Star Trekkin'

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“Star Trekkin'”

Song by The Firm
Released	1987
Genre	Filk

Star Trekkin' is a novelty song released in 1987 by a band called The Firm (not to be confused with the British rock group or the hip-hop supergroup of the same name). It is a parody of the original TV series of Star Trek.[1]

1 Origin
2 Song
3 Recording
4 The tag lines
5 See also

[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 willing to release it. Frustrated, O'Connor decided to press 500 copies of the single himself and released them to UK radio stations, with the studio's phone number on them, just in case major record labels contacted the radio stations for information about the song.

However one station began giving the phone number out on air and O'Connor began to receive hundreds of phone calls, from the Liverpool area, asking for copies of the song. By this time interest was snowballing rapidly and when a major label did finally offer to take the single O'Connor turned them down, having already secured pressing and distribution.

Simon Bates - then a BBC Radio 1 DJ - took the song under his wing with the result that it became an instant hit, spending two weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart and becoming the ninth best-selling single of 1987 in the UK.

[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] 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 John himself, Dev Douglas— who did some of the character voices—and Peter Sills. Peter's own songwriting catalogue includes 'When Two Worlds Drift Apart', written for Cliff Richard.

[edit] The tag lines

Aliens: "Star trekkin' across the universe. On the starship enterprise under Captain Kirk. Star Trekkin' across the universe. Boldly going forward 'cause we can't find reverse (1st chorus) Still can't find reverse (2nd chorus) Totally going forward and things are getting worse (3rd Chorus)"
Uhura: "There's Klingons on the starboard bow."
Spock: "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it."
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] See also

Stone Trek

Preceded by "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" by Whitney Houston	UK number one single June 16, 1987 for 2 weeks	Succeeded by "It's A Sin" by Pet Shop Boys