5 GREAT STAR WARS NOVELTY SONGS

Via Starwars.com:

STARWARS.COM LOOKS BACK AT SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR STAR WARS TRIBUTE TUNES — AND CHECKS IN WITH ONE OF THE FORM’S GREATS.

The influence of the Star Wars universe covers our cultural landscape like sand on Tatooine. And nowhere can you hear it more melodically than with Star Wars-inspired novelty tunes. While creating the ultimate playlist, we found the Force proved remarkably strong with the following five.

5. “Star Warz” by Dickie Goodman

Long before sampling became a buzz word, Goodman worked audio patchwork magic by popularizing the break-in record. These parodies featured Goodman doing faux interviews with characters and figures from popular culture. For the answers, Goodman would use snippets from the hit singles of the day. After skewering Batman, President Nixon, Jaws, King Kong, and a laundry list of others, Goodman released a pair of Star Wars parodies, one in 1977 and another in 1980. “Star Warz” and “Star Warts” have some similarities, but the former rises to the top. During “Star Warz,” when Goodman asks C-3PO how he wound up on Tatooine, the droid replies with a line from Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” (“I blew out my flip-flop”). Goodman also borrows blips from tunes by Peter Frampton, The Emotions, and James Taylor. In 1983, Goodman revisited Star Wars territory with “Return of the Jedi Returns.”

4. “Star Wars Cantina” by Mark Jonathan Davis

Beginning in 2000, Davis, an ace voice actor and musician, began snagging notoriety with his alter-ego, Richard Cheese. As Cheese, Davis puts a Sinatra-style twist on rock and rap songs. A pair of Cheese cuts — traditional readings of Cole Porter classics — can be heard in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Yet in the early 1990s, Davis produced several parody songs under his own name, including “The Star Wars Cantina.” This satire of Barry Manilow’s 1978 disco anthem “Copacabana” finds Davis doing a spot-on Manilow impression, crooning about the “music and blasters and old Jedi masters” found in that wretched hive of scum and villainy.

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