Do you know what song ties The Beatles, John Lennon, Billy Joel, Goodfeelas, and Tik Tok?
In 1977, John Lennon recorded a demo of the song Free as a Bird.
Here it is remastered with AI (hey, I didn’t do it):
Now listen to this song by The Shangri-Las (15-year-old Billy Joel is thought to have played piano on it):
I know this song because it appears in the movie Goodfellas:
That’s where I first realized Free as a Bird quotes this song, which you can really tell in the re-recorded version with the rest of The Beatles (the part where it says “whatever happened to…”
Turns out, there’s also an Aerosmith version:
In 2005, Capone sampled The Shangri-las version:
Which was sampled by Kreepa:
Which is the source for its use in many a TikTok video:
Starting in 2018, every John Mulaney appearance on SNL has included a musical sketch—Diner Lobster was the first. For that one, most of the songs and “plot” are lifted from Les Misérables. As someone who was in musicals in high school and is not afraid to catch one here and there, I appreciate these very much. In fact, some of the shows I was in are covered here—namely Fiddler on the Roof and South Pacific. Anyway, these do a great job of showing a very meta and surreal take on life in New York, current events, and a bunch of musical numbers. Keep an eye out for Pete Davidson and other cast members laughing.
2018: Diner Lobster
2019: Bodega Bathroom
2020: New York Musical
2020: Airport Sushi
2022: Subway Churro
2024: Port Authority Duane Reade
Diner Lobster: Behind the Scenes
Bonus: John Mulaney starred and wrote (with others) in a parody of Original Cast Album: Company, a documentary about the recording of the music from the Sondheim play. I get the impression he may have been a theater kid.
I’m always intrigued when I discover someone wrote or was a part of a movie or song and I had no clue. When watching Better Call Saul, I was excited to hear a Monkees song I didn’t know (‘Tapioca Tundra’). In reading about it, I also didn’t realize Mike Nesmith had written the song ‘Different Drum,’ made famous by The Stone Poneys/Linda Ronstadt.
It should be known that one of my first musical purchases was the audio cassette of the Monkee’s album Then & Now… The Best of The Monkees. I watched the show regularly, listened to my father’s copy of their first album on vinyl, and even watched the movie HEAD at far too young an age. While I (clearly) don’t know everything about the band, we’ve spent some time together.
Anyway, the song was offered to The Monkees, but rejected by producers and later released by a band called The Greenbriar Boys. However, it wasn’t until Linda Ronstadt sang the song with The Stone Poneys that it became a hit.
Below are all of the versions, including a short version from an episode of The Monkees, a full Mike Nesmith recording, and more.
You can read more about “Different Drum”on Wikipedia.
In preparation for the (rather interesting) Oscar ceremony this year, I watched several nominated films. This included the Jonathan Larson musical tick, tick,… BOOM! Knowing that I was going to see that film, I watched Rent for the first time as well. I didn’t really know Larson’s story going into it either musical.
I was impressed when hearing Andrew Garfield had not really sung before and learned a few songs on piano for the part. He’s come a long way from the first time I saw him – in an episode of Doctor Who (which included pig men in 1940’s New York).
One particular song and scene from tick, tick,… BOOM! was interesting to me for a few reasons. Although I’ve seen quite a few Sondheim musicals, Sunday in the Park with George was not one of them. Learning the song Sunday was homage to the identically named song from George made a lot of sense – the song felt different from others in tick, tick… BOOM! (and Rent, for that matter). (On a side note, I highly recommend Six by Sondheim, which I also watched after these films).
Not only was the Sondheim connection interesting to me, but also the number of cameos in the scene. This post from CBR.com gives a good breakdown of the cameos in the scene. Joel Gray, Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth, Phylicia Rashad, original Rent and Hamilton cast members, and more all appear in the scene. Lin Manuel Miranda, who directed this version and has starred in past productions of TTB, also makes a cameo.
It must also be pointed out that the Moondance Diner makes an appearance in a non-Garfield Spider-man movie AND Jake Gyllenhaal (who plays Mysterio in yet another Spider-man movie) also has a connection here.
Additionally, I’m including renditions by Raul Esparza who sang both Sundays in productions of these shows.
Andrew Garfield (who portrays Jonathan Larson) is seen passing by the Moondance Diner,which is coincidentally the place Mary Jane (MJ) Watson used to work in #SpiderMan (2002) movie !
Stephen Quirk 