May the 4th Be With You: Remembering the Bizarre 'Star Wars' No. 1 Disco Hit

Live On: 5/6/15 At 9:04 AM HaveNo comments.

May the 4th Be With You: Remembering the Bizarre 'Star Wars' No. 1 Disco Hit

Whether you like it or not, the Internet is full of those wishing "May the 4th be with you" today, May 4. 

So in honor of the greatest film trilogy of all time, we're looking back on the disco-fied version of the Star Wars theme song that ruled the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in 1977.
Created by Pennsylvania-born producer Meco -- and hailing from an album titled (no joke) Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk -- this Chic take on John Williams' iconic theme is one of the biggest instrumental hits of all time. It's also one of the most frequently ignored parts of Star Wars lore (the pornographic Jetsons cover art is partly to blame for that).
Consider this: A 10-hour marathon of the Mos Eisley cantina band music -- part of which is interpolated into the disco Star Wars theme -- has 3 million views on YouTube. But the top two results for Meco's version of the Star Wars theme on YouTube aren't even close to cracking a million views -- combined. (Hell, even a Maroon 5 "Moves Like Jabba" parody is more popular than this song.)

But make no mistake: Meco's disco version of the Star Wars theme is pure pleasure from start to finish. Is it cheesy? Yes. Was it a crass commercial cash-in? Of course. But when has stopped us from loving Star Wars before?

Back in 1977, a disco version of Star Wars probably didn’t seem that ill-advised. Disco was the most innovative new music genre making real headway on the charts; Star Wars was the most wildly successful movie from a crop of up-and-coming Hollywood directors.
It only made sense that Star Wars and disco, finding themselves awash with instant success and excess money, would copulate behind closed doors to produce this beautiful love child. And for two weeks, America got caught up in the heat of the moment and made "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" the No. 1 single in the country.

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