BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1978
DISCO FRIDAY!
I thought this 12″ would be a fitting Disco Friday release since to the feature film “Oz The Great And Powerful” opens in theaters in the US. The film stars James Franco as Oz The Great And Powerful and is a prequel to the 1939 classic “The Wizard Of Oz”.
Meco (real name Domenico Monardo; born November 29, 1939) is an American record producer and musician, as well as the name of a band or production team based around him. Meco is best known for his 1977 space disco version of the Star Wars theme from his album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk; both the single and album were certified platinum in the U.S.
In early 1978 came Meco’s third album , and this time it was the music from The Wizard Of Oz which got transformed into a disco album by the same name, as Meco described: “It is my best work bar none.” From this album came the hit single “Themes From The Wizard of Oz”. On October 2, 1978 the single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at #35, after spending three weeks on the chart.
This special one sided Disco 12″ is pressed on translucent yellow vinyl.
SIDE A:
The Wizard Of Oz (Special Disco Version) 17:51
Over The Rainbow
Cyclone
Munchkinland
We’re Off To See The Wizard (The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz)
Poppies
Optimistic Voices
The Merry Old Land Of Oz
The Haunted Forest (The Attack Of The Monkeys)
March Of The Winkies
Dorothy’s Rescue
Over The Rainbow
The Reprise: Delirious Escape • Over The Rainbow • Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead • Munchkinland
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint (Company)
CHARTS:
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | The Wizard Of Oz | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #35 |
| 1978 | The Wizard Of Oz | U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | #30 |
| 1978 | The Wizard Of Oz | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance/Disco | #35 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Millennium – MND-20621-DJ
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 RPM, Promo, Single Sided, Yellow Transparent
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Electronic, Funk / Soul
Style: Disco
Credits: Producer – Meco Monardo, Tony Bongiovi
Producer, Arranged By – Harold Wheeler
NOTES:
℗ 1978 Millennium Record Co., Inc
Mastered At Sterling
Find The 12″ On DISCOGS
EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 24bit/96kHz and16bit /44kHz using iZotope RX Advanced 2
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
Thanks Paul,
Found out that there was a CD of wizard of oz in 2014. Search of internet lead me here, I passed this up the first time because I had a 2007 vinyl rip of album.
Thanks. 🙂
http://www.discogs.com/Meco-The-Wizard-Of-Oz/release/6967784
This is a strange one. I have on my hard drive this and Meco: Star Wars theme Cantino band in 320 but not FLAC. Seems the Star Wars one is no longer on this site!
Right… this must be the greatest 18mn ever spent!
Thanks for the unique discovery!!!
Here is the track listing from the vinyl album release from (I Think) 1978: A1 Over The Rainbow (1:58) A2 Cyclone (3:43) A3 Munchkinland (1:19) A4 Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead (2:00) A5 Munchkinland (Again) (0:40) A6 We’re Off To See The Wizard (The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz) (3:32) B1 Poppies (1:12) B2 The Spell (1:42) B3 Optimistic Voices (1:31) B4 The Merry Old Land Of Oz (1:14) B5 The Haunted Forest (1:22) B6 March Of The Winkies (1:20) B7 Dorothy’s Rescue (1:11) B8 If I Were King Of The Forest (0:57) B9 Over The Rainbow (1:05) B10 The Reprise:… Read more »
I like most of Meco’s work and this is a great surprise to find here, Paul! Thanks for restoring this. It IS a fun record!
Meco is a pleasant add to the blog! It’s a shame his full catalogue isn’t available on CD yet. But of course we always have Paul…
Hi Paul. Never heard about this thing! Thanks. Have a great weekend. 🙂
It’s a really fun track spring. I hope that you like it. Have a nice weekend 🙂
Thanks for this WoOz gem — it was such a fun listen I’m now hunting his star-wars stuff — the one you had on here is redirecting to a “downloadmanager.exe” now – any chance of a reup?
Hi JestaCat yeah I have pulled that one off of the site and hope to re-rip and upload at some point.
A.W.E.S.O.M.E. You know that Disco Fridays are my favorite thing since Disco, right? You rock Paul and I am glad to see you up and back.
Yep i know Conner 🙂 You’re welcome buddy!
The Disco years really did give us a lot of thorougly bizarre and weird material, didn’t they. 😀
(The cover art is a bit odd, too. IBM tape drives in the Wizard’s throne room?)
I’ll have to see if I can dig up the “Themes From The Wizard of Oz” single version somewhere. It would be fun to boggle people by slipping this into a playlist sometime, but I think an 18-minute running time would exhaust most of my listeners’ patience. 🙂
Hi Doctor yes indeed the Disco era was bizarre. I thought whe i decided to take on this project that this nearly 18 minute song would have me exhausted and hating it by the time i was through. But it really went by quickly and I really enjoyed it. This single was loads of fun 🙂
Haha, this is great. Thank you!!
You’re welcome Johan Olsson 🙂