telstar

The Tornados tore up the charts with the space age sounds of this instrumental named after a communications satellite.  'Telstar' was written and produced by Joe Meek in his home studio above a leather shop on London's Holloway Road.  The session included Clem Cattini on drums, Alan Caddy on lead guitar, Roger LaVern on keyboards, George Bellamy on rhythm guitar, and Heinz Burt on bass.  Meek sought to emulate the organ sound in the hit single 'The Happy Organ' by Dave "Baby" Cortez and later brought in studio musician Geoff Goddard who played a Clavioline keyboard on 'Telstar' and did the vocalizations on the song.  Meek also included a backwards recording of a flushing toilet to evoke the sound of a rocket.  The Tornados were not sure about the final result; but the song took off on the charts, going to six in Germany; three in Norway and the Netherlands; number one in Belgium, Ireland, South Africa, and the UK; and in the US it became the first single by a British group to top the pop chart.  'Telstar'  sold five million copies worldwide and went on to win an Ivor Novello Award.  




'Telstar'





Meek later produced a vocal version of the song called 'Magic Star' which was sung by sung by Kenny Hollywood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VJcWYu8zgo




French composer Jean Ledrut accused Joe Meek of plagiarizing his song "La Marche d'Austerlitz"; which kept Meek from getting any royalties from the record during his lifetime.  He committed suicide in 1967 three weeks before the issue was resolved in his favor.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSdvNN8nGps





In 2008, a film adaptation of the play 'Telstar' by James Hicks and Nick Moran was made into a film directed by Moran:  'Telstar:  The Joe Meek Story'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJTWpEmhDns