Time for the final installment of shiny, happy music on my go-to morning CD. (Part 1 is here and part 2 is here.) It's morning right now, and the last couple songs are left on it while one of my children dawdles over breakfast. Perfect time to finish this series!
Today we get to start with one of my absolute favorite western themes, another by Elmer Bernstein. It's the main theme from The Sons of Katie Elder, which also happens to be my favorite John Wayne movie ever and my favorite western set in the American west. Oh, how I love this song!
And then, more Bobby Darin :-) My seven-year-old really loves this song right now too, which I'm very pleased about. This is Bobby's rendition of "Don't Rain on My Parade," which is originally from the musical Funny Girl.
Next up is "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers. This song brings back two sets of memories for me. First, of watching my very first Johnny Depp movie ever, Benny and Joon, which opens with this song. I watched that at a slumber party in high school, and by the end was a firm Johnny Depp fan. The second memory is of college and this brilliant band called The Divers. Two of the band's members are professors at the college. Because my school was beyond cool. Anyway, sometimes they performed this song during their concerts, along with all their own original music, so I have a wonderful memory of standing in the college theater with all my dear friends, singing along with The Divers to this song.
And then the theme song from the old western-meets-sci-fi show The Wild, Wild West. Carissa recently did an article in Femnista about how TWWW is basically steampunk, and she's right, it totally is. Anyway, the opening credits are super fun, and so is the song.
Next comes another classic TV show theme, this time from The Monkees. My mom used to sing this to us for no apparent reason. Now I do the same to my kids :-D
And then one last Bobby Darin song. This is the title song from a really wacky, quirky movie called Goodbye, Charlie. Bobby doesn't sing it for the movie, alas, but I love his version the mostest. Very snappy and snarky.
One last Elmer Bernstein theme for a western! This time for The Magnificent Seven, which I consider to be the best western ever. Happy dance!
(I wanted to link to this vid instead, but it basically gives away the entire movie, so I decided that was not a great idea.)
This is one song that I've decided I should have left off. It's "One Day More," my favorite song from Les Miserables, but it's not quite cheerful enough to match the others. However, I'm including it in the post for the sake of completeness :-) And besides, Hugh Jackman.
The last song on the CD is the finale cue from The Lone Ranger (2013). This song makes me happy No Matter What. I simply cannot listen to it and not be cheered up! (Well, okay, if something truly tragic happens, it probably wouldn't work, but for ordinary blues and annoyances and even PMS, totally works.) It takes the familiar "William Tell" theme that the old TV show and radio show used for their theme song and then just elaborates on them. Kind of a "Variations on a Theme by Rossini," if you will. Ten minutes of ecstasy, really. My absolute favorite part kicks in at 7:03 when the theme returns off-cadence and minor, and then these trumpets come in with a love song to the Old West. That part makes me ache with joy.
And that's all, folks! All 22 songs I listen to just about every day right now :-)
...revealing my thoughts about movies, writing, and life to the audience...
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
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haha. Strangely enough, I've had "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" stuck in my head for about two days now :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence!
DeleteLove the Westerny goodness, of course! Wild Wild West just never gets old. :-D
ReplyDeleteIt will come as absolutely no surprise to you that I love listening to music every morning before work, but I put on different stuff every day. (Routines? Patterns? Traditions? What are these things? LOL!) Two days ago was the soundtrack to How to Train Your Dragon 2, yesterday was opera (Macbeth), today is Lawrence of Arabia.
I also love that mixes work so well for you. I tend to need the same sound/mood/composer, etc., and so far, if I try to throw favorite cues together on a CD, I abandon it almost immediately to put on the full score of whatever has my attention.
Today I was a rebel. I listened to the While You Were Sleeping soundtrack instead of this mix. Hee. I also still have the Lone Ranger soundtrack beside the CD player because sometimes I Have To Listen To It. It's never been over to the CD rack, it's stayed in the kitchen ever since I got it. And some mornings I'm in the mood for something specific, like today, so then I go hunt it up. But many, many mornings, I'm like, "Need music. Music now." And that's when either a mix CD or whatever was left in the CD player from yesterday comes in handy.
DeleteDon't you listen to your mp3 player on shuffle, though?
No, I'm not a shuffle fan when I'm at home. But L and I will put her iPod on shuffle when we're driving together and we don't know what we want to hear. That ends up being mostly a who can guess what it is game, or if it's opera... "what is this from" and more importantly "who's singing?" :-D
DeleteI totally understand having certain CDs that can't be returned to the shelf. I mean the Hercules CD has not budged from my car since I got it this year.
Ahhhh, ok, that makes sense.
DeleteWe were talking about The Magnificent Seven at the lunch table yesterday, and I one point I said, "I think the real reason they did sequels and remakes was just so they'd have an excuse to use that music over and over again." :) And The Sons of Katie Elder is my second-favorite Bernstein Western score. There's a suite of music from the score on YouTube; have you seen that?
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I was looking for something to do over the weekend, and randomly decided to watch an episode of Combat!: "Glow Against the Sky." It was great—excellent acting, and the suspense, oh, my! And so then I watched "One More For the Road" the next day. I liked that too but the first was my favorite.
You know, you may be right about the sequels and remakes :-) It was also used in Marlboro commercials, I think. Brilliant music.
DeleteI haven't seen the Katie Elder suite on YouTube, but I have the original LP soundtrack, which I've also converted to CD :-D Love that music!
And how cool that you watched some C! Yes, GATS is a really great ep, lots and lots of wonderful character development. OMFTR is lovely too, and often the one I show to people as an intro ep if they're not up for something longer like the two-part "The Long Way Home." But yes, GATS is definitely the stronger episode. Littlejohn breaks my heart in that one.
Hullo. I tagged you over at my blog. :)
ReplyDeletexx
Oh my goodness, is that the perfect tag for me or what? I LOVE winter! Thanks so much -- I'll do it as soon as I can.
Delete