I had forgotten about this – after the Carpenters frankly strange yet inspired choice of covering Klaatu’s psych pop odyssey ‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft‘ they made their own ‘Star Wars Christmas Special’ after it was a surprise hit.
Apparenetly Karen was a big disco fan, but it doesn’t get stranger than her covering Heatwave’s Boogie Nights and her and Richard dancing The Hustle – after a corny disco squaredance (this is the Carpenters after all) at 41 mins in. I actually like her version, I wish she had been allowed to do more, but the powers than be didn’t think it fit her image, sadly.
And 1978 was an amazing year for disco but also seemingly the worst year for TV music specials?
The version of ‘Calling…’ on the special is good but I miss the funny DJ intro (he does appear in the special in a flashback doing that voice, and indeed playing guitar as it’s their guitarist Tony Peluso). Still one of my favourite songs of all time…not being ironic.
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