Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll:
How The 1980s Embraced 1950s and 1960s Oldies Music
1980s Biopics of Rock ‘n’ Roll Icons
Hollywood continued to cash in on the oldies bandwagon as it did in the 1970s. The movie La Bamba, released in 1987, tells the Ritchie Valens story. Valens, a rock ‘n’ roll star, whose actual last name is Valenzuela, died at the early age of 17. A plane crash took Valens’s life in 1959, along with rock ‘n’ roll legends The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly. La Bamba producer Daniel Valdez felt rock ‘n’ roll history neglected Valens, so he and his brother, director Luis Valdez made the biopic a reality. The movie highlights Valens’s hits. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips plays a slimmed-down version of Ritchie Valens. The band Los Lobos recreated Valens’s music on the soundtrack. La Bamba
is a folk song Valens turned into a rock ‘n’ roll hit. Los Lobos’s recreation of the song became a number one hit in 1987. Los Lobos also performed Valens’s other hits, such as Come On, Let’s Go,
Ooh My Head,
Donna,
and We Belong Together.
Brian Seltzer appears in the move as Eddie Cochran, playing Summertime Blues,
a tune also on the soundtrack. Howard Huntsberry is in the movie and soundtrack as Jackie Wilson, singing Lonely Teardrops.
Buddy Holly is played by Marshall Crenshaw. covering Holly’s Crying, Waiting, Hoping.
The Big Bopper is played by Stephen Lee. The movie has grossed over 54 million dollars within the United States.
Photo: "Ritchie Valens gravesite" by C-Monster is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Great Balls of Fire!, the story of wild Louisiana piano player Jerry Lee Lewis, was released in 1989. The movie showcases his early music and his controversial marriage to his third wife, a thirteen year-old cousin. Jerry Lee Lewis re-recorded all his songs featured in the soundtrack. Dennis Quaid, who plays Lewis in the movie, wanted to do the songs himself. Lewis didn’t want that. Quaid reported that after a few back and forths with Lewis, he decided that the living legend should perform his own material. Rich Bragg reported in Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story that Lewis took Quaid for a walk along the Mississippi River, telling Quaid only one of them would walk back from the River if Quaid insisted on doing the soundtrack. Quaid supposedly gave in. During the promotion of the movie’s release, Lewis supported it. However, he later changed his tune and felt the movie made him look like a buffoon. Booker T. Laury’s Big Legged Woman,
Rocket 88,
by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, and Valerie Wellington’s version of Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On
are also on the soundtrack.