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Today, from the Bond on Vinyl archives, we’re taking it back the the beginning and listening to music from Dr. No and Goldfinger!
Domenico Monardo was born in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1939 to parents of Italian descent. While the name Miko may be common in Japan, and the name Nico is common in Greece, Italians have a common nickname for boys named Domenico: you’ve heard it as Meco.
Meco’s father was certainly a role model to Meco as he played the valve trombone in a local band patterned after Italian bands that would march in the streets playing for funerals, weddings, and other festivities. Though he showed a musical interest at an early age, hearing his father’s band practice at their home, Meco’s father initially would not allow him to play any instruments until he had taught his son how to fully read music for around a year. It was only then that Meco started playing the slide trombone, being able to read the music on sight.
This early musical education led to Meco getting a full music scholarship at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, by age seventeen. After graduation, he joined the army and played the trombone in the West Point Band for several years. By the mid-1960s, Meco followed his former classmate and friend, Chuck Mangione, to New York City in order to get work as a session musician.
Meco broke the norm by using the trombone in pop hits. He found success playing for some big hits, including Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out.” Meco was an early adopter of the disco scene, forming a production company (with a couple of partners) known as the Disco Corporation of America in 1973.
By the time Star Wars debuted in the US in May of 1977, Meco was poised for his biggest hit. He enjoyed the film so much that he saw it a handful of times within its first days in the theater. Within weeks of the film’s Original Soundtrack by John Williams becoming a hit, Meco released a “space-disco” version of several songs from the score entitled “Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk.”
The title track “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” hit #1 on the singles chart in the US and Canada, kicking off over five years of disco-themed success for Meco. Before retiring from the disco scene in 1983 after 14 albums, Meco put out “Pop Goes the Movies.” This 1982 release is a 27-minute disco medley of soundtrack music, including a disco cover of The James Bond Theme first heard in Dr. No, which rolls right into an equally funky version of the title track from Goldfinger.
95. Meco – Pop Goes The Movies
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