It’s Jim Carrey’s Show on Celebrity Tribute to Beatles

** GEORGE MARTIN

“In My Life”

MCA

As the Beatles’ record producer, George Martin was a knowledgeable and compatible guide for the scaling of rock’s creative Everest. “In My Life,” due in stores Tuesday and offered as his farewell to record-making (Martin is 72 and his hearing is diminished), finds him shepherding a questionable platoon of celebrity “heroes and friends” up the Disneyland Matterhorn.

Of the movie folk, Goldie Hawn sings well but camps too freely on a lounge-vamp reading of “A Hard Day’s Night,” Robin Williams sings passably but brings no comic genius to “Come Together,” and Sean Connery recites “In My Life,” a song whose unremarkable lyric but glowing melody mean it should always be sung.

Among the musical stars, guitar hero Jeff Beck fails to re-imagine the melody line of “A Day in the Life,” and Martin’s orchestration overshadows much of his playing. Stentorian Celine Dion is a popular but poorly suited choice to sing the intimate “Here, There and Everywhere,” and Phil Collins trying to replicate Paul McCartney on the closing sequence of “Abbey Road” is like Michael Jordan taking on Mark McGwire in a home run derby.

Jim Carrey shows the other celebs how it’s done, stealing the show with over-the-top singing and prank-pulling on “I Am the Walrus.” Martin himself provides the other moments worth remembering on “In My Life,” including the cinematic swirling, sweep and eventfulness of his orchestral “Pepperland Suite” from the animated “Sgt. Pepper’s” film; a lovely new arrangement of “Because” for choir and violin; and an original air, “Friends and Lovers.”

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