Day: April 20, 2023

Chart Week: April 17, 1982
Songs: “Stars On 45 III (A Tribute To Stevie Wonder) (Medley)” – Stars On 45,
“Pop Goes the Movies (Part 1) (Medley)” – Meco.
Chart Positions: #38, 4th week on the chart. Peaked at #28 for two weeks in May. #35, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #35 for two weeks.

First off, elephant in the room: damn there are a lot of parenthesis in these two titles! I believe the (Medley) tag was added by Billboard, but still…

This countdown was another great representation of how strange the Top 40 could be in the early ‘80s. It featured one pure novelty song (“Pac Man Fever” at #24), a comedy song (“Take Off” by Bob and Doug McKenzie at #37), a infamous movie instrumental that was about to hit #1 (Vangelis’ “Chariots of Fire – Titles” at #3), and a TV show theme song “(Theme From ‘Magnum P.I.’.” by Mike Post at #34).[1]

Down at the bottom of the chart, three spaces apart in the 30s, were our two medleys. Which were also covers. I guess medleys of covers?

If that wasn’t random enough, both songs were by artists with previous #1 hits. Odd.

Sitting at its peak of #35 was Meco’s “Pop Goes the Movies (Part 1) (Medley).” Beginning with the fanfare that famously kicked off 20th Century Fox movies, Meco added his disco-influenced touch to seven classic movie themes, including the James Bond theme, “Goldfinger,” and “The Magnificent Seven.”

Meco’s entire career was based on making movie themes sound like dance tracks. Most famously, he hit #1 in 1977 with “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band,” which might have been the absolute favorite song of six-year-old me. Three years later he hit #18 with “Empire Strikes Back (Medley).” His luck ran out in 1983, though. “Ewok Celebration,” from Return of the Jedi, stalled out at #60. Everything about that movie was a disappointment. Maybe he should have made it a medley too?

He wasn’t just obsessed with Star Wars, though. In 1978 he cracked the Top 40 with two more movie covers. First, his version of “Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind” hit #25. Later that year he put out an album filled with disco covers of music from The Wizard of Oz. He truly had his finger on the pulse of America. “Themes from the Wizard of Oz: Over the Rainbow / We’re Off to See the Wizard” topped out at #35.

Stars On 45, a weird-ass Dutch studio group, were a little more limited. They found singers who sounded like familiar artists and recorded medleys of old hits over dance beats. Their self-titled single featuring music of the Beatles and other ‘60s artists topped the chart in the summer of 1981. I’ve always wondered how much of that song’s success was due to John Lennon’s death a few months earlier.

This track was their only other Top 40 hit in the US. With good reason; you can’t go wrong with the music of Stevie Wonder. The singers sound just enough like Stevie and the music remains faithful enough to the originals to make each segment work. Plus they pick some of his best songs to cover. In the LP/cassette era, I can see why this held some appeal. Take the best parts of some of your favorite songs and cut them together into one mega-hit without any of the album filler.[2]

Kind of wacky that both of these songs were on the chart at the same time. Not so wacky that this kind of song disappeared right about this time.

It’s tough to rate novelty tracks like these. On one hand, they kind of suck. On the other, they are harmless fun. Meco’s music especially seemed aimed at delighting kids. Or kids at heart, I guess. While people wanting to hear Stevie Wonder’s music should just go play his albums, Stars On 45 gave us a great reminder of how broad and amazing his career was. So I’ll slap a 4/10 on each.

As I was doing my research I came across a Stars On 45 track called “Star Wars Medley.” It begins exactly like Meco’s “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band.” Then, for some insane reason, it segues into a number of very non-Star Wars hits from the ‘70s. “Kung Fu Fighting,” “Layla,” “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” “YMCA,” “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,” and “Baker Street” are among the tracks covered. Also, inexplicably, Kim Cares’ 1981 smash “Bette Davis Eyes.”[3]

What all that had to do with Star Wars I have no fucking clue. If you’re a Spotify user, you should go play it. The progress bar turns into a light saber. When you hover the cursor over it, it pulses a brighter color. Nutty shit for a nutty song.

At first I couldn’t find YouTube entries for either song, which is not a surprise. And Meco’s track isn’t on Spotify. Fortunately after some digging through Discogs I was able to find these very non-official videos.