In "All that Jazz..." Billy Joel music in the finale?
In "All that Jazz..." Billy Joel music in the finale?
#1In "All that Jazz..." Billy Joel music in the finale?
Posted: 1/23/18 at 2:38pm
The darkly satiric faux-biopic "All That Jazz" famously ends with the Fosse analogue played by Roy Scheider at death's door, admitting his overall crappiness to a mock-Leading Player (played by Ben Vereen) and dancing his way towards his final, fatal, heart attack. This mostly takes place during a ten-minute cover/parody of "Bye Bye Love." However, during the midsection of the song, the orchestra inexplicably switches to playing "Captain Jack" by Billy Joel.
I didn't recall this from when I watched the movie, and Google informs me that "Captain Jack" and another Billy Joel song, "Stiletto," does appear in the finale. Any idea why this is? As far as I can recall, Billy Joel music does not appear elsewhere in the film to be referenced here at the end. The "Stiletto" reference is more of a musical homage, but "Captain Jack" is full-on played, complete with the hammering Hammond organ eighths that give the chorus its signature instrumentation.
#2In
Posted: 1/23/18 at 4:12pm
No definitive answer from me, but I'm guessing Fosse just happened to love that music and felt it was exactly what he wanted in those moments? He used a very wide range of music, pop, classical, and original, as you know...
Some notes from the AllMusic Review by Donald A. Guarisco refer to additional pop songs used in the soundtrack, and other types of music :
One of the most audacious Hollywood films of the late 1970s was All That Jazz, Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical tale of a self-destructive director/choreographer trying to outrun his demons and his mortality as he struggles to keep his topsy-turvy life together. It combined musical theater and Fellini-esque flights of fancy to hypnotic effect, employing a wide range of musical styles and compositions in the process. A choice selection of the music used in the film is distilled on the All That Jazz soundtrack, which divides its time between jazzy pop classics ("Everything Old Is New Again" by Peter Allen, George Benson's cover of "On Broadway") and a combination of originals and re-arranged classics handled by composer/arranger Ralph Burns. The jazzy pop songs make for fun listening, but the true highlights are the tracks handled by Burns: his work on the album covers everything from classical music ("Vivaldi Concert In G"
to easy listening ("Ponte Vecchio" to showtune-styled originals ("Take Off With Us". However, Burn's true tour de force is a bombastic re-imagining of the Everly Brothers classic "Bye Bye Love": in his hands, it becomes an epic, rock opera-styled duet between Ben Vereen and Roy Scheider, whose kitchen-sink arrangement includes jazz saxophone, orchestral strings, and wailing electric guitar. [MY NOTE: Interesting he doesn't mention the Billy Joel pieces here] Simply put, it must be heard to be believed. Harry Nilsson's "Perfect Day," a lushly-orchestrated pop classic ... memorably used during one of the film's romantic scenes."
Videos