More Space Disco Album Art

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.

Meco's STAR TREK/THE BLACK HOLE Disco Album Art

Just for fun, here's the striking album art for Meco Monardo's 1980 album, Music From Star Trek/Music From The Black Hole - his attempt to recapture the success that his Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk album had a few years before.

Unfortunately, the Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry scores for these films didn't quite lend themselves to disco-ization quite as easily as John Williams' sweeping Star Wars music - though, to be honest, I do rather enjoy Meco's "Star Trek Medley."

"Stand by for warp drive in ten seconds..."

I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper (1978)

I've often written about how 70s sci-fi and disco music are intertwined in my mind thanks to artists like Meco, Giorgio Moroder and Geoff Love and their dance arrangements of film and TV scores by John Williams, Stu Phillips, Jerry Goldsmith and others. Most successful of these, of course, was Meco's Star Wars & Other Galactic Funk LP which became a huge club and radio hit.

There was more to the sci-fi/disco connection than just re-arranged movie themes, though. In England in 1978, the disco dance troupe Hot Gossip recorded and released their only bona fide hit, I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper, with lead vocals by future West End/Broadway star Sarah Brightman.

An anonymous Star Kid sent me the link to this YouTube video today, and rather than bury it in the comments section of an unrelated post, I thought I'd embed the video here as its own blog entry - mostly because I really like this song and wanted to be able to find it quickly myself. Enjoy!

Disco Space!

Another disco album inspired by John Williams' Star Wars themes and melodies, this one by "Blue Galaxy & his Orchestra." I'm posting this mostly because I like the album art - and the misspelling of "Star Treck" - or is that how it's spelled in France...?

Disco Dance Party Monday

Laziest - and booty shaking-ist - Space: 1970 post ever.

Tripping The (Star)Light Fantastic

Let's face it: thanks to Meco Monardo, and his popular dance arrangements of John Williams' epic Star Wars themes, the science fiction of the late Seventies will always go hand-in-hand with disco music.

While that's a bitter pill for a lot of fans to swallow (I know one second-generation Star Wars fan who flat-out refused to acknowledge the existence of the Meco record), the fact is, I don't mind. I like disco, always have. And while I wouldn't want a steady musical diet of its thumping, mechanical bass line, neither do I object to the stuff in small doses. It's cheerful, and fun, and helps me remember my childhood.

I received the original Meco Star Wars And Other Galactic Funk LP as a birthday gift back in the day (still love that cover art!), and also picked up The Empire Strikes Back 45 RPM single a few years later. I vaguely recall having a couple of other disco "sci-fi" compilations on record and cassette over the years, too.

One I didn't own then was Geoff Love's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Other Galactic Disco Themes. However, I recently stumbled upon a download of the album, and I can't seem to stop listening to it.

Aside from the CE3K theme, it also features a very catchy arrangement of the Logan's Run TV show theme, a couple of Star Wars themes, Blake's 7 (I really need to see some of those some day), The Omega Man (!) and couple of originals. Love and his orchestra recorded lots of TV and movie theme compilations, and many of them are quite good, but this one is my current favorite.

If you're interested, you can download it here.

Oh, and yeah - that is a Darth Vader disco ball.

Disclaimer: These links aren't mine, I didn't upload the albums, and take no responsibility for 'em. I'm just posting the links for informational purposes.