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Music CD - Various Artists: Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album
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Music CD: Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album
Artist: Various Artists
List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $99.99
Your Save: $ ( % )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Christmas in the Stars
2. Bells, Bells, Bells - Crewe, B.
3. The Odds Against Christmas
4. What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?)
5. R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas
6. Sleigh Ride
7. Merry, Merry Christmas
8. A Christmas Sighting ('Twas the Night Before Christmas)
9. The Meaning of Christmas
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0081227252922
Label: Rhino / Wea
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Rhino / Wea
Release Date: 1996-10-15
Studio: Rhino / Wea
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT
Comment: Sadly, I don't think most people today, even the newer Star Wars fans, will understand what we who experienced this album as kids do. It is terribly cheesy but that's its charm. It's geared toward kids, period. I still have the record from 1981(packed away safe) as well as the CD which I still listen to EVERY Christmas. It brings back all of the amazing memories of Christmases as a kid. It's upbeat, fun and a little 'lyrically challenged' and still perfect, for me anyway. If you're listening to it for the first time, brace yourself. After several listens, hopefully, it will grow on you............and not in a bad way.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hearts of Joy
Comment: My heart is full of joy, full of joy, full of joy, and music's in the air....Christmas is NOT Christmas without Star Wars' Christmas in the Stars!! By far my most cherished Christmas album since I was a kid!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A hilariously funny album
Comment: This hilariously funny album came out in 1980, and features C-3PO (Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in all six Star Wars movies!), and R2-D2 (sounds provided by Ben Burtt who did the "voice" of R2-D2 for all six Star Wars movies), with various backups, including the first ever appearance of a young Jon Bon Jovi! The songs are all cute and upbeat, ranging from the toe-tapper "Christmas in the Stars" to the goofy "What Can You Get a Wookie for Christmas, When He Already Owns a Comb?"
OK, let me start out by saying that this is a goofy Christmas album, one that is obviously aimed at very young fans of Star Wars. It came out right after The Empire Strikes Back, and was an obvious attempt to cash in on the movie's popularity. But, is it really "utter cr*p" as some have claimed? No, it isn't. I mean, if you are very young, or very young at heart (and a Star Wars fan), then you enjoy its offbeat hilarity. I know I did.
I enjoyed this offbeat, extraordinarily different Christmas album, and I highly recommend it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Laughably Unbearable Ungodly Horror
Comment: Let's examine the track entitled "The Odds of Christmas". C-3PO opens this number pontificating on the likilihood of Christmas existing. Now if you know the original Star Wars film trilogy (episodes IV-VI), C-3PO only elicits the odds of something happening when our heroes are in mortal peril and must defy the odds. One would wonder, then, just what peril this album portends. It's a pity the songrwiter (reportedly a music teacher at Yale - pah!) here didn't identify this irony earlier. Oh, wait. He never did. But of course music may just be music, and I'm not going to rant that this music will wreak moral destruction on you (I believe some music can).
But let's examine some of the reasons C-3PO divulges as to why Christmas might *not* exist. The odds against Christmas existing, we are told, are 365 to 1. Of course, this is because there are 365 days in a year, and Christmas could only possibly exist on December 25th. If society picked any other date, there's no concievable way it could work. So it's a good thing they picked that date! After all, 3PO reasons, they might have invented the wheel on December 25th! If that had happened then, we might not have ever celebrated Christmas. Because we might have at any time peered back through, like, history, and found scrawls on a stone in Turkey that translated: "Dec. 25th. Invented Wheel. Impressed Grolanka; she want move into cave with me. Head Gronk say OK, you marry. Told no one I didn't invent wheel. Strange creature showed me wheel. Thank you, E.T. E.T. Phone Home." It could happen! Extraterrestrial Wheel Day might have stolen Christmas, but it didn't! We should be grateful! Another of 3PO's reasons: bad old King John might have been cornered into signing the Magna Carta on December 25th! If that had happened, Christmas might not exist. That ol' wicked king, he just about stoled Christmas, he did! Good thing he was cornered on, er.. um.. Magnitum.. Carteria.. day.. instead! Otherwise, the cultural and religious forces bringing about Christmas might have been brought to a dead halt in the name of the progress of human law and liberty! You see, these two things could not happen on the same day. Remember, it has to revolve around only one possible day, and Christmas *and* the Magna Carta happening all on one day? It's just too much. There just isn't enough room in one day for human liberty and the birth of a savior! What could the latter have to do with notions of liberty, anyway? But aren't you glad Christmas happened on some day other than.. Magnitum.. Carteria.. ? Wait a minute, should I have had a day off work to celebrate the signing of the Magna Carta? But anyway, by Christmas taking up the slot of .. december 25th.. it left.. only.. 364 slots open.. wait. *Could* Christmas have happened on any other day? When did all these people start giving each other presents and decorating trees, anyway? When *did* Christmas happen? I'm asking my history teacher.
With that kind of thought going into the lyrics and premesis of any song, what are the odds of the music being a standout despite? Well, it is very skillfully done, I'll give it that. But with this level of cultural thought ya gotta place the odds of this having occured as laughably unbearable music at 365 to 364. If only they had *composed* the songs on Christmas. But there wasn't enough room on that day..
There are, however, various conditions or occurences which can lead to the enjoyment of this album. Here are a few.
1. Snuffing bantha pudu
2. An infestation of Hutt, Rancor, and other intergalactic giant disgusting creature sewage in your ground water
3. Watching the Star Wars films more than thirty times in your life, as opposed to the average, say, 5-30 times
4. Having no diverse musical exposure whatever
5. Having your parents, who have no diverse musical exposure whatever, play this on Christmas morning when you are an overly impressionable child, prey to such horrid aesthetic victimizations.
6. Being a music teacher at Yale
7. Placing Yoda on the same pedestal as Plato
8. Snuffing more bantha pudu
9. Snuffing even more bantha pudu.
10. Snuffing still more bantha pudu.
I must say, however, that it is great fun to listen to this album from a vantage of enjoyment and marveling at how terrible it is. In fact, on that tack it deserves five stars. But most folks I know who run accross this music first recoil in agony and start cursing the person who presumed to share it with them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Deck the Halls with Droids
Comment: What do droids, Chewbacca, legendary disco producer Meco and rocker Jon Bon Jovi have in common? They all celebrate the holidays on Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album. With memorable tunes such as "What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?)" and C-3PO's retelling ofa sci-fi infused "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," the album is a quirky addition to any holiday music collection. In fact, the record was so sought after by collectors, that in 1996 Rhino records and Lucasfilm, Ltd. decided to re-release Christmas in the Stars for eager fans.
The album's story takes place in a droid factory where robots trudge away at building toys year round for S. Claus. However they don't understand the meaning of Christmas until C-3PO and R2-D2 show them how to appreciate the holiday spirit. Even Artoo adds to the season festivities by learning how to whistle the catchy Christmas ditty, "Sleigh Ride." Later we learn who gets what from their wish list: a scarf for Luke Skywalker, perfume for Princess Leia and earmuffs for Han Solo.
Recorded in 1980, many of the album's songs were written by Maury Yeston, a Yale University music professor and composer. Producer Meco Monardo, who already topped the charts with his best-selling disco albumsStar Wars And Other Galactic Funk and Encounters of Every Kind, envisioned and supervised the unusual project.
British actor Anthony Daniels lent his voice to reprise his role as C-3PO and Lucasfilm's sound artist Ben Burtt provided the sound effects of R2-D2 and Chewbacca.
However, the most trivia-worthy album liner note is the debut of a then 18-year-old Jon Bon Jovi, who ends up singing with a high school choir on "R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas." At the time the album was in production, Jon Bon Jovi , then known as John Bongiovi, swept floors and did odd jobs at the famous New York City recording studio Power Station, ran by Jon's cousin Tony Bongiovi. As Meco auditioned singers for Christmas in the Stars, Tony suggested Jon for one of the lead vocal parts, and the rest is caroling history. Soon after Jon's singing debut, he recorded his own demo at the Power Station which included a hit song called "Runaway." The single eventually lead to a deal with Mercury in 1983.
Even though Christmas in the Stars did not lead to a series of additional Star Wars holiday-themed albums as Meco initially had planned, the album still remains a favorite among movie and music collectors alike.
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