Adventures Through The Mines Of Mellow Gold 6
Welcome back to another edition of Mellow Gold, fellow wussies! (Wusses? Wussies? You get my point.)
This week we’re going to cover two Legends Of Mellow Gold. Artists who damn near made it their life mission to contribute to the category. We have a number of songs to choose from both artists, but today we’ll just cover one of each – both theme songs to movies from the early 1980s. And I want to preface this by admitting outright that Jefito knows both of these artists way better than I do, and could probably do them much more justice. But what is Mellow Gold about, really, if it’s not about coming up just a little bit short?
Okay, okay, I hear you: shut up, Jason. Get to the wimps, already!
Stephen Bishop – It Might Be You (download)
Oh, Bish. You captured my heart with “It Might Be You.” Yes, I know that you didn’t write it, so technically, the Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song doesn’t really belong to you (we’ll give that honor to Dave Grusin, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman), but “It Might Be You” might not have been “It Might Be You” without you.
See, all of our Mellow Gold selections have that one thing in common: they’re all smooth. And Stephen Bishop? His voice is smooth. Nobody’s ever going to ask this guy to try his hand at a cover of “Run To The Hills,” but if you want sensitive, caring, and gentle, Bish is your man.
“It Might Be You” was the theme song to one of my favorite movies, 1982’s Tootsie. (Please, readers, don’t disappoint me by telling me you haven’t seen this flawless comedy.) Dropping a song into just the right place in a movie is truly an art, and the placement of “It Might Be You” was perfect. You couldn’t have a more screwed-up relationship than the one between Dorothy Michaels (Dustin Hoffman) and Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange), but once those opening notes of the song appear, all just seems romantic and perfect. I’m not explaining it very well, I know, because you just have to see the movie to really feel it. I got a lump in my throat and was immediately ashamed.
However, I’m still publicly professing my love for this song. I love the line “I’ve been saving love songs and lullabyes,” especially since it’s followed up by Bish’s falsetto. This one may be too sickly-sweet for you, but I love it enough that I even bought the sheet music.
Have you lost all respect for me? If not, this should seal the deal: Bonus Download!
Stephen Bishop – It Might Be You (remix) (download)
The remix gets off to a great start: a slow guitar and keyboard combo riffing on the main theme. Sounds of the loon. That sort of thing. But at about :40, the remixers suddenly get lazy and essentially just lay the original track down against the drum beat from Enigma’s “Sadeness.” Oh well. I didn’t say the download was essential. I said it was bonus. Anybody want to guess who sent it to me?
Moving on:
Christopher Cross – Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) (download)
Whereas “It Might Be You” was merely nominated for the Academy Award, “Arthur’s Theme” actually won it in 1981, and Cross did have a hand in writing it: the song was co-authored by Cross, Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager (pop quiz: what was her first hit song? We covered it in Chart Attack! a few weeks ago), and Peter Allen, who wrote (with Bayer Sager) the best phrase in the song: “when you get caught between the moon and New York City.”
To that point, the chorus to “Arthur’s Theme” is just phenomenal. The chords, the harmonies (especially as we near the end of the track), and those lyrics – all just perfect. Which leads me to wonder if maybe the songwriting process went like this:
Bacharach: Okay, so we’ve got a killer chorus, we’ve got a strong first verse, but this second verse is really killing me.
Bayer Sager: I can’t think of anything either.
Bacharach: Let’s punt it over to Cross. I’m sure he’ll come up with something.
Cross: Saaaaaiiiiling….takes me awa…..wha?
So maybe it was Cross that tried his hand at the second verse:
Arthur, he does as he pleases
All of his life his master’s toys
And deep in his heart he’s just
He’s just a boy
Living his life one day at a time
He’s showing himself a pretty good time
He’s laughing about the way
They want him to be
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if you have any sense in your minds and justice in your hearts, you will deem it necessary to indict Christopher Cross for Worst Fucking Verse Ever.
“He’s showing himself a pretty good time?” What the hell? Who uses “pretty good” in a verse? I mean, apparently Christopher Cross does, but still, why? We were doing so well with that chorus! Plus, don’t we want people to see this movie, if they haven’t already? I don’t want to watch Dudley Moore having a “pretty good time.” I want to watch him having a “gnarly, bitchin’ time.” Or something to that effect. I realize that actual lyric may have taken them out of the running for the Oscar. I’m just saying.
“He’s laughing about the way they want him to be?” We couldn’t find a better way of conveying Arthur’s happy-go-lucky stance concerning those who want him to conform to the social mores of the upper class? I’m not saying we had to go all high-brow, but certainly Bacharach could have done a rewrite here, yes?
Cross got lucky, though, because after that dismal verse, we have another chorus (thank heavens for the chorus) and a kick-ass sax solo. Then it’s all chorus, chorus, chorus all the way home to Tuscaloosa. (I just made up that phrase.)
“Arthur’s Theme” was supported with a promo video, which unfortunately proved that Christopher Cross truly did have a face for radio.
[youtube]CZ_Jz5XuNoc[/youtube]
(That frozen YouTube picture is NOT Christopher Cross.)
Not only does Cross look like he participates in the Completely Random Method Of Shaving Your Face, but also spends half the video in what seems to be an off-green Champion sweatshirt. At this point, he had already won five Grammy Awards; I know he was going for casual, but this is ridiculous.
By the way, also on YouTube, I found a cover of this song as sung by Shirley Bassey. If you want to see unintnentional humor, you have to check this out. I’m still trying to figure out if this is actually Shirley Bassey, or a really good impersonation by Maya Rudolph.
I bought the sheet music to this song at the same time I bought the music to the Bish song. I just wanted to tell you. I’m going to go sink into the corner now.
And that’ll do it for this week in Mellow Gold! I know it’s a bit briefer than usual, but while both of these guys are ugly, neither of them have the kind of hair that’s worthy of Vannelli-style posting. I hope you’ll understand.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:22 am
You probably know this already, but maybe someone doesn’t: Bishop was also the sensitive singer who has his guitar destroyed by John Belushi in Animal House.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:36 am
HOCUS POCUS!…BY FOCUS!!!!
November 1st, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Yes. Tootsie is a GREAT movie. Great movie, great song. When Jessica Lange tells Dustin Hoffman that she misses Dorothy and he tells her that she doesn’t have to because Dorothy is right here …yes, I get a lump in my throat. But, um, I’m a girl. :) I think I have to stick with the classic mix, though …. but thanks for posting it!
November 1st, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I dunno…it’s probably just me, but every time I hear Christopher Cross sing I hear a slightly less(?) mentally imbalanced Daniel Johnston. That track notwithstanding.
November 1st, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Great picks Jason!
You should cover more Peter Allen in a future post. He has written some great songs for other artists:
Melissa Manchester- “Don’t Cry Out Loud”
Bobby Sherman- “Jennifer”
Olivia Newton John- “I Honestly Love You”
But perhaps his best song was actually sung by the Aussie himself. That tune is called “Tenterfield Saddler” and it acts like his autobiography put to music. Bette Midler performed it at a tribute to Allen after he passed away and she stole the show! There is a line in the song sbout Liza Minelli, his ex-wife, that cracks me up every time:
“The grandson of George has been all around the world and lives in no special place/ Changed his last name and he married a girl with an interesting face”
Great stuff!
November 1st, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Bish – quite the actor, in addition to having a wing in the mellow hall of fame..
He’s one of the cops in the mall chase scene in "The Blues Brothers"..
Plus, he wrote that song "Separate Lives" that Phil Collins did with Marilyn Martin.
Bish’s version is… mellower.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Aaagh . . . bad flashbacks to my first full-time radio job . . . early ’80s, $200 a week . . . “It Might Be You” in hot rotation. . . .
November 2nd, 2006 at 1:43 pm
You see Maya Rudolph, but I see Martin Short doing his impression of Andrea Martin doing her impression of Liza Minnelli from “SCTV.” Which is appropriate, of course, since Minnelli is in “Arthur,” and now that I’ve discovered that she was married to Peter Allen, even more so.
I love “Tootsie,” I love Dave Grusin’s music in Sydney Pollack’s movies, I love Sydney Pollack as a director and as an actor, I love “On and On” and “Save It for a Rainy Day” and “Somewhere In Between” by Stephen Bishop … but I still don’t like “It Might Be You.” I think it was just played too much on the radio when I was in first grade. Thanks for the songs, though!
November 2nd, 2006 at 6:20 pm
I admit to one thing: I had a crush on Jessica Lange after I saw Tootsie. Nowadays? Not so much. But back then she was all that. I saw the pictures of your gig, and it made me wonder if you occasionally do some mellow gold tunes in your set? I suppose if there’s a club in NYC called "No Balls," a mellow gold set would be perfect. :-)
November 6th, 2006 at 8:24 am
Re: the Carole Bayer Sager- pop quiz, wasn’t her first hit the locomotion and you featured the cover by banarama a couple of weeks ago?
November 6th, 2006 at 8:58 am
I can tell you’ve been definitely reading Chart Attack!, Dan, because you took a bunch of facts from different installments. :) Bayer Sager’s hit was "Groovy Kind of Love," which was covered by Phil Collins. "The Locomotion" was covered by Kylie Minogue. But you rock for playing anyway!
November 17th, 2006 at 10:29 am
[…] 6. Separate Lives – Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin As any Mellow Gold-loving wuss will tell you, "Separate Lives" isn’t a Phil Collins original. Nope, it’s written by our good buddy Stephen Bishop! Bish, as you’ll know from reading Scraps’ comment in Mellow Gold 6, had a bit part in Animal House as the guitarist who gets his acoustic smashed by John Belushi. On the set of the movie, Bishop met actress Karen Allen, and the two began a four-year relationship. When the relationship finally ended, Bishop wanted us all to know how he felt. And so he wrote "Separate Lives," which was selected for inclusion on the White Nights soundtrack. […]