The Blue Brothers Soundtrack - The Blues Brothers [Audio CD]

Comic actors John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd received a lot of flak for their Blues Brothers shtick -- mostly for the albums, not 1980's beloved classic film. But they should be given credit for exposing many people -- including this reviewer -- to the music of blues and R&B veterans. The Blues Brothers soundtrack was released on Atlantic Records. On the surface this doesn't seem unusual, since the Blues Brothers' Atlantic debut, Briefcase Full of Blues, was a number one album; but the movie was released by Universal, and its parent company, MCA, passed on the soundtrack. The rollicking remake of the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'" was a hit, featuring an arrangement notable for the horn section that replaces Steve Winwood's rumbling organ work. Ray Charles has a good time with "Shake a Tail Feather," and he's helped out by Jake and Elwood Blues (Belushi and Aykroyd, respectively). The cover of Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a lot of fun, thanks to the great overall rhythm and Elwood's lightning-fast stage rap, while James Brown and the Reverend James Cleveland Choir provide a blast of gospel music on "Old Landmark." Aretha Franklin's "Think" is explosive, and Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" is slyly irresistible. Charles, Brown, Franklin, and Calloway all have small roles in the film, yet so does John Lee Hooker, but he's not represented here Inspired by the lovable Saturday Night Live white-boy blues schtick of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, director John Landis seemingly threw every harebrained stunt he could imagine--and millions of dollars in production costs and wrecked autos--onto the screen. The resulting film could have been mistaken for a bad case of Hunter S Thompson's DT's, but Landis never shortchanged the music: Cab Calloway, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles all get their moment in the spotlight. Miraculously, the chic-shabby Blues Brothers, anchored by the Stax rhythm section of Cropper and Dunn, hold their own against the legends, perhaps by the sheer joy and love they have for the music. --Jerry McCulley