Retro Spins: Scrooged

Let's kick the holiday season into high gear with a fond Christmas film, Scrooged! I haven't seen this movie in years, but I remember it vividly, having seen it in the theaters with mom, as well as on VHS in the mid 90's. Yet ironically, it didn't dawn on me until just now listening to the soundtrack that Karen Allen (Marion from Indiana Jones) was Murray's love interest, and Buster Poindexter was the cab driver. Maybe I need to make it a point to see this again soon so I can see what else I missed.

High-spirited high jinks of Christmas Eve put Frank Cross (Bill Murray) in a ghostly time warp in this hilarious take-off of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Cross who has made the meteoric rise from the depths of the mailroom to TV network president, is mean, nasty, uncaring, unforgiving and has a sadistic sense of humor - perfect qualities for a modern-day Scrooge.

Before the night is over, he'll be visited by a maniacal New York cab driver from the past, a present-day fairy who's into pratfalls and, finally, a ghoulish, seven-foot headless messenger from the future.

This loosely-adapted contemporary version of Dicken's classic is "a side splitting comedy smash..." (Peter Travers, People Magazine). - Back of the original VHS

Two things about that back cover. 1) mailroom is not a word. It's mail room. 2) The got Dickens' correct in the first paragraph, but then proceeded to use Dicken's in the last paragraph, which is not correct.

Grammar police aside...

Annie Lennox and Al Green found huge success in 1988 with their hit, Put A Little Love In Your Heart, a song which has become a traditional holiday anthem to this day. Personally though, it's never been one of my favorites. I find it to be sappy for the sake of pulling on the heartstrings of simple minded people.

Wow, that was an incredibly mean statement. Maybe I'm the new Scrooge.

The rest of the soundtrack offers a mix of holiday and "regular" music, and while I didn't find much which interested me, I was surprised to find the song I did enjoy the most was Kool Moe Dee's Get Up 'N' Dance. I've said may times that I'm not a big fan of rap, but yet I'm beginning to second guess this mindset as these are often the tracks I'm enjoying on the various soundtracks I've listened to over the year.

Buster Poindexter's rendition of Brown Eye Girl wasn't bad. However, if I had to take my pick, I'd just as soon listen to the Rolling Stones version. Why mess with perfect, right?

Instrumental track, We Three Kings Of Orient Are by Miles Davis, Larry Carlton, David Sanborn and Paul Schaffer grated on my nerves. I couldn't stand it. It had a smooth jazz, slow tempo style, which just isn't for me.

Despite my personal opinion of the album, it is worth noting that seven of the nine tracks were released as singles. Additionally, Put A Little Love In Your Heart spent seventeen weeks on the charts, peeking at number nine on January 14, 1989. It's only fair to say the album had something going for it.

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