Pop Culture from an Alternate Dimension

       I had planned on posting this last week but hadn't put it in my weekly planner so I accidently posted The Munsters first so now is the time songs about days of the week. Since I wanted to have more than seven songs, I have one song for each day of the week AND songs that mention more than one day of the week. I start with "I Don't Like Mondays" from The Boomtown Rats, it is not based on a Garfield quote but something much more serious. In fact, if you want to just enjoy the song, don't research its origin. Tori Amos, who get did Wednesday's song "Wednesday", also recorded a cover of "I Don't Like Mondays". I end the week with Queen's "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" which seemed fair since I had The Kinks singing about "lazing on SUNNY afternoon" on my last song collection. The Stone Temple Pilots, The Beatles and the Electric Light Orchestra all sings about days of the week, even if they skip a day or two. ...

        The Munsters  was a hugely popular monster-comedy tv series in the sixties and re-runs. It had many remakes through the years, including a movie made by Rob Zombie, where he (of course) cast his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie) in the role that Yvonne De Carlo played in the television series. However, De Carlo was not originally cast as Herman's wife, Lily, in fact the matriarch wasn't originally named Lily.        The pilot that was originally filmed was quite different, indeed. Joan Marshall played Phoebe Munster and looked a lot like Morticia Addams, son Eddie was much more of a snarling wolf boy and was played by Happy Derman before being replaced by Butch Patrick. Fred Gwynne was Herman Munster from the start as well as Al Lewis as Grandpa. Beverley Owens from the series was also in the original pilot but was replaced part way through the first season. The recognizable theme music by Jack Marshall was not used originally used, the house ...

  In 1980, the ABC network aired a made-for-tv spy movie called Once Upon a Spy. It starred Ted Danson (a couple of years before he was Sam Malone on Cheers) , Mary Louise Weller (a couple of years after National Lampoon's Animal House ), Eleanor Parker (who I loved in 1946's Never Say Goodbye  with Errol Flynn) and Christopher Lee as the archvillain (as he had done the year before in a Captain America tv movie). It was a pilot for a series that never happened. Above is how I see the DVD release would look if it became a series, with some possible ideas for episodes mentioned on the back. The full movie has been uploaded many times on YouTube, if you want to view it.

            Time is important in music. The bassist or drummer usually keeps time. Morris Day's band was named The Time. Electric Light Orchestra had an album called Time . Another Birmingham band, The Moody Blues, had a concept album about the parts of the day. This post is what if a similar album was done with different artists music, starting with midnight, through the day to night. My selections can be heard here:  About Time - YouTube

        National Lampoon's Animal House was originally written with different actors in mind. D-Day was based on Dan Aykroyd. I remember hearing how he would ride his motorcycle from Canada to New York for SNL. a story that I have since heard might be apocryphal. Before SNL, John Belushi and Chevy Chase a stage in National Lampoon's stage show "Lemmings" in 1973. Belushi, Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray had worked with Animal House co-writer Harold Ramis on National Lampoon's next stage show, appropriately called "The National Lampoon Show".        The producers really wanted Chevy Chase as Otter, but director John Landis didn't. According to Landis he used reverse psychology to get Chase to pass, telling to do this instead Foul Play . He told him that the frat comedy is a great ensemble  movie where he could share the screen with Belushi like the Lemmings show. If he did Foul Play , that would be a leading man type of role, with just...

          The 1978 movie National Lampoon's Animal House had great music. It turned me on to Sam Cooke, for which I am grateful. When I bought the soundtrack, I was disappointed that it was only 37 minutes long. This version is my remedy. The official album has the two songs Stephen Bishop wrote for the film. Director John Landis used Bishop in a small roll in his second movie, Kentucky Fried Movie , listed as "Charming Guy". In Animal House , he played "Charming Guy with Guitar" singing "I Gave My Love a Cherry", this I wanted to include.       The actual album includes snippets of dialogue with some of the songs. For the most part I prefer the original songs without the dialogue. However, "Rama Lama Ding Dong" starts with Otis Day saying a preamble which I like. The singing voice of Otis was Lloyd Williams but DeWayne Jessie played the character. The actor became so well known for the role, he legally changed his name to Otis Day and t...