U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Peak Position No. 60
Backstory: Domenico Monardo was born in 1939 in Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania. He joined his local high school band while still in elementary school, and in 1956, won a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music in New York, which provided him with a proper classical and jazz music education. Starting in the late 60's, he started doing arrangements, like the horn section on Tommy James's "Crystal Blue Persuasion", and even songs for Neil Diamond to sing in Coke commercials. In the early to mid 70's, he met Tony Bongiovi (who is Jon Bon Jovi's older cousin), who produced his most famous single, "Star Wars Theme/ Cantina Band" in 1977, which was a disco version of the famous John Williams score, which became a huge No. 1 hit. Later in 1980, he had a follow up hit with "The Empire Strikes Back" medley, which peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. Two years later in 1982, he had another Top 40 single with "Pop Goes the Movies", which was basically just a medley mash up of certain famous movie scores and soundtrack songs, which peaked at No. 35. Finally, his music career came to an end the next year in '83 when he made a pop and dance remake of the "Ewok Celebration" song from Return of the Jedi. After he retired from music, he became a golfer, although he occasionally goes back to composing and making music every once in a while.
The review: I really should hate this song more than I do, but I just can't. It's definitely nothing good, but it's not necessarily as bad or as cheesy as some other novelty songs. It's pretty fun and catchy too, and Duke Bootee's rap, although cheesy, is a nice little touch. I also love the addition of steel drums in the background melody of this tune.
Final rating: 5/10
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