“21 Movies Whose Original Songs Completely Outshined the Movie”

Scoop, ... 15 comments.

The greatest gap has to be between Unchained Melody, a hit several times over, and Unchained, an obscure 1955 movie starring Crazylegs Hirsch.

One of their choices actually has TWO songs more famous than the movie. Meet Me in St. Louis is not only the source of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but “The Trolley Song” (the Oscar nominee) as well.

They missed a bunch of these from the early days of film:

The Famous Song The Forgotten Movie
“The Way You Look Tonight” Swing Time
“Cheek to Cheek” Top Hat
“How About You?” Babes on Broadway
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” Born to Dance
“They Can’t Take That Away From Me” Shall We Dance
“Thanks for the Memory” The Big Broadcast of 1938
“One For My Baby (and one more for the road)” The Sky’s the Limit
“Chattanooga Choo-Choo” Sun Valley Serenade
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” Neptune’s Daughter
“Mona Lisa” Captain Carey, USA
“That’s Amore” The Caddy
“High Hopes” Hole in the Head
“Call Me Irresponsible” Papa’s Delicate Condition
“Last Dance” Thank God It’s Friday
“On the Road Again” Honeysuckle Rose
“I Just Called to Say I Love You” The Woman in Red

If you’re a real movie buff, you’ve heard of some of those films, but these names didn’t even sound familiar to me: Sun Valley Serenade; Neptune’s Daughter; and Captain Carey, USA

Two counties in the USA have voted for the winning presidential candidate every time since 2000.

Scoop, ... 4 comments.

I don’t know what this means, but I found it interesting. The counties don’t seem to have much in common. It’s one county in a deeply red state and one in New York.  You can’t call New York a deeply blue state because massive areas are part of Trump country.  New York City, Albany and the Great Lakes cities vote Democratic, but the Southern Tier, Long Island and everything north of the Albany Metro voted Republican.

Essex County, NY.

Essex County is north of Lake George on the Vermont Border. It’s beautiful country. I spent a lot of time there when I was young, climbing Whiteface Mountain and Mt. Marcy. The population density is about 20 people per square mile.

The most famous things about it:

  • That is where John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave!
  • The Miracle on Ice happened there when Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics in 1980.
  • Fort Ticonderoga played a moderately important role in the American Revolution.

 

Blaine County, Montana

Blaine County is a desolate farming/ranching area on the Canadian border. It’s classic Big Sky country – 4,000 square miles of land with fewer than two inhabitants per square mile.  That’s even sparse by Montana standards – the state averages four to five times as many people per square mile. The big population center in Blaine County is Chinook, with a population of a thousand.

Unlike Essex County, New York, nothing memorable ever happened in Blaine. There is only one noteworthy thing about it:

  • Despite its tiny population, Blaine is the ultimate Bellwether county – it has voted for the losing candidate only once since 1916! (Dukakis, of all people.) Given its location, I’m surprised that it turns blue so often.