Telstar

recording by the Tornados

Learn about this topic in these articles:

British Invasion

  • the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show
    In British Invasion

    …(shortly after the Tornados’ “Telstar,” an instrumental smash that sent word of what was in store by becoming the first British record to top the American singles chart); the rest joined the hit parade in 1963.

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instrumentals

novelty songs

  • “Weird Al” Yankovic
    In novelty song

    …(the Tornadoes’ 1962 hit “Telstar” was the first of many electronic novelties). This is the context in which the second category of novelty song is significant: “exotic” hits cross the world to be heard on Western radio (early examples were the South African song “Tom Hark” in 1957 and…

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