How can a song from Syracuse sung in French end up in an Amsterdam scene?

/ June 19, 2014
This is on my car window.

This is on my car window.

When I watched “The Fault in Our Stars” a few weeks ago, I did not know that 50 seconds of a song titled “Bonjour, Bonjour” would connect the dots between a movie I would love and the city where I live.

Then octogenarian Phil Klein called me Wednesday morning and told me he and singer Maria DeAngelis wrote that song together. She recorded it in French, too, and a music promotional company shopped a bunch of their French-language songs to movies and TV.

Bingo.

You can read all about it on my Syracuse New Times movie news weekly blog item, just up this morning.

Also there …

Movie honchos want to make another Scooby-Doo flick, but they don’t know whether to go live action or cartoon.

I love cartoon. I am a child of the ’60s, you know, when dog and Shaggy and the rest first came to my TV.

Yeah, I bought that bumper sticker above because of that. And I liked the saying because of the twist to other sayings …

If you’d like to read my Movie News installment for my twice-weekly blog for the Syracuse New Times site, click the link below.

http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/syracuse-musicians-tunes-in-popular-movie/

How much do you think songs in a movie move you during scenes? Have you ever stayed around to watch credits to try to find out the title and artist of a song you’ve never heard before? What might be your favorite movie songs ever? Can you sing all the lyrics to the Scooby-Doo song?

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46 thoughts on “How can a song from Syracuse sung in French end up in an Amsterdam scene?”

  1. I completely agree with The Mystery Machine gang being animated. Granted, the live-action crew had spunk, but not the classic charm. Here’s to the animation.

    Speaking of animation … Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle movie is coming out this year!

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  2. Interesting connection, Mr. Mark! And you’re the second person in as many weeks who enjoyed “The Fault in our Stars” movie, so I may go see it. 🙂
    Love your background picture. Is that a pear tree in full bloom?

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    • It’s not a pear tree. I took the photo in May in Syracuse, not the time or place. It’s a maple, I’m pretty sure. But the movie, yes, I believe you will like it, Linda G!

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  3. How exciting for Klein and DeAngelis! I saw the movie, I would have appreciated it even more had I known this fact. My younger brother (not the one who looks like James Gandolfini) is a director and producer living in LA and he taught me to ALWAYS stay to watch the credits and appreciate everyone who contributed to a movie/documentary or program. 🙂

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    • Now I find out you also have a younger bro who’s a director/producer who lives in L.A. in addition to a Gandolfini lookalike.

      Star family, Mrs. B. I gotta wear shades when I read the Brickhouse production now? 🙂

      Yes, I like your brother’s industry-driven advice. There are a lot of people whose hard work goes onto every film.

      I wish I would have known that the folks I know well had this song in the track, and for 50 seconds yet. That’s a good bit in a major film like this. I would have been beaming the whole scene!

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  5. Oh, Mark, I wish you would have included that snipped of “Boujour, Bonjour.” (I probably won’t see “Fault in our Stars” because it’s a weeper.) I went to the New Times link, but the song wasn’t there. Yes, I have stayed to the bitter end of movies – a habit formed even Mathew Broderick’s pranks at the end of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” – and I often buy the music that was played in the movie.

    Scooby Doo with humans? I think I prefer the cartoons.

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  6. I ALWAYS read the credits. My god, how can you not? I miss hand-drawn animation. Don’t you? I watched Frozen with my daughters and I’m so sick of computer animation. Especially the humans. Awful. I’m just old.

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  7. I could sing WITH the Scooby song but not alone. I think good music adds to a movie/scene. But I’ve seen other movies that left me cold and maybe the music had something to do with it.

    I did have an incident last year when we went to a B&b in Pennsylvania where I did send out a Facebook SOS for Scooby and crew. Long story….but the B&B set up and comments made made me realize in the middle of the night that NO ONE knew where we were….and we blindly accepted words of comfort from strangers. SOS sent with directions and address in the event someone ever realized we were missing. 😉

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  8. I don’t go to a lot of movies because I have the attention span of a gnat. My mind wanders and I disassociate or play word association in my head – I think I’m slightly ADD.

    I don’t mind watching movies on TV because there are commercials so I can get up and putter. Weird eh? But the ads for The Fault in our Stars leads me to believe this is a movie I would love, love, love.

    How cool is it that you know the folks who wrote the tune in a movie you watched?! Kevin Bacon’s whole 6 degrees of separation comes to mind. Great now I want bacon… Ugh there I go again! 😉

    Diana xo

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  10. so cool about the phil klein connection, it is indeed a very, very small world we live in. as for scooby, i am all for the cartoon version as well, old school style, but without casey’s voice i guess ( and i love, love, love the sticker. )

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  11. Songs are SO important. In fact, sometimes in the car, we will hear a song and say, “That sounds like a great song for a movie scene.” Of course, I had “Grease” as a little girl and “Jungle Book” and Disney movies. But growing up, but later, I recall wanting to know the song “I’m Calling You” in Bagdad Cafe. I also had to buy the soundtrack to “A Room With A View” because of the pretty opera songs (though I don’t like opera). And I had to get “Hope Floats” because that is perfect chic flick music. P.S. How can they redo Scooby-Doo when Kasey Casem just passed away?

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    • I agree with music and movies being forever hand-in-hand, Kerbey. Wonderfully, magically, eternally, enchantingly.

      As for the late, great Mr. Coast-to-Coast — I still listen to his shows on Saturday on the 70s station on my Sirius/XM satellite just to hear that voice — unfortunately, one of the easiest things to do in show biz today is to find somebody who can sound like a famous person passed. I think.

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  12. Absolutely have read credits to get song titles and bands. I always hated it when you watch the movie on TV and the credits roll at high speed at the end! Songs can be an inextricable part of a movie. My favorite film of all time is Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” and it is powered by Public Enemies’ “Fight The Power.” Quentin Tarantino is also known for putting a lot of thought into the music in his movies. My favorite was “Across 110th Street” by Bobby Womack that was featured prominently in “Jackie Brown.” And just the other night I saw “The Godfather” and the haunting theme drags you into the film with just a few bars of the tune. Love to see what other people think and comment–a topic that’s almost limitless! Thanks Mark!

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    • I’m so with you on this, Phil. I can’t even think about ‘Pulp Fiction’ without conjuring up Dick Dale’s unmistakeable surf rock sound, and way more from that QT-picked soundtrack.

      To backtrack on another comment thread we had a bit ago … my wife Karen and I plan to get Polish dinner from Sweet Eva’s around 6 to 6:30 or so tomorrow night at Polish Fest. If you and your wife can get to Clinton Square, look for me, and we four can chat it up.

      Thanks, Phil.

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