From Deseret News archives:
Songs in the movies
The Who's "Who Are You?" serves as the theme song for television's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which regularly ranks in the top five television programs, ratingswise. And the other two "CSI" series also use Who songs as themes.
The Beatles and the Rolling Stones have also gotten into the act — a new credit-card ad spotlights "I'm Free," which isn't even one of the Stones' bigger hits.
As you might expect, most songwriters are happy to pick up an extra pay check for past work. In a Salt Lake appearance last year, Kinks songwriter Ray Davies jokingly described a song he was about to play as "one of the few I've written that you won't hear in a television commercial these days."
But not all artists are as pleased or good-humored as Davies about this trend. Some — most notably Tom Waits — have even used legal means to prevent their songs from being used.
At various times, the 57-year-old musician has sued Frito-Lay and Audi, and last year he went after an advertising agency that hired a Waits sound-alike to sing for a series of European automobile ads. "Apparently the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad — ideally naked and purring on the hood of a new car," Waits told the Associated Press. "I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor," he said, adding, "While (courts) can't make me active in radio, I am asking (them) to make me radioactive to advertisers."
One of the odder trends is current films using songs that were originally done for specific older movies. Simon and Garfunkel sang "Mrs. Robinson" for 1967's "The Graduate." And the song has appeared since in at least a half-dozen other films, including the "Graduate"-influenced "Rumor Has It" and the 1999 movies "American Pie" and "The Other Sister."
B.J. Thomas' performance of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" has also been rediscovered. Originally done for 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," it recently popped up in both "Spider-Man 2" and "Clerks II."
Typically, older songs are featured in period pieces set in the '50s, '60s or '70s — films like "Forrest Gump." But a pair of recent animated films — "Happy Feet" and "Flushed Away" — also sported a few.
Sometimes the inclusion of an oldie can even inspire a musical number, such as the comic use of "Aquarius" from "Hair," which closes "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."
A big reason for the oldies revival may be the potential to sell movie soundtrack albums. The 1990 romantic fantasy "Ghost" revived the Righteous Brothers hit "Unchained Melody," and the entire soundtrack to 1983's "The Big Chill" was filled with older Motown hits and other classic songs.
Filmmaker Wes Anderson has been outspoken about his love for British Invasion music, which influenced the soundtrack for his 1999 comedy "Rushmore."
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com
