Do you ever start a project, and wonder why you started it? Do you ever start a project, and wonder if it will ever end? After many, many hours of work, and a four month delay, we are pleased to reveal this new project, at last.
The question was this: How many vintage covers of the Star Wars theme exist? The song was everywhere in the late 1970's, and it seems like everybody had a go at it. The subject is covered in various books and articles, although they all seem to include different material in their lists. Like our earlier project of Star Wars rip-off songs, I wanted to stay in the original era, and go no further than the first sequel. As it turns out, the answer was "a whole lot;" in fact, about 268 minutes' worth, and 5 discs!
Thinking back, when I was a young kid, it always irritated me when I obtained a record with a cover version of a song, and the cover didn't sound exactly like the original song (which is what I was after in the first place, no doubt). I now know this was simply musical immaturity, but it makes me laugh to think about, because I later learned that a well-done cover is one where the artist puts something of themselves into it, and translates it somehow into a new-ish sort of thing. And, that is the case with the best of the tracks here...why would you want to listen to bands parroting John Williams' original theme note for note, more than 50 times?
This is a good place to explain that covers of the Star Wars theme fall into three categories. First, we have general interpretations of the theme, which are all over the map in styles (which makes for a fun listen). These tracks are contained in Discs 1 & 2. Secondly, we have what I have jokingly referred to as "Boring Orchestral Covers and Suites," because that's what they are (see above comment about listening to copies of the original track 50+ times). Luckily, these tracks only take up one disc, which is Disc 3. Lastly, we shouldn't underestimate the phenomenon that was Meco and his disco interpretation of the John Williams score, because he spawned myriads of covers himself...so many, in fact, that they take up the entirety of Discs 4 & 5! And it probably goes without saying, but lots of these tracks were specific to individual countries, and have never been re-released since their original vinyl outings, with no signs of that ever changing.
So is this collection complete? Far as I know. Are there more, somewhere? Could be. I'm always amazed at how the amount of vintage media, which should be quite finite, continues to grow...which, is pretty much a paradox.
Here are the first two discs, which give you thirty tracks displaying the original theme in just about every way it can be done. It's really not like listening to the same song over and over, and if you agree, then it means this was a successful project...that I barely lived through!
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