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Stars on 45
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Stars on 45 was a Dutch novelty pop act that was briefly very popular in the UK, throughout Europe, and in the U.S. in the early 1980s. The group later shortened its name to Stars On in the U.S., while in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand they were known as Starsound. The band, which consisted solely of studio session musicians under the direction of Jaap Eggermont, formerly of Golden Earring, popularized the medley, by recreating hit songs as faithfully as possible and stringing them together, with a common tempo and relentless underlying drum track.
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Encyclopedia
Stars on 45 was a Dutch novelty pop act that was briefly very popular in the UK, throughout Europe, and in the U.S. in the early 1980s. The group later shortened its name to Stars On in the U.S., while in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand they were known as Starsound. The band, which consisted solely of studio session musicians under the direction of Jaap Eggermont, formerly of Golden Earring, popularized the medley, by recreating hit songs as faithfully as possible and stringing them together, with a common tempo and relentless underlying drum track. The point was to provide a danceable disco record which used familiar tunes.
History
Jaap Eggermont originally created the "Stars on 45" concept after the managing director of the Dutch publishing company Red Bullet Productions, Willem van Kooten, in the summer of 1980 by sheer coincidence happened to hear a disco medley being played in a record store. The medley coupled original recordings of songs by the Beatles, the Buggles, the Archies and Madness with a number or recent American and British disco hits like Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown", Heatwave's "Boogie Nights" and The S.O.S. Band's "Take Your Time (Do It Right)", as the rhythms of the various songs tended to compliment and "dovetail" into each other. When van Kooten heard that the medley also used a segment of "Venus", a 1970 US #1 hit by Dutch band Shocking Blue - a song for which he himself held the worldwide copyright - and knowing that neither he nor Red Bullet Productions had given the permission for the use of the recording, he realised that the medley in fact was a bootleg release. The record turned out to be a 12-inch single called "Let's Do It in the 80's - Great Hits", credited to a non-existing band called Passion and issued on a non-existing record label called Alto. The medley had its origin in Montreal, Canada, and it was later revealed that it was the work of one Michel Ali together with two professional DJ's; Michel Gendreau and Paul Richer. Gendreau and Richer both specialised in the art of "splicing", stringing together snippets of music from different genres, in varying keys and BPM's and from different sound sources, at this time still predominantly from vinyl records. The first version of the medley was eight minutes long, included parts from some twenty tracks of which only three were by the Beatles; "No Reply" "I'll Be Back" and "Drive My Car". A later extended, sixteen-minute, thirty-track mix of the same medley labelled "Bits and Pieces III" added another five Beatles titles; "Do You Want to Know a Secret", "We Can Work It Out", "I Should Have Known Better", "Nowhere Man" and "You're Going to Lose That Girl". With the bootleg recording obviously already circulating in dance clubs on both sides of the Atlantic, van Kooten decided to "bootleg the bootleg" and create a licensed version of the medley by using soundalike artists to replicate the original hits and therefore contacted his friend and colleague Jaap Eggermont.
The Beatles soundalikes were established Dutch singers. John Lennon's parts were sung by Bas Muys of the 70s Dutch pop group Smyle. Paul McCartney's and George Harrison's parts were sung by Sandy Coast frontman Hans Vermeulen and Okkie Huysdens who had worked with Vermeulen in the band Rainbow Train. Apart from the recreated songs, an original chorus and hook written by Eggermont and musical arranger Martin Duiser called "Stars on 45" was added at intervals to help string differing sections together. The '45' in the title refers to the playback speed of a vinyl record single — 45 rpm, such singles were often simply called "45s". The female vocalist in the chorus was session singer Jody Pijper and later recordings also featured uncredited vocals by Dutch 70s star Albert West and Arnie Treffers of rock revival band Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers. The Stars on 45 recordings were made before the birth of digital recording technology, which meant that each and every song was recorded separately and the different parts were subsequently manually pieced together with a pre-recorded drumloop, using analog master tapes, in order to create the segued medleys. The specific drumloop heard on most Stars on 45 recordings is often referred to as the "clap track", due to its prominent and steady handclaps.
The first such release was a nine minute forty-five seconds 12" single, issued in the aftermath of the so called anti-disco backlash, and was released on the at the time minor label CNR Records in the Netherlands in December 1980. The single was simply entitled "Stars on 45" by Stars On 45, with no credits on the label or the cover as to who actually sang on the recording. When Dutch radio stations began playing the four minute, eight track Beatles segment of the medley, placed in the middle of the original 12" mix, an edited 7" single with the Beatles part preceded by "Venus" and The Archies' "Sugar Sugar" was released and hit the #1 spot of the Dutch singles charts in February 1981. A few months later it also reached #2 in the UK, where it was released by the British subsidiary of CBS Records and credited to 'Starsound'. Shortly thereafter Eggermont created the first Stars on 45 album, Long Play Album, issued with an equally anonymous album cover and featuring a sixteen minute side-long medley of Beatles titles. In June 1981 the "Stars on 45 Medley" single also went to #1 in the US where it was released by Radio Records, a sublabel of Atlantic Records, and the group was dubbed 'Stars On'. The track list for the 7" edit of the "Stars on 45 Medley" in the US was the names of all the songs that make up the medley:
This single with its forty-one word title continues to hold the record for a #1 single with the longest name on the Billboard charts, due to the legalities requiring each song title be listed. The Stars On 45 Long Play Album (US title: Stars on Long Play, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand: Stars on 45 - The Album) also became a massive seller worldwide, topping both the UK and Australian album charts, it was a Top 10 hit in most parts of Europe and also reached #9 on Billboard's album chart in the US. The popularity of the album even resulted in it being given an official release in the Soviet Union, where it was issued by state-owned record label Melodiya under the title Discotheque Stars. The "Stars On 45 Medley" single was later awarded a platinum disc for one million copies sold in the US alone.
A second Beatles medley went to #67 on the US charts. Another album followed later that same year, Longplay Album - Volume II (US title: Stars On Long Play II, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand: Stars On 45 - The Album - Volume 2) featuring medleys using the songs of ABBA, a #2 hit in the UK and Motown, US #55. The recordings of the Stars on 45 medleys were also made before the advent of modern synthesizers with the possibility of sampling sounds. Consequently, for the recreation of tracks like the themes from "Star Wars" and "The War of the Worlds", included in the "Star Wars and other Hits" medley on Longplay - Album II and released as the third European single under the title "Volume III", a full symphony orchestra was used, including strings, brass, woodwind, harpsichord, orchestral percussion like timpani etc. - even if those particular parts were only ten or fifteen seconds long on the actual record released.
In late 1981 Eggermont and Martin Duiser were awarded the Conamus Export Prize in the Netherlands in recognition of their contributions to Dutch culture and echonomy.
A third album, The Superstars (US title: Stars On Long Play III, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand: Stars Medley), featured medleys of The Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder. The single "Stars on 45 III: A Tribute to Stevie Wonder" peaked at #28 in the US in 1982, where the act was now simply listed as Stars On. It also reached #14 in the UK where it was called "Stars Medley" - confusingly the exact same title as the third album in the British Isles and Australasia. In Continental Europe and most other parts of the world the Stevie Wonder medley was entitled "Stars on Stevie". In late 1982 Eggermont and Duiser again won the Conamus Export Prize, this time together with Tony Sherman who sang lead vocals on "Stars on Stevie". Later European-only releases included Stars on Frankie released in 1987 and some ten years later Stars on 45 : The Club Hits, the latter however not produced by Eggermont.
There was a touring company also called Stars on 45 that promoted their albums, although not using the same studio session musicians as on the record.
In 1982, there was a staged musical show at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Hollywood, CA and a video of that show was released in 1983 by MCA Home Video.
A spinoff group called The Star Sisters had a hit in Europe in 1983 with an Andrews Sisters medley. The albums were released under the moniker of Stars on 45 Presents The Star Sisters.
While none of the three original Stars on 45 albums have been reissued to CD in their entirety or in their original form, several CD compilations on European budget labels such as EMI's subsidiary Music Club, Arcade, Edel Records, Falcon Neuen Media, Bunny Music and ZYX Music have been released under the non-copyrighted 'Stars On 45' moniker all through the 1990s and 2000s. These include The Best of Stars on 45, The Very Best of Stars of 45, The Magic of Stars on 45, Stars on 45 Presents The Mighty Megamix Album, The Greatest Stars on 45, The Non-Stop Party Album, Greatest Stars on 45 Vol. 1 and Greatest Stars on 45 Vol. 2. It should however be noted that some of these compilations also feature titles such as "The Carpenters Medley", "Beach Boys Gold", "The Spencer Davis Group Medley", "Love Songs Are Forever" etc. - again recordings that were neither produced by Jaap Eggermont nor originally released as by Stars On 45 in the 1980s (see below).
A CD compilation with the slightly misleading title Stars on 45 - 16 Memories From The Golden Days of Vinyl, released by the K-Tel label in 2003, includes no recordings by Stars on 45 whatsoever but merely a selection of various 60s and 70s hits.
Other similar acts
The commercial success of the first "Stars On 45" single started a medley craze in the years of 1981, 1982 and 1983, with a multitude of similar, more or less anonymous studio productions being released by both minor and major record labels in both Continental Europe and the U.K., such as Hits On 45 with "Disco Beatles", Disco On 33 with "28 Hits of the Superstars", Disco Dancing On 33 with "Disco Dancing On 33", Magazine 60 with "Magazine 60", Intro Disco with "Intro Disco", Startrax with their Bee Gees medley "Startrax Club Disco", Tight Fit with "Back to the 60's Vol. 1" and "Back to the 60's Vol. 2", Enigma with "Ain't No Stopping - Disco Mix '81" and "I Love Music - Disco Special", Gidea Park with "Beach Boy Gold" and their Four Seasons medley "Seasons of Gold", Lobo with his Harry Belafonte medley "The Caribbean Disco Show", Band of Gold with "Love Songs Are Back Again" and "Love Songs Are Forever", Paul Giggs and his "Guitar Collection", Rock Heroes with their Rod Stewart medley "Rock Heroes Vol. 1", Motor City Allstars with "A Tribute To Motown", Trini Tunes and their "Trini Lopez Hit Medley", Super Rock Stars Live with "Super Rock Stars Live" etc.; all with varying degrees of chart success - and likeness to the original recordings.
The non-stop disco medley format was by no means a new phenomenon however; in 1976, the Ritchie Family had scored their biggest U.S. hit with a similar medley named "The Best Disco in Town", which incorporated various pop hits of the day (such as Silver Convention's "Fly, Robin, Fly" and Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby") recreated in an order, and segued by the title theme.
Shortly after Stars On 45's recording of their "Supremes Medley" which was included on their second album Longplay Album - Volume II, Motown Records re-issued their "The Supremes Medley" a.k.a. "The Diana Ross & The Supremes Medley of Hits" worldwide. The medley had first been recorded and released in the U.S. in 1977 both as a 12" single (- 10:06) and an edited 7" version ( - 5:09) and featured the original Supremes recordings of "Stop! In The Name of Love", "Back In My Arms Again", "Come See About Me", "Love Is Like An Itching In My Meart", "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Baby Love" strung together with a newly recorded disco accompaniment. The medley has since been re-issued on certain CD hits compilations with Diana Ross and The Supremes such as the 2003 Deluxe Edition of Ross' 1980 album "diana".
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recorded several albums as well as singles called Hooked on Classics, the first of which was released in 1981, while Larry Elgart and his Manhattan Swing Orchestra recorded a series of Hooked on Swing tracks. The single, "Hooked On Classics," peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Larry Elgart & His Manhattan Swing Orchestra peaked at #32 with "Hooked On Swing". Hooked on Classics was subsequently parodied by the Portsmouth Sinfonia as Classical Muddly.
The rock band Squeeze recorded a medley of their own classic hits, calling it "Squabs on Forty Fab", and releasing it as the B-side to their 1981 single "Labelled With Love."
For their 1981 release, "Christmas Jamboree Bag", the Cockney musical act Chas & Dave recorded a medley parodying the "Stars on 45" format. Entitled "Stars Over 45", the song featured a selection of traditional London songs.
British punk band Tenpole Tudor also parodied the concept with "Tenpole 45", the B-side of their 1981 single "Wunderbar".
Also in 1981, American comedians Stevens & Grdnic released "Commercials on 45", which was a compilation of that duo's parodies of commercials set to music.
In late 1981 Germany-based Caribbean disco band Boney M. released a Stars on 45 type medley under the title "6 Years of Boney M. Hits - Boney M. on 45" featuring some twenty of their best-known recordings. The medley, ranging in length from five to thirteen minutes depending on the format, was issued both as an A- and B-side 7" and 12" single in certain territories to promote their albums Boonoonoonoos and Christmas Album. Five years later producer Frank Farian took the megamix format one step further and released a full-length album called The Best of 10 Years - 32 Superhits.
In the spring of 1982, the Beatles hit the charts with their own medley. They peaked at #10 in the UK sales charts and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "The Beatles Movie Medley," highlighting their hits from the various motion pictures they appeared in throughout their popularity. "The Beatles Movie Medley" remains the only Beatles single not released on CD.
In 1982, The Beach Boys had their own minor hit with "The Beach Boys Medley," peaking at #12 on the U.S. Hot 100 chart.
Also in 1982, The Hollies released their own hit medley "Holliedaze", which became their first UK Top 30 entry since 1974.
"Weird Al" Yankovic's 1984 song "Polkas on 45" parodies the Stars on 45 format, except that the entire song is done in the style of a polka. "Polkas on 45" was included in Weird Al's second album, and with the exception of Even Worse and Alapalooza (the latter of which has a polka version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" rather than a medley), a similar polka compilation has been included in each of his albums since.
1985 saw the release of an album titled Stars on 45 - Soul Revue and a single called "The Sam & Dave Medley" credited to 'Stars on 45 featuring Sam & Dave', and even with the Stars on 45 logo on the album cover. While the album indeed was recorded in Holland it was neither produced by Jaap Eggermont nor did it feature the original formation of the duo but David Prater and his new singing partner Sam Daniels. Original member Sam Moore made Atlantic Records - the parent label to the 'real' Stars on 45's US label Radio Records - recall both the single and the album for using the "Sam & Dave" name without permission, and the records were later re-labelled and re-issued as being by 'The New Sam & Dave Revue'.
In the early 1980s, Ivor Biggun released "Bras on 45" (a.k.a. "Bra Size 45"), a novelty song about a woman with large breasts, which was very close to sounding like a Stars-on-45-style medley of recognizable songs, including Gary Numan's "Cars."
The Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice also recorded a Stars on 45-like medley of their earliest singles called "Blokes on 45" for John Peel's BBC show. It was released on The Glasgow School in 2005, a compilation of their early work recorded for Postcard Records.
A Stars On 45-style medley of British pop group Girls Aloud's singles, entitled "Girls On 45", was released in 2009 as the b-side of their single "The Loving Kind". The seven minute long mix features the intro and outro of the original Stars On 45 medleys and was created by Jewels & Stone.
With the development of recording technology, similar subsequent efforts have used the actual recordings combined together rather than re-recordings with session musicians. The best-known example was probably Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, as well as a series of "Hit Mix" albums (e.g. "Hit Mix 86", a medley of many hits from that year).
Discography
Singles
The Netherlands
- February 1981, Stars on 45: Stars on 45 (#1) (The Beatles and other 60s tracks)
- July 1981, Stars on 45: More Stars (#4) (ABBA)
- September 1981, Stars on 45: Volume III (#10) (Intros)
- February 1982, Stars on 45: Stars on Stevie (#6) (Stevie Wonder)
- April 1982, Stars on 45: The Greatest Rock 'n Roll Band in the World (#15) (The Rolling Stones)
- October 1987, Stars on 45: Stars on Frankie (#16) (Frank Sinatra)
- 1989, Stars on 45: Stars on '89 Remix (The Beatles)
- 1991, Stars on 45: Stars on Stevie Megamix (Stevie Wonder)
- 1997, Stars on 45: The Club Hits
UK
- April 1981, Starsound: Stars on 45 (#2) (The Beatles and other 60s tracks)
- July 1981, Starsound: Stars on 45 Volume 2 (#2) (ABBA)
- September 1981, Starsound: Stars on 45 Vol.3 (#17) (Intros)
- February 1982, Starsound: Stars Medley (#14) (Stevie Wonder)
- June 1982, Starsound: Stars Medley (-) (The Rolling Stones)
US
- May 1981, Stars On: 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 (#1) (The Beatles and other 60s acts)
- July 1981, Stars On: Stars on 45 Medley 2 (#67) (The Beatles)
- September 1981, Stars On: More Stars (#55) (Motown)
- March 1982, Stars On: Stars on 45 III: A Tribute to Stevie Wonder (#28) (Stevie Wonder)
- June 1982, Stars On: Stars on 45 III: Rollin' Stars (-) (The Rolling Stones)
Albums
1981
- Stars On 45: Long Play Album (The Netherlands #7, March 1981)
- UK title: Starsound: Stars on 45 - The Album (UK #1, May 1981)
- U.S. title: Stars On: Stars On Long Play (U.S. #9)
1981
- Stars On 45: Longplay Album - Volume II (The Netherlands #4, August 1981)
- UK title: Starsound: Stars on 45 - The Album - Volume 2 (UK #18, September 1981)
- U.S. title: Stars On: Stars On Long Play II
1982
- Stars On 45: The Superstars (The Netherlands, March 1982)
- UK title: Starsound: Stars Medley (UK #94, April 1982)
- U.S. title: Stars On: Stars On Long Play III
1987
1991
- Stars On 45: The Very Best of Stars On 45 (The Netherlands #36, August 1991)
1997
- Stars On 45: The Club Hits (Germany, November 1997)
Sources and external links
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