How haunting is that closing song, "Haunted Heart" as song by the great Jo Stafford! Wow! For years I wondered what the song was and who sang it, then I heard it the other night on KRML, the Jazz station in Carmel, CA made famous in Clint Eastwood's "Play Misty for Me." Anybody else knocked out by that lovely rendition of a great song? It fits the film perfectly. Kudos to Jack for selecting it or agreeing to it!
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I completely agree, and Van Dyke Parks' final cue which leads into it is a perfect match harmonically. It's a perfect musical "bump" into the end credits.
I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one who loved it.
"Never underestimate the power of denial."
American Beauty
Jack Nicholson is an actor. He's paid to act. He doesn't pick the music for the movies he appears in or directs. He pays others to make those decisions.
shareAs a director, I believe he probably has some input into the selection of music, especially if he thinks it will enhance a scene or create a mood.
shareYou can hear Jo Stafford's HAUNTED HEART in the 1999 Columbia Movie, END OF THE AFFAIR, starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore.
You can listen to HAUNTED HEART as sung by Jo Stafford on YouTube. Yet Jo Stafford's voice sounds so hauntingly melodic on the ending credits of THE TWO JAKES, compared to her voice on YouTube.
I watched "The Two Jakes" for the first time the other evening after pointedly avoiding this movie for 20 years. Well, it was pretty much as advertised, but I was absolutely captivated by Jo Stafford's closing rendition of "Haunted Heart," which I'd surprisingly not heard before (well, I'm more of a fan of
Dinah Washington and 40's & 50's R&B, definitely NOT the era's Caucasian
singers!). For a few moments, I was almost wondering if it was Petula Clark since there seemed to be a slight resemblance in phrasing, but I kept saying,
"Nah, Petula would have only been a teenager in the late 40's when the movie
supposedly took place and she didn't have the vocal authority then that she
grew into in the mid 60's." Anyhoodle, I've got to go out now and search for some Jo Stafford vinyl to see if her other songs are as wonderfully rendered as
"Haunted Heart." She sounds at least as good as Teresa Brewer!
Perhaps you're a vinyl purist, but if not, there's plenty of her recordings available on CD. I've always preferred her version of "You Belong To Me" to the Duprees'.
Poe! You are...avenged!
Yeah, I am a "vinyl purist" and never even bought a cd player. I'm lately calling cd's "the 8 tracks of the 90's." I do have that Dupree's album though...
shareAfter they first arrived, I resisted "going CD" for a few years, until it became clear that doing so was limiting my purchasing options, with fewer and fewer releases on vinyl. I understand that trend has reversed somewhat in recent years.
Your audio equipment is probably superior to mine (the turntable is just a basic Technics with a Shure cartridge), and my hearing has diminished a bit in the last few years. But even when it was optimal, the differences I could discern between vinyl and CD were not offensive to me - and I certainly didn't mind the absence of degradation and the occasional click or pop (which it seemed I couldn't avoid no matter how careful I was).
Aside from the obvious technical ones, a huge distinction between 8-track and CD is one of longevity (both of individual discs and the format itself); over 25 years and no sign of abatement. I certainly understand a dedication to, and preference for, analogue formats, but from my point of view, with the ridiculously low cost of players and endless availability of virtually any kind of music, if a CD is the only way I can secure a certain recording, I'd rather have it that way than not at all (although I'll reverse that philosophy for vinyl, as has been the case for some items in my collection). Basically, just a matter of practicality.
Poe! You are...avenged!