Star Trekkin'

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"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'" written by John O'Connor, Grahame Lister and Rory Kehoe is a parody song of the original TV series of Star Trek.[1] It was released in 1987 by The Firm.

Origin

The song was written in 1987 based on original verse lyrics by Rory Kehoe. The chorus lyrics and music were written by John O'Connor and Grahame Lister. O'Connor sent copies of the single to UK radio stations, with the studio's phone number on them.

One Liverpool station began giving the phone number out on air and O'Connor began to receive many phone calls from the area, asking for copies of the record. 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.

Recording

"Star Trekkin'" was recorded at Bark Studios, Walthamstow in east London.

Song

Star Trekkin' is a cumulative song. Each time the refrain is sung, one more character's tag line is added:

  • Uhura: "There's Klingons on the starboard bow."
  • 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."

Music Video

A music video utilising stop-motion and puppets was made by the Film Garage.[citation needed]

Album

"Star Trekkin'" was a sufficient success for The Firm to release an album, "Serious Fun", in 1987, through K-Tel in the UK and Dino Music in Australia.[4][5] "Star Trekkin'" was track one, and the album also included previous singles "Arthur Daley ('E's All Right)" and "Superheroes" and the "Arthur Daley" B-side "Cash in Hand", plus eight new tracks. The last track on side one, "Start Wrekkin'", was a slow Beastie Boys pastiche using the same chorus melody as "Star Trekkin'".

See also

  • Stone Trek

References

  1. ↑ "Star Trek Music". Retrieved 1 December 2008. 
  2. ↑ UK Singles Chart info from chartstats.com Retrieved 15 February 2009.
  3. ↑ Elizabeth Knowles (2007), Oxford dictionary of modern quotations, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-920895-1 
  4. ↑ "Firm, The - Serious Fun". Discogs. Retrieved 2012-10-15. 
  5. ↑ "Firm, The - Serious Fun". Discogs. Retrieved 2012-10-15. 

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
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