Stars On 45 - Other Similar Acts

Other Similar Acts

The commercial success of the first "Stars On 45" single started a medley craze in the years of 1981, 1982 and 1983, with a multitude of similar, more or less anonymous studio productions being released by both minor and major record labels in both Continental Europe and the U.K., such as Hits On 45 with "Disco Beatles", Disco On 33 with "28 Hits of the Superstars", Disco Dancing On 33 with "Disco Dancing On 33", Magazine 60 with "Magazine 60", Intro Disco with "Intro Disco", Startrax with their Bee Gees medley "Startrax Club Disco", Tight Fit with "Back to the 60's Vol. 1" and "Back to the 60's Vol. 2", Enigma with "Ain't No Stopping - Disco Mix '81" and "I Love Music - Disco Special", Gidea Park with "Beach Boy Gold" and their Four Seasons medley "Seasons of Gold" (UK peak #23, US peak #82), Lobo with his Harry Belafonte medley "The Caribbean Disco Show", Band of Gold with "Love Songs Are Back Again" and "Love Songs Are Forever", Paul Giggs and his "Guitar Collection", Rock Heroes with their Rod Stewart medley "Rock Heroes Vol. 1", Motor City Allstars with "A Tribute To Motown", Trini Tunes and their "Trini Lopez Hit Medley", Super Rock Stars Live with "Super Rock Stars Live" etc.; all with varying degrees of chart success - and likeness to the original recordings.

The non-stop disco medley format was by no means a new phenomenon, however; in 1976, the Ritchie Family had scored their biggest U.S. hit with a similar medley named "The Best Disco in Town." This had incorporated various pop hits of the day, such as Silver Convention's "Fly, Robin, Fly" and Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby," recreated in an order, and segued by the title theme.

Almost a year before the release of the "Stars On 45", a similar medley was produced by three South Florida men by taking the original Beatles recordings, editing them into a sequence, and then overdubbing identical drum and bass parts. While never receiving any airplay (obviously for rights/use and clearance issues), the master was purchased by a New York disco label.

Shortly after Stars On 45's recording of their "Supremes Medley" which was included on their second album Longplay Album - Volume II, Motown Records re-issued their "The Supremes Medley" a.k.a. "The Diana Ross & The Supremes Medley of Hits" worldwide. The medley had first been recorded and released in the U.S. in 1977 both as a 12" single (- 10:06) and an edited 7" version ( - 5:09) and featured the original Supremes recordings of "Stop! In The Name of Love", "Back In My Arms Again", "Come See About Me", "Love Is Like An Itching In My Meart", "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Baby Love" strung together with a newly recorded disco accompaniment. The medley has since been re-issued on certain CD hits compilations with Diana Ross and The Supremes such as the 2003 Deluxe Edition of Ross' 1980 album "diana".

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recorded several albums as well as singles called Hooked on Classics, the first of which was released in 1981, while Larry Elgart and his Manhattan Swing Orchestra recorded a series of Hooked on Swing tracks. The single, "Hooked On Classics," peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Larry Elgart & His Manhattan Swing Orchestra peaked at #32 with "Hooked On Swing". Hooked on Classics was subsequently parodied by the Portsmouth Sinfonia as Classical Muddly.

The rock band Squeeze recorded a medley of their own classic hits, calling it "Squabs on Forty Fab", and releasing it as the B-side to their 1981 single "Labelled With Love."

For their 1981 release, "Christmas Jamboree Bag", the Cockney musical act Chas & Dave recorded a medley parodying the "Stars on 45" format. Entitled "Stars Over 45", the song featured a selection of traditional London songs.

British punk band Tenpole Tudor also parodied the concept with "Tenpole 45", the B-side of their 1981 single "Wunderbar".

Also in 1981, American comedians Stevens & Grdnic released "Commercials on 45", which was a compilation of that duo's parodies of commercials set to music.

In late 1981 Germany-based Caribbean disco band Boney M. released a Stars on 45 type medley under the title "6 Years of Boney M. Hits - Boney M. on 45" featuring some twenty of their best-known recordings. The medley, ranging in length from five to thirteen minutes depending on the format, was issued both as an A- and B-side 7" and 12" single in certain territories to promote their albums Boonoonoonoos and Christmas Album. Five years later producer Frank Farian took the megamix format one step further and released a full-length album called The Best of 10 Years - 32 Superhits.

In the spring of 1982, the Beatles hit the charts with their own medley. They peaked at #10 in the UK sales charts and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "The Beatles Movie Medley," highlighting their hits from the various motion pictures they appeared in throughout their popularity. "The Beatles Movie Medley" remains the only Beatles single not released on CD.

In 1981, The Beach Boys had their own minor hit with "The Beach Boys Medley," peaking at #12 on the U.S. Hot 100 chart. Capitol Records' incentive to produce and release this medley came from the attention a South Florida man was receiving with his own self-produced and self-performed medley. Chuck Kirkpatrick, a former Capitol artist himself (under the name "Chuck Crane") had actually presented his idea to the Capitol staff months before the release of their own. Capitol's response was to say, "If we were interested in something like this, we'd simply use the masters we already own." This was exactly what the label subsequently did; two months later, Kirkpatrick's meticulously crafted nine-minute medley, with three tempo changes, was getting heavy airplay in South Florida, and Kirkpatrick was appearing on several television shows including a national segment of PM Magazine. Capitol's release subsequently blew Kirkpatrick's out of the water, but it is interesting to note the similarity of sequencing and songs chosen by Capitol for their medley compared to Kirkpatrick's.

Also in 1981, The Hollies released their own hit medley "Holliedaze", which became their first UK Top 30 entry since 1974.

"Weird Al" Yankovic's 1984 song "Polkas on 45" parodies the Stars on 45 format, except that the entire song is done in the style of a polka. "Polkas on 45" was included in Weird Al's second album, and with the exception of Even Worse and Alapalooza (the latter of which has a polka version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" rather than a medley), a similar polka compilation has been included in each of his albums since.

The year 1985 saw the release of an album titled Stars on 45 - Soul Revue and a single called "The Sam & Dave Medley" credited to 'Stars on 45 featuring Sam & Dave', and even with the Stars on 45 logo on the album cover. While the album indeed was recorded in Holland, it was neither produced by Jaap Eggermont nor did it feature the original formation of the duo but David Prater and his new singing partner Sam Daniels. Original member Sam Moore made Atlantic Records - the parent label to the 'real' Stars on 45's US label Radio Records - recall both the single and the album for using the "Sam & Dave" name without permission, and the records were later re-labelled and re-issued as being by 'The New Sam & Dave Revue'.

In the early 1980s, Ivor Biggun released "Bras on 45" (a.k.a. "Bra Size 45"), a novelty song about a woman with large breasts, which was very close to sounding like a Stars-on-45-style medley of recognizable songs, including Gary Numan's "Cars" and Ian Dury's "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick".

The Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice also recorded a Stars on 45-like medley of their earliest singles called "Blokes on 45" for John Peel's BBC show. It was released on The Glasgow School in 2005, a compilation of their early work recorded for Postcard Records.

A Stars On 45-style medley of British pop group Girls Aloud's singles, entitled "Girls On 45", was released in 2009 as the b-side of their single "The Loving Kind". The seven minute long mix features the intro and outro of the original Stars On 45 medleys and was created by Jewels & Stone.

With the development of recording technology, similar subsequent efforts have used the actual recordings combined together rather than re-recordings with session musicians. The best-known example was probably Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, as well as a series of "Hit Mix" albums (e.g. "Hit Mix 86", a medley of many hits from that year).

Stars on 45 is still active, playing at corporate events and weddings, using a revolving group of professional musicians. The bandleader and founder is Eddie Garr, who toured with Walter Murphy, Billy Vera, and Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.