Tribute to Abbey Road

Tribute to Abbey Road is a Rock-afire Explosion Showtape that was released in early September of 1982 for Showbiz Pizza Place stores.https://www.showbizpizza.com/info/documents/spp/spp_bulletin01.pdf It features six segments covering a wide variety of songs of different genres, ending with a 14-minute long medley of songs from the B side of the Beatles 1969 album 'Abbey Road'. This tape also includes three original songs written by members of the production crew.http://www.showbizpizza.com/review/rae/1982_abbeyroad.html

Production

When producing the Abbey Road segment, CEI rented 23 musicians to perform additional instruments, specifically listed are the horns and strings. During Louisiana, CEI moved their drums into a warehouse for recording to provide proper reverberation. Child of the Rock has 15 children from a local elementary school provide the backup vocals.⁽¹⁾ Three songs on the tape would be original productions by The Noize. Louisiana would be written by Burt 'Sal' Wilson, Child of the Rock would be written by Duke Chauppetta, and Goofy Gas by Jeff 'Claude' Howell.⁽⁰⁾ The showtape would be completed in late August.⁽¹⁾

Show List

1. Segment 1
1. Elvis Medley
1. Blue Suede Shoes
2. All Shook Up
3. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
4. Hound Dog
5. Burnin' Love
6. It's Now or Never
7. Return to Sender
8. Puppet On a String
9. Fools Rush In
2. Segment 2
1. Cotton Fields
2. Louisiana Intro Skit
3. Louisiana
3. Segment 3
1. Tomorrow
2. Maybe
4. Segment 4
1. Child of the Rock
5. Segment 5
1. Goofy Gas
6. Segment 6
1. Abbey Road Medley
1. You Never Give Me Your Money
2. Sun King
3. Mean Mr. Mustard
4. Polythene Pam
5. She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
6. Golden Slumbers
7. Carry that Weight
8. The End
9. Her Majesty

Trivia

• This show was the first to feature Shalisa Sloan as the voice of Mitzi. She was only 11-years-old when she got the part.
• This show was also the first to feature Rick Bailey as a lead vocalist, although not as Beach Bear, but as the Moon in 'Golden Slumbers'. Previously, he had done instrumental work and back-up vocals for the band, but this is his first time singing lead. He would end up replacing Aaron Fechter as the voice of Beach Bear in the following showtape, RAE Christmas '82 .
• This is Aaron Fechter's final show recording any new vocals for Beach Bear. Anytime his Beach Bear voice is heard following this tape, it's through reused segments.
• All of the segments from this showtape would go on to be reused in future compilation tapes.
• At the time of it's release, the Abbey Road Medley was the longest individual segment on a Rock-afire showtape, clocking in at 14-minutes. This title has since been taken by longer tracks, however.