Way Back 2022

June 24, 2022 - Elvis by Luhrmann Reimagines the Music of Rock's All-Time Top Star

Baz Luhrmann's Elvis has arrived in theaters and contains a creative, surreal selection of Elvis Presley originals, mixes and mashups with several remakes by unlikely recording acts thrown in. Would the King approve? The question is certainly ripe for debate.

For starters: "Trouble," "That's All Right," "Baby, Let's Play House" and "Hound Dog" are performed in the film by its star, Austin Butler. Award-winning country singer Kacey Musgraves sings "Can't Help Falling in Love" and Italian rock band MÃ¥neskin performs Presley's show-stopper, "If I Can Dream." "Cotton Candy Land" from 1963's It Happened at the World's Fair is turned on its ear by Stevie Nicks and Chris Isaak. Tame Impala (a.k.a. Kevin Parker) offers a remix of "Any Day Now." "Don't Fly Away," a PNAU remix, is essentially "Suspicious Minds" with a dash of "Any Day Now." "Craw-fever" is a mashup of "Crawfish" from King Creole and "Fever," while "Vegas" by Doja Cat samples the 'You ain't nothin' but a...' line from Big Mama Thornton's original 1953 hit "Hound Dog."

A "'68 Comeback Special" medley includes "Heartbreak Hotel," "Hound Dog," "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Jailhouse Rock." "Unchained Melody," "Burning Love" and "If I Can Dream" are closer to Presley's original studio recordings. And then there's an ethereal 30-second vocal version of the 'I'll dry the tears from your eyes, let's don't let a good thing die' section of "Suspicious Minds." Elvis, are you with us?


June 19, 2022 - Current Classic Film Tunes: Hank, Otis/Carla, Who, Turtles, Foundations, LedZep and Spencer Davis Give Us Some

While you may be obsessed with Top Gun: Maverick's country, soul and rock soundtrack that includes "Your Cheatin' Heart" by Hank Williams, "Tramp" by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas and "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who, here's a reminder of some of the other vintage songs featured in less-overwhelming current films. The Turtles' '67 smash "Happy Together" continues its pop culture march through the decades in Brian and Charles, a comedy about a homemade robot and its disturbed creator. Phantom of the Open, a British comedy starring Mark Rylance as the real-life "world's worst golfer" Maurice Flitcroft, makes heartwarming use of The Foundations' 1969 million seller "Build Me Up Buttercup." The Adam Project, a Netflix time-travel adventure starring Ryan "Mint Mobile" Reynolds, rocks out with Led Zeppelin's '69 debut single "Good Times Bad Times" and "Gimme Some Lovin'," Steve Winwood's killer hit with The Spencer Davis Group.


May 24, 2022 - A This Is Us Season of Magical Music, Everlys, Creedence and Cash Take Up Additional Slack

NBC's beloved series This Is Us has come to an end - "It's all over but the crying," some are saying. A variety of song types have been sprinkled over the sixth and final season, some of them matching the story lines. Among the earlier essentials: "April Come She Will" by Simon and Garfunkel, "Ooo Baby Baby" by The Miracles, "Colours" by Donovan and "The Circle Game" by Joni Mitchell. Bonus: Brenda Lee's evergreen "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" ...in a May episode...not the month you were expecting!

The Everly Brothers have been off the pop culture radar for a little while, so hearing the 1958 chart-topper "All I Have to Do is Dream" in Marvel's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with Doc Benedict Cumberbatch is welcome ear candy. Nick Cage's action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent features "Down on the Corner" by Creedence Clearwater Revival; finally, despite a persistent UPS commercial, don't check yourself into the looney bin if you catch yourself incessantly humming Johnny Cash's version of Australian songwriter Geoff Mack's "I've Been Everywhere," a hit in 1962 for Hank Snow.


April 12, 2022 - "Dreamin'" with Mamas, Papas and Bobby Womack plus Doors, Dino, Sonny, Cher, Sly, Family Stone in the Public Mix

Unlikely box office action tunes: "California Dreamin'" comes up twice - by The Mamas and the Papas and again by Bobby Womack, whose version was popular three years after M&P's '66 original - in the heist thriller Ambulance starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The Doors' 1969 Soft Parade single "Tell All the People" has a moment in Morbius, the Marvel movie with Jared Leto as the title villain-turned-hero. Meanwhile, "Volare" by Dean Martin has become an all-ages Batman jam (oops, left out the The in Batman). On the home screen, Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" plays on a Freshpet.com commercial, while a promo for ABC's The Wonder Years is powered by Sly and the Family Stone's first great hit, "Dance to the Music."




WAY BACK

That's All Right Hound Dog Hound Dog Suspicious Minds Happy Together I Got You Babe Dance to the Music