TELSTAR
(Joe Meek)
Ventures: January 1963 LP The Ventures Play Telstar ~ The Lonely Bull (US No.8)
Shadows: August 1981 A-Single
The Ventures were quick off the mark with their organ-led cover, over a dozen live performances having since been captured on record: "I heard it in the car in 1962 before it hit the charts and drove straight to the office to begin recording it" (Don Wilson). Whatever may be thought of the Play ... album as a whole, this is a carefully measured and powerfully implemented imitation which verges on the positively scary at high volume levels (unlike the original with its limited dynamic range): “… a formidable attempt with harps, celestial sounding guitars, and a huge cinemascope-like organ …”, as Dave Burke fearlessly put it (Pipeline 40 [1998] 58). The most recent re-recording likewise (on the 1999 CD V-Gold) lacks nothing in dynamism, though I cannot say I care for the organ sound as compared with that of the brighter, sharper Mark 1 version.
The Shadows’ guitar-led version which was issued as a lead single in 1981 is dynamic and authoritative, agreeable enough if you have a tolerance for disco rhythms, but of course there is really nothing to match the staggeringly successful if decidedly off-the-wall original from The Tornados with that weird and wonderful clavioline and assortment of extra-terrestrial effects.