The Star Wars Cantina was a parody song written by Mark Jonathan Davis in 1996. The song debuted on the Dr. Demento radio show in January 1997, immediately after the release of the Star Wars Trilogy (Special Edition)

About the creationEdit

The original music was Barry Manilow's Copacabana, but in this version, Mark Davis mixed the old tune with dialogue from the films and the vocals of Loretta Mendoza. In the song, there are small clips from the Mad About Me, a song that was performed by Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes for many years at the Mos Eisley Cantina.

While the songwriter cannot retain copyright on the song due to lacking permission from Lucasfilm Ltd., no legal action seems to be likely since LFL has gone on record stating the song is "cute," and parodies have a precedent for being upheld as "fair use" under United States copyright laws.

The song is often erroneously attributed to parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic. The only Star Wars parodies Yankovic has written and performed are "Yoda" and "The Saga Begins."

SourcesEdit

• Archive of Steve Manitsas' site

See alsoEdit

• Chalmun's Cantina, obviously the referenced titular Cantina