Way Back 2022

May 4, 2023 - Dylan, Cass, Champs, Chubby, the Shirelles, Clarence Carter and a few Italian Favorites Crash Current Pop Culture

Under the ever-widening category of "songs that are altered forever after being featured in a horror movie," or in this case TV series, season two of From on MGM+ has included Bob Dylan's 1963 Freewheelin' classic "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" on its soundtrack and the 1968 Mama Cass hit "Dream a Little Dream of Me" in a creepy trailer for the show.

In theaters: Somewhere in Queens, starring Ray Romano and Laurie Metcalf, offers a grab bag of tunes including Italian favorites "Buona Sera" by Louis Prima, "Luna Mezzo Mare" (a.k.a. "Lazy Mary") by Lou Monte and Dean Martin's classic version of a song everyone has sung (the first word, at least) at one time or another: "Volare." Two famous early-'60s body-contortion songs are also heard in the film: "Limbo Rock" by The Champs and the biggest dance ditty of all, "The Twist" by Chubby Checker. Polite Society, a U.K./Pakistani action flick, makes room for The Shirelles' 1961 hit "Mama Said." Meanwhile, Clarence Carter's '68 ode to unfaithfulness, "Slip Away," is being heard in a commercial for Microsoft's Together Mode.


April 6, 2023 - Movies, TV, Video Music: LZ, Stones, Lou Reed, Doris Day, Beatles, Canned Heat...and the Chordettes

Rocking in theaters now: "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin can be heard in box office leader Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, while the latest John Wick installment (Chapter 4) has "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones. Director Zach Braff made a solid decision to include Lou Reed's sweetly sensational 1969 Velvet Underground track "After Hours" on the soundtrack of A Good Person starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman.

Looking ahead, trailers for Evil Dead Rise have taken another virtuous hit song, Doris Day's "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from '56, and squished its soul into horror film fodder...a perfectly logical move for the genre. The FX network's upcoming wannabe-rapper series Dave is being hyped to the sound of "Going Up the Country" by Canned Heat while Verizon hawks its +Play wares via The Beatles' singalong "All Together Now." In the music video realm the public is witness to a Chordettes-Kardashians crossover: the resilient girl group's 1954 chart-topper "Mr. Sandman" further strengthens its position as one of the most high-profile 1950s recordings; the 'bum-bum-bum-bum...' song is heavily sampled in Meghan Trainor's latest single, "Mother," with a video that features ultra-famous 21st century mom Kris Jenner.




The Twist Paint It Black Mr. Sandman

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