Song of the Week 04: The Western Star (Telstar)

I’m a big fan of well-crafted instrumentals like the ones that charted from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. A Little Farther West tries to include several on each of our albums.

“The Western Star” aka “Telstar” first was written and produced by London wunderkind Joe Meek in August of 1962. The previous month had marked the launch of the Telstar communications satellite and Meek sought to capitalize on the event with this instrumental by his group The Tornados. The record was a huge success worldwide selling over five million copies and hitting No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in December of 1962.

The Tornados’ subsequent releases never surpassed their initial accomplishment and Joe Meek succumbed to suicide in 1967. One member of the group, rhythm guitarist George Bellamy, is the father of Matt Bellamy, frontman for the Grammy-winning rock trio Muse.

I long have felt the song had a “western” movie feel and a very strong melody that would fit our low-string tremolo guitar treatment. So “Telstar” became “The Western Star” and leads off our first album “A Little Farther West.”