Music is everything when you’re a music guy like me. It’s anything that walks or stays or moves or waves. It’s in colors, on the highway, in the seemingly unreachable mountains, in the clouds. Dripping faucets tap a somber song. The quiet of the night is filled with music. Everything … everything has a tune, everything elicits tone of some sort.
So, naturally, when I see a film I’m big time into its music and soundtrack. (I just might have more soundtracks in my vinyl collection than anything else.)
Alas, there never was a music collection released for 1986’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. If you’re a fan of the film you most likely know this. Outside a two-track 7″ vinyl pressing released to the fan mailing list, John Hughes — in his infinite wisdom (or stubbornness) — opted against establishing a collection of the film’s tunes. “Would kids want Danke Schön and Oh Yeah on the same record?” he reasoned.
But what a soundtrack it would have made. Most of the songs are instantly recognizable and indicative of this quintessential ’80s piece of Americana.
Now, many of you will no doubt identify with Oh Yeah at the ending credits of the film, probably the first time you ever heard the song by Yello, the German band of renown. I was a big fan of the group when they first appeared in the late, late’70s having been well acquainted with main players Dieter Meier (vocalist) and Boris Blank (instrumentalist). Some of the the strangest effects were incorporated into the band’s psyche: closing doors, unidentifiable bass beats and quirky twings and twangs you couldn’t quite put your finger on, perfect for the FBDO out-of-the-box demeanor. The track is still popular today in dance clubs and used liberally in commercials, as concert filler, in other films and even in within your local grocer’s Muzak offerings. If you want to know or discover more about the band, by all means check them out. Their discography is vast and varied.
Just as iconic was Matthew Broderick’s parade starring turn right smack dab through the heart of downtown Chicago. To this day, people think the classic Danke Schön is sung by a girl or woman and refuse to believe Mr. Las Vegas Wayne Newton is behind the most popular version of the track ever recorded. I remember cleaning house on Saturday afternoons with my mother, Johnny Cash, Tom Jones, Peggy Lee and good ‘ole Wayne cranking out from the ancient console unit in our living room. Danke Schön was part of my childhood. However, Twist And Shout not so much. I don’t recall hearing it until the late ’70s. But my high school and college years were inundated with it.
The music of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, if nothing else, touches our minds … whether we want to be touched there or not. Take for instance the museum scene with Ferris, Sloane and Cameron: in all the hustle and bustle of the film, you can’t but help sit back and mentally take a deep breath when Cameron concentrates on Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte. Why is it so effective? Is it Cameron’s stare? Is it the little girl he fixates on in the painting? No … not completely. These things are of course intergral to what is going on toward the end of the scene, but it’s The Dream Academy’s cover of The Smith’s Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want that pulls everything together and transcends what you’re watching into what Cameron is viewing. (See? And you thought you couldn’t appreciate art …)
Of course, there are popular snippets and recognizable ear candy throughout the film as well. The Main Title / Rebel Blockade Runner from Star Wars when the parking garage attendants decide to go on a joyride with Cameron’s father’s classic 1961 Ferrari GT California …
… or the instantly recognizable I Dream Of Jeannie clip.
Iconic as John Hughes was with his run of ’80s fare, time has certainly revealed our longing for the sounds of this film to remind us of the joy we experienced when we first saw it. Sigue Sigue Sputnick’s Love Missile F1-11 wouldn’t take on quite as much meaning on the dance floor if it wasn’t for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you know? So, take Ferris’ advice, folks:
“… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Life moves pretty fast.
You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it …”
In other words … stop and take a listen to the music.
Clacked by Michael Noble 
on Jun 11, 2011 @ 12:36 EST5EDT
“I remember cleaning house on Saturday afternoons with my mother, Johnny Cash, Tom Jones, Peggy Lee and good ‘ole Wayne cranking out from the ancient console unit in our living room. Danke Schön was part of my childhood. However, Twist And Shout not so much. I don’t recall hearing it until the late ’70s.”
Sometimes you scare me, Michael. During these same days, the only Saturday night TV I ever saw were the half hour country music shows leading up to the evening’s highlight – The Grand Ole Opry. I knew Bobby Sherman and the Monkees from other TV shows, but I didn’t know there was even a rock radio station in the area until high school. I thought I was the only child of the sixties who grew up knowing Johnny Cash, Porter Wagner, Patsy Kline and Loretta Lynn but unable to name the four Beatles. By the time my choice of music was my own, a different genre had entered my life [Contemporary Christian]. My generation’s main music was not part of my first-hand experience except through the walls of the dorm rooms, drifting the halls with the sweet smell of incense [and anything that smell was trying to hide]. I observed the 70’s and 80’s, but never participated.
*POST AUTHOR*
. . . . .
No … you’re not the only one who grew up to become familiar with those artists, Nyela.
Huge Patsy Cline fan here myself.