Day 60. Your favorite movie-moment song.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen

Yeah, yeah. I didn’t pick “In Your Eyes” from Say Anything… Big deal. I’ve never been a huge fan of the movie (which in and of itself is probably enough to get my “Child of the 80s” membership card revoked) and at this point, it would practically be bordering on cliché to pick it anyway.

Deal with it.

I thought about picking “Tiny Dancer” from Almost Famous, but I’ve only seen the movie once, and while it was a really good movie moment, I can’t call it my favorite.

You’ll have to deal with that, too.

Just to show I have nothing personally against John Cusack (his sister is a whole other matter), I even considered choosing “Dry The Rain” by the Beta Band from High Fidelity, but I decided against that because I figured no one really knew the song, or possibly even the movie. (If you haven’t seen it, see it.) Not to mention, it’s a pretty short scene.

But back to the first two. There’s no question they’re both heartwarming moments, but I’m a goofy comedy guy at heart. So even “Shout” from Animal House was in the running. In the end, I had to go with Wayne and Garth.

Movie moment aside, I would also say that “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a better song than any of the others. (“In Your Eyes” is a close second, though.) It’s a brilliant piece of music, with its suite-like construction, faux opera moments and story of despair. It was a potential choice for the “song I wish I’d written” post.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” appeared on A Night At The Opera and was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, who has a reputation for layering lots of vocal tracks on songs. That certainly played to his advantage here, where a four piece band sounds like an entire choir in places. Per Wikipedia: “The choir effect was created by having May, Mercury, and Taylor sing their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs.”

But it’s the performance in the movie that goes along with the song that makes it a favorite. It doesn’t just accompany the movie, it’s part of the performance. It’s funny enough that everyone is singing along, even the friend suffering from “party burnout.” But I defy you to get to the part where everyone starts head banging and not laugh out loud.

I can’t be alone, both in liking the song, and the movie moment. “Bohemian Rhapsody” charted again in 1992 on the strength of its inclusion in Wayne’s World, reaching #2 in the US (which incidentally is 7 places higher than its original 1975 release), whereas the re-release of “In Your Eyes” didn’t crack the Top 40.

So you can keep all your sappy Lloyd Dobler boom-box-holding drama. I’ll take the lip-syncing “teenagers.”

Party on, Garth.
Party on, Wayne.

“I think we’ll go with a little ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ gentlemen.”