Movie Music Monday – Animal House

I have a handful of movies that will always make me laugh. Animal House is one of them.

I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t think of Animal House when they think of college fraternities. Granted, when I was in college, everyone was pretty subdued compared to the folks of Delta House. The movie features the antics of John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Steven Furst, Thomas Hulce and more. It was college chaos!

The film also features one of the great movie soundtracks, too. It features Sam Cooke, Stephen Bishop, Paul and Paula, and, of course, Otis Day and the Knights. It also features one from birthday boy, Bobby Lewis.

Bobby Lewis was born on this day in 1925. The story of his hit Tossin’ and Turnin’ is one of being in the right place at the right time. According to Songfacts.com:

After several unsuccessful auditions, R&B vocalist Bobby Lewis stopped off at the office of Beltone Records in Manhattan. The already signed Ritchie Adams, lead singer of the Fireflies, recognized Lewis from a gig they’d both appeared in at the Apollo theater and suggested he record his composition “Tossin’ And Turnin’.” The single was released at the end of 1960 and rose to the top of the Billboard charts selling 3 million copies.

It is one of only six songs from the 1960s to spend at least seven weeks in the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100. His follow up, One Track Mind, was a top 10 record, but Bobby didn’t do much on the charts after that.

He passed away in April of 2020 at the ripe age of 95.

Most versions of the song start with a cold intro:

When Bobby played the song live, he would add the prelude to the song. Here is the song/prelude.

Tossin’ and Turnin’ remains one of my favorite tunes from the 60’s. Happy Birthday, Bobby!