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Segueing medley's hit the top charts!

On this day in music history: June 20, 1981 - “Stars On 45 Medley” by Stars On 45 hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1 week. Written by Robbie Van Leeuwen, Jeff Barry, Andy Kim, Jaap Eggermont, Martinus Dusier, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it is the biggest hit for the Dutch studio group formed by Jaap Eggermont. The idea for the medley comes about when music publisher Willem van Kooten discovers a bootleg 12" being sold “under the counter” at record stores in Holland featuring numerous pop classics including The Shocking Blue’s “Venus” which he controls the copyright to. Not wanting to lose out on royalties, he contacts former Golden Earring (“Radar Love”) drummer Jaap Eggermont about producing a similar medley using cover versions of numerous songs. Recording with Dutch musicians and vocalists, Eggermont records covers of several songs from the bootleg medley, and add several more Beatles songs to the mix. The finished track runs over fifteen and half minutes in its entirety. The US single lists all of the medleys titles (officially titled: “Medley: Intro Venus / Sugar Sugar / No Reply / I’ll Be Back / Drive My Car / Do You Want to Know a Secret / We Can Work It Out / I Should Have Known Better / Nowhere Man / You’re Going to Lose That Girl / Stars on 45”) on the single label, and makes history as the longest song title ever to ever appear the Billboard pop singles chart. Entering the Hot 100 at #76 on April 11, 1981, it climbs to the top of the chart ten weeks later. The medley is a huge worldwide hit, and in the US it temporarily interrupts Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” nine week run at number one on the Hot 100. The accompanying album “Stars On Long Play” also becomes a best seller, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Top 200 in July of 1981. The huge worldwide success of the first Stars On 45 single inspires a number of follow up records over the next two years, featuring the music of Stevie Wonder, The Carpenters, ABBA, and even a medley released by Capitol Records in the US editing the original versions of Beatles classics together. “Stars On 45 Medley” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.

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