Saturday, April 23, 2011

Movie Music

Did you ever hear a song in a movie and search it out? I have.

There's something about the context of a movie that makes a song seem so much better. It's that tugging at the heartstrings thing, I guess. Listening to the song in isolation isn't near as nice as seeing it played out on the screen, usually during the big dramatic ending.

I was re-watching Rain Man awhile back, and heard this song, and I honestly couldn't even remember hearing it the first few times I'd watched the movie. I had to search it out, because I had no idea who the singer was. Turned out it was that annoying falsetto singer from the early sixties, Lou Christie. Who knew? He actually is a good singer. Wonder how he ended up saddled with all those crummy songs.

There is no video available of Lou performing the song, but I did find a nice homemade video:



Remember the movie, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? Steve Martin and John Candy. Timeless John Hughes movie. John Hughes was a great filmmaker, and he also instinctively knew just the right songs to include to enhance his stories. Here's Paul Young:



Speaking of that movie, which will always have a special place in my heart, how about this one from Ray Charles:



Remember Beetlejuice? Featuring a very young Alec Baldwin. Here is Harry Belafonte:



This is a great song, with our without the movie, but I confess, I am a Patrick Swayze fan. Here are the Righteous Brothers:



I could include lots of John Travolta movie moments, but I'm not going to go with the obvious. Here's Boz Scaggs (love Boz Scaggs!) with a song from Urban Cowboy:



There are so many great movie soundtrack moments. But bear with me. Sorry if I've posted this before (and I know I have), but this is my favorite:

No comments: