Pophistory: music, movies, history, and life.
Nerd Fest UK recently created a mashup pairing scenes from the Golden Age of Hollywood with the song “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson (featuring Bruno Mars). The old-time dance moves fit pretty well with the groove of the hit song.
The clips from various films include folks like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, and Judy Garland. Check it out.
What is your favorite scene in the video? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
Starting in the early 1980s, I haunted the used record stores of Cleveland searching for any music related to Bruce Springsteen. At the time, the Boss had released only a handful of albums, and it seemed like forever between new releases. So, I soon discovered bootlegs with their unusual titles and cheap cover art on the outside and hidden gems inside.
On one occasion, I found a full-sized 45-rpm album with only two songs on it. The record said it was by “Bruce Springstone” and was titled “Live at Bedrock.” But I figured it was a clever bootleg. I took the 12-inch single home and listened to the first song on side one, “Bedrock Rap/Meet the Flintstones.”
It was definitely in the spirit of Bruce Springsteen. It had a chatty introduction like the ones I had heard on the bootlegs. And there was the saxophone playing a big part just like it was Clarence Clemons. Plus, the wailing at the end was all “Backstreets.” Yet, I soon realized the voice was not actually Springsteen. But I still loved it.
Then I flipped it over to listen to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” I liked it even better than the A side.
In those days, we did not have the Internet to answer every question we had. So it would be years before I found out more about Bruce Springstone.
The record, which was released in September 1982, featured Tom Chalkley. He was a Baltimore journalist and editorial cartoonist who also drew the picture on the back of the record showing “Springstone” sliding into home plate carrying his guitar.
The idea for the record came when Chalkley and some childhood friends were playing music at a party and began goofing on Bruce Springsteen’s style. So Chalkley and his friend Craig Hankin arranged the music and released the 12-inch single with Chalkley singing and Hankin playing rhythm guitar on “Meet the Flintstones.”
Chalkley and Hankin needed a B-side for their Flintstones cover song. So, Chalkley found inspiration when he saw the 1927 lyrics for the verses to”Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on sheet music in a store. He thought that the name Nelly Kelly sounded just like a Springsteen heroine (a 1908 version featured the name Katie Casey).
So, using the little-known verse lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” they made the record. Among others, rock guitarist Tommy Keene played lead guitar and Ron Holloway filled in for Clarence Clemons’s saxophone
In case you are just used to hearing the chorus of the song, here is how the opening Nelly Kelly verse to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” sounded when sung by Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in the movie Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1949).
The album was originally released by Clean Cuts, a local jazz label, but today it is still in print by Rhino. At the time of the record’s release, Bruce Springstone’s version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “Meet the Flintstones” received airplay on various radio stations. Reportedly, Bruce Springsteen sent Chalkley a postcard complimenting his work.
Springstone’s “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was even featured in the 1995-96 Guinness Book of Sports Records for Longest Continuous Airplay of a Sports-Related Song. It was played more than 57,000 times straight.
Hanna-Barbara approved the use of “Meet the Flintstones.” But the company complained when MTV was going to show a video that Chalkley and Hanklin made.
Chalkley did write some other songs in the Springsteen style like one called “Ugga Bugga” (excerpt below), but Bruce Springstone never released another album.
People remain curious about Bruce Springstone, so much so that a few years ago Chalkley launched a Kickstarter campaign with Craig Hankin to raise money to create a graphic comic book about the record. Or, as they describe it, the book is about “the bonds of friendship, creativity, youthful ambition and, of course, the staying power of a well-crafted novelty hit.” The book will be called, If I’d Known Back Then: A Graphic Memoir.
Chalkley and Hankin received the money they needed from the Kickstarter campaign to create the book, so it is too late to pitch in now. The book is not out yet, so it appears they are still working on the project.
Meanwhile, Chalkley and Hankin continue to make music. Here, in 2015 they created a video for their 1979 song “Jackie” for the Small Guitar in Motion Project.
But their legacy will always be as Bruce Springstone for me. Who would have guessed that thirty years after its release, we would still be talking about this parody record I purchased by accident?
Which song by Bruce Springstone do you like best? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
Check out this short video, “Dancing and Cool in Movies,” compiled by MovieCool.Final2. The video does a good job of exploring how “cool” is expressed in movies though dancing scenes. Movies discussed include Jailhouse Rock (1957), Grease (1978), and Pulp Fiction (1994). Check it out.
For a full list of the movies in the video, head over to Slate.
Onscreen dances are used to convey other messages besides cool, of course. I find it hard to select a favorite dance scene from a film, although it is hard to top Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Few movie scenes have conveyed the happiness of being in love as well.
Another film uses dance to show a different type of happiness. When the cast of The Big Chill (a film that had a recent anniversary) begin moving to the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” one cannot help but smile. Of course, “older” people dancing to the music from their younger days is the antithesis of the “Dancing and Cool in Movies” theme exploring the intersection of hippness and dance. But, like Gene Kelly’s dance, the dance creates a great expression of joy.
What is your favorite dance scene in a movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)