On October 5 1957, to the surprise and horror of the western world, the USSR successfully launched the first satellite into space. Sputnik 1 was tiny – less than two feet in diameter and 183 lbs in weight – but it was a landmark in the space race. The Americans had no idea that the Soviets had such a capability, and were further startled less than a month latter when Sputnik 2 was launched – this time with a live dog on board. The space race had begun.

 

The following year the Americans launched their Score satellite, which could tape record signals and re-play them, but was really not much more than a gesture that the Russians weren’t going to have it all their own way. It was three years before the Americans put the first true communications satellite in space. Named Echo, it bounced radio and television signals back to earth so that they could be received beyond the horizon, but it was only of use for ten minutes in every ninety minute orbit.

 

The big breakthrough was of course Telstar, which was launched in July 1962, and which could ‘see’ both the USA and Europe at the same time, so could bounce signals between the two continents. It was incredibly primitive by today’s standards but was a huge step forward for the times. Its launch (and successful operation) really fired the public’s imagination on both sides of the Atlantic. We really seemed to be moving into a new age; everything was changing and anything seemed possible. Ten months earlier John F Kennedy had made his breath-taking commitment that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade; Telstar seemed to be the very first step.

 

In a small flat above a shop at 304 Holloway Road in north London, a young West Countryman was similarly inspired. Born in April 1929, Joe Meek had done his national service in the RAF and had been fascinated by the development of radar, and was intrigued by the possibilities of space exploration. After leaving the air force he had become a sound engineer, firstly with Radio Luxembourg, but had been noticed for his work on Humphrey Lyttleton’s huge hit Bad Penny Blues. It was no surprise that the launch of Telstar fired his imagination.

 

Exactly five weeks after the launch, Joe had finished what was to be one of the most successful British instrumental records of all time. Having written the piece, Joe recruited The Tornados to record it, and found the electronic keyboard instrument known as a ‘clavioline’ – a forerunner of the Hammond organ – to provide its distinctive core sound.
Telstar was recorded in the cramped surroundings of Joe’s flat, as were all his records, though you’d never guess it from the sound of the finished piece. At three minutes and twenty six seconds it was quite long for a single, and it was released on the Decca label in the UK and their London label in America. It was a stunning and utterly original piece of music; catchy and commercial on one level, yet with real depth and innovation on another.
The melody was tapped out on the clavioline using only the right hand for almost all the record, and it’s backed up by a very relaxed bass line and guitar parts which include both very fast chord changes and two lovely, soaring solos – which, it must be said, owe a lot to the style of Hank Marvin.

 

Telstar was a massive and immediate hit. It went to number one in Britain, and was in the charts for all of twenty five weeks. Through late ’62 the song seemed to be everywhere; it was there when you turned on the wireless, it was playing when you walked into any establishment that could boast a juke box. The song was being whistled and hummed in every street in the land. It was an enormous hit.

 

That wasn’t all. It was released in the USA and went to the top of the charts there too, which was a heck of an achievement for a British single (pre-Beatles, that is) let alone an instrumental (though Acker Bilk’s Stranger On The Shore had achieved exactly that the previous May!).

 

In a way, and though it’s cruel to say so, The Tornados were almost incidental to the record. They - Alan Caddy and George Bellamy on guitars, Roger La Vern playing keyboards, Heinz Burt on bass and Clem Cattini playing drums – were good musicians, but Joe would have had a hit with Telstar almost no matter who he had brought in to cut it. The sound was in his head, down to the last note (and the sound effects), and the band was just the conduit by which he realised the music.

 

Joe had brought the group together to be his ‘house’ band, and earlier in 1962 they had recorded a single, Love And Fury, which wasn’t a hit. They then record The Breeze and I but The Fentones had a bigger impact with the song. After Telstar they saw three Top Twenty hits – none of which was truly memorable though. They recorded fifteen singles in all, going through until 1966, of which, after that initial bunch, one made it into the charts at number 44 and the others made no impact at all. They broke up in ’66.

 

Joe, perhaps fired by his penchant for good looking young men, decided that he could make Heinz, into a solo star. In the summer of 1963 he recorded him singing Just Like Eddie – a tribute to Eddie Cochran, who had died in a car crash three years earlier. It was a strong rock ‘n roll song and got to number five, but though Heinz (having dropped his surname) released four more Meek-produced singles, not one of them got into the Top Twenty.

 

The Tornados’ drummer did go on to great things though. Clem Cattini (born with the wonderful name Clemente Anselmo Cattini) became one of this country’s most prolific session drummers, and has played on an incredible total of 45 number one hits – from Shakin' All Over by Johnny Kidd And The Pirates, to the huge charity hit Is This the Way to Amarillo? by Tony Christie and Peter Kay. Along the way he’s worked with Ike and Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, and Lou Reed – and was Jimmy Page’s first choice to play drums in what became Led Zeppelin. A greatly respected guy, he’ll be 72 this year.

 

By early 1967 Joe was dead, and to be honest it’s not easy to see how he fitted into the mid-Sixties music scene. His heyday was earlier, and of all his many recording, Telstar was surely his finest moment. And now that you’ve read this, you’re going to be humming the song for the rest of the day …

 

TOP TEN TELSTAR FACTS

• The B-side, Do You Come Here Often, was Britain’s first openly gay record
• Telstar is Margaret Thatcher’s favourite piece of music
• Heinz Burt died in Hampshire on April 7 2000, aged 57
• French composer Jean Ledrut sued Joe Meek, claiming plagiarism over the song’s melody
• Because of this Joe received no royalties during his life time
• Joe Meek recorded a version of Telstar with lyrics, under the name Magic Star and sung by Kenny Hollywood, later in 1962
• The Telstar satellite was only in use until February 21 1963
• It was replaced with Telstar 2, launched on May 7 1963
• Although the Telstars were launched by NASA, they were built by Bell Telephone Laboratories and were owned by AT&T
• The first image relayed by Telstar was a flag flying outside the Andover Earth Station