Movie Music Monday – Buck Privates

It is no secret to those who know me that I love classic comedy. I have written about the Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, and Laurel and Hardy. While I have mentioned them separately at times, I am not sure I ever wrote about the team of Abbott and Costello.

Growing up on Sunday mornings, there would always be an Abbott and Costello movie on TV. Their films were not as slap-sticky as the Stooges, but funny all the same. Now that I am older, I appreciate their humor even more. Especially their bits involving word play, like Who’s On First?

For Movie Music Monday, we dig into the 1941 soundtrack of Buck Privates.

The Hollywood brass weren’t really sure that the boys would be able to carry a movie. Director Arthur Lubin remembered, “The studio was a little uncertain about how they were going to be accepted. But at the first preview the audience just died. Buck Privates was a very, very funny show. And, actually, I must say it was very little credit to the director. It consisted mainly of fabulous gags that these two wonderful guys knew from years and years of being in burlesque.”

Fun Fact: Japan used this film as propaganda to demonstrate to its own troops the “incompetence” of the United States Army.

Abbott and Costello were teamed with The Andrews Sisters for the film. Patty Andrews was born on this day in 1918. The Andrews Sisters perform four songs in the film: “You’re a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith”, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, “Bounce Me Brother, With a Solid Four”, and “(I’ll Be With You) In Apple Blossom Time”. The composers of the first three of these songs, Don Raye amd Hughie Prince, appear in the film as new recruits alongside Abbott and Costello.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy is a jump-blues number about a trumpeter from Chicago who’s drafted into the army during World War II and shakes up Reveille as the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B. Believe it or not, the song was originally intended for Lou Costello to perform. As fate would have it, the song was reworked for The Andrews Sisters, who introduced it in the film. The trio also released the tune as a single that same year, and it peaked at #6.

Fun Fact: “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” was nominated for an Academy Award.

Patty Andrews of The Andrews Sisters performed this with Lucille Ball, Lucie Arnaz, and Desi Arnaz Jr. on the 1969 Here’s Lucy episode “Lucy And The Andrews Sisters.”

Bette Midler brought this back to the charts in 1972 when she recorded it for her debut album, The Divine Miss M. Her version, produced by Barry Manilow, peaked at #8 on the Hot 100. It was also reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Thanks to the hit cover, The Andrews Sisters experienced a career resurgence that included a successful Broadway debut for two of the sisters, Patty and Maxene, in 1974.

In total, the Andrews Sisters have recorded at least four different versions on different labels. The Original on Decca Records in 1941, V-Disc in 1944, Capitol Records in 1956, and Dot Records in 1962.

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Patty Andrews!

Movie Music Monday – Tommy Boy

Happy 81st Birthday to Lorne Michaels! He has won 24 Primetime Emmy Awards. He has 112 nominations, holding the record as the most nominated individual in the award show’s history. He is best known for Saturday Night Live, but he has also produced some very funny films, including Tommy Boy.

There are some really great songs in the movie, but I chose Superstar by the Carpenters because of the scene it is played. If you are not familiar with the movie, Chris Farley and David Spade are off on a road trip intending to sell enough brake pads to save the company they work for. Whether they are on the road or making a sales pitch, things don’t go well. In one scene, they are driving along when Superstar plays. we eventually see them cry their eyes out listening to this song, which is the pay off to a great set up.

The Superstar was written by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett. It is about a woman who falls for a rock star, has a tryst with him, but then in a bout of delusion awaits his return, apparently falling for it when he said he loved her.

A young Bette Midler started performing the song later in the year, and Richard Carpenter heard the song for the first time when Midler performed it on The Tonight Show. Richard knew it could be a hit for the Carpenters, so he reworked the song in their style and recorded it, resulting in the most successful version.

“Superstar” was recorded by Karen on her first take, singing the lyrics that had been scribbled by Richard onto a napkin. It took a while for Karen to warm up to the song. “For some reason that tune didn’t hit me in the beginning,” she recalled in a 1981 interview. “It’s the only one. Richard looked at me like I had three heads. He said: ‘Are you out of your mind?’ When I heard his arrangement of it I fell over, and now it’s one of my favorites too.”

Here’s the scene from Tommy Boy

Happy Birthday, Lorne!!

Tune Tuesday

Happy 82nd birthday to Barry Manilow. Over his 60 year career, many folks have made fun of Barry. A buddy of my dad’s called him “Barely Man-enough,” while a radio DJ friend called him “Barry Banana Nose.” Despite the jokes and such, you cannot deny that the guy was a musical success!

Manilow has recorded and released 51 Top 40 singles on the Adult Contemporary Chart, including 13 that hit number one, 28 that appeared within the top ten, and 36 that reached the top twenty. He has also released 13 platinum and six multi-platinum albums. He came a long way from creating jingles.

Fun Fact: Barry wrote the jingles for State Farm Insurance (“Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”), McDonald’s (“you deserve a break today”), and Band-Aid (“I am stuck on Band-Aid, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me!”) along with many others!

My mom loved Barry’s music and it was often on the radio or a tape that my dad had made for her. She loved Even Now, I Can’t Smile Without You, Mandy, and a ton of others. One of Barry’s songs that I remember hearing for the first time on a drive with mom was Could It Be Magic. At the time I had no idea why, but I remember thinking that the piano intro sounded familiar.

It sounded familiar because Barry basically stole the intro from one of the greatest piano players of all time – Chopin. It all started one evening in 1971 when Manilow was playing Chopin’s “Prelude Op. 28, No. 20 in C Minor” at his Manhattan studio apartment. After taking a dinner break, he sat down at his spinet piano and wrote “Could It Be Magic,” unaware he’d lifted the chord changes from the classic piece’s chorus until he played back the recording.

He said, “Thank goodness the melody and verses were my own.”

Barry wasn’t surprised when the song finally became a hit because he’d consistently wowed huge audiences with the tune before it ever landed on the radio. At the time, he was Bette Midler’s music director and piano player, so when Bell Records wanted him to hit the road to promote his debut album, he felt guilty at the thought of abandoning Midler. Instead, he asked if she’d be willing to let him perform some songs during her own shows – to audiences of thousands of people. She agreed, and he brought down the house every time he sang the ballad.

Barry thinks the best songs are the ones the come the quickest, like this one. He says,

“I knew I was onto something. Sometimes you just know it. It came so fast – the ones that come fast I know that I have something going. The ones that I struggle with never work. But the ones that come fast, something’s in it. All I could tell you was that I loved this song.”

Happy Birthday, Barry!