 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Sep 2, 2023 - 10:46 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Hedji
(Member)
|
Meco Monardo passed away in May of this year.
Didn’t make the headlines but I follow him on Facebook. I’m sad. Meco helped in his own way to make make Star Wars and John Williams the sensation they were with his Disco version that burned up the radio charts. He also produced the Star Wars Christmas Album, and did disco versions of Close Encounters, Superman, ET, the Black Hole, Star Trek TMP, etc. Everything he produced had a quality to it. Good orchestration, and a nice fusion of pop and symphonic elements. Like Alexander Courage, Joel McNeely, and Stu Phillips, Meco also studied at the Eastman School of Music, of which John Williams is no stranger.
He did good things that made film music even more accessible to the public. Rest in Peace.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Will there be a disco arrangement of Marche Funèbre played?
(but seriously, I did try to find one but failed)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wow, sad news. I completely ate up his music and hunting down his albums and 45s back in my youth.
Decades later, I had posted some customized jewel case insert layouts I did of his albums when I burned some of my LPs to CD, and he saw them on my website and reached out to me. I think he'd lost the rights to his original disco albums, so he re-recorded new versions and produced "Star Wars Party". And he asked me to create the cover art for it. He was really supportive of my art, even tho' looking back on it, my art was very stiff looking compared to how I'd approach it today. Honestly, it wasn't my best work. LOL But in return, he mailed me autographed CDs of the produced album as well as a CD with Swingtime's Greatest Hits and Pop Goes the Movies on it. I also have a VHS tape he sent marked "MECO/WIZARD"; I think I remember he did a performance of his Wizard medley on a TV special. That must be on this.
Anyway, thanks to the OP for opening the thread and letting me reminisce. I love his music and still enjoy playing is from time to time.
RIP Meco Monardo
Blorcas
1st: Mai Thee
2nd: Phor Spee
3rd: Whith U
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I saw someone post he died on his Facebook page too, but with a lot of searches I could not find one article or obituary about it. I believe he may have been living in Florida.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Sep 2, 2023 - 12:11 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Hedji
(Member)
|
Wow, sad news. I completely ate up his music and hunting down his albums and 45s back in my youth.
Decades later, I had posted some customized jewel case insert layouts I did of his albums when I burned some of my LPs to CD, and he saw them on my website and reached out to me. I think he'd lost the rights to his original disco albums, so he re-recorded new versions and produced "Star Wars Party". And he asked me to create the cover art for it. He was really supportive of my art, even tho' looking back on it, my art was very stiff looking compared to how I'd approach it today. Honestly, it wasn't my best work. LOL But in return, he mailed me autographed CDs of the produced album as well as a CD with Swingtime's Greatest Hits and Pop Goes the Movies on it. I also have a VHS tape he sent marked "MECO/WIZARD"; I think I remember he did a performance of his Wizard medley on a TV special. That must be on this.
Anyway, thanks to the OP for opening the thread and letting me reminisce. I love his music and still enjoy playing is from time to time.
RIP Meco Monardo
Blorcas
1st: Mai Thee
2nd: Phor Spee
3rd: Whith U
Great memories. Please share your art if you can. Would love to see it and celebrate the life of Meco.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wow. I was only listening to his Star Wars again the other day, it always pulls me back to 1977/1978, especially the single edit, and I was wondering how he was. I suppose most fans forget Star Wars was released in the heady days of disco, I always think it's a mark of how special that film is when one marvels how the world was back when the film originally came out.
It's unlikely in the extreme, but I'd love to see Meco's albums released on CD, and his The Empire Strikes Back ep in particular, which is my favourite. I played that ep to death in 1980. Some tracks were later included on a Meco Star Wars disc but they were horrendous refits/ remixes. I don't know why they were messed with.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some tracks were later included on a Meco Star Wars disc but they were horrendous edits/ remixes. I don't know why they were messed with
(an earlier post here says he lost the rights to original recordings? I hate such legal nonsense, it's not as if anyone else was doing anything with those masters).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sorry double post
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wow, sad news. I completely ate up his music and hunting down his albums and 45s back in my youth.
Decades later, I had posted some customized jewel case insert layouts I did of his albums when I burned some of my LPs to CD, and he saw them on my website and reached out to me. I think he'd lost the rights to his original disco albums, so he re-recorded new versions and produced "Star Wars Party". And he asked me to create the cover art for it. He was really supportive of my art, even tho' looking back on it, my art was very stiff looking compared to how I'd approach it today. Honestly, it wasn't my best work. LOL But in return, he mailed me autographed CDs of the produced album as well as a CD with Swingtime's Greatest Hits and Pop Goes the Movies on it. I also have a VHS tape he sent marked "MECO/WIZARD"; I think I remember he did a performance of his Wizard medley on a TV special. That must be on this.
Anyway, thanks to the OP for opening the thread and letting me reminisce. I love his music and still enjoy playing is from time to time.
RIP Meco Monardo
Blorcas
1st: Mai Thee
2nd: Phor Spee
3rd: Whith U
Great memories. Please share your art if you can. Would love to see it and celebrate the life of Meco.
I'll have to dig up the layouts he saw that led him to me. But in trying to find something about him online, I found this article done in 2015. It's pretty comprehensive, some details I was aware, but most I didn't know or have a more intimate description of. And lo and behold at the end of the article is my Star Wars Party cover art. Eew! LOL I can tell it was when I hadn't had a lot of experience using Photoshop yet.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/the-wild-story-of-disco-star-wars-how-the-203602992.html
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I soon got the real thing too, of course, but I enjoyed Meco’s version also, and got most of his later albums. So there’s quite a bit of nostalgia involved for me here.