SPINAL TAP
Spinal Tap is a band created by actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer and director Rob Reiner in the 1984 mock-documentary, "This Is Spinal Tap."
The film chronicled Tap's American tour, a disastrous journey highlighted by ridiculous stage shows, short-lived drummers and the band's increasingly pathetic attempts to follow musical trends.
So popular was the movie that Guest, McKean and Shearer - who actually composed and played their own songs - briefly toured as Spinal Tap in 1984, before hanging up their wigs and spandex outfits to resume careers in Hollywood. But Spinal Tap, like so many of the bands it parodied, refused to die. The home video was reportedly rented more than a million times, and nary a day passed when the band's members wouldn't have their lines from the film repeated to them by admiring fans.
Spinal Tap made its come-back in 1992 with a new album "Break like the wind", featuring Cher, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Slash and Steve Lukather. Steve Lukather produced the tracks "Clam caravan", "Break like the wind", "Springtime" and "Just begin again". He played guitar on "Just begin again" and "Break like the wind", and played piano on "Clam caravan".
Steve Lukather on Spinal Tap:
"[...] musicians love Spinal Tap because "it's a welcome breath of fresh air. . . . And it's nice that these guys can really play. It's not
bad music; in fact, I think it's as catchy if not more creative than a lot of the competition."
"They sing great. Harry Shearer has near-perfect pitch. They're not soloists. Chris has some chops, but that's about it. All I did was provide
some of the keyboards, but that was it."
"It's so borderline where the humor begins, and the music stops," Lukather said. "It's all done in such a subtle way. It's like they're
making fun of it without taking a complete (whack) at it."