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” …

… Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral

Next, one of my favorites from the 1949 film “Top O’ The Morning”….

… the beautiful “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”…

Wishing you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day! May you find your pot of gold at the end of your rainbow!

Movie Music Monday – Casino

Happy 67th Birthday to Sharon Stone! She has been in some fantastic films including Basic Instinct, Total Recall, Above The Law, The Quick and the Dead, Action Jackson and, of course, Casino.

In the Blu-ray commentary, Sharon relates the story of how she came to be in the film. She says her first two auditions for Martin Scorsese ended up being cancelled for various mundane reasons (such as that Scorsese was held up by another meeting) and Stone’s paranoia convinced her that he was blowing her off. When the director’s people contacted her to try it a third time, she turned them down and went out to dinner with a friend instead. Scorsese tracked her down and showed up at the restaurant where she was dining to make a personal appeal.

The soundtrack to the film contains some classic songs, and I could have chosen any of them, but since it is Sharon’s birthday, I decided on the song that plays when her character, Ginger, meets the eyes of Robert Deniro’s character, Ace. From across the casino floor, as they eye each other, Mickey and Sylvia’s Love Is Strange plays.

For many, the song will forever be connected with Dirty Dancing, but for me, it is Casino.

Happy Birthday, Sharon Stone!

Movie Music Monday – The Blues Brothers

We go back to one of my favorite movie soundtracks today for Movie Music Monday.

There were many pop and soul singers who made cameos in The Blues Brothers! They include Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, and Ray Charles. It also includes a man who had been making music since the 1930’s! I’m talking, of course, about the legendary Cab Calloway.

Cab was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem. He was an amazing scat singer and led his own band. His career spanned over 65 years!

In the film, Cab plays Curtis, a friend of Jake and Elwood Blues. He lives in the basement of the orphanage that the Blues Brothers were raised in. When they need to raise money for the orphanage, they hold huge concert. It is here that Cab gets to shine on stage.

It was on this day in 1931 that Cab and his band recorded the song that would forever be connected with him – Minnie The Moocher. He performed this song in the Blues Brothers.

From wiki:

The lyrics describe the story of a woman known as “Minnie the Moocher”, a “moocher” being American slang for a person who constantly asks others for money or who takes unfair advantage of generosity. She is described as a performer of the sexually-suggestive Hoochie Coochie dance. The lyrics are heavily laden with drug references, and describe Minnie’s vivid dreams after drug use. The character “Smokey” is described as “cokey”, meaning a user of cocaine; the phrase “kick the gong around” was a slang reference to smoking opium. The song ends with Calloway wailing “Poor Min!” insinuating an untimely end for the protagonist. The “hi-de-ho” scat lyrics came about when Calloway forgot the lyrics to the song one night during a live radio concert.

First, here is the original:

And from the Blues Brothers, featuring Mr. Fabulous, Alan Rubin on Trumpet:

Take a bow, Hi-De-Ho Man ….

Movie Music Monday – Animal House

Actor John Vernon was born today in 1932. I don’t think there is one movie that I didn’t think he was great in. If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be Animal House, where he played the frustrated Dean Wormer.

One of my favorite scenes is where he is giving the Delta House boys their mid-term grades….

His whole interaction with Belushi cracks me up.

The soundtrack of the film has some really great tunes. The best one is Shout, which was originally done by the Isley Brothers. The version in Animal House was performed by a fictional band called Otis Day And The Knights. Otis was played by the actor DeWayne Jessie.

The movie became a huge hit, and within days Jessie was getting requests to perform. He quickly put together a real band called Otis Day and the Knights and became a touring act. They mostly hitting college campuses. They were still touring into the 2010s.

In 1989, they released and album called, appropriately, Shout.

Happy Heavenly Birthday to the great John Vernon!

Movie Music Monday – The Brady Bunch Movie

It was on this day in 1995 that the Brady Bunch Movie was released to theaters. Rather than rehash the show in its own time period, producers placed the family in the 90’s…..and rehashes the show there.

Fans of the Brady Bunch TV show either loved or hated the film. I was actually impressed with how well the actors played the original characters.

It was also nice to see some familiar faces in cameo roles. Among those cameos were Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork of the Monkees. Some of the original cast appeared, too. Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Barry Williams and Christopher Knight all appear in other roles. Drag Queen, RuPaul, has a cameo as a teacher/counselor named Mrs. Cummings.

I admit I almost picked Sunshine Day from the soundtrack. It’s the same song the original Brady kids did on the show. As I started to listen to it, I thought I’d spare you having to hear that one. Too cheesy. Instead, how about we feature RuPaul’s You Better Work? At least that one won’t be stuck in your head for 10 days after one listen…

FYI – the spoken lines at the beginning are said by Lawanda Page – Aunt Esther on Sanford and Son!

Movie Music Monday – The Glenn Miller Story

Before I start today, I promise that this will all tie together. Today’s film is the biography of Glenn Miller, The Glenn Miller Story. The 1954 film starred Jimmy Stewart as Glenn Miller and June Allyson as his wife.

The film really is good, even though there are places where it may not be historically accurate. Jimmy does a pretty good job as Miller. I think any time someone plays a musician, who isn’t necessarily a musician, you’re going to be scrutinized by a musician. I watched pretty closely to his trombone “playing” and it is good enough to fool some people.

The movie follows Miller through his early career right up until he is lost over the English Channel. When I first saw this movie, I was unaware that was how he died. I really did enjoy this movie and recommend it to those who love music.

I picked this film today because one of the songs in it, made history today. Glenn and his band had many hits. They include, I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo, Moonlight Serenade, American Patrol, and Tuxedo Junction. His best known is In the Mood, but none of those are songs that I’m presenting today.

It was on this day in 1942 that the first literal gold record was awarded. It was given to Glenn Miller from RCA Victor Bluebird for selling 1.2 million copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo” on this day. W. Wallace Early, the manager of record sales had this to say:

“We’re mighty proud of that Chattanooga Choo Choo, and the man that made the record, Glenn Miller. You see it’s been a long time – 15 years in fact – since any record has sold a million copies. And Chattanooga Choo Choo certainly put on steam and breezed right through that million mark by over 200,000 pressings. And we decided that Glenn should get a trophy. The best one we could think of is a gold record of Chattanooga.”

In 1958, the Recording Industry Association of America introduced a gold record award program. It was for any record which received one million dollars in retail sales.

So, hop on board as we chug along on the Chattanooga Choo Choo…

Movie Music Monday – The Lion King

Nathan Lane turns 69 today. Nathan has starred in movies like The Birdcage, Mouse Hunt and The Producers. To me, he will always be Timon from The Lion King, where he introduced us to the phrase “Hakuna Matata.”

In this popular song from the 1994 Disney classic The Lion King, Timon the meerkat (Nathan) and Pumbaa the warthog (Ernie Sabella) share their worry-free philosophy with Simba (Matthew Broderick), a lion cub who is grieving over the death of his father.

The Swahili phrase “Hakuna Matata,” they explain, means “no worries” and helped Pumbaa deal with his own rough childhood, when all the other animals shunned him over his frequent flatulence. Simba also adopts the motto as he transitions from a cub to a full-grown lion.

The song was written by Elton John (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics), who also wrote Can You Feel The Love Tonight and Circle of Life for the film. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to another Lion King number: “Can You Feel The Love Tonight.”

Shortly after the film was released, Disney trademarked the phrase so other companies couldn’t exploit the brand by plastering the motto on their products. In 2018, close to 200,000 people signed a petition for Disney to give up the trademark on the grounds of cultural appropriation. “The term ‘Hakuna Matata’ is not a Disney creation, hence not an infringement on intellectual or creative property, but an assault on the Swahili people and Africa as a whole,” the petition reads. But, as trademark experts point out, Disney doesn’t really own the phrase, it just owns the use of the phrase when connected to the film or the company.

“No worries”…..feel free to use the term and sing along! Happy birthday, Nathan Lane!