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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 04 August 2008 at 9:05pm | IP Logged
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The actual commercial 45 run time of Stars on 45's "Stars on 45 III" is 4:45, not 4:40 as stated on the record label. (This timing info is provided to us by abagon.)
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Roscoe
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This is another one of those extremely elusive tracks to find on CD. The 45 version contains a unique segue between "Superstition" and "Fingertips" that does not appear on the LP version, meaning that the 45 cannot be recreated from the LP version (which can be found on several import "Best Of Stars on 45" CDs).
The 45 version was issued on a rare domestic CD from 1991 called "Keep On Dancing", which also contained a great sounding version of the original "Stars On 45" medley as well as the only known CD issue of the 45 version of "Hooked On Swing". However, the mastering of the Stevie Wonder medley on that CD is so bad that it's not worth hunting down for that track alone. It sounds like it was mastered from a tape many, many generations removed from the original master.
The original 45 of the "Stars On 45 III" also sounds pretty bad...a strangely muffled, midrangey sound.
It would be great if one of the reissue labels would release the 3 "Stars On Long Play" albums in their entirety, with the 45 versions as bonus tracks. Unlikely to happen, though.
Edited by Roscoe on 04 August 2008 at 9:39pm
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bwolfe
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The whole vinyl album sounded flat.
You're probably correct in saying that they'll never be available on disc.
The first Stars On 45 was quite a sensation, but didn't hold up through the Abba Medley on the second album.
But I think they were still huge hits in foreign countries.
The medley craze lasted maybe two years?
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Roscoe
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bwolfe wrote:
The whole vinyl album sounded flat.
You're probably correct in saying that they'll never be available on disc.
The first Stars On 45 was quite a sensation, but didn't hold up through the Abba Medley on the second album.
But I think they were still huge hits in foreign countries.
The medley craze lasted maybe two years? |
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Yes, the medley craze was one of the more unusual musial fads to come along. It started in the spring of 1981 with the first "Stars On 45" medley, then carried through the fall of that year with the Beach Boys Medley and Hooked On Classics. There were a number of medleys that summer & fall that missed the top 40 but did hit the Hot 100 ("Seasons Of Gold" by Gidea Park, "Medley II" by Stars On 45, "Back To The Sixties" by Tight Fit).
The fad was already on the decline by the spring of 1982, with only the Beatles Movie Medley cracking the top 20.
Another medley track that has never been issued on CD is Meco's "Pop Goes The Movies", which reached the top 30 in the spring of 1982.
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AndrewChouffi
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Actually, Roscoe, the medley craze started in 1980 with the bootleg "Bits And Pieces" which was a HUGE unreported club hit.
"Bits And Pieces" was pretty much identical to the "Stars On 45 Medley" except it used the ACTUAL Beatles hits with a four-on-the-floor disco backbeat dubbed in (it even started off with the actual "Venus" riff).
Because one can't really copyright a musical concept or production the Dutchmen of "Stars On 45" 'stole' the idea and re-recorded it legitimately and had a multi-national smash with it.
The creators of "Bits And Pieces" couldn't litigate the theft-of-concept anyway because they would only get sued by Apple Corps, et al, if they were exposed.
Andy
Edited by AndrewChouffi on 05 August 2008 at 8:32am
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Steve Sharp
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The bootleg Andy reports on was WIDELY available on vinyl 12". Mine is title "Let's Do It", but I had also seen it called "Bits And Pieces". It was a surprisingly high quality pressing and production for a bootleg. A few clarifications and additions, if I may.
Yes, the original Stars On 45 12" is a cover version of this bootleg, after the music publishers of "Venus" couldn't track down and stop the bootleg. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." The bootleg starts with a ton of unrelated (mostly disco) songs (all the original songs), linked together by a continuously looped backbeat from "Nanu Nanu" by Daddy Dewdrop (TK 12" single), as it was probably more practical to loop on a reel than using the new technology of the drum machine. If you listen to the original Stars On 45 long version, you can hear Dutch session singers really butchering the word "Funkytown". Towards the end of this 10 minute medley, the songs turned to exclusively Beatles songs. The only original thing on this initial Stars on 45 medley is the Stars on 45 "Theme Song", which was inserted between some of the songs used.
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Roscoe
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Steve Sharp wrote:
| If you listen to the original Stars On 45 long version, you can hear Dutch session singers really butchering the word "Funkytown". |
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Yes, the Dutch accents marred some of the recreation attempts. On the Beatles tracks, the John Lennon imitator actually sounds a lot like Lennon in terms of timber, but his Dutch accent is painfully obvious on some snippets. And that female singer on the "Stars On 45" refrain is unintentionally humorous: "You can BOO-gie, love DEES-co..." I think she's the same one that does the Lipps, Inc. impersonation.
Edited by Roscoe on 05 August 2008 at 10:28am
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Hykker
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bwolfe wrote:
The medley craze lasted maybe two years? |
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If that, I'd say not much over a year. The one exception was Jive Bunny's "Swing The Mood" released in the late 80s/early 90s.
Some were a bit of a stretch. I have a CCR medley that is just awful. If you listen to the actual lyrics used, it's kind of a musical biography of the band, but the segues are very abrupt.
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80smusicfreak
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bwolfe wrote:
| The medley craze lasted maybe two years? |
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Roscoe wrote:
Yes, the medley craze was one of the more unusual musial fads to come along. It started in the spring of 1981 with the first "Stars On 45" medley, then carried through the fall of that year with the Beach Boys Medley and Hooked On Classics. There were a number of medleys that summer & fall that missed the top 40 but did hit the Hot 100 ("Seasons Of Gold" by Gidea Park, "Medley II" by Stars On 45, "Back To The Sixties" by Tight Fit).
The fad was already on the decline by the spring of 1982, with only the Beatles Movie Medley cracking the top 20.
Another medley track that has never been issued on CD is Meco's "Pop Goes The Movies", which reached the top 30 in the spring of 1982. |
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My, how quickly we forget. (Okay, maybe it HAS been a quarter-century - yes, I'm stuck in the '80s, lol.) Although it faded as time went by, if you cite the debut of the Stars on 45 hit in April of '81 as the launching point, it's safe to say that the "medley craze" lasted almost four years, extending to late '84...
While they all missed the pop top 40, later U.S. chart examples yet to be mentioned:
1) August of '82: "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing/You're All I Need to Get By" (both originally hit duets for Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell) by Chris Christian w/ Amy Holland reaches #88 pop in "Billboard", but misses in "Cash Box"...
2) December of '82: Elvis Presley's "The Elvis Medley" (his own hits) makes #71 pop in both "Billboard" & "Cash Box"...
3) September of '83: "Do it Again/Billie Jean" (Steely Dan/Michael Jackson songs, respectively) is a hit for not one, but TWO acts: Club House (#75 pop/#61 r&b in "Billboard"; #76 pop in "Cash Box") as well as Slingshot (misses top 100 in both "Billboard" & "Cash Box", but DOES go all the way to #1 on the dance chart in "Billboard", as well as #25 r&b). I have both on CD; I prefer Slingshot's version myself...
4) May of '84: Luther Vandross strikes w/ "Superstar/Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" (Carpenters/Aretha Franklin hits, respectively), making #87 pop & #5 r&b in "Billboard", but fails to make the pop chart in "Cash Box". (He'd also had another minor medley hit in '82 w/ "Bad Boy/Having a Party"...)
5) November of '84: Band of Gold's "Medley: Love Songs are Back Again" (long string of '70s r&b crossover hits) climbs to #64 pop & #62 r&b in "Billboard", as well as #70 pop in "Cash Box". Like Stars on 45, this group also consisted of Dutch vocalists & musicians. I have the cassette maxi-single myself. (Yes, you read that right - RCA did issue this one on cassette here in the U.S. simultaneously w/ the 12" vinyl in 1984!) I've never searched for this one on CD (domestic or import), but I'm fairly certain it's never appeared on a U.S. CD, anyway...
After that, things dried up - there were NO "medley" pop hits in 1985, and although I didn't research things beyond that, to the best of my recollection, there were no others until Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers' "Swing the Mood" in January of 1990, as Hykker mentioned...
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Roscoe
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80smusicfreak wrote:
2) December of '82: Elvis Presley's "The Elvis Medley" (his own hits) makes #71 pop in both "Billboard" & "Cash Box"...
3) September of '83: "Do it Again/Billie Jean" (Steely Dan/Michael Jackson songs, respectively) is a hit for not one, but TWO acts: Club House (#75 pop/#61 r&b in "Billboard"; #76 pop in "Cash Box") as well as Slingshot (misses top 100 in both "Billboard" & "Cash Box", but DOES go all the way to #1 on the dance chart in "Billboard", as well as #25 r&b). I have both on CD; I prefer Slingshot's version myself...
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"The Elvis Medley" was one that someone put some real work into. It used original Elvis tracks, but substantial instrumentation was added. This one probably would have been a bigger hit had it been released at the height of "Stars on 45" mania.
I forgot about those "Do It Again/Billie Jean" medleys. Truly bizarre...who would have thought the world needed not one, but two, dance medleys of "Do It Again" and "Billie Jean". The long version of the Slingshot track is on the Billboard Top Dance Hits 1983 CD, but I have never seen the Clubhouse version on CD. Where did you find that one?
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80smusicfreak
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Roscoe wrote:
| "The Elvis Medley" was one that someone put some real work into. It used original Elvis tracks, but substantial instrumentation was added. This one probably would have been a bigger hit had it been released at the height of "Stars on 45" mania. |
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I honestly don't remember that one; I don't believe I ever heard it on the radio, and have never owned the song in any format. (But then again, I'm far from Elvis' #1 fan.) You're probably right about why it didn't do better...
Quote:
| I forgot about those "Do It Again/Billie Jean" medleys. Truly bizarre...who would have thought the world needed not one, but two, dance medleys of "Do It Again" and "Billie Jean". The long version of the Slingshot track is on the Billboard Top Dance Hits 1983 CD... |
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Yep, that's the same one that I have it on. Was two versions redundant??? Perhaps, but I like 'em both... :-)
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| ...I have never seen the Clubhouse version on CD. Where did you find that one? |
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Just got it recently through eBay. It's a 2-CD import from Asia (Taiwan???) by Various Artists titled "Euro Dance, Vol. 2: 10 Years Greatest Hits", on Alpha/Beaver Music 35CD-68202. (I don't see a date on it, but it appears to be from the last 10 years.) Club House's version of "Do it Again/Billie Jean" runs (6:24) on it. The collection also includes some other hard-to-find-on-CD '80s faves of mine such as "Don Quichotte" by Magazine 60, "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)" by Paul Lekakis, and "Thief of Hearts" by Melissa Manchester...
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bwolfe
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Did the Pet Shop Boys' medley of "Where the Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off You" chart?
I believe that one was released in the early 90's.
A strange medley indeed.
I saw a mention of the CCR medley.
Wasn't there an uncharted Motown medley too?
One of the real Motown songs not the Stars on 45 variety.
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Todd Ireland
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Actually, bwolfe, you may be thinking of Shalamar's "Uptown Festival (Part 1)", a #25 Billboard hit from the spring of 1977 which features a medley of various Motown hits. One could even argue this record may have set the stage for the medley craze to come in the early '80s. Incidentally, according to Joel Whitburn in the 7th edition of The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, "Uptown Festival" was recorded by anonymous session singers prior to the formation of the actual group.
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Paul Haney
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bwolfe wrote:
Did the Pet Shop Boys' medley of "Where the Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off You" chart?
I believe that one was released in the early 90's.
A strange medley indeed. |
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The Pet Shop Boys peaked at #72 on the Hot 100 in 1991.
There was also a Diana Ross & The Supremes medley that peaked at #46 on the Dance Club Play chart in March of 1980, a year before Stars On 45 hit.
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Roscoe
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bwolfe wrote:
Wasn't there an uncharted Motown medley too?
One of the real Motown songs not the Stars on 45 variety. |
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Motown released an album in conjunction with the 25th anniversary TV special, called something like "Artists & Songs that Inspired the Motown 25th Anniversary Special: The Incredible Medleys". This album consisted of medleys of Martha & The Vandellas, Gladys Knight, Four Tops, Supremes and The Jackson 5, using the original tracks but with new percussion added. It also contained the live performance of the Four Tops/Temptations medley from the TV special.
Around this time, Motown also released a "Stars on 45"-type album called "Strung Out On Motown", but that one used studio players and singers.
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JMD1961
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"The Elvis Medley" didn't make the top 40 on the pop charts, but did make it to #31 on Billboard's country chart.
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Santi Paradoa
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JMD1961 wrote:
| "The Elvis Medley" didn't make the top 40 on the pop charts, but did make it to #31 on Billboard's country chart. |
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Has the "Elvis Medley" ever been released on CD?
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MMathews
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Re: Elvis Medley....
I've yet to hear of a CD release anywhere. Anyone?
Re: Start of the medley craze...it is tough to nail it
down to one particular thing. Yup, Shalamar's "Uptown
Festival" was early, as was Ritchie Family's "Best Disco
In Town" (which one might note that original album
featured no song-writing credits for any of the oldies
contained in it.
For me, the birth of the whole thing in the 80's started
with the 1979 Disconet-produced "Supremes Medley Of
Hits"...which was a #1 Hot-Dance/Club hit. Due to its
success, Motown released it to the public, and ran with
it, creating all the other medleys for the above
mentioned 25th anniversary LP.
And yes, the "Bits & Pieces II" boot medley was created
by a DJ in Europe. It was a major club smash, but for
obvious licensing issues, could only remain a bootleg.
I remember reading on one of the copies of Stars on 45
that they based it on "Bits & Pieces II"....exactly
right, to cash in on the club success of the boot. Why
not? They could put a product in the store for the
average consumer that was "discoing-down" the night
before!
Oh, and thanks Steve, i never knew the back-beat was
lifted from a Daddy Dewdrop record. Cool.
Only bummer is that U.S. copyright, mechanical licensing,
and re-issue rules now make releasing medleys in the US
almost impossible. (did i mention greed? i was thinking
it...)
Anyway there only a few work-arounds, such as music club
cd's. They can get around the licensing/royalty hell by
issuing them under club rules. Music clubs pay only
partial royalties, and NONE at all for any bonus
albums/CD's "given" away, or on sale. That's why the ONLY
US CD with Stars On 45 is a BMG music club CD. (Thanks to
Pat for identifying it was record club release.)
The only copies sold that the artist gets any royalty
(usually half) are ones sold at full price.
Those rules were set way back in the 60's by Columbia
House, making the argument that they are adding sales to
an audience that doesn't shop in record stores
anyway....or so i read.
-MM
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Fetta
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There is one Medley that doesn't seemed to be mentioned that I think came even before the Supremes Medley. In 1977, a bootleg "Trammps Medley" was released. It was released via Sunshine Studios (they may have all been acetates but I am not sure). This was mixed by DJ Worm as stated on the label.
It is my understanding that in response to the bootleg, Atlantic released an official Trammps medley.
I own both, and in my opinion, the Bootleg is way better than the official release. Even though "Disco Inferno" was their biggest commercial success, they had so many great disco classics and most can be heard on the Medley.
Edited by Fetta on 27 August 2011 at 6:47am
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Loveland
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"Stars On Stevie" (worldwide release) aka "Stars On 45 III: A Tribute To Stevie Wonder" in North America.
The 'Original Single Edit' (as released outside of North America) clocks at 5:18 and has been released on CD exactly one time: A Dutch VA compilation called "100 Superhits From The 80s", from 1998:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-100-Superhits-From-The-80s/r elease/616610
Todd Ireland wrote:
| The actual commercial 45 run time of Stars on 45's "Stars on 45 III" is 4:45, not 4:40 as stated on the record label. (This timing info is provided to us by abagon.) |
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That is incorrect. The correct artist name is 'Stars On'. While Stars On 45 debut single was released in North America under the artist name of 'Stars On 45', every release thereafter came under the artist name of 'Stars On', including this single.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8cq2leNyZ8
The original bootleg, "Let's Do It In The 80's Great Hits", originated in The Netherlands and was attributed to a fake group, "Passion". The Bit & Pieces bootleg is not the original but merely a Canadian pressing of the Dutch bootleg:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Lets-Do-It-In-The-80s-Great- Hits/release/214092
MMathews wrote:
Re: Elvis Medley....
I've yet to hear of a CD release anywhere. Anyone?
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Yes, this is the ONLY place to find it:
https://www.discogs.com/Elvis-Presley-King-Of-The-Whole-Wide -World-Collectors-Box-Set/release/10061585
Or rather, this U.S. box set includes the 1994 Mexican CD.
Edited by Loveland on 13 October 2019 at 3:55pm
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Topic: "Stars on 45 III" - Stars on 45
