Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll:
How The 1980s Embraced 1950s and 1960s Oldies Music
John Hughes
Photo: "John Hughes, Oscar Tribute 3/7/10" by klimari1 (JUST SHOOT IT! Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
John Hughes rose to fame as the writer/director of popular 1980s teen comedies. Gen Xers and Baby Boomers love his movies. Themes like acceptance, rebellion, and coming of age appeal to both generations. Even though his movies focus on youth and used music that appealed to Gen Xers, he used oldies tunes to compliment the themes. The theme song of the movie Sixteen Candles is the Crests’s 1958 song of the same title. The character Farmer Ted,
played by Anthony Michael Hall sings several Beatles tunes to Samantha, played by Molly Ringwald, as an attempt to understand her feelings and connect with her. Lip syncing to oldies is a staple in Hugh’s films. By having a young actor lip sync a classic, the song became acceptable to young audiences. In Pretty in Pink, the flamboyant Duckie, played by John Cryer, lip syncs Try a Little Tenderness
by Otis Reading in a vintage record store. Hughes uses vintage Christmas rock ‘n’ roll tunes to complement scenes and add nostalgia in Christmas Vacation. In Trains, Planes, and Automobiles, background music adds to the traveling theme. A rendition of Patsy Cline’s country-pop hit Back in Baby’s Arms
adds even more humor to the scene where the two male leads (Steve Martin as Neal Page and John Candy as Del Griffin) wake up finding they’re holding each other like lovers with Del Griffin’s hand placed between what he thinks are two pillows.
Hughes’s blockbuster hit Ferris Bueller’s Day Off features three kids playing hooky and a principal’s determination to catch their leader, Ferris Bueller. The kids make a day for themselves in Chicago, soaking up all the Windy City’s attractions. Ferris ends up on a parade float lip-syncing Wayne Newton’s Danke Schoen,
a fitting tune since the scene was partially filmed during the annual German-American Von Steuben Day Parade. Bueller also lip-syncs The Beatles version of The Top Notes’s Twist and Shout.
Hughes scheduled a mock parade to obtain additional parade footage for the film with real people, not actors, spontaneously reacting and dancing to the music. The parade scene is one of the films greatest moments. People requested Twist and Shout
to be played on radio stations due to the popularity of that scene.