“The Breakfast Club” soundtrack

sfilzen — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 18:25:45 +0000

“The Breakfast Club” soundtrack, released on this date, February 19th, 1985. The Breakfast Club (released on Feb. 15th, 1985) was one of the most acclaimed – and successful – movies of the 80′s. A John Hughes film, it’s considered one of the greatest films of all time and in 2016 was selected by the Library of Congress to be included in the US National Film Registry. It certainly was one of the most important movies to me in the 80′s. I’ve probably seen it close to 50 times, 40 of those in ‘85 and ‘86 alone. In ‘85 I was finishing my last months of the hellscape that was 8th grade and the pain, bullying, clique-ish social structure that rots teenage life was depicted with glorious accuracy in the movie. While I didn’t specifically identify with any of the archetypes depicted in the film (princess, outcast, geek, jock, delinquent), I definitely empathized strongly with each one by degrees – parental and peer pressure exerted on all of them and the desire to flip-off that authority.

The soundtrack, though…not that great. John Hughes’ film Pretty in Pink from 1986 had an amazing soundtrack – one of the best, actually – but with the exception of the hit single by Simple Minds “Don’t You Forget About Me” (released on Feb. 20th, 1985) and, to a much lesser degree, Wang Chung’s “Fire In the Twilight,” the rest of the album is totally forgettable. (I do kinda like Karla DeVito’s “We Are Not Alone” mainly because of the sequence that it plays over during the film). “Don’t You Forget About Me” plays during one of the most iconic moments in 80′s film history at the end of the film (Bender fist-pumping the air) and almost 35 years later the track still gives me all the feels. The song was offered by writers Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff (Nina Hagen band) to many other bands after Simple Minds initially declined to record it. Finally, after pressure from Jim Kerr’s wife Chrissie Hynde, Simple Minds agreed and it ended up being their biggest hit ever going to #1 in the US and #7 in the UK.

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Soundtrack from “Sixteen Candles”

sfilzen — Fri, 04 May 2018 18:45:30 +0000

Soundtrack from “Sixteen Candles” the movie released on this date, May 4th, 1984. Like most who were teens in the 80′s, Sixteen Candles was one of my favorite movies and may or may not be partially responsible for the name of my kid (Jake Ryan = swoon). While the 5-song mini album is nowhere near the level of John Hughes’ epic Pretty In Pink music selections, there are a couple of strong tracks including punk godmother Patti Smith’s “Gloria” and The Thompson Twins’ “If You Were Here.” The other tracks are basically filler: “16 Candles” by the Stray Cats (not their best song), “Hang Up the Phone” by Annie Golden and “Geek Boogie” by Ira Newborn and the Geeks (though this last one makes me smile a bit because it reminds me that Sixteen Candles was my first introduction to John Cusack and I love John Cusack). John Hughes was totally dialed in to teenage popular culture as evidenced by all of the music that appeared in Sixteen Candles that didn’t make it to the soundtrack including “Happy Birthday” by Altered Images (my favorite birthday song ever), “True” by Spandau Ballet, “Little Bitch” by The Specials, “Turning Japanese” by The Vapors, “Young Guns” by Wham!, “Rebel Yell” by Bily Idol, “Young Americans” by David Bowie and “Tenderness” by General Public.

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“The Breakfast Club” soundtrack

Soundtrack from “Sixteen Candles”