Here are a couple more "space disco" album covers, beginning with another sci-fi themes compilation from
Geoff Love And His Orchestra, sporting cover art that exhibits some interestingly off-model (or simply "cleverly disguised")
Space: 1970 icons....
... and, then we have
this:
Bang Bang Robot's (I love that name!) rip-off of
Meco's smash-hit
Star Wars disco medley. To be honest, I actually listen to this album every once in a while, and used one of its non-
Wars tracks as the theme to my first - and to date,
only -
Space: 1970 podcast. If the cover art is to be trusted, this edition seems to have actually been at least somewhat authorized, with an actual photo of R2-D2 and the real
Star Wars logo, and a release by the 20th Century Records label.
"Cleverly disguised" might be a bit too charitable a description of what they did to the USS Enterprise.
ReplyDeleteYou will note that I placed "cleverly disguised" in quotes...
DeleteI collect just about every version of the Star Wars theme I can. Any chance you could post that bottom album somewhere?
ReplyDeleteI'm not set up to do that, I'm afraid, Dex. You might hunt around for odd music sharities sites, although there don't seem to be many of those left.
DeleteI'm assuming some kind of copyright infringement came in to play here, because those illustrations on the Geoff Love album are hilarious. Luke and Leia both look about 50 and is that Angie Dickinson playing Barbarella?
ReplyDeleteApparently, in that reality Luke Skywalker was played by Doug McClure.
DeleteiTunes has Geoff Love´s "STar Wars and other Space Themes".
ReplyDeleteI loved that Geoff Love album, played it to death....
ReplyDeleteAt least the Police Call Box is not copywriten material.
ReplyDeleteI had that Geoff Love album when I was a kid lol
ReplyDeleteThere is at least one video on YouTube of someone playing this record of the Doctor Who theme.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFOkMoLI-PU is the Geoff Love Doctor Who theme straight up without the video of the record playing. It is... puzzling. Disco with french horns at one point.
I'm probably going the spend the entire rest of the day listening to Geoff Love stuff from YouTube. Holy kerschmoly the 70s really just didn't know what to do with itself when it came to music, which is why this is so wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI had a copy of this as a kid,I used to wonder what the story was about the cover lack of research or lack of copyright??
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, the Star Wars theme variations I listend to were by Alan Tew, Patrick Gleeson, and Isao Tomita - of which the latter is the only version I've been able to buy on CD, and it isw missing the "spinning plate" sound at the end of track 1. The Gleeson and Tomita cover illustrations are awesome.
ReplyDeleteYou can listen to the Geoff Love album for free on Spotify.
ReplyDeleteI've heard previous disco covers of SW and other scifi faves, though I've never heard of Geoff Love in particular. Thanks to this Space: 1970 post, and YouTube, I've given Mr. Love a thorough listening to. Fun stuff. Now I need to find some bell bottoms and platform shoes.
ReplyDeleteps: it appears they used Dennis Quaid as the model for Luke Skywalker on the cover!
Always loved this Geoff Love cover. Hilarious and at the same time pretty awesome. Love the Eagle in the background. It's actually available for purchase as a remastered digital download from Amazon. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe Bang Bang Robot cover of Meco's version is fantastic - their 15 minute version is very close to the real Meco version. Very well performed.
I didn't realize that Chris MacDonald and Jeannie Riley played Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.
ReplyDeletescifihorrorfantasy.wordpress.com/
Wait. There was a Space: 1970 podcast? And you didn't post a link?
ReplyDeleteHas anyone ever disco-ized the Six Million Dollar Man theme? A cursory online search revealed nothing.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Geoff Love (again) had a fairly disco-fied version of the Six Million Dollar man theme on his 1979 "Themes For Super-Heroes" album.
DeleteThanks, I'll have to track that down.
ReplyDeleteThere's also an awesome version of the Six Million Dollar Man theme on the album "Theme from Star Wars" by "Wonderland Space Shuttle" from 1977 - which also includes many other fantastic tracks, like a truly amazing original disco version of "Star Wars" you just have to hear, nothing like Meco's version. Also has some other great tracks like 2001:Also Sprach Zarathustra, The Bionic Woman, Star Trek, and others. Well worth seeking out. It was actually performed by Jeff Wayne of the musical version "War of the Worlds", which I also highly recommend.
ReplyDeleteOf all the Meco Star Wars soundalikes, the Bang Bang Robot version is my fave. It's definitely a close copy of Meco's arrangement, right down to the sound effects--and just like in the original Meco version, they're studio-produced immitations of Star Wars sound effects, which is kinda strange considering this was a "legit" release on Fox's own record label (you'd think they would've been able to use the real thing).
ReplyDeleteAnon - Must have been a reissue and update of the Star Trek/Planet of the Apes LP by "the Jeff Wayne Space Shuttle" on Wonderland Records. (Which I had and still do.) That one had the Star Trek theme, several pieces from/inspired by PotA, a seriously dramatic rendition of the Batman theme, and a vocal Superman theme that was apparently intended for another record! (Along with a couple of nicely spacey pieces that didn't come from TV shows or movies.)
ReplyDeleteDon, exactly! I've heard the Star Trek/Planet of the Apes album actually. The Star Wars album by Wonderland actually has that same Star Trek theme and Superman vocal theme.
ReplyDelete