This Album-Length Mash-up of Star Wars and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is Your New Favorite Thing

Some days are just filled with strife and sadness, and unfortunately, that seems to be the norm for a lot of people. But every now and then, the internet comes along and says, “Hey there … Look, I’ve got something to show you. This will make you feel better.” Well, dear readers, today is that day. Why? Because a pair of frickin’ geniuses, who must care deeply for our collective well-being as a species, shared their very own narration of Star Wars: A New Hope to the tune of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Y’know, the classic Beatles album. And, honestly, it’s more perfect than it deserves to be.

Palette-Swap Ninja, an oddly named musical parody duo made up of Jude Kelley and Dan Amrich, have taken the momentously galactic burden of telling the entire story of A New Hope through music and lyrics inspired by Sgt. Peppers, and it is a meticulously planned thing. Using the most apt title for a parody album ever, Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans is a concept album and beautiful labor of fan love that took a whopping five years to create, which is something that none of us realized we were waiting for. Consider the lyrics from the track “With Illicit Help From Your Friends,” where the song takes Vader’s point of view:

What would you think if I boarded your ship, would you give those transmissions to me?
How can this be a real consular ship, no ambassador that I can see
Oh, you’re all spies with illicit help from your friends
Hey, but nice try with illicit help from your friends
You’re gonna die along with all of your friends.

Such happiness. And as if it wasn’t perfect enough on it’s own, it’s not only just in time for May 4 (and isn’t May the Fourth Be With You reason enough to make that a national holiday?), but also the Star Wars 40th anniversary on May 25 and the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th anniversary on June 1. So yeah, make sure you have the album downloaded for all three of these dates. Because the absolute, very best part about this whole thing? It’s all free. So you can either download it and enjoy the audio all on it’s own, or you can see it paired up with footage from the original Star Wars, which is the best way. The only way. So go ahead, the internet wants you to enjoy yourself and take a load off.

You can download the audio for Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans here, check out the perfect album art below and see the videos, with the lyrics, embedded in a playlist above. And seriously? Enjoy the hell out of it. You deserve this.