"Stars on 45 III" - Stars on 45

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.)

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?

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

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".

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

bwolfe wrote: The medley craze lasted maybe two years?

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.

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...