TOS and pop music of the day

[J.T.B.]

A lot of times I think of music to jog my memory and get a feel of times past. When I think of STTMP, for instance, I remember that disco was ending its reign over pop radio, and a "new wave" sound was coming, typified by "My Sharona" and its run as number one, and Blondie's album Eat to the Beat, which I really wanted and got for Christmas, 1979.

TOS was before my time, but out of curiosity I checked the Billboard achive site to find the number one song for the week each OS episode aired. Kind of interesting. Sometimes you get a feel for the psychedelic era, and sometimes for the breadth of popular music. "Love Is Blue" number one for six weeks? I wouldn't have guessed it.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

TAS (now, this stuff I remember well)

 

[Kilana2]

Not surprising that the Monkees are involved. Chekov inherited their hairstyle.

I´m only 36, but I´m familiar with most of this artist. I´m getting old.

 

[Melakon]

I remember most of those in the TOS list, since I was in high school at the time. Paul Mauriat's version did get a lot of airplay, and I remember hearing it on the Top 40 AM station (FM hadn't really taken hold yet). It was an instrumental, and a popular slow dance number for sock hops.

With the other song titles though, you can see why I say the songs in "The Way to Eden" didn't resemble modern rock of the day.

 

[FormerLurker]

Popular music as depicted on TV shows is always about five years behind the actual music charts. That said, there are at least three different versions of the main song, "Headin' Out To Eden" in the episode. One of which is rather well rendered folk, and one I have always wanted to hear the complete version of.

 

[The Old Mixer]

As someone who's been working on building some historical music playlists with a heavy emphasis on the 60s, I'll say that you get a very limited view of what was going on in music at the time from a list of #1 singles.

But it seems like a great opportunity to throw this in:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXQFtjRG_jE[/yt]

With the other song titles though, you can see why I say the songs in "The Way to Eden" didn't resemble modern rock of the day.

I think they were going for more of a non-electric folk style.

 

[Melakon]

Yeah, for me it sounds more like The Lettermen or The Kingston Trio.

 

[Push The Button]

Some of the songs seem to sort of relate to the episode, for instance "You Can't Hurry Love" and Charlie X, "People Got To Be Free" and Spock's Brain, and "Get Back" and Turnabout Intruder.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

It's not perfectly contemporary, because the #1 cover version by the Byrds preceded the episode by over a year, but I've noticed a parallel between "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "The City on the Edge of Forever." The parallel being that it is still the time of war and not yet the time of peace, which is why Edith is at the wrong time.

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late!

KIRK: But she was right. Peace was the way.
SPOCK: She was right, but at the wrong time.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/byrds/turnturnturn.html
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/28.htm

 

[The Old Mixer]

Juxtapose the lyrics of "Crimson and Clover" with Kirk's romance in "Requiem for Methuselah":

Ah, now I don't hardly know her
But I think I could love her

For the last scene, though, we'd have to go back several years: "I Forgot to Remember to Forget".

 

[HIjol]

It's not perfectly contemporary, because the #1 cover version by the Byrds preceded the episode by over a year, but I've noticed a parallel between "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "The City on the Edge of Forever." The parallel being that it is still the time of war and not yet the time of peace, which is why Edith is at the wrong time.

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late!

KIRK: But she was right. Peace was the way.
SPOCK: She was right, but at the wrong time.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/byrds/turnturnturn.html
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/28.htm

Super connection, to my "ear"!

How about:

Wings, "Live and Let Die" for "Miri, Miri", for those seemingly numerous Posters who did not have a chance to see TOS until the early '70's?

 

[FormerLurker]

I'm surprised by the number of titles(just the titles, mind, not the songs) that seem to speak of the episodes they were number one during. For example:

Season One

Dagger of the Mind/96 Tears
Menagerie Part II/You Keep Me Hangin' On
A Taste of Armageddon/Kind of a Drag
City On The Edge of Forever/Happy Together

Season Two

Who Mourns For Adonais/Ode to Billy Joe
The Immunity Syndrome/Hello Goodbye
Return to Tomorrow/Love Is Blue

Season Three

Whom Gods Destroy/I Heard It Through the Grapevine
The Way to Eden/Everyday People
Turnabout Intruder/Get Back

TAS

The Eye of The Beholder/Time In a Bottle
Bem/I Shot the Sheriff

It's kind of strange.

 

[HIjol]

Getting the rights might be a little snarky (totally impossible) but wouldn't it be interesting to re-release the episodes using appropriate pop/classical/alternative/new age music to accompany?

"Spectre of the Gun".....Enzio Morricone "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" music

And, to the Movies!
TMC, (Spocks SpaceDance)....Theme from Ligeti's Requiem/Atmospheres
(When Bowman enters the Star Gate)

 

[J.T.B.]

As someone who's been working on building some historical music playlists with a heavy emphasis on the 60s, I'll say that you get a very limited view of what was going on in music at the time from a list of #1 singles.

Yeah, absolutely. Still, though, when radio was a lot more communal than it is now, the prevalence of a certain song can give a kind of snapshot of a time, and can be a strong memory tie. When I hear Clapton's "I Shot the Sheriff" for instance I can picture our old home, the carpet, the hi-fi, my mom's '70s hairdo etc. And that's about the time I started watching TAS.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Cool thread. Pops you right into those times.

I'm pretty sure it was "John Fred and His Playboy Band," though. The Playboys were with Gary Lewis.