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I'm pleased to announce that Marcus Mebes has sort of joined W♥M. For our first collaboration, he suggested we do a story on Limahl's "NeverEnding Story". So here it is:
To state that "The Neverending Story" is a cult classic is no overstatement. The movie defined for many people what it meant to be a child of the 80s. It was escapism at its finest, with adventure, hope, magic, mystery, and even seemed to be a precourser to what we now commonly refer to as "interactive". Bastian himself became INVOLVED in the story he read firsthand.
But it's the music that's survived just as strongly as the movie, despite its horrible sequels. Perhaps stronger than the movie even, as evidenced by the great many covers, remixes, samples, and inspirations it has engendered. Certainly there aren't many songs that have been covered/remixed/sampled as much as "The Neverending Story" has been.
My love for the music caused me to seek the different versions far and wide, and though I used to have even the rarest version, I don't have them all any longer. But I do still have a lot, so that also goes to show the timelessness of the music, and its constant appeal.
-Marcus Mebes
The NeverEnding Story is a film that was based on the original German book, Die Unendliche Geschichte (1979) by Michael Ende. The movie only covered half the book, and unfortunately the latter half was never faithfully done by either of the two sequels that followed the original 1984 film.
The US version of the movie soundtrack was composed by Giorgio Moroder with lyrics Keith Forsey. The actual song was sung and performed by Limahl, lead singer of Kajagoogoo (who had a massive hit with "Too Shy").
I've broken them up into two categories, covers and mixes. First up are covers:
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JO MILNER Joe Milner was asked to re-record the original song for the sequel. The problem I have with faithful renditions of the original song is that I always ask myself, why I would bother with the copy when I can just listen to the original song? And this song is line for line, a carbon copy of the Limahl's song. On the same soundtrack, there is also an Orchestral version of this song. |
OMAR LOPEZ Based out of Texas, this classical-trained violinist covered "Never Ending Story" with his own style. There's an electronic beat and he also sings on the song. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of music licensing that his version of "Never Ending Story" was dropped off the re-issued CD of his album Forever Red. You can still buy the song digitally from his website. He recently released Experience a few months ago and continues to work on his third album. |
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THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE This is a goth - electronica - industrial version of the classic song. The band, based out of Toronto, Canada, originally named themselves Imagica in 1999 but changed it to The Birthday Massacre in 2002. They have a new album called Walking With Strangers with a release date of September 2007. |
DRAGONLAND They seem like a pretty fun Metal/Rock band, based on this youtube video. They're also out of our favorite country, Sweden. They offered their song for download off their myspace but unfortunately I could not download it (I've long hated myspace and this just adds one more point). Instead, I had to resort to myspacevalley.com to download that track. |
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NEW FOUND GLORY The Florida punk band recorded an EP of all covers (inspired by movies) called From the Screen to Your Stereo (2000). Songs from this EP includes songs taken from Armageddon, The Goonies and Karate Kid Part II. This punk version brings a new fresh slant on the popular dance/techno versions of this song. |
T.H.T. FEATURING SABRINA T.H.T. stands for The Human Touch. I couldn't find out any information on this band. Here are some things I do know about them, based on the liner notes of their single Neverending Story: It looks like it's just one DJ named Stephen Distel. They're based out of Germany and the single was released in 1999. |
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CREAMY Creamy are a Danish pop duo, Rebekka Mathew and Rannva Joensen, who released their debut album at the age of 13. After recording three albums, they shifted to releasing singles, one of which is Neverending Story (2001) single. |
STEFAN PINTEV Wow, the coolest cover so far! It's a violin instrumental of "The NeverEnding Story". There's some electric guitar in there, but it's mostly viola. I couldn't find any information on this classical violinist. If you have additional information, please help! |
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PEARL Released in 1994, for the 3rd Neverending Story film. This had the interesting subtitle of "The Official New Version" and is more euro-dance. I don't actually have the CD single cover and I don't think anyone have heard of her after this. |
GIORGIO MORODER Not a cover, this is the instrumental version by composer Giorgio Moroder. The instrumental was remixed into various techno remixes. |
Here are remixes by DJs:
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HAPPY HARDCORE This is a fast beat remix. This also means that the original song is also sped up, so the singer often sound a little like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Although that doesn't sound that appealing, backed up with the thumping bass drum, it does work for this song. |
NIGHTRACE Again, couldn't find any information on this mix. |
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OBSESSION The quality is not that good on this file I have, it sounds like someone converted it from a cassette tape - but I suspect that they got the source from 12" vinyl. Fortunately, they've re-released the 1989 12" on CD format as well as MP3 versions available on their record label almightyrecords.com The single was originally produced by Ian Gant, and mixed by Marc Angelo. |
SUNFIRE LTD. These songs uses instrumental elements of "The NeverEnding Story". Marcus has the single, but it's shrinkwrapped, so we can't tell you any more details about it. However, there's a remix by Devious D who got some fame in the Rave scene when he was asked to tour in the UK with all 25 shows with The Prodigy. |
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DRAGONSTAR Dragonstar is a DJ stagename for Tilmann Brauns, based out of Germany, who used elements of techno and the instrumental parts from "The NeverEnding Story". This remix was actually was re-remixed by DJ Lars Holte. See next entry. |
DJ LARS HOLTE/DRAGONSTAR See previous entry. The re-remix is pretty good, I like how it sounds a little different than the original "Neverland" song. Seems Holte is from Norway and had some successful trance mix CDs in the '00s. |
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DJ AC-DC This is the latest mix of "The NeverEnding Story" song, it's by DJ AC-DC for the popular Dance Dance Revolution series soundtrack, appearing on "The 5th Mix". |
DJ SPEEDO Mauro Farina, aka DJ Speedo, took DJ AC-DC's version and basically made it much, much, much faster. I supposed that's why he titled himself as "speedo" (at least I hope he doesn't DJ in his speedo....) |
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GRAPHIXX According to discogs.com this was released as a 12" white-label DJ promotional copy, based out of Germany. What I do know about white-labels are that they are extremely limited pressing, so there's probably only 200 copies of this 12" floating around. |
NELLO This 11-track promo was released in February 2000. Some information I was able to dig up was that his full name is Nello Tijardovic and that he died of a drug over dose on August 5, 2001. |
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MYSTERIA This song features Martine (on vocals?), but it's sped up so that you can't tell who/what is singing anyway. There is a band named Mysteria, which I don't are the same thing as Mysteria (DJ), so I couldn't really tell you much about this mix. |
ECHO IMAGE Synth band from Norway. Started in 1997 with Pål Magnus Rybom by himself and later joined by Fredrik Hansen. This Fanastian Mix of the song available from their Single Skulk (2001), which I don't have. So ironically, you'll have to enjoy an image of Echo Image. |
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FREEZEPOP Actually, I believe this might be just Liz Enthusiasm & Gordon Merrick doing the cover, it was recorded live and the audio quality is poor. See concert picture. We have already previously mentioned Freezepop on W♥M, so go to that article for more information on the trio. |
RAZE Marcus insist that I use this song because it is a variant of "The Neverending Story" and even uses those words in the lyrics. This is a very top-40s-sounding band. Upon a closer research, I found out that they're a Christian band ... and suddenly this song took a different direction for me. |
As a special bonus, Marcus also provides us with a high-quality Limahl's video. The source is from a the record company's VCD (DAT file).
�August 12, 2007 4:35 PM� vu marcus my♥posts [email protected] marcus[a]weheartmusic.com
