Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, released in 2007, probably should have ended all musical biopics. It’s a ruthless satire of then-recent hits Walk the Line and Ray that exposes every clich&e and tired trope of the genre.
And yet, Hollywood keeps churning them out. In just the past few years we’ve seen movies about Elvis, Bob Marley, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen.
It’s 2002 in Toronto, and pre-teen girls everywhere are swooning to the sounds of Canadian boy band 4*TOWN. That’s the world as depicted in Pixar’s 2022 film Turning Red, one of the studio’s more successful recent efforts.
One of the things Turning Red does best is capture the look and sound of an early-00s boy band. They tapped two songwriters who were little kids in 2002, Billie Eilish and brother Finneas O’Connell, but the duo proved more than capable of channeling the era.
Jan Hammer owned the #1 spot of the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of December 9, 1985, with the theme to Miami Vice. I covered that track during a week on TV theme songs that topped the chart.
At #2 that week, following a single week at the top spot, was Stevie Wonder’s ‘Part-Time Lover.’ This was the last of eight #1 hits for Wonder, and it is notable for being the first track to reach #1 on four different Billboard charts: Hot 100, dance, R&B, and adult contemporary.
Throwing back to the week of November 8, 1975, we find Elton John atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Island Girl,’ the first single from his album Rock of the Westies.
This song has the distinction of being the only one of John’s nine U.S. #1 hits that I’ve never heard. Or at least I have no recollection of hearing it before learning it would be the subject of a Throwback Weekend post today.
My vote for the most convincing fictional song is ‘That Thing You Do!,’ from the 1996 film of the same name. This track is the one-hit wonder by 60s pop band The Wonders, and it perfectly captures the sound and spirit of that time.
That Thing You Do! (the movie) was the writing and directing debut of Tom Hanks. It’s a charming film that never quite found an audience. It chronicles the short career of a band called The Wonders (renamed from The Oneders after everybody mispronounced it as the O-need-ers) that sends this song up the charts before falling apart.
Meet Me In Montauk 