They say that “any publicity is good publicity.” But the invocation of that adage invariably arrives in the wake of an atomic bomb of unintended negative press. The publicity may be great, but it’s still attached to something bad.

Which is why the holy grail in the PR game involves unintended publicity associated with something positive… for instance, the reunification of the most beloved band on the planet.

Klaatu (the band) formed in Toronto, Canada in 1973, naming themselves after the main character in the 1951 sci-fi movie The Day The Earth Stood Still. Klaatu (the alien) serves as an ambassador who comes in peace to warn the earthlings about what’s happening elsewhere in the universe — only to be shot and wounded immediately, and then a few days later, shot again. Sounds like something earthlings would do.

Klaatu (the band again) found a little bit of success in Canada with their initial singles, and that was enough to get their debut album released on Capitol Records in September of 1976 (titled 3:47 EST everywhere except the US, who released it as Klaatu, because the American record execs didn’t want a title they couldn’t understand). No matter the title, the album didn’t sell.

The first single, “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft,” also made no impression on the sales slips or the airwaves. The lyrics were inspired by an actual event that took place back in 1953 called World Contact Day. On March 15th of that year, at a predetermined time, members of the International Flying Saucer Bureau attempted to telepathically communicate a message into outer space in the hopes of contacting alien life. Somehow this topic didn’t immediately click with Top 40 radio.

It looked like Klaatu might fade into obscurity when something weird happened in 1977. In a Rhode Island newspaper article, a journalist claimed that Klaatu might actually be a front for a secret reunion of The Beatles, who, to worldwide mourning, had broken up seven years prior. As with the “Paul is dead” rumors from years before, there were clues leading to the reporter’s conclusion, mostly centered around the fact that no credits of any kind appeared on the album (no writers, band members, producer). And the big one, of course, was that Ringo Starr, on the cover of his 1974 album Goodnight Vienna, featured himself as Klaatu descending from a spaceship in a recreation of The Day The Earth Stood Still. The article spread and suddenly it was a Fab Four furor.

It’s hard to relate how much people wanted The Beatles to get back together in the 1970s. (Badly. Very, very badly.) It was brought up daily for John, Paul, George, and Ringo. They were asked about it by passersby, hotel clerks, waiters, gas station attendants; grilled about it in every single interview; and even though there was rarely any actual news, mention appeared in every edition of every music magazine for the entire decade. Everyone desperately wished it would come true.

Enter Klaatu.

Even the slim chance that the rumor might prove factual sent people flocking to buy the album and single (despite the obvious problem that the band’s singers didn’t sound particularly like The Beatles and it was very easy to discover their true identities — they weren’t hiding anything and knew nothing about the rumor). “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft” ended up on the lower reaches of the US Hot 100, but even more surprising, soft rock siblings The Carpenters covered the song and it became a Top 10 hit in Canada and the UK in the fall of 1977. Without even trying, Klaatu (and Capitol) stumbled upon a successful PR stunt they never would have imagined themselves.

So transmit thought energy far beyond the norm… with Klaatu.

Klaatu’s original album version lasts over seven minutes, an epic suite (with Beatlesque touches) blending World Contact Day with bits of The Day The Earth Stood Still. For the single, they edited out half the music and the song loses some impact, so I’ve gone with the full-length track in all its glory. The Carpenters also chose to release a long and a short version. The long track is fantastically odd but I’m going with the hit single here: