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Miley Cyrus‘ hit songs don’t sound much like The Beatles, but she’s a big fan of one of The Beatles’ most popular albums. She even recorded some of the tracks from that record in a new style. Interestingly, she did so with help from one of the modern heirs of The Beatles’ psychedelic era.

Miley Cyrus sang 2 songs from The Beatles’ most beloved album

The Flaming Lips are a neo-psychedelia band that returned to their genre’s roots with their record With a Little Help from My Fwends, a track-by-track cover of The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The record is filled with guest stars. The “Wrecking Ball” singer shows up on avant-garde remakes of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “A Day in the Life.” 

During a 2014 interview with The Stranger, The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne discussed working with Cyrus on Sgt. Pepper covers. “She came in and didn’t have any baggage or memories connected to it,” he recalled. “To her, it’s just another awesome f****** record she gets to listen to.”

Wayne Coyne compared Miley Cyrus to another rock star after doing covers with her

Coyne had some glowing things to say about the “We Can’t Stop” star. “Miley is the real deal,” he opined. “She’s not fake. I’ve been around so many big stars who faked their way through all that. I don’t know if Miley knows how to be fake. When you’re there with her, you see how much she cares about her crew, and her band, and her stage, and everybody involved. 

“Then you hear her with the fans, it just makes you cry,” he added. “She’ll talk to fans all day. She’s not just in there going, ‘Hey, I’m Miley Cyrus, what the f***.’ I mean, she cries with them. That’s why I want to be around her and want to know her. I want to be part of her thing. I don’t give a f*** what people say.” 

Coyne compared their professional dynamic to that of David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Coyne said that he and Cyrus had so much energy that anything could happen when they went into the studio together. In addition, he praised Cyrus’ singing ability, saying that she had much more vocal prowess than other pop stars like Britney Spears.

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Cyrus’ work on With a Little Help from My Fwends seemed to pave the way for two other aspects of her career. For one, she collaborated with Coyne again on her neo-psychedelic album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz. That record is like listening to Sgt. Pepper while watching Hannah Montana reruns and taking LSD. Any rocker who thinks Cyrus is “just a pop star” should spin that record at least once. Love it or hate it, it proves that Cyrus has listened to plenty of Beatles and Pink Floyd songs.

On top of that, With a Little Help from My Fwends was the first time Cyrus covered Beatles tunes. She would later perform a famous rendition of “Help!” Her take on “Help!” seemed to go over well with her fans and Beatles fans alike.

While she’s most known for making modern pop music, Cyrus seems to be a Beatlemaniac underneath it all.