Way Back 2026

April 27, 2026 - Songs a-Plenty from Motown, J5, G. Kelly, J.L. Hooker and the Impressions

Box office leader Michael, the biopic starring Michael Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson, works in a few pre-Jackson Five/MJ songs, nearly all from Motown: early Berry Gordy production "Money (That's What I Want)" by Barrett Strong, Gladys Knight and the Pips' '67 jam "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," "Oh How Happy" by Edwin Starr and Blinky (penned by Starr) and the one without any Detroit origins, "Singin' in the Rain," first heard in Broadway's Hollywood Music Box Revue of 1929, then famously in the classic 1952 big screen musical Singin' in the Rain, sung by Gene Kelly (...in the rain!), and now in the Michael movie. This in addition, of course, to the late-'69 Jackson Five breakthrough "I Want You Back" and many other J5 hits that activated Michael's wildly successful career.

Also in cinemas, Bob Odenkirk's latest action thriller Normal has one blues classic on its soundtrack: "Boom Boom" by John Lee Hooker (who spent a fair amount of time in Detroit but never in Normal, Minnesota...which would be impossible). Then there's patio, balcony and rooftop company Trex, placing "It's All Right" by The Impressions in its latest TV commercial.


April 4, 2026 - Hail Mary!, The Drama Join Mario and Luigi...and the Music is Our Gain

Project Hail Mary, the top theatrical hit of 2026 so far, brings a few vintage songs back into the fray including Ella Fitzgerald's 1957 version of late '30s Gershwin tune "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," South African star Miriam Makeba's '67 hit "Pata Pata" and Beatles breakup-era album cut "Two of Us." Zendaya and Robert Pattinson star in The Drama, a romantic comedy in spite of its title, highlighted by two very different mid-1950s recordings, "The Wind" by R&B vocal group The Diablos featuring Nolan Strong and "Tangerine," the 1942 Victor Schertzinger-Johnny Mercer song given a lush arrangement on Jackie Gleason's 1954 album Music to Remember Her.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (the follow-up to 2023's Super Mario Bros. Movie) is getting set for a hot box office run and Dean Martin's 1953 hit "That's Amore" factors into the fun. Another of Dino's "Rat Pack" pals, Sammy Davis Jr., croons "I've Gotta Be Me" (from the 1968 Broadway musical Golden Rainbow) on a current commercial for Coinbase.



Money (That's What I Want) I Heard it Through the Grapevine Pata Pata

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