1 post tagged “50s”

I hate to base two posts in a row on TV watching, but tonight's family entertainment was rife with great music that I want to blog about.  We introduced the kids to Bill Murray's best movie, the criminally neglected The Man Who Knew Too Little.  Murray plays an American schmo in London who thinks he is taking part in the experimental "Theatre of Life," but instead ends up as the key player in the middle of super-secret spy stuff--comedic spy stuff, that is.  (Evil lady torturer?  Check.  Ticking time bomb?  Check.  Austin Mini car chase?  Check.)  The film is replete with quotable lines, sight gags, comic coincidences and misunderstandings, all to the accompaniment of vintage and original spy music.  Prominent in the mix is the Three Suns' version of "Fever," one of the most-anthologized songs of the 90s lounge/exotica revival:

That whole lounge thing was fun while it lasted: all the reissues of Esquivel, the Three Suns, Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, comebacks by Yma Sumac and Korla Pandit, and revivalist bands like Combustible Edison, Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited, and the like, not to mention the cornucopia of compilation discs put out by just about every label.  And a lot of it was delectable, glorious spy music.  Nancy Sinatra enjoyed a bit of a renaissance, too, and The Man Who Knew Too Little closes with "The Last of the Secret Agents"--

03. The Last of the Secret Agents

Nancy Sinatra

What a perfect ending to a perfect movie!  (My daughter even said, "This is the best spy movie ever," and she's seen all the Austin Powers flicks.  I don't think she's ever seen a serious spy movie, so she really means spoof spy movie, but that's how good it is.)