Medley: Intro Venus / Sugar Sugar / No Reply / I'll Be Back / Drive My Car / Do You Want to Know a Secret / We Can Work It Out / I Should Have Known Better / Nowhere Man / You're Going to Lose That Girl / Stars on 45
b/w Stars on 45 (Instrumental)
b/w Stars on 45 (Instrumental)
| Released: May 1981 (Radio Records) Written by: Lennon/McCartney et.al. Produced by: Jaap Eggermont Album: Stars On Long Play |
| U. S. Billboard Charts: | |
| Hot 100 | 1 |
| Dance | 18 |
"The Stars on 45 keep on turning in your mind!"
Here's the rare #1 single that gets absolutely ZERO play on oldies radio. And why not? We all loved this cheesy stuff back then. Beatles music over a disco beat? Count me in! Shame on you, Mr. Oldies Program Director.
This medley (the longest titled song to ever hit the Billboard charts) started out as a bootleg mix in the Netherlands in 1979, then gradually picked up steam, was re-recorded using Beatles sound-alikes and finally released here in the US in 1981. These days, anybody with a free download of Audacity could come up with something like this, but at the end of the disco era, we'd never heard anything like it. After the Beatles got this treatment from Stars on 45, we were treated to similar medleys with Hooked On Classics and the official Beatles Movie Medley.
To this day, I can't hear the Beatles performing No Reply without thinking of the recap at the end of this medley: "and No Reply-hi-hi-hi!"
Here's the rare #1 single that gets absolutely ZERO play on oldies radio. And why not? We all loved this cheesy stuff back then. Beatles music over a disco beat? Count me in! Shame on you, Mr. Oldies Program Director.
This medley (the longest titled song to ever hit the Billboard charts) started out as a bootleg mix in the Netherlands in 1979, then gradually picked up steam, was re-recorded using Beatles sound-alikes and finally released here in the US in 1981. These days, anybody with a free download of Audacity could come up with something like this, but at the end of the disco era, we'd never heard anything like it. After the Beatles got this treatment from Stars on 45, we were treated to similar medleys with Hooked On Classics and the official Beatles Movie Medley.
To this day, I can't hear the Beatles performing No Reply without thinking of the recap at the end of this medley: "and No Reply-hi-hi-hi!"
Never got the single but I bought the album Stars On Long Play and have been a fan of these style medleys ever since. The steady 123 beats per minute full-length Beatles medley is on Side One and I forget what is on SIde Two of that first album. Snagged both Stars On Long Play II and Stars On Long Play III when they came out. II has a Sixties medley that finishes in a flurry of Supremes songs on Side One with a disco and ABBA medley on Side Two. III has a Rolling Stones medley on Side One and a Stevie Wonder medley on Side Two.
ReplyDeleteAt the time of release, I would have given this one an "A" if not an "A+". It was an entirely new concept to me at the time though later I discovered several older, disco style medleys including the annual Top Tune Medleys from Disconet, who had also released a Beatles Medley in 1979. All meticulously cut and spliced by hand. Have to respect the craftsmanship.
A little more than a month after the Stars On 45 single hit the Hot 100 on April 11, 1981, I bought my second Sugarhill Records 12" single after "Rapper's Delight": "The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel", which still ranks as my favorite medley of all time, closely followed by this one from 1992 and this one from 1983.
I had this as a single and then had all three Stars On Long Play albums. They were very much favorites of mine. My brief review of the albums - Martin's View: Stars On 45.
ReplyDelete