THAT THING YOU DO (soundtrack)
A film review by dx@netcom.com
Copyright 1996 dx@netcom.com
(Soundtrack) - That Thing You Do - Play-Tone/Epic EK 67828
If someone sat down to write a song that would lodge itself in my brain FOREVER, they would have a hard time topping Adam Schlesinger's title tune from Tom Hanks new film. Picking up its inspiration from the Beatles, Searchers, Beau Brummels and all the other great harmony beat groups of the '64-'65 era, Schlesinger has penned a killer hook, and the musicians and producers have fashioned that hook into one of this year's greatest pieces of ear candy.
On one level it's simply a tribute to the era, but on another I think it's a true work of pop music art - something that either would have been a huge hit in 1964, or would have appeared on a Rhino comp in '96, leaving us all to wonder why it *wasn't* a huge hit when it was released.
The film plays the song over and over, in full and in fragment, perhaps 10 or 11 times. I *never* got tired of hearing it. I ran to Tower Records after seeing the film so I could get the soundtrack as soon as possible. It's the sort of single that had me thumbing up and down the radio dial in '65 trying to hear it just one more time. The sheer exuberance of the performance is something we just don't hear too much these days.
That said, this soundtrack album is anything but a one-hit wonder. Hanks and his crew have fashioned an album full of songs that evoke the era - capturing a good part of the breadth of music that was on the charts at the time.
Starting with The Norm Wooster Singers', the film sets the stage for the second re-emergence of rock 'n' roll, with British and American bands pulling us out of the doldrums of teen idols and Mitch Miller inspired sing-a-longs. Norm Wooster's "Loving You Lots and Lots" brilliantly sounds out the inanity that was much of popular music after the fade of rock's pioneering 50s acts.
Puting this introductory track back-to-back with the Wonder's incindiary "That Thing You Do" lets Schlesinger's triumphantly happy tune wipe the dead wood of Norm Wooster's marching beat out of your head. Four more Wonders' tracks follow, including the Marshall Crenshaw-esque "Little Wild One", the bluesy dance number "Dance With Me Tonight", the ballad "All My Only Dreams", and the reprise "I Need You (That Thing You Do)". Each captures the soul of 60s pop (chiming guitars, bass string solos, effortless harmonies, unforgettable hooks) more than I'd ever expect from "mere" soundtrack music.
Also included is "She Knows It", a single from The Heardsmen (the fictional follow-on to the Wonders) that features some ahead-of-its-time phasing effects; "Mr. Downtown", Freddy Fredrickson's ode to Peter Gunn; "Hold My Hand, Hold My Heart", the Chantrellines salute to Phil Spector; The Saturn 5's surf-space instrumental "Voyage Around The Moon"; Diane Dane's "My World is Over" - with the sound of Petula Clark or Dionne Warwick; the early-60s harmony car rock of The Vicksburgs' "Drive Faster"; the Beach Party rock of "Cap'n Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters"; and the West Coast jazz of Del Paxton.
Who sang these? The Wonders' vocals remind me a lot of The Rembrandts. Anyone know for sure.
This LP immediately has leaped to my favorite of the year. --
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