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Song of the Day #6,162: ‘Cutting on One’ – Lorne Balfe

The next category I’ll rank from the Mission: Impossible film series is SET PIECES.

Almost every M:I film has a major sequence (sometimes more than one) in which the team works together, using fancy tech and their own ingenuity, to pull off a seemingly, yes, impossible mission.

The scenes I’m considering don’t include car or motorcycle chases, fistfights, or standalone stunts. They have to involve a coordinated effort by multiple team members to misdirect and deceive. They are what separates the IMF from other world-saving teams.

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Song of the Day #6,161: ‘Main Theme’ – Danny Elfman

The eighth and (presumably) final installment of Tom Cruise’s excellent Mission: Impossible series comes to theaters next week, capping off a 30-year run of breathtaking action, shrewd spycraft, and rubber face masks.

Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning will find a now 62-year-old Cruise still hanging off of airplanes and running faster than Usain Bolt. For three decades, he has defied time and the limitations of the human body to bring big-screen entertainment to the masses — he’s the lead ambassador of Movie Magic.

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Song of the Day #6,160: ‘Count Me In’ – Gary Lewis and the Playboys

The Beatles topped the Billboard Hot 100 the week of May 18, 1965, with ‘Ticket to Ride,’ their eighth #1 on the chart and second of 1965.

In second that week was Herman’s Hermits’ ‘Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,’ featured a couple of weeks ago when it was at #1. How many acts saw themselves kicked out, or kept out, of the top spot by The Beatles?

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Song of the Day #6,159: ‘Unchained Melody’ – Les Baxter

Throwing back to the week of May 17, 1955, we find a couple of repeats atop the Billboard chart in Perez Pablo’s ‘Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White‘ and Georgia Gibbs’ ‘Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower).’

In the #3 spot that week was Les Baxter’s version of ‘Unchained Melody,’ a short instrumental take with choral accompaniment. This is one of three versions of the song that bounced around the top ten in 1955 — the other two were by Al Hibbler and Roy Hamilton.

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Song of the Day #6,158: ‘Just in Case’ – Morgan Wallen

We round out the latest edition of ‘What the Kids are Listening To’ with one more track by Morgan Wallen — his third this week. Wallen is at #14 this week with ‘Just in Case,’ right behind Billie Eilish at $13 with ‘Birds of a Feather.’

‘Just in Case’ is the fourth single from Wallen’s album I’m the Problem (which drops today), and it’s less of a banger than the first three. This one is a heartsick ballad more in line with the pre-Wallen country landscape, but it demonstrates that he can score a hit in that space as well.

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