"Telstar"--A Historical Review

[Inyo]

I like to play that classic early 60s instrumental "Telstar" (#1 US Billboard, 1962 for The Tornados) as a solo acoustic arrangement on a 1976 Martin D-35.

While digging a little deeper into the history of the song, I found some rather interesting recorded interpretations, including the original demo version by its composer Joe Meek, a UK independent record producer. The first television pictures broadcast across the Atlantic on July 11, 1962, had inspired Joe Meek to create the instrumental as a tribute to the Telstar satellite.

And without further fanfare, here it is, such as it is as it were, Joe Meek's demo recording of "Telstar;" my own response to it is that it's rather reminiscent of the Beatles' infamously irreverent and possibly intoxicated take #2 on Lennon's composition "And Your Bird Can Sing": That is to say, is this really for real?



Compare and contrast that bit of initial musical incomparable improbability with the finished product, that memorable Tornados #1 US Billboard masterpiece (1962):



So Joe Meek apparently decided to pen some lyrics to "Telstar," and several folks grabbed them up and cut some wax and released recorded versions with vocal interpretations, a number under the title "Magic Star," though a few chose to keep the original instrumental title. Check out Bobby Rydell's version, for example, from his lp "All The Hits," released January 1, 1963:



Or, how about the arrangement by Country singer Margie Singleton, released in early 1963 under the title "Magic Star" (it failed to chart in the US):



Sprechen Sie Deutsch, eh? Grab the lederhosen and check out this German vocal version by Camillo Felgen, from a 1963 EP called "Camillo":



The "Telstar" saga continues. Here we find a French fellow named Jean Ledrut, a composer, suing Joe Meek for plagiarism. Seems that Ledrut accused Meek of lifting Telstar's melody from his 1960 film "Austerlitz," for which Ledrut wrote the score. Meek eventually won a posthumous Pyrrhic victory of sorts, emerging victorious in a court of law in 1968--a year after his own death.

Here's the specific passage from Ledrut's composition that caused all the trouble. Make up your own minds, of course:

[nickv6]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
Nick

[FrankHudson]

I'd never heard that demo. So different from the hit record. The vocal sounds like me singing, alas.

I was entirely entranced by the hit record back in 1962. I'm not entirely sure why? That fuzzy keyboard lead line, the overall sound including the sound effects, the catchy melody that has such an unusual shape, that little tremolo guitar break, the vocalese coda (on pitch this time!).

To others it might make sense to say it was like hearing "The Dark Side of the Moon" only several years earlier and without chemical assistance.

In other threads I've mentioned that when I read about The Beatles in the small print before they broke in the US, about how fresh and new they seemed in the UK, yet without any description of what they sounded like, I expected them to sound like Telstar in originality, and then was disappointed to hear what sounded to me a male group presenting something like the then current Girl Group harmony sound* which was already "old hat" to my jaded youth ears.

I also recall "Magic Star" and since I've always had a hard time carrying a melody in memory (part of my pitch issues) having words to associate with the pitches helped.

*Before you jump on me Beatle appreciators, I'm talking about the 1962/early 63 Beatles, and my expectations blunted my appreciation of what the Beatles could and did do. And then too, I wouldn't want to slight what some of the Girl Group records achieved either.

[blue]

It inspired a lot of folks