The week of February 2, 1985, found Foreigner atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘I Want to Know What Love Is.’
Foreigner’s ‘Waiting For a Girl Like You’ holds the record for the most weeks at #2 without ever reaching #1. That happened in 1981. Four years later, the band finally got over that hump and landed their first (and only) #1 hit with this undeniable power ballad.
Throwing back to the week of February 1, 1975, we find Neil Sedaka at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Laughter in the Rain.’ The song spent one week at #1 before dropping to #8 the following week, and then out of the top ten.
This was Sedaka’s second #1 hit, following the 1962 doo-wop hit ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do.’ He would reach the top spot again later in 1975 with ‘Bad Blood’ (which might just show up on a future Throwback Weekend).
My final musical selection from a 2024 film comes from a movie that has too many to count. I could have dedicated all ten of my posts from the past two weeks to A Complete Unknown, director James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic.
If I had to pick just one, I’d go with a performance of ‘The Times They Are A-Changin” at the Newport Folk Festival. In that scene, the crowd — hearing the song for the first time — instantly recognizes its impact and starts singing along by the second chorus.
Sean Baker has a knack for opening his films with memorable pop songs. 2017’s The Florida Project kicks off with Kool & the Gang’s ‘Celebration’. In 2021’s Red Rocket, it’s NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye.‘ In both cases, the songs accompany the film’s opening credits in Baker’s signature Aguafina Script Pro font.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I guess, because last year’s Anora uses the same approach to wonderful effect.
I’ll have a lot more to say about I Saw the TV Glow in a couple of weeks, so today I’ll just note that it has one of the year’s best soundtracks.
Consisting of both music written for the film and deep cut alternative rock songs, it lives in the same uneasy emotional space as the film itself. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun said they wanted the soundtrack to be a “teen angst classic” and, well, mission accomplished.
Meet Me In Montauk 