|
"Stars on 45" is a song issued in January 1981 by the studio group Stars on 45. In some countries, including the UK, Ireland and New Zealand, the band was credited as 'Starsound' and the medley itself was named "Stars on 45". Its official title in the US (as on the record and in ''Billboard'') where it was credited to 'Stars on 45' was "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". It is (to date) the longest titled song to ever chart in ''Billboard'', and is conveniently shortened to "Stars on 45 Medley", or "'Medley' by Stars on 45". The reason for the long title was copyright requirements for the use of The Beatles' songs. It reached number 1 in the Netherlands in February 21, 1981; number 2 in the UK in April 1981; and number 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on June 20, 1981. In the US, the single also peaked at number 18 on the dance chart. In the US, the song's one-week stay at the top of the ''Hot 100'' interrupted the Kim Carnes single "Bette Davis Eyes" run as the number 1 single at five weeks. The next week, Carnes' song regained its number 1 status for an additional four weeks. The origin of the single was the Netherlands where numerous bootleg disco singles were floating around. Willem van Kooten, the owner of one of the copyrights, decided to make a similar, legitimate record of a 12" single titled "Let's Do It in the 80s Great Hits" credited to a group called Passion (though the snippets of songs were taken from the original recordings).〔()〕 He found singers who sounded similar to John Lennon and Paul McCartney and decided to make the single focus on The Beatles. The original version was a 9-minute, 45-second 12" mix, then a 45 version was also released, and the Beatles medley was later extended to a full 16-minute album side. It appeared on the Stars on 45's first full-length release, ''Long Play Album'' (US title: ''Stars on Long Play''; UK title: ''Stars on 45 - The Album''). The song became also a huge success in the UK where it kicked off a craze for medleys, with a large number of records in the ''Stars on 45'' mold reaching the UK Top 40 in 1981. Likewise, in the US the song started a medley craze that lasted for about a year and introduced not only other medleys by Stars on 45, but medleys by The Beach Boys, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Larry Elgart and His Manhattan Swing Orchestra, as well as others. ==Song's 80's revival== *"Venus" is the 1970 Shocking Blue song, written by the band's Robbie van Leeuwen and later covered by Bananarama. Only the opening guitar riff is used in the medley. *"Sugar Sugar" was originally recorded by The Archies (written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim). *The next eight songs are Beatles songs (written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney). *An extended version of the "Stars on 45" intro and finale was put on the flip side of the single. The album version of the song moved "Venus" and "Sugar Sugar" to Side Two into a different medley, and added several more Beatles songs as well as a 32-second instrumental extract from George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" and even a fleeting reference to new wave band Sparks' "Beat the Clock," for a total length of about 15 minutes. The album version was released as ''Long Play Album'' in the Netherlands, and retitled ''Stars on Long Play'' in the US and ''Stars on 45 — The Album'' in the UK. A detailed listing of the source material can be found ''there''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stars on 45 (song)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|