Biography
Two years before the 1981 medley phenomenon took hold, the origins of Starsound trace to a Montreal disco where resident DJ Michel Gendreau worked. There Michel Ali arrived carrying a tape copied from a Dutch white-label bootleg that presented an anonymous ensemble called Passion performing a Beatles medley titled “Lets Do It in the 80s Great Hits.” The recording also incorporated fragments of the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar,” Shocking Blue’s “Venus,” and the opening of the Buggles’ chart-topping “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Although the source suffered from excessive noise and crude production values, Gendreau recognized its creative potential even while he hesitated to feature it during peak hours. At that moment, in the closing years of the 1970s, disco still dominated dance floors through fresh material by the Bee Gees, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, and an array of emerging producers and vocalists, so audiences showed little appetite for 1960s repertoire.
Ali therefore teamed with engineer Paul Richer to refine the medley, inserting contemporary successes such as Lipps, Inc.’s “Funky Town” and the Detroit Spinners’ “Working My Way Back to You” to ease the transition from current hits into the older Beatles selections and thereby prevent the floor from emptying. One of those selections, “Venus,” belonged to Red Bullet Records; when the Dutch label’s manager Freddy Haayen learned of its unauthorized inclusion, he chose commercial opportunity over litigation and instead approached former Golden Earring member Jaap Eggermont. Eggermont assembled session vocalists to replicate the originals legally, enlisting Bas Muys of Smyle to portray John Lennon, Hans Vermeulen of Sandy Coast as George Harrison, and Okkie Huysdens as Paul McCartney. The resulting version retained “Sugar Sugar,” “Venus,” “Funky Town,” and “Video Killed the Radio Star,” added a new linking segment voiced by Jody Pijper that introduced the recurring tag “The Stars on 45 keep on turning in your mind,” and maintained a consistent four-on-the-floor pulse.
Issued first as a sixteen-minute 12-inch single, the track prompted European radio stations to edit it for daytime rotation. Eggermont responded by extracting the “Stars on 45” introduction, the opening verses of “Venus” and “Sugar Sugar,” and an additional three minutes of Beatles material, creating a 7-inch single that ignited a worldwide trend lasting well into the early 1980s. Marketed as Starsound in Europe and as Stars on 45 in the United States, the single carried the longest title ever to appear on the charts because each song publisher demanded inclusion: “Intro Venus/Sugar Sugar/No Reply/I’ll Be Back/Drive My Car/Do You Want to Know a Secret/We Can Work It Out/I Should Have Known Better/You’re Going to Lose That Girl/Stars on 45.” It reached number two in the United Kingdom, largely on 12-inch sales, and topped the U.S. chart, interrupting two separate runs of Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes.”
An expanded album followed within weeks, lengthening the Beatles sequence with “Ticket to Ride,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “Get Back,” “Eight Days a Week,” “It Won’t Be Long,” “Day Tripper,” “Good Day Sunshine,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Taxman,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Things We Said Today,” “If I Fell,” “Please Please Me,” “From Me to You,” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” while restoring several 1960s tracks from the original bootleg—“Sherry” by the Four Seasons, “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” by Neil Sedaka, “Only the Lonely” by Roy Orbison, “Silly Love Songs” by Wings, “Jimmy Mack” by Martha Reeves, “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again” by the Fortunes, and “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” by Brian Hyland. The album peaked at number nine in the United States yet ascended to number one for five weeks in Britain during May and June 1981, finishing the year as the tenth best-selling LP there.
Eggermont next turned to ABBA material, employing Claudia Hoogendoorn to impersonate both Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. In the United States a second Beatles medley had already appeared, but public interest had begun to fade and the release managed only number 67. In Britain, however, “Stars on 45, Vol. 2” duplicated the first volume’s runner-up finish. A second album bearing the same title incorporated seventeen additional excerpts spanning soul and pop—“Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” “Dance to the Music,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Sugar Baby Love,” “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” “California Dreamin’”—plus a Supremes medley and instrumental passages from “Star Wars Main Title Theme,” “Kung Fu Fighting,” “Layla,” “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,” “Baker Street,” and “The Eve of the War.”
By autumn 1981 numerous acts had joined the medley wave: the Beach Boys, the Hollies, and the Beatles themselves with “The Beatles Movie Medley” using original vocals; Lobo with a Harry Belafonte-inspired Caribbean medley; Startrax covering the Bee Gees; Gidea Park saluting the Beach Boys; and Tight Fit scoring with “Back to the 60s,” an approach reminiscent of the original bootleg. Even the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra contributed “Hooked on Classics.” Starsound itself continued with Tony Sherman as a Stevie Wonder soundalike on “Stars on Stevie,” Peter Vermeij portraying Mick Jagger on “The Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the World,” Peter Douglas as Frank Sinatra on “Stars on Frankie,” and Patricia Paay, Yvonne Keeley, Sylvana van Veen, and Ingrid Ferdinandusse representing the Andrews Sisters, although the last two performed no vocals.
A third album, built around Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder medleys, surfaced in spring 1982 yet reached only number 94 for a single week. Parodies soon followed, among them Chas & Dave’s “Stars Over 45,” Ivor Biggun’s “Bras on 45,” and “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Polkas on 45.” The session musicians dispersed, leaving Starsound—or Stars on 45—as a vivid but fleeting emblem of the 1981 medley craze. The first two recordings still surface in clubs more than twenty-five years later, particularly in venues where a DJ seeks an instant floor-filler, and Starsound has outlasted the credibility of Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers, who revived the format eight years afterward with initially greater though equally transient impact.
Ali therefore teamed with engineer Paul Richer to refine the medley, inserting contemporary successes such as Lipps, Inc.’s “Funky Town” and the Detroit Spinners’ “Working My Way Back to You” to ease the transition from current hits into the older Beatles selections and thereby prevent the floor from emptying. One of those selections, “Venus,” belonged to Red Bullet Records; when the Dutch label’s manager Freddy Haayen learned of its unauthorized inclusion, he chose commercial opportunity over litigation and instead approached former Golden Earring member Jaap Eggermont. Eggermont assembled session vocalists to replicate the originals legally, enlisting Bas Muys of Smyle to portray John Lennon, Hans Vermeulen of Sandy Coast as George Harrison, and Okkie Huysdens as Paul McCartney. The resulting version retained “Sugar Sugar,” “Venus,” “Funky Town,” and “Video Killed the Radio Star,” added a new linking segment voiced by Jody Pijper that introduced the recurring tag “The Stars on 45 keep on turning in your mind,” and maintained a consistent four-on-the-floor pulse.
Issued first as a sixteen-minute 12-inch single, the track prompted European radio stations to edit it for daytime rotation. Eggermont responded by extracting the “Stars on 45” introduction, the opening verses of “Venus” and “Sugar Sugar,” and an additional three minutes of Beatles material, creating a 7-inch single that ignited a worldwide trend lasting well into the early 1980s. Marketed as Starsound in Europe and as Stars on 45 in the United States, the single carried the longest title ever to appear on the charts because each song publisher demanded inclusion: “Intro Venus/Sugar Sugar/No Reply/I’ll Be Back/Drive My Car/Do You Want to Know a Secret/We Can Work It Out/I Should Have Known Better/You’re Going to Lose That Girl/Stars on 45.” It reached number two in the United Kingdom, largely on 12-inch sales, and topped the U.S. chart, interrupting two separate runs of Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes.”
An expanded album followed within weeks, lengthening the Beatles sequence with “Ticket to Ride,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “Get Back,” “Eight Days a Week,” “It Won’t Be Long,” “Day Tripper,” “Good Day Sunshine,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Taxman,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Things We Said Today,” “If I Fell,” “Please Please Me,” “From Me to You,” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” while restoring several 1960s tracks from the original bootleg—“Sherry” by the Four Seasons, “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” by Neil Sedaka, “Only the Lonely” by Roy Orbison, “Silly Love Songs” by Wings, “Jimmy Mack” by Martha Reeves, “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again” by the Fortunes, and “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” by Brian Hyland. The album peaked at number nine in the United States yet ascended to number one for five weeks in Britain during May and June 1981, finishing the year as the tenth best-selling LP there.
Eggermont next turned to ABBA material, employing Claudia Hoogendoorn to impersonate both Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. In the United States a second Beatles medley had already appeared, but public interest had begun to fade and the release managed only number 67. In Britain, however, “Stars on 45, Vol. 2” duplicated the first volume’s runner-up finish. A second album bearing the same title incorporated seventeen additional excerpts spanning soul and pop—“Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” “Dance to the Music,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Sugar Baby Love,” “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” “California Dreamin’”—plus a Supremes medley and instrumental passages from “Star Wars Main Title Theme,” “Kung Fu Fighting,” “Layla,” “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,” “Baker Street,” and “The Eve of the War.”
By autumn 1981 numerous acts had joined the medley wave: the Beach Boys, the Hollies, and the Beatles themselves with “The Beatles Movie Medley” using original vocals; Lobo with a Harry Belafonte-inspired Caribbean medley; Startrax covering the Bee Gees; Gidea Park saluting the Beach Boys; and Tight Fit scoring with “Back to the 60s,” an approach reminiscent of the original bootleg. Even the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra contributed “Hooked on Classics.” Starsound itself continued with Tony Sherman as a Stevie Wonder soundalike on “Stars on Stevie,” Peter Vermeij portraying Mick Jagger on “The Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the World,” Peter Douglas as Frank Sinatra on “Stars on Frankie,” and Patricia Paay, Yvonne Keeley, Sylvana van Veen, and Ingrid Ferdinandusse representing the Andrews Sisters, although the last two performed no vocals.
A third album, built around Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder medleys, surfaced in spring 1982 yet reached only number 94 for a single week. Parodies soon followed, among them Chas & Dave’s “Stars Over 45,” Ivor Biggun’s “Bras on 45,” and “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Polkas on 45.” The session musicians dispersed, leaving Starsound—or Stars on 45—as a vivid but fleeting emblem of the 1981 medley craze. The first two recordings still surface in clubs more than twenty-five years later, particularly in venues where a DJ seeks an instant floor-filler, and Starsound has outlasted the credibility of Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers, who revived the format eight years afterward with initially greater though equally transient impact.
Albums
40 Years Anthology
2022
The Clubhits
2010
Stars On 45 - The Very Best Of ...
2010
Stars On 45 Volume III Super Maxi Single
1981
Stars On 45 Volume III 7" Single
1981
Stars On '89 Remix
1981
Longplay Album Volume II Remastered
1981
Stars On 45 Volume Two 12"
1981
Stars On 45 More Stars 7"
1981
Long Play Album
1981
Singles
