cantina band music into "Being From the Space Port of Mos Eisley" 
• "Within You Without You," a song originally about Eastern philosophy, is now about the mystic Force (with R2-D2 sounds used effectively to call-and-response with the sitar)
• Instead of barnyard animal sounds at the end of "Keep Moving" ("Good Morning"), we get various sound clips from the escape from the Death Star
• The reprise of Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans comes back just as the plans are needed again in the plot (and the inspired "One, Two, Yavin IV" countdown at the beginning)
• In "A Day in the Life", "Then Obi-won spoke and I went into a dream" right before the high, dreamy vocalise music, and the Death Star exploding right at the iconic moment when the music reaches the top of the long orchestra crescendo

The audio is available as a free download. Props to Pallette-Swap Ninja for putting out something publicly that both Disney and Apple Music (fairly litigious organizations) might considering suing them for—even though the album clearly falls under fair use as parody.

May the 4th be with you (and check out their related Beatles-Star Wars single, Leia Organa).