Stars On 45 – part II 70′s & 80′s

Stars On 45

The story of Starsound, who started the medley craze in 1981, began two years earlier in a disco in Montreal, where one of the resident DJs was Michel Gendreau. Into his club walked Michel Ali, who had with him a tape created from a bootleg white-label recording originating in Holland of a medley of Beatles songs called “Lets Do It in the 80s Great Hits” and credited to an unknown group named Passion. The record used excerpts from the original Beatles records as well as snippets from the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar,” Shocking Blue’s “Venus,” and the introduction to the Buggles’ major hit “Video Killed the Radio Star.” The bootleg was poor quality, the tape contained more noise than music, and it was badly produced, but Gendreau believed it was a good idea, although he was reluctant to play it at peak time. This was the very late ’70s and disco had been king of the dancefloor for several years, with new tracks created by the Bee Gees, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, and a host of new producers with new groups and singers. The last thing the disco-going clientele wanted was a series of Beatles and other 1960s material.

Ali began working with sound engineer Paul Richer to create a cleaner version of “Let’s Do It in the 80s Great Hits,” and in order to satisfy Gendreau’s fears about oldies, they added some recent hits, including “Funky Town” by Lipps, Inc. and “Working My Way Back to You” by the Detroit Spinners. By starting with current hits, then introducing the Beatles tracks, the dancefloor would not empty as was feared, but the dancing would continue as the 1960s hits were set to the same definable beat as the current hits. One of the 1960s hits used was “Venus” by Shocking Blue, the copyright of which was owned by a Dutch record company, Red Bullet Records, and when this was brought to the attention of its manager back in Holland, Freddy Haayen, who, although incensed that his track was part of the medley, realized the potential commercial viability of the medley idea and instead of contacting his lawyers, he contacted record producer Jaap Eggermont, formerly of the band Golden Earring, and asked him whether it would be possible to create a legal version. Eggermont knew enough about copyright to realize that it would be a futile exercise to approach the original rights holders, so he brought together a group of session singers to re-record the vocals as close as possible to the originals, using Bas Muys from the Dutch group Smyle as the voice of John Lennon, Hans Vermeulen from Sandy Coast as George Harrison, and Okkie Huysdens as Paul McCartney. The tracks that had been used on “Let’s Do It in the 80s Great Hits” and the recut version — “Sugar Sugar,” “Venus,” “Funky Town,” and “Video Killed the Radio Star” — were also retained, and a linking piece was written to introduce the song with the tag line “The Stars on 45 keep on turning in your mind,” sung by Jody Pijper to a pumping disco beat that continued throughout the medley.

Stars On 45 – part.II 70′s & 80′s

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1 – (00:00)
2 – Stars On 45
3 – (00:41) Papa Was A Rolling Stone – Temptations
4 – (01:46) Dance To The Music – Sly & The Family Stone
5 – (02:10) Sugar Baby Love – The Rubettes
6 – (02:25) Papa Was A Rolling Stone – Temptations
7 – (02:53) Let’s Go to San Francisco – The Flower Pot Men
8 – (03:00) A Horse With No Name – America
9 – (03:18) Monday Monday – The Mamas & The Papas
10- (03:34) If You Go To San Francisco – Scott Mc Kenzie
11- (03:50) California Dreaming – The mamas And The Papas
12- (04:23) Eve of Destruction – Barry McGwire
13- (04:56) Tears of a Clown – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
14- (05:12) Stop In The Name Of Love – Supremes
15- (05:27) Cracklin Rose – Neil Diamond
16- (05:43) Doo Wa Diddy – Manfred Mann
17- (05:59) Lover’s Concerto – The Toys
18- (06:15) Reach Out I’ll Be There – The Four Tops
19- (06:29) The Sound Of Silence – Simon And Garfunkel
20- (07:00) Stars On 45
21- (07:20) Voulez Vous – Abba
22- (07:56) S.O.S – Abba
23- (08:18) Bang A Boomerang – Abba
24- (08:33) Money, Money, Money – Abba
25- (09:03) Knowing Me, Knowing You – Abba
26- (09:30) Fernando – Abba
27- (09:50) The Winner Takes It All – Abba

Studio 54 is a New York City Broadway theater and former discotheque located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. The disco opened on April 26, 1977 and closed in March 1986 and briefly reopened in 1994 after a multi-million dollar renovation. Since 1998 it has been a venue for the Roundabout Theatre Company, with a 900 seat theatre equipped with two full service bars.

Stars On 45 – part.II 70′s & 80′s