Star Trekkin'
| "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][3] and becoming the ninth best-selling single of 1987 in the UK. The song has become well known in the US 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".[4] It might be that the writers took this phrase from an essay written by the famous (science-)fiction author Isaac Asimov, written in 1981, called "Not As We Know It. The Chemistry of Life".
- McCoy: "It's worse than that — he's dead, Jim!"
- Kirk: "We come in peace; shoot to kill."
- Scotty: "Ye canna change the laws of physics!"
Music video
A music video utilising stop-motion and puppets was made by the Film Garage.[5]
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.[6][7] "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
- ↑ "Star Trek Music". Retrieved 1 December 2008.
- ↑ "ChartArchive - The Chart Archive". Chartstats.com. Retrieved 2014-03-30.
- ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 476. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ↑ Elizabeth Knowles (2007), Oxford dictionary of modern quotations, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-920895-1
- ↑ "Studio report | Animator Mag - Library". Animator Mag. 2010-08-28. Retrieved 2014-03-30.
- ↑ "Firm, The - Serious Fun". Discogs. Retrieved 2012-10-15.
- ↑ "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 |