by

Song of the Day #6,240: ‘Go To Sleep’ – Barbra Streisand

Vincente Minnelli was a peerless director of musicals but he also had a flair for melodrama. Of his 33 feature films, 12 were soapy dramas about doomed lovers, family tensions, or tortured artists. He brought the same technical flair to these passion plays as he did to his song-and-dance routines.

The best known of these dramas is likely 1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful, about a movie producer (Kirk Douglas) and a trio of artists who are simultaneously repelled by and drawn to him. A decade later, Kirk Douglas played a struggling actor in Two Weeks in Another Town, a spiritual sequel to the earlier film.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #6,239: ‘Girl Hunt Ballet’ – Fred Astaire & Cyd Charisse

Fourteen of Vincente Minnelli’s 33 feature films were musicals, including two Best Picture winners and a bunch that are a lot better than those.

An American in Paris (1951) was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and won all but two. Best Director nominee Minnelli was one of the misses. And 1958’s Gigi swept its nine nominations, taking the top prize and earning Minnelli his only directing Oscar.

While those are his best-known and most awarded musicals, I rank them relatively low on my personal list. In both cases, the films are beautifully designed and staged but the scripts are lacking.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #6,238: ‘Over the Bannister’ – Judy Garland

I like to have a movie watching project in the works at pretty much all times. That might mean diving into a genre (like horror, most recently) or knocking out a curated list (I’m currently working my way through Sight & Sound’s top 100 poll). Or it could take the form of a chronological viewing of a director’s whole filmography (as I’ve done in recent years with Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, and David Lynch).

My latest challenge was to work my way through the filmography of director Vincente Minnelli, the versatile aesthete best known for his celebrated MGM musicals. Unlike those other directors, Minnelli was largely unknown to me — I believe I had seen only three of his 33 films prior to kicking off the marathon.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #6,237: ‘Everytime You Go Away’ – Paul Young

Tears for Fears held the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 the week of August 3, 1985, with ‘Shout,’ one of three hit singles from the smash album Songs from the Big Chair. ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ also reached #1, while ‘Head Over Heels’ made it to #3.

At #2 that week, a week after claiming the top spot, was Paul Young’s ‘Everytime You Go Away,’ a cover of a little-known track by Daryl Hall & John Oates.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #6,236: ‘I’m Not in Love’ – 10cc

Throwing back to the week of August 2, 1975, we find the Eagles atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘One of These Nights,’ title track of the band’s breakthrough fourth album.

At #2, where it stayed for three weeks, was ‘I’n Not in Love,’ the ethereal ballad by English art-pop band 10cc. This was one of two top five U.S. singles for 10cc, the other being the very different ‘The Things We Do For Love,’ released the following year.

Continue reading →