Movie Music Monday – Pete Kelly’s Blues

Today marks the 105th birthday of legendary singer Peggy Lee. She was discovered singing in a noisy club in Palm Springs. That noisy club played an important role in her sultry singing style. She said,

I knew I couldn’t sing over them, so I decided to sing under them. The more noise they made, the more softly I sang. When they discovered they couldn’t hear me, they began to look at me. Then, they began to listen. As I sang, I kept thinking, ‘softly with feeling’. The noise dropped to a hum; the hum gave way to silence. I had learned how to reach and hold my audience—softly, with feeling.

In 1941, she would go on to be the singer in Benny Goodman’s orchestra. She enjoyed a seven decade career which included songwriting and singing. She recorded over 1100 songs and of those co-wrote 270 of them.

Her record label kept her very busy, but she did find time to do some acting. In 1955 she did some voice work for Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp and starred with Jack Webb in Pete Kelly’s Blues. She played an alcoholic blues singer in the film and her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Peggy sang 9 songs in the film. One of which was Sugar.

Fun Fact: Peggy Lee was used as inspiration for the Miss Piggy character in 1974. Originally called Miss Piggy Lee, her name was shortened to Miss Piggy when the Muppets gained fame.

As a bonus, for Peggy’s birthday, I want to include one of my favorite Peggy Lee songs. I mentioned earlier her sultry voice. I can think of no better song to demonstrate her sexiness and sultriness than Big Spender.

In the song she has her eyes on a guy with a big money roll. He caught her eye as soon as he arrived and she wants him to spend some time with her. The arrangement of the song makes you picture her walking slowly and deliberately over to him. You can picture her staring him in the eyes and shifting her hips from side to side as she moves closer.

When I was in Jazz Band in high school we played this song. I remember the director asking us to picture a beautiful woman walking towards us slyly as we played. As silly as that sounds, it made the saxes play the melody with a bit more feeling, it made us trumpets really hit to “stab” notes, and the trombones really made their glissandos loud and sloppy.

Happy Birthday, Peggy Lee!

Movie Music Monday – Shrek 2

Celebrating its 21st anniversary today is Shrek 2, which debuted in theaters May 19, 2004. It brought back our favorite characters from the first film and introduced us to some new ones.

The soundtrack included some great songs. Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows was written especially for the film. It also included Changes by David Bowie, Funky Town by Lipps Inc, and Holding Out for a Hero by Frou Frou. One of my favorites on the soundtrack is a cover of an old Buzzcocks tune.

Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)? dates all the way back to 1977. Band member and songwriter, Pete Shelley, explained that the song was inspired by a line of movie dialogue. “We were on a roll. It was only six months since we’d finished the first album. Up in Manchester this was what we used to dream of… a whirlwind of tours, interviews, TV. We were living the life. One night in Edinburgh we were in a guest house TV lounge watching the musical Guys and Dolls. This line leaped out – ‘Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have?’ The next day the van stopped outside a post office and I wrote the lyrics there. I did have a certain person in mind, but I’ll save that for my kiss’n’tell. The music just seemed to follow, fully formed.”

A few folks have covered the song including the Fine Young Cannibals in 1986. For Shrek 2, it was Peter Yorn who did it.

Yorn has been recognized as one of his generation’s best songwriters. He is also a singer and musician. One of the things he is known for is playing the majority of instruments on all of his songs.

Fun Fact: Peter Yorn has collaborated twice with actress/singer Scarlett Johansson: first in 2009’s Break Up and again with 2018’s Apart.

In the film, Shrek, Donkey and Puss in Boots are in the Fairy Godmother’s lab trying to find a specific potion. Puss in Boots finds it, but has issues getting it out of the case. This leads to a mess and the Godmother’s security system going off. As the trio tries to escape, an abbreviated version of Yorn’s song plays.

Here is the full tune.

It definitely get’s your toes tapping ….

Movie Music Monday – Pulp Fiction

It was on this day in 1994 that Pulp Fiction premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Today’s song is one that you will recognize immediately if you have seen the movie, but you probably had no idea what it was called. The song is Miserlou from Dick Dale and His Del-Tones.

No one knows who the original author of the song is, but it was around as early as the 1920’s. It was during that time that the song was popular with Greek, Arabic, and Jewish musicians. The earliest recording of the song was back in 1927. The song was often a choice for belly dancers to dance to.

Dick Dale recorded the song back in 1962. It was sort of popular around that time as part of the “Surf Rock” craze. It wasn’t until 1994 that the song gained wide spread recognition after it was featured in Pulp Fiction.

The song has been covered by trumpeter Harry James, pianist Vince Guaraldi (of Charlie Brown fame), and even the Beach Boys. Dick Dale covered himself when he rerecorded the song with a faster tempo in 1975.

In honor of Pulp Fiction’s premier 31 years ago – lets go surfin’ with Dick and the Del-Tones

Movie Music Monday – Skyfall

The last James Bond movie I saw starred Timothy Dalton. I think it was The Living Daylights, I might be wrong. I’ve honestly never seen a Bond film with Daniel Craig as 007. That being said, the music today comes from his movie Skyfall. The reason? Adele was born on this day in 1988.

Bond films are known for their amazing title songs. Live and Let Die from McCartney, Goldfinger from Shirley Bassey, and A View To a Kill from Duran Duran for example. So how did Adele get involved in the title song? Thanks to songfacts.com – here’s what happened.

Director Sam Mendes told Yahoo that at first, Adele wasn’t quite sure how to go about composing the movie theme. He explained: “She came in very early before we started shooting and her main concern was, ‘I write songs about myself, how can I make a ‘Bond’ song?’ My answer was, ‘Just write a personal song!'”

Adele teamed up with Paul Epworth to pen the sultry ballad. Said the singer: “I was a little hesitant at first to be involved with the theme song for Skyfall. There’s a lot of instant spotlight and pressure when it comes to a Bond song. But I fell in love with the script and Paul had some great ideas for the track and it ended up being a bit of a no-brainer to do it in the end. When we recorded the strings it was one of the proudest moments of my life.“

Paul Epworth said that finding the right sound for “Skyfall” was a particular challenge. “[The producers] said they wanted a dramatic ballad basically,” he explained. “With having read the script and trying to set the whole thing up in that context, where it happens in the film, there was really only one thing it could be. It was interesting to want to do something that was simultaneously dark and final, like a funeral, and to try and turn it into something that was not final. A sense of death and rebirth.”

After writing the piece of music that Epworth believed could be the tune for the Bond theme, the producer thought, “This could be the song.” Epworth told Hollywood.com that he then rang up Adele, “and said, ‘It might be too dark.’ And she said she loved it.” The pair immediately went into the studio and within 10 minutes she’d put down the first draft of the verse and chorus. “She had the lyrics ready in her head when she drove over. It was the most absurd thing. She’s fast, but it was really quite phenomenal,” he said.

Daniel Craig admitted to Yahoo that he found himself coming over a bit emotional when the song was first played to him: “I cried. From the opening bars I knew immediately, then the voice kicked in and it was exactly what I’d wanted from the beginning. It just got better and better because it fitted the movie. In fact the more of the movie we made, the more it fitted it.”

It was a top ten song in the US and it won Best Original Song at the 85th Academy Awards. It was the first Bond theme to win an Oscar.

Happy 37th birthday to Adele!

Movie Music Monday – FM

It was on this day in 1978 that “FM” premiered in theaters. As a former radio DJ, I knew it was just a matter of time before this movie would pop up in this feature. I’m surprised that it hasn’t come up already, as it has one of the best movie soundtracks!

The film starred Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, Alex Karras, Cleavon Little, Martin Mull, Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett, and REO Speedwagon (just to name a few). Despite what they say, this film was not the inspiration for WKRP in Cincinnati (which was in the works at the same time).

Honestly, it’s really not that great of a movie. It’s billed as a comedy, but it’s not something you’ll be belly laughing at. It also has some serious moments that are a bit forced. Then there is the lackluster “feelgood” ending that feels more fake than good. Thank goodness for the amazing soundtrack!

The soundtrack is like a snapshot of 1978 rock radio and is loaded with hits. It is so difficult to choose just one song to play here, as there are so many to choose from. Bob Seger, Steve Miller Band, Tom Petty, Foreigner, The Eagles, Boz Scaggs, Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, Joe Walsh, and even Queen! I decided to choose a band that I haven’t featured on the blog before – Steely Dan.

I suppose that it makes sense to pick the movie’s title song, FM (No Static At All). Walter Becker and Donald Fagen wrote this song specifically for the film. Fagen told American Songwriter magazine: “There was a film called FM and we were asked to do the title song,” he said. “And I said, ‘Does it have to have any specific words?’ And they said, ‘No, it just has to be about FM radio.’ We wrote that very quickly, I remember, in one or two days. And we also recorded it very quickly, too. Johnny Mandel came in and did the string chart. It was fun to meet Johnny Mandel.”

The song sold a ton of records and was actually much more popular than the movie. Fagen felt the song could have been a bigger hit if the movie had been more successful. “The song was a hit, but I think we should have seen the movie before we committed ourselves,” he said in 2007. “As you know, it wasn’t a very successful movie.”

As a piece of music, it has a lot going on. Look it up on Wikipedia and the description sounds like a music theory class! You have an overture to start, arpeggios, tonal chords, thirds and fifths, a string section, major chords and minor chords, and all kinds of key changes. It’s actually cool to hear in headphones.

When the movie came out, FM radio listening was on the rise. As the song says, it had less static than AM radio. What made FM radio stations popular was their ability to take chances by playing lesser known bands and album cuts. Listeners couldn’t get enough of it.

Movie Music Monday – Coal Miner’s Daughter

Loretta Lynn was born on this day in 1932. She really was born a coal miner’s daughter and the song is autobiographical. It reflects on the hardships her family faced growing up in rural Kentucky, where there was little money but a lot of love.

She called her autobiography “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and that was adapted into the movie of the same name in 1980. Sissy Spacek was cast as Lynn. Originally, she was supposed to lip synch with the songs for the film. However, it is Spacek who does all the singing in the movie. As a matter of fact, her version of the title song went to #23 on the country charts.

According to songfacts.com, the song had an extra four verses to it. Her producer, Owen Bradley, told her to remove them because the song was too long. “He said, ‘There’s already been one ‘El Paso,” and there’s never going to be another one,’ referring to the 4 minute song by Marty Robbins. Lynn said, “So I fiddled around and fiddled around, and finally I got four verses that I took off of ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter.’ I wished I hadn’t, but I did.”

Loretta had been releasing music since 1960. She released almost 20 albums before she released Coal Miner’s Daughter. The song was different for her because had gained popularity with tough-talking, assertive country classics like “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”

She continued to make music through 2021. She passed away October 4, 2022.

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Miss Loretta!

Here is Sissy’s version from the film

Movie Music Monday – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

On this day in 1970, the 42nd Academy Awards were handed out. The Oscar for Best Song – Original For Movie went to a song from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head for the film.

Some felt the song had the wrong tone for a Western, but director George Roy Hill insisted on its inclusion. Robert Redford, one of the stars of the film, was among those who disapproved of using the song, though he later acknowledged he was wrong:

“When the film was released, I was highly critical: How did the song fit with the film? There was no rain. At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. How wrong I was, as it turned out to be a giant hit.”

The song is used in a memorable scene where Newman pedals a bicycle through the countryside with Katharine Ross riding on the handlebars. When she gets off, he does some impressive tricks, riding with no hands and even backwards. He finally gets a little too clever and ends up in an encounter with a bull.

Dionne Warwick convinced Bacharach to get BJ Thomas to sing the song. Thomas was getting over laryngitis when he recorded “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” It gave the song a raspy quality that the producers of the movie liked. Eight weeks later, Thomas recorded another version that was released as a single in October 1969. This version, with the famous horn solo added to the end, made #1 in the US the first week of 1970 and stayed there for four weeks. BJ said: “I was in the right place at the right time, and probably got their best song ever.”

Movie Music Monday – Wedding Crashers

The stars aligned for today’s Movie Music Monday. With one movie, we can celebrate two birthdays. The movie is Wedding Crashers.

This 2005 movie is a romantic comedy that stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. Also in the cast are Bradley Cooper, Isla Fisher, Jayne Seymour, and birthday boy #1 – Christopher Walken.

The film follows two divorce mediators (Wilson and Vaughn) who crash weddings in an attempt to meet and seduce women. In a movie that features various wedding scenes, you are bound to get a lot of different music. At the reception, you will get dance music, while the ceremony and dinner music would be of a different genre.

This brings me to birthday boy #2 – Franz Joseph Haydn. He was an Austrian composer who was instrumental (pun intended) to the development of chamber music. Chamber music would be piano trios and string quartets. He was often called the “Father of the String Quartet.” His music was said to have a “feeling of bliss” to it.

American Pianist Charles Rosen said this about Haydn’s piano trios,

“Haydn’s ability to create an emotion that was completely his own and that no other composer could duplicate — a feeling of ecstasy that is completely unsensual, almost amiable. There is no recipe for producing this effect …”

In all my years DJing weddings, I had the opportunity to provide music for many wedding ceremonies. There are quite a few classical pieces that are ceremony “standards.” One of those is Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D Minor op. 42, which appears in Wedding Crashers.

Happy heavenly birthday to Mr. Haydn and Happy 82nd birthday to Christopher Walken!

Movie Music Monday – The Great Escape

This week’s Movie Music Monday features a classic theme from a classic movie – The Great Escape. The film was released on July 4, 1963. It starred an amazing line up of stars. They include James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and the legendary Steve McQueen.

The film is based on the 1950 book of the same name, which is based on an historical even that began on this day in 1944. On March 24, 1944, 76 Allied Prisoners of War began to break out of the German camp Stalag Luft III. The film accurately represented many details of the escape, including the layout of the camp, the different escape plans employed, and the fact that only three escapees successfully made it to freedom. The characters are fictitious, but are based on real men.

It was the amazing Elmer Bernstein who composed the music for the film. In composing the score, he gave each major character his own musical motif based on the Great Escape‘s main theme. The theme was so popular that Elmer lived off the royalties for the rest of his life!

Critics have said the film score succeeds because it uses rousing militaristic motifs with interludes of warmer softer themes that humanizes the prisoners and endears them to audiences; the music also captures the bravery and defiance of the POWs.

The movie is also known for Steve McQueen’s motorcycle chase scenes.

Movie Music Monday – Going My Way and Top O’ The Morning

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

In honor of the holiday, I felt it was only appropriate to pick a couple Irish tunes. Luckily for you and me, Bing Crosby sang a few in some of his films.

First, from his 1944 film “Going My Way” …