Chart Week: April 17, 1982
\nSongs: \u201cStars On 45 III (A Tribute To Stevie Wonder) (Medley)\u201d \u2013 Stars On 45,
\n\u201cPop Goes the Movies (Part 1) (Medley)\u201d \u2013 Meco.
\nChart 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2026<\/p>\n
This countdown was another great representation of how strange the Top 40 could be in the early \u201880s. It featured one pure novelty song (\u201cPac Man Fever\u201d at #24), a comedy song (\u201cTake Off\u201d by Bob and Doug McKenzie at #37), a infamous movie instrumental that was about to hit #1 (Vangelis\u2019 \u201cChariots of Fire – Titles\u201d at #3), and a TV show theme song \u201c(Theme From \u2018Magnum P.I.\u2019.\u201d by Mike Post at #34).[1]<\/a> <\/p>\n 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?<\/p>\n If that wasn\u2019t random enough, both songs were by artists with previous #1 hits. Odd.<\/p>\n Sitting at its peak of #35 was Meco\u2019s \u201cPop Goes the Movies (Part 1) (Medley).\u201d 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, \u201cGoldfinger,\u201d and \u201cThe Magnificent Seven.\u201d <\/p>\n Meco\u2019s entire career was based on making movie themes sound like dance tracks. Most famously, he hit #1 in 1977 with \u201cStar Wars Theme\/Cantina Band,\u201d which might have been the absolute favorite song of six-year-old me. Three years later he hit #18 with \u201cEmpire Strikes Back (Medley).\u201d His luck ran out in 1983, though. \u201cEwok Celebration,\u201d from Return of the Jedi<\/em>, stalled out at #60. Everything about that movie was a disappointment. Maybe he should have made it a medley too?<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t just obsessed with Star Wars<\/em>, though. In 1978 he cracked the Top 40 with two more movie covers. First, his version of \u201cTheme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind\u201d hit #25. Later that year he put out an album filled with disco covers of music from The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. He truly had his finger on the pulse of America. \u201cThemes from the Wizard of Oz: Over the Rainbow \/ We\u2019re Off to See the Wizard\u201d topped out at #35.<\/p>\n 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 \u201860s artists topped the chart in the summer of 1981. I\u2019ve always wondered how much of that song\u2019s success was due to John Lennon\u2019s death a few months earlier.<\/p>\n This track was their only other Top 40 hit in the US. With good reason; you can\u2019t 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]<\/a> <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n It\u2019s tough to rate novelty tracks like these. On one hand, they kind of suck. On the other, they are harmless fun. Meco\u2019s music especially seemed aimed at delighting kids. Or kids at heart, I guess. While people wanting to hear Stevie Wonder\u2019s 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\u2019ll slap a 4\/10<\/strong> on each.<\/p>\n As I was doing my research I came across a Stars On 45 track called \u201cStar Wars Medley.\u201d It begins exactly like Meco\u2019s \u201cStar Wars Theme\/Cantina Band.\u201d Then, for some insane reason, it segues into a number of very non-Star Wars hits from the \u201870s. \u201cKung Fu Fighting,\u201d \u201cLayla,\u201d \u201cDo Ya Think I\u2019m Sexy,\u201d \u201cYMCA,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Stop \u2019Til You Get Enough,\u201d and \u201cBaker Street\u201d are among the tracks covered. Also, inexplicably, Kim Cares\u2019 1981 smash \u201cBette Davis Eyes.\u201d[3]<\/a> <\/p>\n What all that had to do with Star Wars<\/em> I have no fucking clue. If you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n At first I couldn\u2019t find YouTube entries for either song, which is not a surprise. And Meco\u2019s track isn\u2019t on Spotify. Fortunately after some digging through Discogs<\/a> I was able to find these very non-official videos.<\/p>\n