Today you are presented with more than songs and more than one resurrection. Music and film have a fantastic relationship. Music can set a tone, mood, atmosphere, time period; it can shape the piece that it is in. This can be a symbiotic relationship because new films using old music, bring the song, perhaps performer, band/s or musical style to attention in pop culture. Some songs are forever bound with their movie counterparts and we have a hard time pulling them apart. Who doesn’t see Tom Cruise in his underwear when they hear Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll?” (Answer: Anyone born after 1985)
Neither of those, however, are any part of this week’s song pick. We are looking at resurrections/ resurgence of fame of amazing artists that came about from cinema. Since you have been waiting so long for a new song pick, you get two here and they will be matched with an article highlighting artist picks, diving into some fun history and great trivia.
“The Banana Boat Song,” Harry Belafonte:
Beetlejuice (1988) Tim Burton
Harry Belafonte’s music is actually at the core of this movie and peppered throughout.
“Unchained Melody,” The Righteous Brothers:
Ghost (1990) Jerry Zucker
Spoiler alert: This is pretty much the whole movie with Whoopi Goldberg taken out.
*Bonus Note: We will also explore Top Gun and “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.”
(An earlier version this morning [11.29.2020] was published mistakenly crediting Steve Miller with Bob Seger’s work. Sorry, Bob.)
The Observations of Jaco 