Joy to the World – Three Dog Night

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

 

This song has appeared in several films, but the one that I took it from is Forrest Gump. It’s one of my favorite movies, and this is a great song. There are a couple of interesting stories to tell with this song. What the heck is the song about, and where did the name Three Dog Night come from?

First, the band’s name comes from a June Fairchild, lead vocalist Danny Hutton’s girlfriend of the time. She had apparently been reading an article about Australia. In it, she had learned that on the coldest of nights sleeping in the outback, people indigenous to the country would sleep in a hole with dingos (a breed of local, wild dog), three of them, actually; hence, Three Dog Night.

As far as the song goes, it was released on the group’s fourth studio album. It’s one of the group’s three #1 hits of 21 singles that made the Billboard Charts. The lyrics from the song were kind of just made up on the spot. The song’s writer, Hoyt Axton, had a song he wanted to convince his label to pick up for a group. They asked him to play the song (which didn’t have lyrics); he just made them up on the spot. The first line was originally written as, “Jeremiah was a prophet,” but that didn’t take with the band. Two out of the three main vocalists didn’t even want to record the song, but Chuck Negron insisted the band needed something fun and silly.

Mind Heist – Zack Hemsey

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

 

This song is a bit different than my other movie posts up to this point. The music used in the movie soundtrack was written by Hans Zimmer. It’s a common misconception that this piece used in the film’s third trailer was also a Zimmer piece. It was actually written by Hemsey. Oddly enough, the song was also used in a Madden NFL 12 trailer.

Hemsey has actually made a name for himself not only as a recording artist but a go-to composer for movie trailers. He wrote music for the trailers for The Town, Trust, and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. Some of those pieces have been used in promotional videos for TV shows such as “Game of Thrones” as well. You can see the Inception trailer below.

Light the Fuse – Michael Giacchino

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

The original theme song for Mission Impossible was written for the TV show that aired in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It has been re-imagined a number times by a number of different composers and musicians. This is the most recent spin on the theme. It was written for the 2011 movie, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  

The thing I like most about the song is its uncommon time signature. The song is structured in 5/4; whereas, most popular music is structured in 4/4 or a variation of a common four beats (i.e. cut time to most people still sounds and feels like four). This theme is written in such a way that you don’t even really notice the odd signature until you really start to analyze it. I think that mainly comes from the accentuation of beats three, four and five.  It’s a way of making the 5/4 feel comfortable.

Little Wild One – The Wonders

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

I can’t seem to find a definitive answer as to who wrote this song. I know that there were several people who wrote and contributed music to the film. I’ve already done a post about the title song. This song is another of my favorites from the film. There aren’t a lot of details out there about it, though. Actually, I just had a thought…

Well, that didn’t help. I grabbed the copy of the soundtrack that I own to check the liner notes. Those notes are written as if the band was a real group. I assume that the people listed as writers are also fictitious. The people who actually worked on the soundtrack are Tom Hanks, Adam Schlesinger (bassist for Fountains of Wayne), Rick Elias, Scott Rogness, Mike Piccirillo, Gary Goetzman, and Howard Shore. Even though the band is fictitious, their skills on the instruments aren’t. The video below goes into detail about the actors learning their instruments and how to play the songs in the movie. I really appreciate this, because I hate to watch a movie with music scenes where what you see and what you hear don’t line up.

Beyond the Sea (Bobby Darin cover) – Kevin Spacey

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

The name of the movie shares the name of this song. It’s the story of Bobby Darin’s life, Darin being portrayed by Kevin Spacey. Spacey went to the same lengths as Jamie Foxx did in portraying Ray Charles. The movie just wasn’t as big of a success, but it was just as good in my opinion. Spacey caught a Golden Globe nomination for his performance, which was negatively reviewed by many.

Darin’s version of the song is by far the most popular, but it has been recorded by several other artists. Both Benny Goodman’s and Roger Williams’ versions made the Billboard Hot 100 prior to Darin’s recording, but Darin’s made it all the way to #6. Spacey is singing this version, but he’s not even the only actor to take a swing at it. Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz took a chance at it for the film A Life Less Ordinary.

A Song Is Born – Various Artists

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

This performance is literally a walk-through (parts of) the history of music. I’m not usually a fan of this era of film, but I’d really like to watch this one. I do like Danny Kaye, who was one of the stars of the film. The basic premise of the movie is that professors Hobart (Kaye) and Magenbruch (Benny Goodman) are introduced to jazz as they are writing an encyclopedia of music. From there, they decide to research and learn all they can about it, and this scene is their inclusion of it in their encyclopedia. Of course, there’s also a damsel in distress and a love story in there, too. For me, watching this would be all about the music.

This performance is such a cool experience, watching how they build from one style of music to the next. They have some of the most notable musicians of the time on screen, including Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, The Golden Gate Quartet, and Tommy Dorsey. This was the first musical that Kaye worked on after separating from his wife, Sylvia Fine. She also worked as his personal writer and composer while they were married. After separating, she didn’t want to write for him, and because of that, he chose not to perform any musical numbers in the film, because he didn’t want to do anyone else’s songs.

Theme from Crocodile Dundee – Peter Best

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

 

Growing up, this was always one of my favorite movies. I’m not sure what it was about it that grabbed my attention so strongly. It could be the ordinary guy saving the day. It could be watching someone from nowhere, similar to the place I grew up, could make it out in the real world. Regardless of the reason why, I watched this movie a lot as a kid. I even watched the two sequels, the third of which wasn’t all that great. Still, it was Paul Hogan in a role he created and mastered.

The movie’s theme song is such a weird mix of instrumentation that comes together really well. There’s some kind of acoustic bass, didgeridoo, horns, and electric guitar among other things. It’s a cool blend of traditional Australian music with modern sounds. That works with the premise of the movie, too. The opening song of the film is also good, and surprisingly, there are a few good tracks on this album from Best. He did something different but made it memorable at the same time.

John Dunbar Theme (from Dances with Wolves) – John Barry

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

Dances with Wolves is another one that makes my favorites list. I’ve seen three different versions of the film, each one a little longer with extended scenes than the one before it, and I love them all. It’s just a great story told in a spectacular way. This song is from the 2004 expanded version of the soundtrack. I feel like Barry managed to capture the real essence of the character in this piece.

Dunbar (Kevin Costner) has given enough for his country that he has been allowed to select his newest assignment, and his only wish is to see the frontier “before it’s gone.” He gets his opportunity and begins an amazing journey. He’s a peaceful man with a great curiosity. Barry has worked on other films such as Midnight Cowboy, King Kong, Peggy Sue Got Married, and several films in the James Bond series.

Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

This is absolutely one of my favorite movies of all time, and Berry’s song made an appearance in a big way. When traveling back to 1955, Marty messes up his parents’ first meeting and jeopardizes his own existence. At the dance where they first kiss, he has to fill in on guitar. After performing “Earth Angel,” the band wants to do another song with him…”something that really cooks.” This is Marty’s choice. He does take it a bit over the top for the 1950’s, though.

Despite the movie’s suggestions, Marty McFly wasn’t the inspiration for the song. Berry says the song is partly autobiographical and partly inspired by his pianist, Johnnie Johnson. Oddly enough, Lafayette Leake recorded the piano in the song, not Johnson. In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Berry’s song was one of four American songs included on the “Voyager Golden Record” as a representation of rock and roll.

Tequila – The Champs

April’s Theme: Music from the Movies

This group is the absolute definition of “one-hit wonder.” The band wasn’t even formed until after the song was released and hit the top of the charts. The musicians had been brought together to record for Dave Burgess (AKA Dave Dupree) in an attempt to record a hit for the artist. “Tequila” just happened to be the B-side of another song, “Train to Nowhere.” The album didn’t make any headway until the B-side started to get some radio play. After the success of the song, the artists formed the group; however, they never found that success again.

The song has been used in more than one movie, but it’s most iconic appearance by far is in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Pee Wee uses the song as a backing track to dance his way out of a beat down after knocking over all the bikes belonging to the gang in the background. He is then sent on his way with a bike of his own. It doesn’t turn out well for Mr. Herman. You can watch the dance scene below.