I was watching "JAWS" the other day, and realized I'd never figured out the music playing on the radio during the Kintner beach scene. One source is pretty obvious -- Mozart's 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik' -- but there is also a jingle-jangle bit of 70s pop weaving in and out, and I could not recall if it had ever been identified correctly. It is not listed at Wikipedia.
A friend and I batted around ideas (Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka) then my friend (Judy the Hutt) nailed the lyric. After a bit of searching, I deduced it is Paul Anka's '(You're) Having My Baby' -- Anka's IMDb listing confirms this, and I annotated its occurrences below:
I remember the first UK VHS release of "JAWS" omitted this song due to a rights issue, and replaced it with another bit of contemporary pop, which infuriated me back then. Researching it now, Anka's tune was apparently a chart-topper for three weeks in 1974 and, in 2006, CNN rated it #1 in its poll of 'Worst Ever Songs' beating the excruciating Captain and Tennille's 'Muskrat Love':
There were a LOT of really awful songs in that era. Just pick up any installment of Rhino Records "Have a Nice Day" series and you'll find a treasure trove of this stuff. Not "Having My Baby" necessarily, but plenty of really bad tunes with bad lyrics...
Yeow, I can dig it, man. Ha ha. Good call, jenkwombat. They look pretty classic. They remind me of the Top of the Pops compilation albums of pop hits that my Dad used to have back then, which always seemed to feature some 70s floosy in hotpants and giant hoop earrings on the album cover.
Spielberg and his film editors had a knack of picking very evocative diagetic songs for their movies that were not too on-the-nose, but gave a great sense of character to a scene -- like the sleepy toll booth operator in CE3K listening to Slim Whitman's 'Love Song of the Waterfall' or Melinda Dillon's character with Johnny Mathis' 'Chances Are' on her record player, which starts playing to surreal effect during Barry's Abduction, again in CE3K.
I also like the use of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" in the Dante/Speilberg film "Gremlins" when the mother is alone in the house --- or so she thinks. It's both funny and spooky.
BTW, I actually quite like the "Have a Nice Day" series; it's a lot of fun. That's the kind of music that played on "Top 40 Radio" when I was a kid. It brings back a lot of good memories...
That's a good one. Just thought of another: The scene where Celie first kisses Shug in "The Color Purple" plays without dialog while an old 78 rpm record is playing softly in the background -- I believe it's 'My Heart (Will Always Lead Me Back to You)' by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five. That scene always gives me goosebumps.
Researching it now, Anka's tune was apparently a chart-topper for three weeks in 1974 and, in 2006, CNN rated it #1 in its poll of 'Worst Ever Songs' beating the excruciating Captain and Tennille's 'Muskrat Love
Ha. Glad they did not choose that for the beach radio music in Jaws. The Anka song had just about the right degree of cheese, but I don't think The Captain and Tennille would have had the same dramatic effect. Creepy. And why is that woman (presumably Tennille) about to eat that parakeet?
Researching it now, Anka's tune was apparently a chart-topper for three weeks in 1974 and, in 2006, CNN rated it #1 in its poll of 'Worst Ever Songs' beating the excruciating Captain and Tennille's 'Muskrat Love
Say What?! This is a classic love song!
The Captain & Tennille's "Muskrat Love' is a perfect example why most of the Top 40 music from the mid to late '70s is just plain AWFUL!!!!! Sadly, Daryl Dragon can no longer play the keyboards today due to a neurological disorder.
I watched the film again this weekend and also noticed Olivia Newton John's song "I Honestly Love You" playing on the radio in that scene.
Interesting. Well, interesting to me, as I have been obsessing over this recently Can you point out where this other song occurs in the scene, Adam? I made a timeline at the link below, which I annotated to show where the Anka song weaves in and out:
I watched the film again this weekend and also noticed Olivia Newton John's song "I Honestly Love You" playing on the radio in that scene.
Interesting. Well, interesting to me, as I have been obssessing over this recently Can you point out where this other song occurs in the scene, Adam?
Yes. After Brody says his Bad Hat Harry line and his wife, Ellen, moves toward him and says "Chief Brody, you are uptight. Come on. What is it?" It's there you hear ONJ on the radio.
Adam, I just wrote back to you as an edit, but will post here:
I just took another listen and, at 1:26 above, the Anka song has a female vocal by Odia Coates singing 'sha-la-la-la-laa-la' that sounds very much like the melody to 'I Honestly Love You' ('You're Having My Baby' scans the same). It's really buried among all the other elements in the scene, so it's easy to mistake, but I think that might be what sounded like Olivia Newton John. It reoccurs after the Bad Hat Harry line, so I think that's still the Anka song.
But, now I took another listen, I think I'm wrong, and you are right: 'I've got something to tell you...' (2:39) is not a line from the Anka song -- it is ONJ (not Odia Coates). I stand corrected! There are three songs in this scene!
Thanks, Adam, I fixed my annotation at Soundcloud.
Glad to be of service, Dogplant. You can even hear her (ONJ's) lyrics "I believe you really ought to know" just before they cut to the splashing swimmers.
Spielberg and his film editors had a knack of picking very evocative diagetic songs for their movies that were not too on-the-nose, but gave a great sense of character to a scene -- like the sleepy toll booth operator in CE3K listening to Slim Whitman's 'Love Song of the Waterfall' or Melinda Dillon's character with Johnny Mathis' 'Chances Are' on her record player, which starts playing to surreal effect during Barry's Abduction, again in CE3K.
Researching it now, Anka's tune was apparently a chart-topper for three weeks in 1974 and, in 2006, CNN rated it #1 in its poll of 'Worst Ever Songs' beating the excruciating Captain and Tennille's 'Muskrat Love
Captain & Tennille rocked. What CNN knows about music could be written on the head of a pin and still have room for the Bible.
And don't blame C & T for "Muskrat Love"... I think it was written by America.
EDIT: Just looked it up. Willis Ramsey is to blame.
Happened to notice "Muskrat Love" used as underscoring when I went to see "Anchorman 2" this evening. What a horrible movie, by the way. Though I must dutifully report that the teenagers in attendance (the probable target audience) giggled at it consistently.
There's something mechanical about the "stupid comedy" genre. Stupid they can do. It was all consistently, unrelentingly stupid. But to do just that, and leave it that way, as if it must obviously automatically be funny too, is just lazy, if you ask me.
--And hugely profitable also, right?
Honestly, the funniest thing about the film (to me) may just have been those '70s pop songs used in the soundtrack. I might very well enjoy the CD better than the film itself, should I venture to pick it up.
There's something mechanical about the "stupid comedy" genre. Stupid they can do. It was all consistently, unrelentingly stupid. But to do just that, and leave it that way, as if it must obviously automatically be funny too, is just lazy, if you ask me.
Yeah, nothing funny whatsoever based on the trailer. Not once did I even smirk. Apparently ppl laugh because that's what their supposed to do regardless if its even funny. Robot audience- "I will laugh on command". The car commercials with the same character are painfully unfunny as well.
I watched JAWS in theaters a number of times in 1975, and I recall that the beach radio moment featured another track altogether from what ended up on all the video versions of the movie pretty much since JAWS came out on video in the '80s.
I remember noticing this in the '80s, in fact while watching the film on Betamax.
I once read something about it, but I don't recall the whole story -- there was a problem securing video rights for the track that did appear in the 1975 theatrical release of the movie, and Universal decided to replace the main tune playing on the radio. So, to me, the real question is "what was the ACTUAL song playing on the radio in the theatrical version of JAWS, knowing that it never actually ended up on any of the video releases...?
what was the ACTUAL song playing on the radio in the theatrical version of JAWS, knowing that it never actually ended up on any of the video releases...?
As I mentioned in my first post in this thread, I only recall replacement music in the beach scene in the first video release of "Jaws". When that came out, I was living in UK and contacted the UK video distribution wing of MCA/Universal, demanding an explanation. They apologized and told me it was a rights issue. I was later relieved and happy the original beach tunes were restored in subsequent video releases.
I believe the beach scene songs on the Blu-ray are the originals.
