"Star Wars (Main Title)" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by John Williams | ||||
B-side | "Cantina Band" | |||
Released | July 29, 1977 | |||
Recorded | 1977 | |||
Genre | Film score | |||
Length | 5:52 | |||
Label | 20th Century | |||
Songwriter(s) | John Williams | |||
Producer(s) | George Lucas | |||
John Williams singles chronology | ||||
|
"Star Wars (Main Title)" is a musical theme composed and conducted by John Williams. The 1977 London Symphony Orchestra recording peaked at number ten on Billboard Hot 100 and number thirteen in Canada RPM Top Singles. Meco's disco version of "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" was a global hit in the same year.
It is the main musical theme of Star Wars and is also considered the primary leitmotif for Luke Skywalker, the protagonist of the original Star Wars trilogy. The original 1977 recording was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The track became a hit in the United States (#10) and Canada (#13) during the fall of that year. The composition draws influence from Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for the 1942 film Kings Row [1] and Gustav Holst's Jupiter from his orchestral suite, The Planets.
The B side featured the original movie score of Cantina Band.
"Star Wars (Main Title)" was the lesser of two hits featuring music from Star Wars . Meco's disco version of "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" reached number one concurrently with the chart run of Williams' original movie score version.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
The Star Wars main title theme was covered by Patrick Gleeson a month after the release of the London Symphony Orchestra performance. [12] His version was released in France and the United States.
"Gonna Fly Now", also known as "Theme from Rocky", is the theme song from the movie Rocky, composed by Bill Conti with lyrics by Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins, and performed by DeEtta West and Nelson Pigford. Released in 1976 with Rocky, the song became part of 1970s American popular culture after the film's main character and namesake Rocky Balboa as part of his daily training regimen runs up the 72 stone steps leading to the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia and raises his arms in a victory pose, while the song plays. The song was written in Philadelphia. The song is often played at sporting events, especially in Philadelphia. Most notably, the Philadelphia Eagles play the song before the opening kick-off of every home game at Lincoln Financial Field.
"TSOP " is a 1974 hit recording by MFSB featuring vocals by The Three Degrees. A classic example of the Philadelphia soul genre, it was written by Gamble and Huff as the theme for the American musical television program Soul Train, which specialized in African American musical performers. The single was released on the Philadelphia International Records label. It was the first television theme song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and it is arguably the first disco song to reach that position.
"Never Can Say Goodbye" is a song written by Clifton Davis and originally recorded by The Jackson 5. The song was originally written and intended for the Supremes; however, Motown decided it would be better for the Jackson 5. It was the first single released from the group's 1971 album Maybe Tomorrow, and was one of the group's most successful records. It has been covered numerous times, most notably in 1974 by Gloria Gaynor and in 1987 by British pop group The Communards.
"I Don't Wanna Cry" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey for her eponymous debut studio album (1990). Written by Carey and Narada Michael Walden, and produced by the latter, the song was released as the album's fourth single in March 1991 by Columbia Records.
Domenico Monardo, known as Meco, is an American record producer and musician, as well as the name of his band or production team. Meco is best known for his 1977 space disco version of the Star Wars theme from his album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk; both the single and album were certified platinum in the US.
"Theme from A Summer Place" is a song with lyrics by Mack Discant and music by Max Steiner, written for the 1959 film A Summer Place, which starred Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. It was recorded for the film as an instrumental by Hugo Winterhalter. Originally known as the "Molly and Johnny Theme", this lush extended cue, as orchestrated by Murray Cutter, is not the main title theme of the film, but an oft-heard secondary love theme for the characters played by Dee and Donahue.
"Evergreen" is the theme song from the 1976 film A Star Is Born. It was composed and performed by American singer, songwriter, actress and director Barbra Streisand with lyrics by Paul Williams, and arranged by Ian Freebairn-Smith. The song was released on the soundtrack album to A Star Is Born.
"Keep It Comin' Love" is a song by KC and the Sunshine Band, released as a single in 1977. It appeared on their 1976 album, Part 3. The song, like its predecessor "That's the Way ", became widely successful due to its sexual double entendres.
"Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" is a song recorded by Meco, taken from the album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 1, 1977, holding on to the spot for two weeks and peaked at no. 7 on the UK Singles Chart, remaining in the charts for nine weeks. The single was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, having sold a million units.
"Sweet Talkin' Woman" is a 1978 single by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) from the album Out of the Blue (1977). Its original title was "Dead End Street", but it was changed during recording. Some words that survived from that version can be heard in the opening of the third verse, "I've been livin' on a dead end street".
"I Love the Nightlife " is a popular disco song recorded by American singer Alicia Bridges in 1978. It went to number two on the US Billboard National Disco Action Top 30 for two weeks. It became a crossover hit, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, and found worldwide success, reaching the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands and South Africa, as well as making the reaching the top 30 in the UK. A re-release in 1994 allowed the song to reach number four in New Zealand and number five in Iceland.
"Love's Theme" is an instrumental piece written by Barry White in around 1965, and recorded and released as a single by White's The Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1973. It is one of the few instrumental and purely orchestral singles to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, which it did in early 1974. Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 song for 1974. The piece was included on two albums: 1973's Under the Influence of... Love Unlimited and 1974's Rhapsody in White by the Love Unlimited Orchestra.
Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk is a disco album by Meco released in 1977. The album uses various musical themes from the Star Wars soundtrack arranged as instrumental disco music. A single from the album, "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band", reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 1, 1977, holding to that position for two weeks. The album and single were both certified Platinum, for sales of one million albums and two million singles, on June 8, 1978.
"Theme from S.W.A.T." is an instrumental song written by Barry De Vorzon and performed by American funk group Rhythm Heritage, released on their debut album Disco-Fied. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States on the chart date of February 28, 1976.
"The Hustle" is a disco song by songwriter/arranger Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony. It went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts during the summer of 1975. It also peaked at No. 1 on the Canadian RPM charts, No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart and No. 3 in the UK. It would eventually sell over one million copies. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance early in 1976 for songs recorded in 1975.
Millennium Records is a defunct record label run by record producer Jimmy Ienner from 1976 to 1983. During its RCA-distributed years, a significant portion of its output was content licensed from Canadian record labels.
"Show and Tell" is a popular song written by Jerry Fuller and first recorded by Johnny Mathis in 1972. This original version made it to #36 on the Easy Listening chart.
"I " is an English language cover of the Italian song "Uno dei Tanti", with music by Carlo Donida and lyrics by Giulio "Mogol" Rapetti. The initial version, "Uno dei Tanti", was performed by Joe Sentieri in 1961.
"I'll Try Something New" is a song written by Smokey Robinson and originally released in 1962 by The Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla subsidiary label. Their version was a Billboard Top 40 hit, peaking at #39, and just missed the Top 10 of its R&B chart, peaking at #11. The song was released later as a joint single by Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations, also becoming a charting version on the Billboard 100 pop singles chart, peaking for two weeks in April 1969 at number 25.
"Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is a 1978 instrumental hit single by composer John Williams. It is the main theme of the soundtrack of the movie of the same name. The song became a hit in the United States (#13) and Canada (#12) during the winter of that year.