A Star Wars Christmas Album
in 1980 ,on the heels of the widely hated The Star Wars Holiday Special. Anthony Daniels who made a name for himself as C3PO in the Star Wars films, reprises this role with American music producer and musician Meco Monardo. Giving the world a gift it never knew it needed, a full length Christmas album from the Star Wars universe a mixture of covers and original music written by Yale University Music professor Maury Yeston.
Track List -
"Christmas in the Stars"
"Bells, Bells, Bells"
"The Odds Against Christmas"
"What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?)"
"R2D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas"
"Sleigh Ride"
"Merry, Merry Christmas"
"A Christmas Sighting ('Twas the Night Before Christmas)"
"The Meaning of Christmas"
This album in made history -
Jon Bon Jovi
Here's a name you probably wasn't expecting to come up in a blog about a Star Wars Christmas album. How ever before he took the world by storm with his group Bon Jovi. He was John Francis Bongiovi Jr a young man born in New Jersey. At just 17 he was was sweeping floors at his cousin Tony Bongiovi's recording studio Power Station. When Meco was there recording Christmas in the Stars: The Star Wars Christmas Album, Tony Bongiovi recommended John for the song "R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas", which became his first professional recording he is credited on the album as John Bongiovi.
The Music Industry
Although this cant be confirmed it is believed that this album was one of the music industry's first non-classical-or-jazz projects to be recorded and mixed digitally, and when "What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)" reached No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1980 it was only the third digitally recorded single in the chart's history.
Interesting Facts
Yoda - Frank Oz
Frank Oz who was the puppeteer and voice of Yoda was set to make an appearance on the album's Meaning of Christmas track. However due to some very unfortunate scheduling conflicts with other projects the team decided to create Santa’s son, “S. Claus,” to fill the role (with revised dialog).
There were two songs that didn’t make the final cut.
According to early memos, there appears to have been at least two songs cut from the line-up: “The First Time Any Droid Ever Saw Snow” and “Help You, I Will” (which was probably written for Yoda). It’s unclear if these were ever performed, although it’s been reported that as many as nine unreleased additional tracks were recorded.
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