The great Peter Sellers was born on this day in 1925. He was a very funny man who is known for films like Dr. Strangelove, Being There, Murder By Death and The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu. He is best known, of course, for his role as the bumbling Chief Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series.
The first movie of the series was called simply “The Pink Panther,” which was released in 1963. The soundtrack of the film featured Henry Mancini’s musical score, and the instantly recognizable theme song.
The soundtrack entered entered the Billboard Pop Album Chart on April 24, 1964 and reached number 8 on the chart. It remained on that chart for 41 weeks. The album and title song were nominated for the Grammy Awards for Best Album or Original Score and Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
The Theme from The Pink Panther was released as a single and it was a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart. It starts with a soft minor piano chord followed by a triangle and a jazzy percussion rhythm. It is the melody that almost everyone knows from the moment they hear it. The tenor saxophone is played by Plas Johnson Jr.
The theme was also used for the Pink Panther cartoon show.
The soundtrack was called one of the greatest film scores of all time by the American Film Institute. All it takes is one listen to understand why ….
Sir Sean Connery was born on this day in 1930. He has had so many wonderful roles in the movies. I loved him in The Untouchables, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Hunt for Red October (just to name a few).
Connery nailed it as Agent 007 – James Bond. He played Bond in 7 films: Dr. No, Never Say Never Again, From Russia With Love, Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, You Only Live Twice, and Goldfinger. He was the tallest actor to portray the character.
Shirley Bassey was asked to sing the theme to the movie. On Shirley Bassey’s website, she says about Goldfinger: “John Barry wrote the music. We were touring in England at the time and he was conducting for me. One day he said, ‘There is this new song for the James Bond film Goldfinger and we’d like you to do it. I know your rule that you will never listen to a song unless there are words. There are no words, I must warn you – there’s only the music, which I have done. And we’re waiting on the lyric.’ And because we had such a wonderful relationship on our tour I said to John, ‘Well, I’ll listen to it. I’ll break my rule.’ And thank God I did, because the moment he played the music to me, I got goose pimples, and I told him, ‘I don’t care what the words are. I’ll do it.’ And fortunately the words were great.”
Songfacts.com says: John Barry worked long into the night on the music. According to an article in the London Times, the next morning over breakfast, he played the opening three notes to his flatmate at the time, Michael Caine. The actor said bluntly, “It’s ‘Moon River.'” Barry swiftly added the three-note brass line to disguise the similarity.
Bond producer Harry Saltzman hated this and he took a lot of convincing to use this as the film tune. John Barry explained in his interview with NPR that Saltzman called it “the worst song he’d ever heard in his life,” but because there was no time to change it, he had to live with it.
I can’t imagine there being a better song for the film. It wound up being Bassey’s biggest hit!
Vic Flick, who was one of the top session musicians in England in the 1960s, played guitar on this track. He told the Daily Mail that Shirley Bassey originally struggled with this song: “Barry wanted this long note held,” he recalled. “He said to do it again, and she said she couldn’t. But then there was a rustling noise – and suddenly this bra comes over the top of the vocal booth. And then Shirley really let it go.”
Happy Heavenly birthday to Sir Sean Connery. Try not to be distracted by the voice of bra-less Shirley Bassey!
Today would have been Patrick Swayze’s 73rd birthday. So it’s only fair to focus on his movie hit – She’s Like the Wind from Dirty Dancing.
“She’s Like The Wind” is featured in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing in the scene where Patrick Swayze says goodbye to Jennifer Grey after their summer fling. He tells her, “I’ll never be sorry.” Her reply: “Neither will I.”
Swayze doesn’t sing it on camera, making it a rare case where the star of a film soundtracks his own scene.
Songfacts.com says that this wasn’t written for Dirty Dancing. Swayze wrote the song with his friend Stacy Widelitz for a movie he was shooting in 1984 called Grandview, U.S.A.
Swayze had the basic chords and the opening lyrics (“She’s like the wind, through my tree…”). They hashed out the song over the next few days, but it was rejected for the film. Two years later, Swayze was working on Dirty Dancing, and he played the demo of the song for the producers, who gave it the green light. They recorded a proper version with Michael Lloyd producing, and the song became a big part of the soundtrack, which sold over 30 million copies and spent 18 weeks at #1 in the US. It was the first song Patrick Swayze released.
The song was the third hit from the movie soundtrack. The film itself was released in August of 1987. The first single, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” hit #1 US in November. The next single, “Hungry Eyes” reached #4 in February, and “She’s Like The Wind” landed at #3 later that month.
Songfacts.com says that Patrick Swayze was big into music, but there was far more demand for his acting than his singing. He did a duet with Larry Gatlin called “Brothers” for the soundtrack of his 1989 film Next Of Kin, and has two songs on the soundtrack to Road House, another film his starred in that year. His 2003 film One Last Dance also featured two Swayze songs on the soundtrack, but “She’s Like The Wind” was his only hit, making Swayze one of the more high-profile one-hit wonders.
1973’s American Graffiti is a classic film known for showcasing many young actors and actresses who who go on to very big things. Featured in the cast were Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, McKenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, and Suzanne Somers. The film is also known for its phenomenal soundtrack.
In the film, these tunes are often presented on the by the DJ, played by the legendary Wolfman Jack. On the soundtrack, there are actually some clips of Wolfman talking up some of the songs.
The soundtrack features 41 songs that were heard in the film. Sadly, they neglected to put Gee by The Crows on the album. It did show up, however, on a second soundtrack album. George Lucas said that each song was important to the scene of the movie it appears. His idea was that the characters are hearing the songs along with you and the music becomes part of the story.
Wiki states that “Lucas had to be realistic about the complexities of copyright clearances, though, and suggested a number of alternative tracks. Universal wanted Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz to hire an orchestra for sound-alikes. The studio eventually proposed a flat deal that offered every music publisher the same amount of money. This was acceptable to most of the companies representing Lucas’s first choices, but not to RCA—with the consequence that Elvis Presley is conspicuously absent from the soundtrack. Clearing the music licensing rights had cost approximately $90,000, and as a result, no money was left for a traditional film score.”
One of the songs that is featured on the soundtrack was first introduced to my by my dad. He and my Godfather loved some of the old blues songs and this was one of them – Fannie Mae by Buster Brown.
When my dad told me his name, all I could think about was Buster Brown shoes! He got his start in the 30’s and 40’s playing the harmonica in clubs and even made a few recordings. He moved from Georgia to New York in 1956. It was there that he was discovered by Fire Records.
Three years later (at 50 years old), he recorded Fannie Mae. He played the harmonica and “whooped” it up on the song. It became his first hit as it went to #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Billboard R&B chart.
Brown didn’t have a lot of success after this song. He did enjoy the renewed interest in his music in 1973 thanks to the American Graffiti soundtrack.
The song has been covered by The Rolling Stones, Jr. Walker & the All Stars, The Steve Miller Band, Canned Heat, Gary US Bonds, and Elvin Bishop. To me, no one can touch the original. I’ve been wanting to share this one for a while and Movie Music Monday gave me the perfect excuse. Give this gritty blues song a listen.
Honestly, I’ve never seen the movie Coyote Ugly. I did mention it on the radio a few times because we played songs from the soundtrack. The film premiered on this day in 2000.
“Can’t Fight The Moonlight” by LeAnn Rimes is the theme song to the movie. In the film Piper Perabo’s character plays a singer-songwriter from New Jersey who moves to New York City to pursue her music career. She ends up getting a job at a bar called the Coyote Ugly, where she makes enough money to buy a Mac that she uses to write and record this song. It earns her a showcase audition where she performs the song, wowing the crowd and earning a label deal.
“Can’t Fight The Moonlight” was a huge international hit, topping the charts in Australia, the UK, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and several other territories. In Australia, it was the best-selling single of 2001.
Believe it or not, the song didn’t do so well in America, where it only reached #71 in September 2001, It was released as the first single from the Coyote Ugly soundtrack. Seeing the international success, Rimes’ label, Curb, gave it another shot, re-releasing the song with a renewed promotional push. The re-release went to #11 in March 2002, long after the film had left theaters. Second time’s the charm apparently.
LeAnn provided the voice for Perabo’s singing in the film, and actually shows up to sing it in the film. The video is essentially an extended version of Rimes’ appearance in the film, showing her singing the song on the Coyote Ugly bar, intercut with other scenes from the movie.
Last year Rolling Stone magazine listed its 100 Best Movie Soundtracks list. It was interesting to scroll through. There were plenty of movies on the list that I have never seen. Sitting at the top of the list was Prince’s Purple Rain.
The soundtrack was loaded with hits: Let’s Go Crazy. I Would Die 4 U, Purple Rain and today’s featured song. According to Songfacts.com, the film is semi-autobiographical, but how much is based on real life remains a mystery, as Prince rarely gave interviews and didn’t talk about his personal life.
In the movie, When Doves Cry expresses his fear of becoming like his parents. When the doves cry, that’s his musical refuge – the barrage of keyboards in the chorus represents the doves crying. Besides writing and composing the track, Prince played all the instruments on the song.
I never noticed this before, but there is no bass on this song. Prince took out the bass track at the last minute to get a different sound, though he hated to see it go.
“Sometimes your brain kind of splits in two – your ego tells you one thing, and the rest of you says something else. You have to go with what you know is right,” he told Bass Player magazine.
Prince used his trusty LM-1 drum machine (now on display at Paisley Park) on this track to create the unique percussion. It was ntroduced in 1980 by Roger Linn, the LM-1 was the first programmable drum machine that sampled real drums.
To make the sound, Prince used a recording of a cross-stick snare drum, where you hold the tip onto the drum head and slap the stick against the rim of the drum. He then tuned it down an octave to give it more of a knocking sound, and ran it through a guitar processor.
Fun fact: Although there is no bass in the song and the percussion part is played entirely by drum machine, Prince’s drummer and bass player from his band The Revolution still appear in the video “playing” along on their instruments.
It was 82 years ago today that the musical Stormy Weather premiered in the US.
The movie starred the beautiful Lena Horne, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Cab Calloway. Also making appearances were Fats Waller and Dooley Wilson (who was the piano player in Casablanca). The movie is loosely based on Robinson’s life. It would be Robinson’s last film (he passed away in 1949).
Wiki says: “Stormy Weather is a primary showcase of some of the leading African American performers of the day, during an era when African American actors and singers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions.” The entire movie is only about 75 minutes long, yet it is full of music! 20 songs to be exact.
The soundtrack is full of great songs like Ain’t Misbehavin’ from Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and his band offer up a few numbers including Jumpin’ Jive and then there is the title track performed by Lena Horne. While she is remembered for her version of the song, she also performs in several dance numbers with Robinson. It was one of her few non-MGM film appearances, and one of only two films from the 1930s-1940s in which she played a substantial role.
It was first sung by Ethel Waters under the title of “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin’ All The Time)” at the Cotton Club in Harlem. “When I got out there in the middle of the Cotton Club floor,” Waters recalled. “I was singing the story of my misery and confusion … the story of the wrongs and outrages done to me by people I had loved and trusted … I sang ‘Stormy Weather’ from the depths of my private hell in which I was being crushed and suffocated.”
Lena Horne’s version of the song is probably the best-known recording of this standard and became her signature tune. She originally sang it in 1941 for RCA Victor, but it was re-recorded in 1943 for the soundtrack. Noteworthy cover versions have been recorded by Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday, among many others.
Fun Fact: Lena Horne’s version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000 and Ethel Waters’ recording three years later.
Here is the version from the film:
Here is the 1943 recording:
I have always loved the bluesy Jackie Wilson version:
Most people have never heard the “doo wop” version that the Spaniels (who sang Goodnight Sweetheart) did. I just love everything about this version:
I could play so many other versions of the song, but instead I will encourage you to search up the great covers on YouTube. It is just such an amazing song, it’s hard to have a bad version of it.
It was on this day in 1881 that Billy the Kid was shot dead by police.
His story is one of fascination and uncertainty. Eyewitness history says that prior to his death “Billy worked as a ranch hand for John Tunstall. Tunstall befriended the Kid acting in many ways as a surrogate father. Tunstall’s ambush and murder in 1878 by a sheriff’s posse set the Kid off on a path of revenge. His first victims were the sheriff and his deputy, killed from ambush on the streets of Lincoln. On the run for two years, the Kid was eventually captured, tried, convicted and returned to Lincoln to hang for the murders.
On the evening of April 28, 1881 as he was climbing the steps returning him to his cell, the Kid made a mad dash, grabbed a six-shooter and shot his guard. Hearing the shots, a second guard ran from across the street only to be gunned down by the Kid standing on the balcony above him. Mounting a horse, he galloped out of town and into history.”
After his escape he was pursued by sheriff, Pat Garrett. “I knew the desperate character of the man,” Garrett later wrote. “That he was daring and unscrupulous, and that he would sacrifice the lives of a hundred men who stood between him and liberty, when the gallows stared him in the face, with as little compunction as he would kill a coyote.”
That July, Garrett and his deputies followed the outlaw’s trail to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and to a ranch owned by Peter Maxwell. On that fateful night, Garrett snuck into Maxwell’s home and found the rancher in bed. There, in the dark, the sheriff suddenly heard someone else approaching. He hardly had time to react when a shadowy figure appeared in the doorway and demanded in Spanish to know who else was there.
“That’s him,” Maxwell whispered to Garrett, so the sheriff raised his gun.
Billy the Kid died that night at the age of 21, shot near the heart as he lurched into Maxwell’s bedroom. But despite several people coming forward in the subsequent days to identify his body, it didn’t take long for rumors to circulate that Billy the Kid had actually escaped death — again.
Emilio Estevez starred as Billy the Kid in the 1988 film, Young Guns and the 1990 sequel. A third installment is currently in the works with Estevez returning again as the Kid.
For the sequel, Emilio Estevez asked Jon Bon Jovi for permission to use the song “Wanted: Dead or Alive” in the movie. Bon Jovi didn’t feel the song’s lyrics were appropriate; however, he was inspired by the project and resolved to write a new song for the film that would be more in keeping with the period and setting. He quickly wrote the song “Blaze of Glory”, and performed it on acoustic guitar in the Utah desert for Estevez and screenwriter John Fusco. John loved it and put it in the movie.
Fun Fact: Bon Jovi wrote the song on a napkin in a diner on the set of Young Guns II. Emilio Estevez has it framed on a wall at his home.
Bon Jovi ended up recording a whole album of songs inspired by Young Guns II, which was released a week after the film and also called Blaze of Glory. It was his first solo album, and it sold over 2 million copies. To play on the album, Jon recruited some big names, including Elton John, Little Richard and Jeff Beck, who played slide guitar on this track.
Sources: Songfacts, All That’s Interesting, Eyewitness History.
Nine notes. Nine notes that are still recognizable today. Broken into two parts – 4 notes, then 5 notes. “Dum da dum dum” (Pause) “Dum da dum dum da.” Those notes were immediately followed by a stern narrator who informed listeners, “Ladies and gentlemen. The story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.”
On this day in 1949, Jack Webb debuted on radio as Sergeant Joe Friday in Dragnet. He created and produced the show as well. Wiki states that “Dragnet is perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural crime drama in American media history. Webb’s aims in Dragnet were for unpretentious acting and a realistic depiction of policing. The series portrayed police work as dangerous and heroic, and helped shape public perception of law enforcement in the 20th century, improving the public’s opinion of police officers.”
The radio show was so popular that it made the transition to television. It ran on NBC from 1951 to 1959. NBC brought the show back to television from 1967 to 1970. It first appeared as a feature film in 1954. It became the first theatrical film to be based on a TV show.
Check out this trailer!
A TV movie was produced in 1966 with the intention of it launching the return of the show to TV. It didn’t air until 1969 for some reason. The final film version made Dragnet a comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks.
Wiki says “The film contrasted the terse, clipped character of Friday, a hero from an earlier age, with the “real world” of Los Angeles in 1987 to broad comedic effect. Apart from Aykroyd’s spot-on imitation of Webb’s Joe Friday and Harry Morgan reprising his role of Bill Gannon (now Captain), the film version has few similarities with previous incarnations. This Dragnet parody was a hit with audiences.”
Dragnet was no stranger to parodies. It was parodied by Looney Tunes, Woody Woodpecker, Sesame Street, The Three Stooges, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and a series of audio parodies by Stan Freberg. Jack Webb loaned Stan the actual band/orchestra he used on radio for his parodies.
As I mentioned, the theme is instantly recognized today. For the 1987 film, producers got the British band The Art of Noise to perform it. The them is actually two songs merged together. The opening is entitled Danger Ahead, and what follows is the Dragnet March. The Art of Noise version is very …. 80’s.
The first “hit version” was done by Ray Anthony and His Orchestra in 1953. It starts very familiar and gets a bit “jazzy.”
And to start your Monday with a laugh or two, here are a couple of Stan Freberg’s Dragnet parodies. Notice how the music “stabs” were used to enhance the story, just like on the radio.
It was on this day in 1989 that Dennis Quaid hit the big screen as Jerry Lew Lewis in Great Balls of Fire.
The film covers the early career of Lewis, from his rise to rock-and-roll stardom to his controversial marriage to his 13-year-old cousin. That marriage led to his downfall. Until the scandal of the marriage depreciated his image, many had thought Lewis would take over Elvis Presley as the “King of Rock and Roll” in the 1950s.
The story was co-written by Myra Gale Lewis (her autobiography Great Balls of Fire!), the former wife of Jerry Lee Lewis, with Murray Silver. Despite this, co-writer Silver was upset by the lack of accuracy in the film, claiming it was “phoney”.
Lewis openly stated that he hated the film and the book it was based on. He did, however, praise Quaid’s portrayal of him in the film, saying “he really pulled it off”. Quaid even learned to play “Lewis-style” piano for the role.
For the soundtrack, Lewis re-recorded some of his music from the 1950s. The songs included “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “That Lucky Old Sun,” “High School Confidential,” “Breathless,” and the title track.
Overall, the re-recordings aren’t bad. Jerry Lee’s voice still sounds great and the sound is pretty close to that of the originals. Many of them are longer and contain extra solos, which is actually neat to hear.
I could pick a few from this soundtrack, but I’ve gotta go with the title track. Here are the versions from the film, the soundtrack and the original hit.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 