Midweek Crisis x Salty Popcorn
Guest Edition 🎶💌🍿 Music & Movies
Hey,
Today I come to you with a special guest, my fellow Substacker Tom, who writes the Salty Popcorn (SP) newsletter 🍿. He makes movie recommendations, reviews, and provides bite-sized pieces of information from the cinematic world. It’s all precisely selected and flavored with wit. Thanks to SP, together with my husband, we spent a couple of awesome movie nights 📺.
As an experiment, we decided with Tom to switch our newsletters formats. This issue of the Midweek Crisis belongs to him. And tomorrow, I’ll be hosting the Midweek Crisis Special on Salty Popcorn 🎶🎬 - Click here to read it
Get ready for my special selection of music documentaries, biofilms, musical news, trailers, and tidbits. Be sure to subscribe, so you won’t miss it out!
From now on, all you are about to read has been carefully curated by Tom from Salty Popcorn.
Without further ado... Tom, the floor is yours.
Have a great day,
Stygi
Hi there,
As Stygi mentioned last week, we’re working together on a special crossover edition of our newsletters, bringing film and music together to talk about our favourite soundtracks and scores.
This week Stygi is writing for my newsletter, Salty Popcorn - a bi-weekly ‘microzine’ dedicated to the latest movie news, reviews, trailers and trivia. And for this week’s Midweek Crisis I’ll be stepping in to tell you about my favourite songs to have appeared in films.
I’ve written this edition of Midweek Crisis in true Stygi style (or so I hope!) and you’ll find Spotify embeds and Youtube links for each song below. I’ve even tried to find the exact scenes where each song plays so you can get something of a cinematic experience with this weeks issue — but rest assured there aren’t any spoilers unless otherwise stated.
As a final note, if you’d like to listen to all these songs, in order, then click here to for the Spotify playlist.
From here on, you’re in for a treat with a taste of Salty Popcorn…
“For as long as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster.”
The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me
What better way to start this list than with the song that plays over one of my favourite scenes from one of my favourite films. Whenever I hear this, I’m instantly transported back to watching Harry Hill (Ray Liotta) take Karen (Lorraine Bracco) through a backdoor to the Copacabana in 1960s New York.
If you’ve not seen Goodfellas already, you must. It’s widely regarded as one of the best gangster films ever made and unlike The Godfather, it focuses on the mob’s footsoldiers rather than those controlling the mafia.
Also, an honorable mention for my favourite song from this film: Rags to Riches by Tony Bennett. (Spotify / YouTube)
“If you think Mick Jagger will still be out there trying to be a rock star at age fifty, then you are sadly, sadly mistaken.”
Brenton Wood - Oogum Boogum Song
Almost Famous is the ultimate movie for any music fan. Set in the early ’70s, this semi-autobiographical film is loosely based on the experiences that director Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) had as a teenager writing for Rolling Stone magazine. What we’re given is an epic rock tour from the perspective of 15-year-old William as he’s commissioned to join the band Stillwater on the road.
I feel as though this film flies under the radar for many people, but it’s a warm, heartfelt coming-of-age story with a soundtrack showcasing some of the greatest rock n’ roll of a generation.
As the song itself plays over part of the intro, it doesn’t have a big feature in the film, nor is it from a particularly memorable scene, but the scene that unfolds with a young William in the back of a car with his mother (Frances McDormand) and sister (Zoe Deschanel) is very funny.
“If you are going to eat a sandwich, you would just enjoy it more if you knew no one had f****d it.”
Norma Tanega - You’re Dead
Used as the intro for What We Do in the Shadows (both the film and the TV series), I was lowkey obsessed with this song for a while. Written and directed by the comedic genius Taika Wahtiti (Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Free Guy), this mockumentary follows a group of vampires living in New Zealand.
During the making of this film, the crew shot 125 hours worth of footage, most of which was just of the cast improvising, but it took the best part of a year to edit it down into an 86-minute movie!
“Dude, I'm putting a little cornstarch on my huevos, man. It's a little too humid down here.”
Pete Rodriguez - I Like It Like That
This one is for the foodies, or for anyone that just loves a good wholesome film that manages to steer clear of being too cheesy. That said, there is plenty of actual cheese, and Jon Favreau’s cheese toastie is to die for (watch here).
This film doesn’t just showcase great food though as it has this awesome sunny soul soundtrack that just makes you feel good. There are so many good songs throughout this film, but this one is my favourite. The scene itself isn’t all that special, but it does give you a small taste of what to expect from the rest of the film as there are a lot of scenes that focus on nothing more than Favreau cooking - what more do you want?
“This car is 100% death proof. Only, to get the benefit of it, honey, you really need to be sitting in my seat.”
The Coasters - Down in Mexico
Continuing the Latino theme we’ve got an awesome song from one of Quentin Tarantino’s less-famous films, Death Proof. I must admit I’ve not actually seen this movie, but the song was introduced to me by a friend at school more than 10 years ago and I’ve loved it ever since.
I’d also like to state that I wasn’t expecting to search for the scene and find a lapdance… It’s not explicit but it might be something you’d rather not watch in front of your colleagues, partners, children, or parents. You’ve been warned.
“You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.”
Stealers Wheel - Stuck in the Middle With You
I know, I know, it’s another Tarantino, but I just feel this song goes so well with the rest of the playlist that I couldn’t resist!
Stuck in the Middle With You is of course taken Tarantino’s directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs, and comes from one the most memorable scenes in cinema, but one you may well want to forget.
If you’ve seen the film, I doubt you’ll be able to hear this song without thinking of that scene… I don’t want to give anything away but you might like to know that the film’s budget was so low, the cast was asked to wear their own clothes because there simply wasn’t enough money to go around.
SPOILER ALERT: If you’ve not seen the film, don’t watch the scene - but do find time to watch the film.
“B-A-B-Y. Baby.”
Bob & Earl - Harlem Shuffle
From the fast-paced heist movie with a heart, Harlem Shuffle plays over the opening credits of Baby Driver while following Baby (Ansel Elgort) dancing (or rather, shuffling) down the street to get coffee.
This is another one of those films that has a fantastic score throughout and Edgar Wright’s use of music is inspired. An interesting fact about this film is that Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers makes a cameo appearance, though there isn’t a single RHCP song in the film! This pick felt particularly fitting as Wright’s latest film, Last Night in Soho, premiered just last week, which I’m very looking forward to watching!
“I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.”
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode
This is bluesy rock n’ roll classic is easily one of my favourite songs of all time, and I have Back to the Future to thank - without the film it would have taken me a lot longer to find the song, though I’m sure I would’ve got there eventually.
I’m afraid to say though that Michael J. Fox isn’t playing or singing in the film, though he certainly made an effort and did learn to play the song specifically for this part so that it would at least look like it was him playing.
That’s all folks! Thanks so much for reading this and if you’ve subscribed to Salty Popcorn already then thank you again! If you haven’t then there’s still time.
I think I speak for both of us when I say Stygi and I would love to know what songs from this list you liked the most, or even what soundtrack songs you would have added, so let us know in the comments below.
Otherwise, please do share with anyone and everyone that you think will enjoy this week’s movie edition of the Midweek Crisis / Salty Popcorn playlist!
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How did I miss this!? So glad to see the feature on Substack today! 🤩