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Tuesday , December 14, 2010
All-Time Top 5 Fave Songs Discovered Via John Hughes Movies
Rest in peace, Mr. John Hughes.
I. OINGO BOINGO, "WILD SEX (IN THE WORKING CLASS)," FROM SIXTEEN CANDLES
God, there's so much killer party music in Sixteen Candles! Probably cuz it's a killer party movie, excepting all that mushy stuff with Samantha Baker, who totally misses out on all the partying because she's too busy being a big wet-blanket baby like everybody else Molly Ringwald has ever played. Give me Caroline Mulford with her hair slammed in the door any day of the week and twice on Sunday, please oh please. And if I were in Sixteen Candles, I'd so want to be Jami Gertz drunkenly shouting on the stairs while Patti Smith plays in the background. I already am her, basically.
II. NEW ORDER, "THIEVES LIKE US," FROM PRETTY IN PINK
Speaking of wet-blanket Molly Ringwald, here she is slaving away at what I've already astutely referred to as her "terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad prom dress." Another bitchy Pretty in Pink opinion o' mine: Duckie's soooooooo annoying, and if they'd gone with the original ending and had him and Andy end up together, my seven-year-old self so would've started a riot at the Elm Draughthouse Cinema (where, incidentally, you can buy pizza and beer right in the theater, or at least you could in 1986). Despite those two considerable snags, Pretty in Pink's my fave J.H. joint, and I just cried watching the trailer. Harry Dean Stanton's the best movie dad ever. James Spader makes Chuck Bass look like, I don't know, the robot's brother on Small Wonder. Andrew McCarthy? I STILL THINK WE'D MAKE A GREAT TEAM.
III. ENGLISH BEAT, "ROTATING HEADS," FROM FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF
One thing really ace about the music supervision in John Hughes movies is their knack for taking out the lyrics and making a song 87 times more perfect for the scene. The best example's "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" in Ferris Bueller's Day Off; the second-best example's "Rotating Heads" in the same film. I spent many years believing this track to be part of the Ferris score, till I heard it on WBRU one afternoon at age 13 or 14 whilst pedaling away on a decades-old stationary bike in the attic of my family's old house, my headphones attached to this monster boombox precariously balanced on a bookshelf. So that's a neat little glimpse into my early adolescence for you.
IV. THE ROLLING STONES, "MISS AMANDA JONES," FROM SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL
When I was little, I thought the Rolling Stones had written "Miss Amanda Jones" for Lea Thompson's character in Some Kind of Wonderful. (They didn't; it's on the 1967 album Between the Buttons, which was my favorite record for at least two months in 2002.) BTW, if I were named after a song title, I'd want to be Jill Hives (Guided By Voices), Suzy Lee (The White Stripes), or James Brown is Dead (L.A. Style).
V. KATE BUSH, "THIS WOMAN'S WORK," FROM SHE'S HAVING A BABY
I can't, in good conscience, jukebox "This Woman's Work" here; it's so precious and fragile, I'm scared I'd break it. So instead you should go and download the mp3 for free at Number One Millionaire, and then cry yourself a vast ocean of jewel-like tears.
HONORABLE MENTION
As I whined in a Facebook status update this morning, everyone always forgets that John Hughes wrote the Vacation movies. (I almost added "YOU STUPID LOSERS" but then decided that wasn't very cool.) I already picked Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" (featured in European Vacation) as one of my dream prom themes a while back, but it seems worth mentioning again. Also, I really like the part in Vacation when Clark and Ellen are singing "Jimmy Crack Corn" and then Rusty and Audrey put on their headphones to drown them out and "Blitzkrieg Bop" comes on and it sounds SO EPIC! It's in the first 30 seconds of this vid:
Tags: Andrew McCarthy, Chuck Bass, James Spader, Jami Gertz, John Hughes, Kate Bush, Molly Ringwald, New Order, partying hard, Patti Smith, prom, prom dresses, Rolling Stones, soundtracks, The Ramones
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Posted by Liz in All-Time Top 5 |
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2 Comments!!
You should visit Austin TX... you can order pizza & beer & mixed drinks & lots of other tasty food during the movies at the Alamo Drafthouse. They are undoubtedly planning a John Hughes event as I'm typing this....
By Sarah S on August 7, 2009 10:14 PM
nice! i wanna get back to austin. i've only been once, for sxsw 2008, but it was so much fun.
By Liz
on August 8, 2009 11:38 AM