Telstar (instrumental)

Telstar was a 1962 instrumental record by The Tornados.

It was the first record by a British group ever to go to Number 1 in the United States charts. It is named for the AT&T communications satellite Telstar.

It was written and produced by Joe Meek and featured a clavioline.

The name and sound of this novelty record was intended to invoke the dawn of the space age, with sound effects meant to sound "space-like". A story common when the number was first a hit said that the distortions and background noise on the record was from sending the signal up to the Telstar satellite and then re-recording it back on earth, but it actually seems to have been done in the recording studio. More plausible stories say that the sounds intended to symbolize radio signals were actually produced by Meek by running a pen around the rim of an ashtray, and the "rocket blastoff" was a flushing a toilet, in both cases the recordings of mundane sounds made to sound exotic by playing the tape in reverse at various speeds.

The tune was a hit quickly after its release in August of 1962, staying the UK pop charts for 25 weeks, 5 of them at Number 1, and in the USA charts for 16 weeks. It was reportedly also a favourite of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.