[nickcarraway]

Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft = Klaatu

Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem Of World Contact Day)

[nickcarraway]

The Carpenters - Space Encounters (1978, Complete TV Special)

This is the TV special the song inspired. Probably also the success of Star Wars inspired it.

[gidewey52]

Was in college at SUNY Brockport at the time. We always listened to WKBW out of Buffalo NY. I remember hearing “Sub Rosa Subway” from Klaatu and thinking it was right out of Sir Paul’s head. WKBW never let on who it was. I think Sandy Beach was the DJ at the time - around 1975/76.

Klaatu is good stuff.

Jerry

[SamAdams76]

This track got a lot of airplay in Boston during that time. Not the Carpenters version but the original Klaatu. I was going into high school that year and there was a lot of excitement about this band, which were, as described here, rumored to be the product of a secret Beatles reunion.

There was a followup single from that album called "Sub-Rosa Subway" that also garned some airplay on the progressive rock stations of the day.

[nickcarraway]

Alice Cooper joke at about 31:10.

[Steely Tom]

I heard Klaatu on the radio when I was in college, in 1974, or '75, and thought they were the Beatles.

When I heard the name of the group, I immediately got the joke, because I had read the Golden Age SF story Farewell To The Master as a young teenager.

I the story, a super-advanced alien tries to recreate his dead companion from recordings of his (the dead companion's) voice. He is only partially successful in this endeavor, due to noise that degrades the only extant recordings of that voice.

It is a very good story, and sad. But I understood right away that Klaatu was a being who tried to bring a dead creature back to life using only the sound it made.

[P.O.E.]

I always liked Klaatu's Million Miles Away

[Vermont Lt]

I had the Klatu album. It was very light and fun. I never really liked the Carpenter’s version.

None of these would be on my 100 top played list.

[JohnnyP]

I wish she had married Tony Peluso,

[CletusVanDamme]

Easily their worst single. It royally sucked.

[Carriage Hill]

Sure glad I missed all this weird crap.

[Moltke]

after which the group’s real names were uncovered by WWDC Washington program director Dwight Douglas

WWDC aka DC 101. Great station back in the day. Howard Stern did a morning show there, when shock-jock was a fairly new concept.