Telstar (song)
Telstar was the title of an instrumental hit named after the television satellite of the same name , which in 1962 in the version of Tornados became the world's best-selling instrumental title of all time.
History of origin
Robert George "Joe" Meek had worked as a technician and producer in several independent London recording studios since 1953 before he set up the facility in 1960 with the earned royalties of his composition Put a Ring on My Finger , published in August 1958 in the version by Les Paul & Mary Ford financed his own recording studio. British rock and roll interpreter Tommy Steele took on a cover version of this as the B-side of the single Come On Let's Go , released in November 1958 .
The sound studio built in rented rooms was opened on September 12, 1960 under the name RGM Sounds Ltd. registered. Although it was not state of the art in audio engineering, Meek made up for it with his technical expertise and creativity. In particular, he developed a device for greater compression of sounds, on which he had his name engraved, or an echo device developed from a fan heater.
On July 10, 1962, the first TV satellite from the US company AT&T was launched under the name "Telstar". Meek also saw the news about this, which inspired him to compose an instrumental piece that same evening. Meek asked the tornadoes (in the USA: Tornadoes ) , which were in the middle of a tour , to go to his RGM recording studio on Sunday morning, July 15, 1962, to rehearse and record the song with them. First the arrangements were made , then the rhythm tracks for the A and B sides were leveled in the twelve-hour marathon. The following Monday the guitar breaks were recorded within four hours , so the group could travel to their afternoon concert in Great Yarmouth after 2pm. Alan Caddy (lead guitar), George Bellamy (rhythm guitar), Heinz Burt (bass guitar), Roger LaVern (second keyboard, a Lowrey organ ) and Clem Cattini (drums) contributed to the recording of the tornados . Meek was not yet satisfied with the result and later had Geoff Goddard play the main melody on a battery-powered, monophonic piano violin (only one key could be operated at the same time, chord playing was not possible). Goddard was trained as a pianist at the university and was the composer of many pop songs for Meek.
In post-production, Meek decided to overdub the song three times over the three octaves. Next, Meek imitated a rocket launch sound that was created with the help of a self-oscillating tape delay. The large number of overdubbings, in particular, lower the medium and low frequencies to an acoustic blurring. An accelerated piano part leads to harp-like arpeggios . Even the sound of the lead guitar is underlaid with an echo, with the echo effects being generated by the heating coils of a converted fan heater. The classic Joe Meek sound is brought to bear here: The sound effects Limiting (early throttling of a sound signal) and compression (reduces the dynamic range and therefore makes certain sounds sound fuller) are used here excessively, as in the Record industry had not been common before.
publication
Meek offered the master tape to British Decca Records , which was initially appalled by the excessive level of limiting and compression. Telstar / Jungle Fever (composed by Goddard) (Decca F11494) was finally published on August 17, 1962, making use of the topicality of the satellite model.
The instrumental recording, provided with orbital sounds, hit the British charts on August 30, 1962 , where it reached first place on October 4 and stayed there for five weeks. After just three weeks, 250,000 copies had been sold, and by October four million copies had been sold in the UK alone. In the USA , the timing was not so perfect, because the title did not hit the pop charts until November 3, 1962, where it took the top position for three weeks. With nearly seven million copies sold worldwide, it was the top-selling British hit by 1964 and the top-selling instrumental title. The single was the first British single in a group to top the US charts and was awarded the Ivor Novello Prize for "best-selling A-side of 1962". Meek had negotiated royalties of five percent with Decca and received £ 29,000 , which suggests record sales of £ 580,000.
Plagiarism process
A plagiarism lawsuit cost Meek all his strength and fortune. The plaintiff in March 1963 was the Frenchman Jean Ledrut, who wrote the soundtrack for the French film La Marche d'Austerlitz in 1960 (Pathé 45 EA 374; May 1960). The historical drama was released in French cinemas on June 17, 1960 and was only shown in Great Britain in 1965 (in Germany: Austerlitz - shine of an imperial crown ). Ledrut sued Meek in a Paris court, claiming that Meek had shamelessly adopted passages from his film music; there were certain similarities. Ledrut initially enforced an injunction that all royalties from Telstar were frozen for the time being. Joe Meek did not live to see the end of the trial because he committed suicide on February 3, 1967. In 1968 the court awarded the French 8,500 pounds (around 250,000 euros today), but otherwise dismissed the lawsuit because of only four identical measures (“similar but not identical”) and lifted the license block in favor of Meek's heirs . In the judgment, Meek was praised posthumously, because it emphasized that not only the melody is decisive, but the sound and the entire production-related preparation of the piece must be seen as an overall performance. This was the first time that the innovative work of a music producer was legally recognized as an independent creative achievement.
Cover versions
In 1963, Camillo Felgen published a German version under the title Telstar (Somewhere Awakens a New Day) with a German text by Carl Ulrich Blecher. A total of 34 titles are copyright registered for Joe Meek at ASCAP . There are at least 26 cover versions in total. In 2003 Magic Records in France released a sampler called "Telstarmania", distributed by MAM Productions, with 22 different versions of Telstar, under the number "MAM 106", 3930350, EAN 3700139303504.
Individual evidence
- ↑ which only came to 32nd place in the US charts
- ↑ according to today's value about 133,000 euros
- ↑ named after the initials of his full name
- ↑ the group had been Billy Fury's backing band since February 1962
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 169
- ^ Jon Kutner / Spencer Leigh, 1000 UK # 1 Hits , 2005, p. 141
- ↑ "Sufficiency semblable pour avoir été copiée, mais aussi suffisamment differente pour ne pas l'avoir été"
- ↑ Being Caught Stealing via Telstar ( Memento of the original from December 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Jeremy Simmons, The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches , 2008, p. 13
- ^ Joe Meek / Robert George Meek in the ASCAP database
- ↑ Cover info about Telstar
