March 26, 2025 - Prima and Smith, Jo Stafford and Roberta Flack Permeate Movies While Beatlemania Memories Are Jogged
Currently in theaters: The Alto Knights, starring Robert De Niro in two different based-on-real-life mobster roles, features several vintage songs including two hits from the 1950s: "That Old Black Magic" by Louis Prima and Keely Smith and Jo Stafford's number one smash "You Belong to Me." Spy thriller Black Bag, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, gives us a treat: Gene McDaniels' classic composition "Compared to What," recorded by the late, great Roberta Flack on her 1969 debut album First Take.
Meanwhile, John Lennon and Paul McCartney's "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (the song that sent The Beatles soaring in early 1964 and created the opportunity for many other British artists to follow them successfully onto America's shores) can be heard on a commercial for Uber.
March 18, 2025 - Birdlegs and Pauline, Andy W. and the Animals in Films, Kyu and Cash on Commercials
Novocaine, an action flick with a hero who can't feel pain, goes outside the normal musical realm for overly-bloody fare with "Mist of a Dream," Birdlegs and Pauline's dreamy 1964 recording that has become a 2020s media favorite, and "Silver Bells" by Andy Williams (you read that right, Christmas violence in March)! Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho's all-star sci-fi puzzler Mickey 17, starring an "expendible" Robert Pattinson, features an eerie drum-track remix of The Animals' 1965 hit "It's My Life"...there's nothing quite like it!
Two 1960s standards have popped up in recent commercials: "Ue o Muite Aruko" (or "Sukiyaki" for those of us in western regions) by Kyu Sakamoto for Coin Base and "Ring of Fire" by Man in Black Johnny Cash in an ad for Amazon. Fall into it!
March 3, 2025 - Focusing on Music's Favorites From Oscar's In Memoriam
Of the more than 200 members of the film community acknowledged in this year's In Memoriam segment during ABC-TV's Oscar broadcast (and on the Academy's website), nine names stand out as significant personalities in music, all of them successful at some point during the 1950s and/or 1960s. Musician Vic Flick (famous for his iconic "James Bond Theme" guitar riff) is joined by a trio of great women: singer-dancer-actress Mitzi Gaynor, British rocker Marianne Faithfull ("As Tears Go By") and Paris-born chanteuse Françoise Hardy ("Tous les Garçons et les Filles"). Three hitmaking male vocalists passed in the last year: James Darren ("Goodbye Cruel World"), Jack Jones ("Wives and Lovers") and prolific singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. Two giants of jazz also left the world a little emptier: keyboardist Sergio Mendes (founder of Brasil '66) and the amazing, decades-spanning musician, producer and multiple-award-winner Quincy Jones.
February 2, 2025 - The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Quincy Jones: Grammys Acknowledge Everlasting Excellence
Deja vu at the Grammys? Maybe not! Both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are winners this year, the former for "Now and Then" as Best Rock Performance and the latter for Hackney Diamonds as Best Rock Album. The last time the two leading British bands pulled off a same-year victory like this was: never! They did, however, each have recordings inducted into Grammy's Hall of Fame in two consecutive years: "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" made the grade in 1998, then in 1999, the Beatles album Revolver and song "Strawberry Fields Forever" were added, while Stones albums Beggars Banquet and Sticky Fingers were likewise honored.
More Grammy notes: a mid-show tribute to the great Quincy Jones kicked off with Will Smith's narrative about the music master's career set to Q's 1969 instrumental classic, "Killer Joe." Cynthia Erivo delivered an excellent vocal performance of "Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" as a tribute to Jones's work with Frank Sinatra, then Lainey Wilson got into a Ray Charles groove with "Let the Good Times Roll." The segment continued with Stevie Wonder (on harmonica) and Herbie Hancock (on piano) delivering a socko instrumental rendition of Toots Thielemans' "Bluesette." All in all, it was a real treat for '60s jazz buffs and Quincy's followers .
Also, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars (who won the Best Pop Duo/Group award for the '70s-styled "Die With a Smile") bypassed their hit song in favor of a performance of '66 Mamas and the Papas opener "California Dreamin'."
