Happy Star Wars Day!
Over the years (47, to be exact)!, Lucasfilm's pop culture-defining space saga has been the subject of many musical odes and parodies, and here are just a few of my personal faves! Enjoy, and May The Fourth Be With You!
1. Bill Murray's Nick The Lounge Singer on "Saturday Night Live"
Probably the very first ever musical parody was way back in 1978, the year after the first Star Wars movie released. During an episode of "Saturday Night Live", Bill Murray's recurring character Nick The Lounge Singer decided to put some lyrics to the now-iconic Star Wars theme music. To whit: "Star Wars / Nothing but star wars / Give me those wars / Don't let them end..." Say less, Nick!
2. Nerdist "Shallow" Parody
I am a loud and proud Reylo, so when Nerdist released this parody of the Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper song "Shallow" from A Star Is Born, it was one hundred percent relevant to my interests. The song and video features a romantical duet between Sequel Trilogy enemies-to-soulmates Kylo Ren and Rey. Bury me with this!
3. Bad Lip Reading's "Seagulls! (Stop It Now)"
The folks over at Bad Lip Reading have churned out some iconic clips over the years, but for Star Wars fans, it doesn't get any better (or weirder) than their creation of the Yoda anthem "Seagulls! Stop It Now", born of their BLR video of Empire Strikes Back. Approach any Star Wars fan and simply say the work "Rockin'", and they will inevitably reply "Rockin' and Rollin'..." It's kind of like a Star Wars fan secret handshake.
4. Weird Al Yankovic's "The Saga Begins"
No list of parody video is complete without "Weird Al" Yankovic, and luckily he blessed us with his own Star Wars parody in 1999 in conjunction with the release of the first movie of the Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The song parodies the classic Don McLean song "American Pie" (an epic in itself) and the video features a shockingly hot Weird Al dressed as Jedi apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor in the movie. (This is not Weird Al's first Star Wars parody though; in 1985 he recorded the song "Yoda" to the tune of "Lola" by The Kinks.)
5. Nerdist's "All About That Base"
Another entry from Nerdist is an ode to the Death Star to the beat of Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" and is just as catchy. Where can I sign up to be an Imperial Cheerleader?
6. Will Sasso as Randy Newman on "MadTV"
Randy Newman is known for his feel-good Americana bops and many iconic theme songs from classic movies, so it only made sense for the folks at MadTV to imagine what sort of catchy ditties he would come up with for the Star Wars franchise. Castmember Will Sasso nails Newman's signature singing style, and the sketch also features the imagined stylings of Rob Zombie.
7. "The Star Wars That I Used To Know"
In 2012, YouTube channel teddiefilms let then-Lucasfilm head George Lucas have it with this parody of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know". Subject matter aside (we get it, Lucas "ruined your childhood", etc.), the video is actually very well-made.
8. "Ridin' Solo", Han Edition
As if the 2010 Jason Derulo hit "Ridin' Solo" couldn't get any better, they went and made a Han Solo version of it. Because of course!
9. Bad Lip Reading's "Not The Future"
BLR actually has a whole library of Star Wars songs but my second favorite after the aforementioned "Seagulls!" has to be the uber ear worm "Not The Future", which features Luke spittin' some bars with Chewy providing haunting backing vocals.
10. The Farce Awakens: Ben Solo Rocks
The Farce Awakens started making animated videos on YouTube just before The Last Jedi came out in 2017 and it only got more and more unhinged from there -- in the best way possible. What started as simple parody videos of the Sequel Trilogy characters morphed into an entire epic alternate universe storyline where Rey and Ben Solo get married, Leia becomes president, and a reformed Hux (there's more.... like, waaaayyy more, but you'll just have to check out their channel for yourself). Not gonna lie, it gets pretty raunchy, much like this video of Ben -- complete with Michael Bolton hair -- performing a romantic (and very lewd) song to his lady Rey, with Poe Dameron as the shirtless lead guitarist and Finn and Connix on backup vocals. Fun Fact: All of the voices are done by just TWO people!