(Jeff Barry/Martin Duiser/Jaap Eggermont/Andy Kim/Robert Van Leeuwen/John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
The brainchild of Jaap Eggermont and Willem van Kooten was not an original idea. It was “inspired” by a bootleg Kooten heard that included “Venus”, to which his publishing house owned the copyright. Instead of litigating, Kooten decided to get even by putting together a legal version with the help of Red Bullet producer Jaap Eggermont, who knew a little something about copyright law. Eggermont not only assembled the session musicians and singers, but co-wrote original music with Martin Duiser and negotiated to pay fractional royalty fees, since they were only using snippets of songs by The Archies, The Beatles, and Shocking Blue. It was an unusual time to release a disco record—1981—but it turned out to be an enormous success, going to #1 in The Netherlands and the United States, #2 in the United Kingdom, and even charted in Mexico and New Zealand. Unsurprisingly, it has the distinction of being the song with the longest title ever to hit the Billboard Top 100. A longer version, including additional material by George Harrison, appears on the album, Stars on Long Play.
Stars on 45 recordings
Radio Recordings RR 3810 ST-RR-39787-SP
Sources