Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll:
How The 1980s Embraced 1950s and 1960s Oldies Music
The Big Chill
Photo: "Sorceress" by the-great-escape is licensed under CC PDM 1.0
The critically acclaimed film The Big Chill, released in 1983, tells the story of several baby boomers reuniting when a friend unexpectedly takes his own life. The movie’s creators wanted music from these boomers’ college days to play a prominent role in the film. I Heard It Through the Grapevine
plays when each friend learns about the death and travels to the funeral. The Temptations’s Ain’t too Proud to Beg
acts as the soundtrack during the kitchen-cleaning dance scene. In one scene, frustrated by the prevalence of sixties tunes playing in the background, the obnoxious Michael character, played by Jeff Goldblum, asks his host Harold, played by Kevin Kline, to play music from the 20th Century. Michael goes on to say quite a lot of great music was made during last ten years. Harold replies Like what?
It’s a question fellow baby boomer understood and considered as an answer to Michael’s criticism than a question. The soundtrack sold three million copies in the United States and went platinum. Some credit the soundtrack for making the oldies radio format popular during the 1980s.