Star Trekkin'
| "Star Trekkin'" | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Single by The Firm | |
| from the album Serious Fun | |
| Released | 1 June 1987 |
| Genre | Novelty song |
| Length | 3:32 |
| Label | Bark Records |
"Star Trekkin'" is a novelty song written by Rory Kehoe with music by John O'Connor, Graham Lister and Bill Martin. It is a parody of the original TV series of Star Trek.[1] It was released in 1987 by The Firm and was a big hit, being number one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks.
Contents |
[edit] Origin
The song was written in 1987 by group member Rory Kehoe and arranged by John O'Connor and Graham Lister. O'Connor shopped it around to different labels, but none of them were interested. Frustrated, O'Connor pressed 500 copies of the single himself and sent them to UK radio stations, with the studio's phone number on them, just in case major record labels contacted the stations for information about the song.
One Liverpool station began giving the phone number out on air and O'Connor began to receive hundreds of phone calls from the area, asking for copies of the song. Interest was developing rapidly and, when a major label offered to take the single, O'Connor turned them down, having already arranged pressing and distribution.
A Radio 1 disc jockey, Simon Bates, promoted the song and it became an instant hit, spending two weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart[2] and becoming the ninth best-selling single of 1987 in the UK.
The song has become well known in the U.S. due to frequent play on the Dr. Demento Show radio program. It appears on the Rhino Records compilation album The Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection.
[edit] Recording
"Star Trekkin'" was recorded at Bark Studios, Walthamstow in east London. The lyrics were written by Rory Kehoe and arranged by John O'Connor (former owner of Bark Studios) and Graham Lister. The musical arrangement was done by Bill C Martin (who wrote and played all the keyboard parts) with John O'Connor. Vocals were by various people, including O'Connor, Dev Douglas — who did some of the character voices — and Peter Sills. (Sills' own songwriting catalogue includes "When Two Worlds Drift Apart" written for Cliff Richard.)
[edit] Song
The song follows the same pattern as "The Music Man" with each verse introducing a particular character; that character then speaks a particular tag line for each subsequent verse in the song. The song gets more and more raucous as additional characters are introduced and the tag lines are embellished, eventually reaching a sort of psychedelic segue to the final segment of the song.
[edit] Tag lines
- Spock: "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it." This was not actually said in the original Star Trek series but the song has so popularised the phrase that it is now commonly misattributed to the original. The closest equivalent in the original is "No life as we know it" in The Devil in the Dark.[3]
- McCoy: "It's worse than that — he's dead, Jim!"
- Kirk: "We come in peace; shoot to kill."
- Scotty: "Ye cannae change the laws of physics!"
[edit] Music Video
A music video to promote the song was released. The Star Trek characters being clay-based animated figures whereas some of the aliens are rubbery hand puppets.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Star Trek Music". http://stng.36el.com/st-tng/hackman/Music.html. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
- ^ UK Singles Chart info from chartstats.com Retrieved 15 February 2009.
- ^ Elizabeth Knowles (2007), Oxford dictionary of modern quotations, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199208951
[edit] External links
| Preceded by "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" by Whitney Houston |
UK number one single 14 June - 27 June 1987 |
Succeeded by "It's A Sin" by Pet Shop Boys |
