My favorite tracks correspond directly to my top scenes in the movie: “You’re the One That I Want,” the duet between John Travolta and Newton-John, is endlessly fun to recreate…I totally remember doing the little high heel toe stamp out of the cigarette at 7 years old when I certainly didn’t smoke or wear heels. The song and scene could have contributed to my penchant for black leather jackets. I also love “Greased Lightin‘” (Travolta) — that scene with the bad boys (I had a little crush on Kenickie) and their cars may have twisted my psyche at a young age just a bit. Even though I really can’t stand Sha-Na-Na, the school dance competition to “Born to Hand Jive” was always a fave (I’m a major sucker for a good movie dance scene). Bad girl Rizzo (Stockard Channing) was one of my favorite characters so I still dig “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee.” Though I like it, the title track “Grease” always confused me: a movie set in the 50’s with a straight-up disco song (written by Bee Gee’s Barry Gibb and performed by Four Seasons’ Frankie Valli). From Wiki: “‘Grease’ was one of four songs in the film that had not been part of the original musical, and it was the only one not performed by the cast. The film’s director, Randal Kleiser, did not like the added songs because they did not fit the late-1950s/early 1960s style either musically or lyrically, and Kleiser had planned on a different composition by Charles Fox and Paul Williams (Fox having written the theme from Happy Days) before being overruled by the producers. The anachronism was especially true of ‘Grease,’ which used disco instrumentation and a contemporary 1970s beat but was, nonetheless, left in.” The song went to #1 in the US and #3 in the UK.

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“The Decline of Western Civilization” 1980. Slash Records. Today, November 7th, is Alice Bag’s birthday (b. Alicia Armendariz, 1958) and the only recording we have of her and her band, The Bags/Alice Bag Band, is on this soundtrack from the film directed by Penelope Spheeris which documented the ‘79-’80 LA punk scene. Quite recently I read Alice Bag’s autobiography Violence Girl (from Feral House publishing) and it was a can’t-put-it-down read. She was an integral part of the LA music scene, starting off as a super-fan of David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Elton John before starting her own band and hanging out with members of the Germs, The Weirdos, etc. She spends a short chapter describing her experience with the recording of the track (“Gluttony”) for Decline of Western Civilization: “The filming of the performance was an ordeal. It was supposed to be a live show, but because several bands were being filmed and there were five bands on the bill, it became a marathon. Fights broke out backstage as people tried to change the order of performance. In a small backstage overflowing with testosterone, I was the only woman and nobody was fucking with me…We were nearly out of steam even before we went on. The show had gone on far too long. The film crew was packing up equipment, members of the audience looked spent and it was hard to get excited about playing, but we went out and tried to revive the night. I knew it wasn’t our best show, but it wasn’t our worst, either.”

The soundtrack features several other prominent LA punk bands (all filmed at various locations and dates from December 1979 through May 1980). There’s a great version of “White Minority” by Black Flag, a messy version of “Manimal” by the Germs (are there any versions of any Germs live songs that aren’t messy?) and X play a really excellent set that includes “Beyond and Back,” “Johny Hit and Run Paulene” and “We’re Desperate.” Circle Jerks have four songs (the best “Back Against the Wall”) and Fear have three including “I Don’t Care About You,” “I Love Livin’ In the City” and “Fear Anthem.” There’s also a song by Catholic Discipline (“Underground Babylon”) but I never really heard much by them beyond this record and don’t care for that track.

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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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My friends and I loved Dirty Dancing back in ‘87, the sexy dancing, the drama, not putting Baby in the corner, etc. I guess by default we also fell in love with the film’s music, though we mocked many of the songs relentlessly. The first single from the soundtrack, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” is a sappy soft rock duet by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes that went to #1 and won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Grammy. The second single, “Hungry Eyes” by Eric Carmen, went to #4. Back in ‘87 the rumor was that it was written after Carmen saw the way that Jennifer Grey looked at Patrick Swayze during the filming of Dirty Dancing. I hate to break this to my friends, but the song was actually written back in ‘84 by John DeNicola and Franke Previte, long before Grey ever set her hungry eyes on Swayze. But it was the third single from the film that inspired most of our mirthful ridicule: “She’s Like the Wind” performed by Patrick Swayze (he cowrote it back in ‘84 with Stacy Widelitz and it was originally intended for the movie Grandview, USA). Oh it so very very bad, an over the top schmalzy and dramatic 80′s power ballad. People loved it, though, and it went to #3 on the Hot 100 and to #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts (though I doubt most of those adult contemporaries listened to it while driving around with a bunch of teenagers hanging their heads out the window so that their hair could be like the wind. That was probably just us).

A few of the songs on the soundtrack are great classics, originally released long before the late 80′s. “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes is classic Wall of Sound Phil Spector production from 1963. “Hey Baby” by Bruce Channel is late 50′s/early 60′s rock-n-roll, harmonica front and center, from 1961 and hit #1 on the Hot 100 chart. “Love Is Strange,” performed by Mickey and Sylvia, was written by Bo Diddley who first recorded it in ‘56 but that recording was not released until 2007. Mickey and Sylvia’s version went to #11 in early 1957 and in 2004 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The original soundtrack concludes with The Five Satins’ “In the Still of the Night,” one of the most popular doo-wop songs from the 50′s which went to #24 on the Hot 100 and has been covered over the years by She Na Na, the Beach Boys, Boyz II Men and Debbie Gibson among others.

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But it’s Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s “If You Leave” that holds the most nostalgia. I was in 9th grade, the last year at my junior high, when Pretty in Pink came out. Though I was new to the school that year, I had somehow managed to get myself elected onto the student council (it wasn’t that hard – I think like 40 students from each grade were voted in) and one of our tasks was to organize the Farewell Dance that happened in late spring. I suggested Farewell’s theme song be “If You Leave” and the council agreed. Heavily influenced by the movie, I found my aunt’s flouncy blue prom dress from the late 50′s or early 60′s in our attic and decided to wear it to the dance (though unlike Molly Ringwald, I didn’t do any fancy reconstruction) and pair it with my spiky hair, ripped tights and black boots. The look would complement the blue hair of the beautiful punk rock boy I had asked to be my date for the dance. I never got to wear it – beautiful punk rock boy canceled the night before so I stayed home “sick” the next day to avoid the humiliation of being ditched at the dance. (In hindsight I guess I am grateful he had the grace to call and not just leave me hanging.)

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