That was the premise on Tuesday night when I downed a bottle of Ensure and drove out to see “It Was Fifty Years Ago Today–A Tribute To The  Beatles White Album” at the historic Arcada Theatre in downtown St. Charles. The headliners appeared so helter-skelter, I had to see how the whole thing came together: Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross,  Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Joey Molland, the last surviving member of Badfinger and bassist Jason Scheff of the latter-day Chicago. I wasn’t alone. The show was sold out and will return to the Arcada on  Dec. 2.

If you connect the dots of the tribute tour headliners, it makes similar cut-and-paste sense in how the “White Album” was recorded, actually  51 years ago. The Beatles were fighting. They never toured to support the album. Ringo Starr actually left the band for a while and Yoko Ono had cracked the boy’s club code.

Rundgren and George Harrison produced Badfinger, although Molland did not sing lead vocals on the band’s hits. Badfinger was the first band the Beatles signed to their Apple label. Dolenz hung around the Abbey Road studio when the Beatles were recording “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Cross had a massive hit with “Sailin’.” The Beatles recorded the Ringo instrumental  “Flying.” Okay. I’m stretching.

In 2002 Cross was part of a similar “A Walk Down Abbey Road” tour with Rundgren, Alan Parsons, the late Jack Bruce of Cream and Eric Carmen of the Raspberries. And I have no idea why Scheff was on this tour. Scheff replaced Peter  Cetera when he left the band Chicago in 1985.

I did not go fetch a beer when Cross sang “Sailing,” although the  Yacht Rock enthusiasts in the audience stood up and bro-hugged each other. In a show that was heavy with shtick, Cross played the “White Album” material with the most integrity. He opened the second set wearing a black Bob Dylan tee shirt and dealing spellbinding solo versions of  Paul’s civil rights ballad Blackbird” (highlighted by his nimble acoustic guitar playing) and “I Will,” followed by an ethereal and timely interpretation of “Mother Nature’s Son,” accompanied by Scheff on guitar and backing vocals. It is fun to keep  an open mind  towards  this angle of Christopher Cross and even his straight-faced  jokes about adjourning to the hotel after the concert for “blow and hookers.”

Dolenz served as the evening’s ring leader and was drafted to sing  much of the “White Album” throwaway material such as “Why Don’t We Do  It in the Road?” and “I’m So Tired.” Dolenz pulled up a chair to recite “Rocky Raccoon” in a sitting-around-a-campfire style as the band channeled the Monkees’ country version of Leiber & Stoller’s “D.W. Washburn.” Dolenz heavily enunciated delivery and congenial presence made his contributions equally portions Broadway and rock concert.

The “White Album” tribute headiners came together on stage three times. Their gang vocals supercharged the show opener “Back in the  U.S.S.R,” and after playing the album in sequence (without “Revolution No. 9:) they encored with a group sing-along on  “Birthday” and the ska tinged “Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da.” The recorded version of Ringo’s “Good Night” signaled that the evening was over.