Discography
Last update: June 15, 2005
IMPORTANT: If not stated otherwise, all opinions here are exclusively mine and therefore very personal. If you want to know what are the albums preferred by other MECO fans, check the Links section, where you can find "The Best of MECO according to the MECO fans".
This was the first and most successful
work of MECO: the disco version of John Williams' score for Star
Wars.
The magic hand behind the arrangements
was Harold Wheeler and the production was by Meco Monardo,
Harold Wheeler and Tony Bongiovi.
Side A of this LP is a non-stop 15:46
minutes disco version of the original music, full of funk
rhythm (specially evident in the bass and rhythm guitar), great wind
and string orchestration, and special sound effects generated by Suzanne
Ciani (now a successful composer of instrumental music) who did a great
job mimicking the original effects from the movie (including the R2-D2 beeping,
the fighter engines roaring, and the blasters, taking full advantage of stereo
effects). The music follows the movie storyline by selecting adequate music
passages from the original score that can be perfectly identified. However,
the arrangement is not a simple medley of the themes but involves a very
creative work. The themes included are: Title Theme, Imperial Attack, The
Desert and the Robot Auction, The Princess Appears, The Land of the Sand
People, Princess Leia's Theme, Cantina Band, The Last Battle, and The Throne
Room and End Title.
This composition started as an
idea by Meco Monardo who was impressed by the movie (he claims
to have seen it five times in two days). At first, his idea was rejected
by Casablanca Records, but the huge success of the movie made them to reconsider
their decision. Meco was joined up at Millennium (the New York label of
Casablanca) by Tony Bongiovi in the production and Harold Wheeler
was hired for the music arrangement. They did the job in just three weeks.
Harold played keyboards and Meco played trombone (he
appears in the credits using the nickname "Dom"). There is another
anecdote about the credits of this and all the following records by Meco:
many of the musician's names are not of musicians and although they belong
to real people, the original names have been modified so they are unrecognizable.
Meco has a great sense of humor!
Side B is an original composition mainly based on drums, bass and a brass section. Despite its name (Other Galactic Funk) it has nothing to do with anything remotely related to outer-space. It is also a non-stop track of 12:28 minutes that you'll only enjoy if you like 70's funk (not disco) and long drum exercises. In the 1997 compilation CD "The Best of Meco", the enclosed booklet indicates that it was an arrangement of the recording of five high school kids that Meco spotted in Central Park playing drums. The Rolling Stone magazine called it "creative". Whatever the case, it's rather obvious that it was just something to fill the side B of the record (don't get offended by this remark if you like Other Galactic Funk, I like it too!).
This LP had a 7" single released
on July 77 (the one that reached #1). In side A it featured a medley of the
Title Theme and the Cantina Band. The Star Wars suite was also released
in other formats, like a 12" "disco mix" and also as a 12" 45 rpm "Supersingle"
(claiming "improved sound quality") which features the side A of the LP
curiously split into both sides of this 12". I found this rarity in a secondhand
shop for only $2!
If you want a copy of this album,
you can get The Best of Meco
, a CD released in 1997 which includes both the original LP and the single.
The single has also appeared in several "Best of 70's" compilation CD's.
In May 1999 it was released yet another compilation CD
including all the versions of Star Wars & OGF (LP, 7" single and
12" disco mix), except that strange "supersingle" thing.
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In the winter of 1977, the same team
that joined up for Star Wars, released Encounters of Every Kind, a very
original LP and one of my favorites. It is conceived as a musical time trip
from 1 million years ago up to 1979. Although it is also a non-stop track
(divided in two parts, due to the limitations of vinyl records) it is actually
a medley of nine separate compositions, each inspired in a moment of our
history, with the last one being a disco version of John Williams'
Close Encounters Theme. The idea of using a "Time Machine" is suggested by
means of a jingle (the Meco Time Machine) that, in various arrangements, is
used to mix each theme. Like in Star Wars, sound effects have a very important
role and help to create the right atmosphere.
All themes were composed by Harold
Wheeler, except Close Encounters, Crazy Rhythm and Topsy. In Crazy
Rhythm the sound effects are just great: a typical 1930's Chicago gang shooting
where you can hear the cars tires squealing and the bullets ricocheting around
you, which blend perfectly with the music. Topsy is a wonderful theme and
reminds a lot the Star Wars Cantina Band Theme, but my favorite one is Hot
in the Saddle, in which much in the way of The Last Battle in Star Wars,
there is a battle where you can hear the arrows and bullets (instead of
blasters) crossing from one speaker to the other while a great Far West action
music is playing.
The Theme from Close Encounters
is very good. Harold Wheeler did an amazing job out the weird original
score by John Williams. In fact, except for the famous five notes,
adapting the original score was so difficult that many of the other versions
that appeared at the time, were actually copies of Harold Wheeler arrangement.
The nine themes had not only a name
but also a date and a comment, just in case you didn't get the idea:
SIDE A: In The Beginning (1348264
BC. Dusk. High in the nest of a ferocious pterodactyl), Roman Nights (45
BC. Evening. At an orgy in the Senate Bath House atop the seventh hill
of Imperial Rome), Lady Marion (1690 AD. A springtime afternoon on a beautiful
green glen in Sherwood Forest), Icebound (1880 AD The Antarctic. The ANTARTIC!!
Trapped. What am I doing HERE!?!), Hot In the Saddle (1881 AD. Out in
the Great American West, perched on a butte overlooking the range).
SIDE B: Crazy Rhythm (1926 AD.
Chicago. At a ringside table in a swanky speakeasy), Topsy (1952 AD. Johnsonburg,
Pa., Lounging beside a cantina jukebox listening to a recording of the Lumen
Family), Meco's Theme/3 W. 57 (1978 AD. New York City. Atop the Millennium
Building, where I can hear the sounds of the city drifting upward), Theme
from Close Encounters (1979 AD Devil's Tower. Wyoming. From my hiding place
I can see the lights of the spaceship growing brighter... almost blinding.
It seems to be calling me?!! Gotta go!!!).
This LP had two singles released.
One including a shorter version of Close Encounters and Roman Nights (reached
#25 in the pop charts), and another with a remix of Topsy and Lady Marion.
MECO's Theme was prominently featured in the Filmworks movie "Thank God
it's Friday", but it wasn't featured in the soundtrack LP. According to "The
Best of Meco" CD booklet, Meco's Theme was also released as a single in
1977. By the way, the Topsy version that appears in this CD is NOT
the single version, but it's taken from the LP (at the beginning you can
hear the Meco Time Machine jingle).
The LP has not been re-released
on CD. At present you can only get the single version of the Theme from
Close Encounters, and Topsy (from the LP) in "The Best of Meco" CD.
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The Wizard of Oz is one of MECO's masterpieces. Like Star Wars and Encounters, it was produced by Meco , Tony Bongiovi and Harold Wheeler and the music arrangement was by Harold Wheeler.
This LP is again a non-stop track
divided in two parts (vinyl records!). It features most of the original
soundtrack of The Wizard of Oz written by Harold Arlen and E.Y.
Harburg , in what I consider the best work of Harold Wheeler
for MECO (yes, including Star Wars). Again, Harold Wheeler made a
very original job, avoiding the obvious solution of chosing a leading female
voice to sing Judy Garland's vocals. Instead, all songs (except
those by "the wicked witch") are performed by a female vocal ensemble. As
usual in MECO, you have all the sound effects you might wish (the cyclone,
Toto, the winkies flying...). At the end of the disco version, there
is an orchestral version of the score (The Reprise) which is a pleasure to
listen.
Although it is non-stop, the record
is "divided" in several themes: Side A - Over the Rainbow, Cyclone, Munchkinland,
Ding-Dong! the Witch is dead, Munchkinland (again), We're off to see The
Wizard (the Wonderful Wizard of Oz); and Side B - Poppies, The Spell, Optimistic
voices, The merry old land of Oz, The haunted forest, March of the Winkies,
Dorothy's rescue, If I were king of the forest, Over the Rainbow, The Reprise.
This LP had one single released with
a medley called "Themes from The Wizard of Oz" on side A (which is basically
Over the Rainbow plus We're off to see the Wizard) and an original composition
by Harold Wheeler called Fantasy. It reached #35 in the Pop chart.
You can find the side A of the
single in "The Best of Meco" CD. I think that if any of MECO LP's should
be re-released, this is the one. There is an anecdote about this record:
In Europe you could find it as a typical vinyl record (black), but in USA
it was released as a transparent yellow vinyl. If you can choose, go for the
yellow one!
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In 1979 MECO returned with his orchestra and the same team of the previous recordings to produce a disco version of another soundtrack by John Williams: Superman.
For this LP, MECO followed the same
formula used in the Star Wars album: a non-stop track in Side A featuring
the film music, and an original composition for side B. To make it more
similar, the Side B was called Other Galactic Heroes (remember Other Galactic
Funk). The arrangement of Harold Wheeler for Superman music is very
similar to the one in Star Wars, which is not strange if we consider that
very often the score of Superman sounds very similar to Star Wars as well.
The themes considered for this recording were: Main Title Theme, The destruction
of Krypton, The trip to Earth, Growing up, March of the villains, The flying
sequence and "Can you read my mind?", Chasing rockets, Turning back the
world, End title theme, and Reprise: Love Theme from Superman.
On side B, there are four original
compositions by Harold and Meco: The Boy Wonder, The Caped
Crusader, Lord of the Jungle and The Amazing Amazon. Like in Star Wars, I
have the impression that side B is there only because you couldn't produce
an LP with just one side! However, The Boy Wonder and Lord of the Jungle
tracks are OK.
In the back side of the sleeve,
it appears a very nice comment written by John Williams about Meco
and his disco versions. You can find this text in the Links section
(click here to read
it now).
Like most of MECO albums, this one has not been reissued. In the compilation CD "The Best of Meco" you can find what they call "Love Theme from Superman (Can you read my mind?)", which is actually an excerpt from the LP (The flying sequence and "Can you read my mind?").
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With Moondancer, Meco made a change and produced an album with pure disco music, not based on any movie. The album was produced and arranged by Meco, without his usual collaborators.
This LP features six original songs
from which only one (Moondancer) was written by Meco and Don
Oriolo . In this occasion Meco played keyboards, trombone and
vocals. The music is allegedly based on a dream by Meco who envisaged
a disco in a huge gorge on the moon where many "Creatures of the Night" danced
(this is what you see on the LP cover, designed by Meco himself).
The four songs are: Moondancer, Love me Dracula, Grazing in the grass, Spooky,
Devil delight and Living in the night. These songs are good disco music
of the time, with Moondancer outstanding over the others, specially in the
instrumental part.
By the way, if you wonder what's
R2-D2 and other droid talking about in Moondancer, visit the Samples
section!
This LP has not been re-released, but you get the two best songs (Moondancer and Spooky) in "The best of MECO" CD. Unfortunately, in that CD Moondancer has been "edited" by cutting off the first half of the song so you can only listen to the instrumental part and the ending chorus.
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The second part (of fifth, if you believe George Lucas) of the Star Wars saga couldn't be complete without MECO producing a version of John Williams' score. This time things were slightly different however. Harold Wheeler didn't participate in this record, and Lance Quinn took up his place in the producers team with Meco and Tony Bongiovi. Lance had participated as guitarist in the previous albums by MECO, and this time he and Meco were in charge of the music arrangements, with Meco responsible for horns and strings. Like in Moondancer, Meco played keyboards in the orchestra.
The result of substituting Harold
Wheeler by guitarist Lance at the arrangements, was a complete
change of sound. MECO didn't sound like MECO anymore and fans like me felt
a bit "betrayed" at that time. Lance's arrangements hadn't that
orchestral sound. In fact, it wasn't disco and it sounded more like
a rock band disguised as an orchestra. However, although I still prefer
Harold 's arrangements, I must say that this is a record that has improved
with time.
This album only featured music
from the movie, this time divided into four parts: Empire Strikes Back (medley):
Darth Vader/Yoda's theme, The battle in the snow, The Force theme, and
The Asteroid Field/Finale. The sound effects were the real stuff this time,
and were provided by Lucasfilm. In fact, Lucasfilm was careful by keeping
a grip around MECO in this release and the Christmas album (see below),
that were produced by RSO Records. It seems that they didn't want to be
left behind as happened with MECO's Star Wars.
In "The Best of MECO" you can find the first theme (that was released as a single, which reached #18 in the charts) and the last one from this album that has not been re-released. A shame, specially for The battle in the Snow theme, which would deserve better.
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The same team of producers of Empire Strikes back is responsible for this unusual album. The only (big) difference is that Harold Wheeler was in the arrangements, with Lance and Meco.
This was a weird experiment. It features
Christmas songs inspired in some of the characters from Star Wars. So you
find C-3PO and R2-D2 performing several songs joined up by all sorts of
aliens (even Chewbacca!). This concept by Meco Monardo doesn't make
any sense, but the result is fun to listen to. Some of the songs aren't that
good but the average level of the album is OK. It is obvious the hand of
Harold Wheeler everywhere, whose orchestral arrangements are just
great. A shame they were used in songs that don't deserve it.
The songs included are: Christmas
in the stars; Bells, bells, bells; The odds against Christmas; What can
you get a wookiee for Christmas (when he already owns a comb?); R2-D2 we
wish you a merry Christmas; Sleigh Ride; Merry, merry Christmas; A Christmas
sighting ('Twas the night before Christmas), and The meaning of Christmas.
The single "What Can you get a Wookie for Chrismas" reached #69 in the lists.
For this album, Lucasfilm not only allowed the use of special effects, but also the "voice" of R2-D2 and the presence of Anthony Daniels, leading vocals as C-3PO. But there's more: the album cover is by Ralph McQuarrie, the designer who made most of the artwork for the Star Wars trilogy, and in the leading vocals was also John Bongiovi, who would later be known as Jon Bon Jovi .
This LP was re-released on CD in 1996 and it is still available. A "delight" for collectors of rare Star Wars or Bon Jovi items.
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This 1980 LP was produced by Meco Monardo, Tony Bongiovi and Harold Wheeler for Casablanca Records. As usual when the old team gathered together, the music arrangements were by Harold.
As a change, this LP featured music
not from one movie but from two: the first Star Trek episode for the big
screeen and The Black Hole, a not very successful sci-fi production by Disney.
Side A included three tracks:
Star Trek Medley, Love Theme from Star Trek (both based on the movie score
by Jerry Goldsmith), and Theme from Star Trek (based on the TV
series music by A. Courage and G. Roddenberry). The Medley
is 9:20 minutes long and it basically includes the main theme and the
Klingon attack.
Side B features the disco version
(3:42) of the main title from the Disney movie (Theme from the Black Hole)
by John Barry, and three original themes that have nothing to
do with either movie: Clearmotion (by Lance Quinn and Meco),
and Space Sentry and Meteorites (both by Harold Wheeler). The theme
from the Black Hole, uses original sound effects from the movie, courtesy
of Disney productions.
This LP follows the line and good
quality of previous productions by the team Meco/Tony/Harold, but the
original material was not rich enough to allow something as spectacular
as Star Wars, the Wizard of Oz or even Superman. The three original themes
are not among my favorites, but I'd save Meteorites.
If you are a Star Trek or a Meco fan and you want to get this LP your only hope is to find it in a second-hand shop, as nothing has been re-released.
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This was a single produced by Meco Monardo, Tony Bongiovi and Lance Quinn, and the music arrangements were by Meco and Lance. It reached #70 in the Pop charts.
This single featured the Love Theme (Mariko) on side A and the Main Theme of Shogun on side B. Both were originally composed by Maurice Jarre for the TV series SHOGUN, based on the novel by James Clavell. The original score is great and the MECO version is very good. I'd certainly include it in my personal "Best of MECO", but unfortunately it has not been re-released.
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This album is just a compilation of Meco's themes (or excerpts from the LP's) from previous years. By this time MECO produced his version of The Empire Strikes back for RSO, so Casablanca released this compilation trying to get some of the free publicity provided by the new Star Wars movie (ESB). Sounds familiar? Yes, this is quite what happened with the "Best of MECO" album that "happened" to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie.
This album mainly relies on the Star Trek LP. The themes included are: Superman Theme, Star Trek Love Theme, Star Wars Theme (Williams), Superman Love Theme, Star Trek Medley (Main Title, Klingon Attack and Lia's Theme), Enterprise TV Theme, Black Hole Theme, Moondancer, Close Encounter, Wizard of Oz, Over the Rainbow, and Were of to See the Wizard.
I remember that I listened to it when it was first released and decided not to buy it as there was nothing new and I couldn't spare much money then. When the MECO fan page started I decided to get one copy so I could talk about this LP here. Well, it took me 3 years to get a copy and I can tell you that my first impression was correct. Despite what you can read elsewhere, the themes are NOT "remastered". They are just excerpts from the original LPs, except for Star Wars Theme which is the single.
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The good old times were approaching to an end. The production of spectacular sci-fi movies was declining and disco music was already something from the past. MECO found however a great opportunity in 1981 to develop new ideas when Polygram Pictures offered Meco to produce an album based on the original soundtrack of John Landis' An American Werewof in London. Meco Monardo and Lance Quinn produced this album for The Entertainment Company and it was published by Casablanca Records. The music arrangements were by William Motzing, Meco and Lance.
This is a very different work from
the other Meco albums. Although it is closer to Moondancer in the sense
that it is made up of songs, it is not disco music at all but pop/rock.
The album features a slightly (and beautifuly) arranged version of The
Boys, the original score composed by Elmer Berstein for the movie,
as well as some old classics included in the soundtrack as well as brand
new themes composed by Maury Yeston and Denny Randell for the
album. In side A you got Blue Moon, You Gotta Hurt Me, Moon Dance and The
Boys, and in side B, Bad Moon Rising, No More Mr Nice Guy, Werewolf (loose
in London) and Werewolf Serenade.
I really like this album. It is
not like the previous MECO, but the arrangements of the classic themes
are great and the new themes are very good, specially the Queen-sound-alike
Werewolf (loose in London).
Like most ot MECO albums, it is a rarity only to be found in vinyl, but in "Best of Meco" they have included the wonderful "Werewolf (loose in London)". I would have included The Boys too.
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This single was produced by Meco Monardo and Lance Quinn with the music arrangements by Williams Motzing. Like many other singles, in the States it was released without cover. The one you see here is taken from an European release.
The Raiders March is very nicely
arranged, and in 2:44 minutes it even includes a short jungle-atmosphere
fragment (including sound effects such as Indy's whip, flying arrows, and
the unavoidable jungle beasts screaming) and a reprise of the Theme whistled
in the way of "The Bridge over River Kwai" march. All Indy fans (like myself)
would love to have a copy on CD, but it hasn't been re-released.
Cairo Nights is a composition
inspired in the Bolero de Ravel rhythm, with an arabian air,
composed by Meco and Don Oriolo. Nothing special,
just OK.
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This single is not really a MECO
single. It was performed by "THE CANTINA BAND" but it can be considered as
MECO's as it was produced by Meco Monardo, Lance Quinn and
Billy Civitella for Millenium and, according to Greg, it sounds
like MECO.
In side A includes a mix called
Summer '81 featuring: Surfer girl/fun, fun, fun/409/I get around/dance,
dance, dance/California girls/ wouldn't it be nice/help me, rhonda/good
vibrations. And in B-side: out in california, written by P. McCurdy.
The cover that you can see here
is not the original one but one made by Greg (the happy owner of this record)
for this website. Here is also Greg's opinion on this single: "The Stars
On 45 hit it big with the Beatles Medley. Soon after this huge success,
Meco created The Cantina Band (of course the name is derived from the famous
Cantina Band from Star Wars) and put this together. It is much like a
typical Meco recording - his orchestra/studio musician do an excellent
job recreating the Beach Boys songs. The B-side is a departure for MECO
- it is a adult contemporary sounding soong done in the style of the Beach
Boys. ... for a true Meco fan it is well worth looking for!."
(...) Later on I got my own copy
of this single, so I can give my opinion: I agree that the recreation of
the Beach Boys is good but to me it sounds too much like many other 80s
"medleys" and it certainly is NOT the MECO thing. I'd only recommend it for
very avid Meco collectors.
As you could expect, this single (that reached #81 in the lists) has not been reissued on CD.
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In the early eighties the term disco was to be avoided if you didn't want to sound oldie. About that time something called "medleys" appeared. This was nothing but linking together a bunch of well-known fragments of orchestral music that people already knew and liked, all over a background of never-changing digitally generated clap percussion. Horrible stuff in my opinion. MECO could not avoid this trend and Meco Monardo, Tony Bongiovi and Lance Quinn produced this album for Arista. (By the way, this was the year Meco co-produced the first solo album for Kenny G).
This album features many excerpts
from classical movies divided in two non-stop parts:
Side One: 20th Century Fox Trademark - Tara's Theme - The Magnificent Seven
- The James Bond Theme - Goldfinger - Theeme From "Love Story" - Laura - Theme
From "Chariots Of Fire" - Tom Jones - Theme From "M.A.S.H." - Love Is A Many
Splendored Thing - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly - Theme From "The Apartment"
- The High And The Mighty
Side Two: As Time Goes By - Atchison, Topeka And The Santa Fe - Hatari -
The Pink Panther - Theme From "Days Of Wine And Roses" - The Shadow Of Your
Smile - Never On Sunday - Secret Love - Theme From "The Godfather" - Zorba
The Greek - Three Coins In The Fountain - Windmills Of Your Mind - Strike
Up The Band - Hooray For Hollywood - The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
The "arrangements" were made by a list of seven people (including Meco and Lance), but I wouldn't call them "arrangements". In fact, the music sounds nearly identical to the originals, with the tempo adjusted so that the digital claps could keep the pace. Too bad that MECO wasn't faithful to its original style. Curiously enough, this opinion of mine is not shared by most MECO fans, who in general like this LP very much.
This album had a single released which was a medley of the medley and reached #35 in the Pop charts. This LP has not been reissued on CD.
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This same year, Meco Monardo, Dan Levine, Lance Quinn and Tony Bongiovi produced for Arista Records another album. This time, a very interesting one. Instead of music from films, Meco selected some of the best Big Band Themes. The arrangements were by Meco himself and Dan Levine.
Side A of the album is called Big
Band Medley Part I, but is not a medley in the sense described before.
It is a nice arrangement in the best Meco way but respecting the style
and sound of Big Bands. In this case the constant rhythm background, typical
of the 80's "medleys" doesn't get boring (it is not based on the annoying
digital claps) and the addition of electric bass to the Big Band sound
adds a nice flavor to the arrangement. The themes included are Pennsylvania
6-5000, String of Pearls, In the Mood, Don't be that way, I've got a gal
in Kalamazoo, Moonlight Serenade, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Little Brown Jug,
Take the A train, Stompin' at the Savoy, Cherokee, Song of India, The Anvil
Chorus, American Patrol, Sing Sing Sing, Opus number one, and Two O'clock
Jump.
Side B includes Part II, with
slower themes: Let's dance, Tuxedo Junction, I'll remember April, I'm
getting sentimental over you, Sentimental journey, Frenesi, and King Porter's
stomp. It also features mambos by Perez Prado (Patricia and Cherry Pink and
Apple blossom white) and the Harry James medley (Music Makers, The Mole,
Ciribiribin, and Trumpet blues and Cantabile).
You won't find this on CD so if you can get this not-so-old vinyl, go for it. It's a real delight.
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The good old times were already gone, and this was the last of MECO albums based on films. It worked so well before that it was difficult to resist the urge to try again with the third Star Wars film. It was produced by Meco Monardo, Lance Quinn, Tony Bongiovi and Harold Wheeler. However, I guess that Harold only appeared here as a tribute to his famous arrangement of Star Wars.
This album was really different from
the previous MECO works, although it is perhaps in the line of An American
Werewolf. It doesn't feature a full version of the original score of the
movie but only the two non-instrumental themes: Lapti Nek and Ewok Celebration,
as well as a shorter re-editing (in which the original drums were substituted
by electronic drums, very fashionable at that moment) of the original disco
version of Star Wars by Harold Wheeler. Additionally it includes
other movie and TV themes that had nothing to do with Star Wars (Maniac from
Flashdance, the Love Theme from Superman III, Themes from War Games, Nights
are Forever from Twilight Zone -The Movie, and the Theme from Simon &
Simon).
In my opinion, this LP is well
below the standard reached by the previous ones. However, the Ewok Celebration
theme is nicely arranged and includes a great rap by C-3PO (performed
by Duke Bootee) telling their adventures to the ewoks in their
own language and including sound effects (remember the movie?). A last rare
item for collectors and fans of Kenny G: he played in this album the
Sax and Lyricon solos in Simon & Simon and Maniac (Meco had co-produced
Kenny's first solo album on 1982).
This LP had a single released which only got to #60 in the Pop charts and also a 12" 45 rpm maxi which includes a "dub version" and a "club version" of the Ewok Celebration theme. None of the themes from this LP has been re-released, but it would have been great to have the Ewok Celebration theme in The Best of MECO.
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First of all, thanks to Ralf for finding this single!. Meco produced it for Arista with Lance Quinn and Tommy Mandel (Anything goes), and Dan Levine, Lance Quinn and Tony Bongiovi (Music Makers).
As you can easily guess, A-side features
a rendition of the opening song of "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom".
B-side includes the first part of Harry James Medley (Music Makers) appeared
two years earlier in "Swingtime Greatest Hits
".
Unfortunately, as already happened
in Ewok Celebration , MECO abandoned
the idea of producing music based on the instrumental score and went straight
for the only vocal song that appeared in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom". In fact, the production of "Anything Goes" sounds similar to Ewok
Celebration, with that typical 80's "synthesized" sound that I don't like
much. It would be OK for modern pop songs (as it happens with the pop themes
featured in Ewok Celebration) but because of the characteristics of "Anything
goes", the sound would be better off with a production similar to the one
used for "Swingtime Greatest Hits". This makes me think that Meco decided
to include 1982 Music Makers in B-side to demonstrate that he can do it
much better.
As usual, it has not been reissued on CD, and as far as I know it was only released in the States.
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Although it belongs to the "Hooked on..." series, this CD (yes, a CD!) was produced and arranged by Meco and Harold Wheeler.
I never liked the "Hooked on..."
series and I overlooked MECO's signature in this record so I didn't get a
copy when it was released. After a couple of months of search during 1999
I could get one. This CD includes medleys including over 60 classic songs
divided into 8 tracks: Hooked on instrumentals part 1, Hooked on instrumentals
part 2, Hooked on Leroy Anderson, Hooked on Brass, Hooked on instrumentals
part 3, Hooked on instrumentals part 4, Hooked on Funk and Hooked on guitars.
The hand of Harold Wheeler at
the arrangements can be easily spotted. However the selection of themes
in some tracks (like Hooked on instrumentals part 2 and Hooked on Leroy
Anderson) makes them to sound dangerously close to Ray Connif orchestra.
Themes like Hooked on Funk are certainly better. Although this CD is above
the average level of the series, it is still a "Hooked on" title, if you
know what I mean. It was one of the best-sellers of the series.
According to some music databases this record was released as CD in 1986. It was reissued in following years by K-Tel (I got a 1995 edition!). In 1998 this company released the 4-CD box set "Hooked on Themes and Instrumentals" which also includes Meco's "Hooked on Instrumentals".
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First of all: this record is not MECO's. It's a fake. I keep its reference here only as a note of warning so that others do not get mislead like me. I was looking for "Hooked on Instrumentals" when this unknown record appeared out of the blue. The info in the booklet is so scarce that I don't even know its release date (I assume it was the same of the other "Hooked on" CD). MECO only appears on the cover as conducting the "50 non-stop pop hits", but I have no idea on the arranger, producer or musicians (no, there's no information at AMG).
This is a typical "Hooked on" record.
It includes two medleys called "hits on 33" featuring a series of "pop
hits" from the 50's until the early 80's, including songs by Bee Gees, Rolling
Stones, Elvis, ELO... None of them are original but versions with acceptable
imitations of the real singers. As usual in this series, all the songs
are linked by a constant rhythm background (which gets boring after a few
minutes) and the arrangements are nothing special.
Except for the "fake" cover featuring
MECO's name, I never believed it was MECO's. It's such a cheap production!
Phil (another good Meco Fan) even identified this CD as being the re-edition
of "Hits on 33", an LP by Sweet Power and produced by H.R.Schade and G.Pocorni,
which obviously has nothing to do with MECO. Thanks for the info, Phil.
Thanks also to Meco himself who confirmed our suspicions.
I got this MECO fake CD in January 99, but I don't think is too easy to find. Anyway, you won't be missing much, unless you're a collector of MECO-related stuff like me.
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Unidisc released on CD
these well-known themes by MECO as part of their collection of singles on
CD. The main interest of this CD is that the "Encounters Theme" is the LP
version (not reissued elsewhere), not the single (which is the one that appears
in "The Best of"). Thanks ? for this info!
Although released in
92, it is difficult to find.
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The 1996 reissue by Rhino
Records is exactly that: the original LP directly transferred to CD format.
The only addition is in the booklet which includes a short description
by Steve Sansweet of the storyline as originally conceived by Meco and some
details about the album. The cover of Rhino's release (which can be found
easily) is identical to the original.
The cover you can see
here belongs to a 1995 reissue by "Post Mortem". Ralf found this info
in the net, but there is not much more about this release.
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This CD is something that arrived like a wonderful present for all MECO fans. It's probably the only place where you can now find MECO's music on CD. Part of it, at least.
This release includes the whole original Star Wars LP and single, and a selection of themes (mainly singles) from most of MECO's records. Enclosed there is a 10 pages booklet with a short history of Meco Monardo with special emphasis on the release of Star Wars and its impact on the 70's music. It also counts with 3 pictures of Meco and his team. The tracks list is this: Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band, Empire Strikes Back Medley (Darth Vader/Yoda's theme), Theme from Close Encounters, Themes from The Wizard of Oz, Star Trek Medley pt. 1, Topsy, Meco's Theme/3W.57, Moondancer, Spooky, Love Theme from Superman (Can you read my mind?), Werewolf (Loose in London), Star Wars LP, Other Galactic Funk, The Asteroid Field/Finale.
What follows is the original comments I published when this CD was released:
"The first
obvious thing to say as a Meco Fan, is that I'm extremely happy that this
CD has been released. But like all compilations it has things which are
good and others which aren't.
The best thing is that all tracks
have been digitally remastered from the original sources so the sound
quality is greatly improved. The second good thing is that the whole Star
Wars LP is included in the CD, not just the single. But this leads to the
not-so-good things about this CD.
If this CD was intended as a true
The Best of, why should Other Galactic Funk be included in full?
I don't think this is part of the "best". It seems that the criteria for
this compilation have been more of a nostalgic nature than actually selecting
the best. Including the full 12:28 minutes of Other Galactic Funk, has
hindered the CD from including better things (The Boys -from American Werewolf-,
Shogun, The Raiders March...), and has even obliged to cut down the lenght
of some of the tracks! Moondancer has been cut by half (in this CD you
just get the second half), and the "20th anniversary Edit" of The Asteroid
Field/Finale from The Empire Strikes Back is missing 1:30 minutes. In
general, when an author makes a "Special Edition" of something (for example,
remember the Special Editions of the Star Wars soundtrack), what you get
is either an improved version and/or an extension of the original, not
a trimmed version. Very disappointing! But there is more: Paul (a good Meco
Fan from Holland) spotted nasty clicks at 2:07 and 2:10 of track 14. So
much for a digital remastering!
I know that re-releasing the whole
discography of MECO is probably not possible, but if I could here is what
I would do: 1) To release a "MECO's Star Wars" CD, including all the music
based on the trilogy (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Ewok Celebration)
and 2) To release a "The Best of Meco" CD which would include a selection
of all the other music from MECO not related to Star Wars. This would have
allowed more space for other things (including an excerpt from Other Galactic
Funk, not the whole stuff!). By the way, in this "proposed" second CD I
would have included a couple of themes from the Christmas in the Stars album,
which I would have never re-released in full, as they have done. I'd rather
have done so with The Wizard of Oz album.
The last criticism I have is about
the text of the booklet. It's clear that it has been written with sympathy
towards Meco, but there are several things incorrect. For example: Topsy
as it appears in the CD is not the single version, but it's taken directly
from the original LP."
Later on we knew that Arista didn't want to collaborate in the production of this CD (something I suspected) and that's the reason it didn't include songs like "Ewok Celebration" or "Pop goes the movies".
This CD is still available, but perhaps difficult to find in shops. Try getting it on-line.
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On May 1999, trying to
take advantage of the excitement (and free publicity) about Star Wars Episode
1, someone thought it would be a good idea to reissue a digitally mastered
CD with the original Star Wars LP by MECO.
In this CD you get both
the full LP and the single, as well as a "Disco Mix" version about 7 minutes
long, that was originally issued as a 12 inch promotional-only single for
DJ's.
With "The Best of MECO"
CD still available, this new CD has very little to offer, as the only
theme not included in "The Best Of" is the 12" single (which I consider
poorly mixed, when compared to the 7" single). The booklet doesn't include
any new information about MECO or his Mecoized Star Wars. But the worst
thing about this CD is that the 7" single is missing the intro which has
been conspicously trimmed off! So my advice is: if you are not really interested
in the "Disco Mix", forget this CD and go for "The Best of MECO".
Although it is only
interesting for collectors, I'm glad it will help to keep MECO's music
(part of it, at least) still available.
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This long awaited CD was released on March 2000, and has been entirely produced/designed/conceived by Meco.
The CD features new remixes of all the music performed by MECO inspired on the original Star Wars trilogy as well as three bonus tracks inspired by The Phantom Menace. The remixes keep the flavor of the original recordings adding a few enhancements, like new openings/endings, sound effects and voiceovers.
The concept for the new Star Wars (A New Hope) remix (based on the original 77 suite) is similar to what could be found in Ewok Celebration, but it's a far better and more creative remix, full of new sound effects and voiceovers (buried deep inside the track). The Empire Strikes Back themes are not very different from the originals, except for Finale, which is the Asteroid Field/Finale theme in which The Asteroid Field has been trimmed off and has new instruments added as well as a long voiceover. It's a shame that, like in The Best Of , that theme is never reissued in full. The songs from Ewok Celebration (Lapti Nek and Ewok Celebration) appear here for the first time on CD. They have not been as intesively remixed as the older themes, although Ewok Celebration is perhaps improved from the original (it's now less repetitive).
The CD is rounded off with
three new themes inspired by The Phantom Menace: Duel of the Fates/Augie's
Municipal band, Cousin Jar Jar, and A Jedi Knigth. The first one is obviously
a Mecoized version of the same themes found in the original score. I'm
happy to say that MECO is truly back with this theme. Although the arrangement
is mainly based on a techno beat, the groove still retains much of the 80's
sound (listen to the drums and the electric guitar) which will make both
old and new fans very happy. I'd have liked a longer suite including some
additional themes from the original soundtrack, but it's nonetheless a wonderful
theme.
"Cousin Jar Jar" and
"A Jedi Knight" are brand new themes specially composed for this CD, something
that MECO only did before in An American
Werewolf in London . The Jar Jar theme is nice, but I prefer "A Jedi
Knight", sung by Yamira. In my opinion a very good song with a great instrumental
arrangement that makes me forget (just for a few minutes) that I wanted
to hear more music based on the original soundtrack.
I try to keep this section of personal reviews relatively short, but if you want to read more about this CD, I've prepared a longer report: Just click HERE .
In July 2002, this CD was sold out at Amazon.com and later on it was also out of stock at www.cdbaby.com. There are no plans to re-release it.
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On October 1999 (see the interview published here ), Meco first mentioned his intention "to be there" for the next Star Wars films. One year later, Meco publicly released the first concept he devised for this CD: After the experience with John Williams' ban against any version of his music in Sony, which forced Meco to produce The Complete Star Wars Collection himself and sell it only through the internet, Meco intended to try with a different record company. As this was the fifth SW movie, the CD was to be called "Five Stars" and would feature 5 guest music stars performing songs inspired by the SW universe, just like "A Jedi Knight" or "Cousin Jar Jar". The cover featured here was one of the early drafts by Tommy Stanton, who already worked for Meco in "The Complete SW".
Unfortunately, on May 2002,
right before the opening of "Attack of the clones", Meco confirmed that
this CD wouldn't be produced at all. Meco was aware of the expectation by
all MECO fans so he decided to release one of the demos he produced for
this failed CD as a present for all fans and was available here for download for
a long time.
It is not anymore since this demo is in fact "Star Wars Party", which is now included in its final
version in MECO's new CD (see below).
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As it happened with The Complete Star Wars Collection, Star Wars Party is entirely conceived, produced and performed by Meco with the help of his friends.
Starting from the concept devised for the failed "Five Stars", this CD features songs inspired by the Star Wars universe and its music, including some remixes of older Star Wars hits by MECO. The CD features 10 songs: I am your father - Star Wars Party - Star Wars Love Themes - New Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back - You are reckless - Jedi Knight - Lapti Nek - Live your life - Boogie Wookiee.
Star Wars Party, Jedi Knight, Live your life and Boogie Wookiee are pop/rock themes inspired by the Star Wars universe, not its music or specific characters. Jedi Knight was previously released in The Complete Star Wars Collection, but it has new vocals and it has been remixed. On the other hand we have a new edit of The Empire Strikes Back and Lapti Nek (from the original edition of Return of the Jedi), a new mecoized version of the classical Star Wars theme (do not expect a full orchestra this time) and a original Bolero-styled medley of the Star Wars Love Themes (including Across the stars, from Episode II). Finally we find a new concept, original songs which are only slightly inspired by the original music from Star Wars and that rely on voice impersonations of characters of the saga (Obi-wan, Darth Vader, Luke, Yoda...): I am your father and You are reckless.
Meco is a great Star Wars fan, and I think that this CD is Meco's tribute to the saga but also to all Meco fans around the world. However MECO fans are diverse. Many of them are also Star Wars fans and I guess they will enjoy this CD. But I also suspect that those that are only fans of the instrumental MECOized themes may get a bit disappointed when finding out that there is not a theme based on Episode III and just a little hint from Episode II in the Star Wars Love Themes.
Click here to
buy your copy of STAR WARS PARTY at CDBaby
or
Click
here to buy it at Amazon.com
This
record was released by DM records and is just a different edition of Star Wars
Party. While the contents of the CD are the same, the only difference is the
cover and the fact that Star Wars Party can only be purchased on internet,
while "Music inspired by Star Wars" can be found in stores.
Click here to buy it at Amazon.com