Telstar

"Telstar"
German picture sleeve
Single by The Tornados
B-side	"Jungle Fever"
Released	17 August 1962 (1962-08-17)
Format	7" vinyl
Recorded	RGM Sound, London, 1962
Genre	Space rock
Length	3:15
Label	Decca (UK) London (USA)
Writer(s)	Joe Meek
Producer	Joe Meek
The Tornados singles chronology
"Love and Fury (1962) "Telstar" (1962) "Globetrotter" (1963)
Audio sample file info · help

"Telstar" – clip (help·info) – is a 1962 instrumental record performed by The Tornados. It was the first single by a British band to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and was also a number one hit in the UK. The record was named after the AT&T communications satellite Telstar, which went into orbit in July 1962. The song was released five weeks later on 17 August 1962. It was written and produced by Joe Meek, and featured a clavioline, a keyboard instrument with a distinctive electronic sound. "Telstar" won an Ivor Novello Award and is estimated to have sold at least five million copies worldwide.

This novelty record was intended to evoke the dawn of the space age, complete with sound effects that were meant to sound "space-like". A popular story at the time of the record's release was that the weird distortions and background noise came from sending the signal up to the Telstar satellite and re-recording it back on Earth. It is more likely that the effects were created in Meek's recording studio, which was a small flat above a shop in London. It has been claimed that the sounds intended to symbolize radio signals were produced by Meek running a pen around the rim of an ashtray, and that the "rocket blastoff" at the start of the record was actually a flushing toilet, with the recordings made to sound exotic by playing the tape in reverse at various speeds.

Contents 1 Plagiarism claim 2 "Magic Star" and other vocal versions 3 Track listing 4 Personnel 4.1 The Tornados 4.2 Other 5 Chart performance 6 Cover versions 7 Use in popular culture 8 Other uses 9 References 10 External links

Plagiarism claim

A French composer, Jean Ledrut, accused Joe Meek of plagiarism, claiming that the tune of "Telstar" had been copied from "La Marche d'Austerlitz", a piece from a score that Ledrut had written for the 1960 film Austerlitz. This led to a lawsuit that prevented Meek from receiving royalties from the record during his lifetime, and the issue was not resolved in Meek's favour until a year after his death in 1967. It is unlikely that Meek was aware of Austerlitz, as it had been released only in France at the time.

"Magic Star" and other vocal versions

Meek produced later in 1962 a vocal version of "Telstar" titled "Magic Star", sung by Kenny Hollywood. It was released as a single by Decca Records (cat. nr F11546), with on the B-side "The Wonderful Story of Love", written by Geoff Goddard. The musical direction for both songs was done by Ivor Raymonde ^[1]. "Magic Star" was covered by Margie Singleton, released by Mercury Records (cat. nr 72079) in January 1963, backed with "Only Your Shadow Knows".

Two Spanish vocal versions were released by Alberto Cortez and The Latin Quartet, titled "Magica Estrella."

Poet and musician Robert Calvert wrote lyrics^[2] to accompanying the song, which he performed in 1981.

In 1986, Scottish duo The Knits sampled the original sounds and mixed them with text excerpts from Marx's "18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon". Their song was called "Passivism".

With French lyrics by Jacques Plante, the song was released by Les Compagnons de la Chanson under the title "Telstar - Une étoile en plein jour" (a star in broad daylight).

Luxembourg-born German language singer Camillo Felgen recorded the German vocal version as "Telstar (Irgendwann Erwacht Ein Neuer Tag)" with lyrics by Carl Ulrich Blecher in 1963^[3].

Track listing

• UK: Decca F11494
• USA: London Lon 9561 (as The Tornadoes)
• France: Decca 72.009 Simple
• West Germany: London 20654

Personnel

The Tornados

• Clem Cattini – drums
• Alan Caddy – lead guitar
• Roger LaVern – additional keyboards
• George Bellamy – rhythm guitar
• Heinz Burt – bass

Other

• Joe Meek – composer, producer
• Geoff Goddard – clavioline (on both sides), plus subtle vocals towards the end of "Telstar"
• Dave Adams – transcription of Meek's composition recording

Chart performance

The record was an immediate hit after its release, remaining in the UK pop charts for 25 weeks, five of them at number one, and in the American charts for 16 weeks. "Telstar" was the first U.S. number one by a British group. Up to that point, and since World War II, there had only been three British names that topped the U.S. chart: in May 1962 "Stranger on the Shore" by clarinetist Mr. Acker Bilk; the second was "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" by Laurie London (1958), whilst the first was "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" by Vera Lynn (1952). See List of songs by British artists which reached number-one on the Hot 100 (USA).

Chart (1962)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart[4]	1
Belgian Singles Chart	1
Dutch Singles Chart[5]	3
German Singles Chart[6]	6
Irish Singles Chart[7]	1
Norwegian Singles Chart[8]	3
South African Singles Chart	1
US Billboard Pop Singles[9]	1
US Billboard Black Singles[9]	5

Preceded by "She's Not You" by Elvis Presley	UK number one single October 4, 1962 (five weeks)	Succeeded by "Lovesick Blues" by Frank Ifield
Preceded by "Big Girls Don't Cry" by The Four Seasons	Billboard Hot 100 number one single December 22, 1962 (three weeks)	Succeeded by "Go Away Little Girl" by Steve Lawrence

Cover versions

There have been numerous other artists who recorded "Telstar", most notable are:

Use in popular culture

• This song was utilised as ongoing theme music for the 1979 film Mr. Mike's Mondo Video in the same vein as the song "More" was used in this film's inspiration, Mondo Cane.

• The Finnish rock band Eppu Normaali borrowed the opening of "Telstar" as the guitar solo for their song "Science Fiction" (1979).

• In the movie The Prophecy 3: The Ascent (2000), the angel Gabriel, played by Christopher Walken, plays trumpet to this song while driving on the highway.

• A "sound-alike" of this song appears in the film Strangers with Candy (2006). According to the audio commentary for the film, they were unsuccessful in getting the rights to the actual song.

• The song was used on a second season episode of the AMC series Mad Men entitled "The Inheritance" (2008).

• A modern version of the song is used as the intro for the Flemish comedy TV series Willy's en Marjetten (2006).

• "Knights of Cydonia", a 2006 song by Devonian rock band Muse, was influenced by "Telstar". Lead guitarist and vocalist Matthew Bellamy is the son of The Tornados' rhythm guitarist, George Bellamy.

Other uses

• A number of football teams, such as East Fife and Telstar walk out on to the field of play to this song.

• The former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher named "Telstar" as one of her favourite pop songs, and chose it as one of her records on BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs.^[14][15]

• The WFMU Radio Show Seven Second Delay used this song as a theme song. It was picked by a listener who won a contest to pick the theme song during one of WFMU's pledge drives in 2001. They used it as a theme for one year, up through early 2002.

• The song and the life of its composer Joe Meek, was the basis of Nick Moran's directing debut in the 2008 film Telstar.

References

External links

• Roger LaVern: The Recording Of The Worldwide Hit "Telstar"
• Hear the song performed by Bitch Boys
• Hear the song performed by The Ventures
• Website about the Clavioline
• 153 "Telstar" cover versions
• songfacts.com: "Telstar"