Welcome everyone to the latest edition of Top Five Fridays! This week, I take a look at the film that kind of started this entire blog: High Fidelity. I wound up catching this on TV last night for the first time in a long time. This movie got me thinking about the amount of music and artists that it introduced me to (Velvet Underground, Belle and Sebastian, The Beta Band among others).
From the opening scene to the final moments as Rob makes a mixtape for his fiancee, it’s one of my favorite movies. So, this week I’m choosing my five favorite songs from the film. One day, I’ll do one of the songs that were referenced in the book that inspired the film, but that will be down the line. On with the countdown!
5. Rock Steady by Aretha Franklin (Young, Gifted, and Black)
The Queen of Soul definitely deserves to be in this list simply because this is also my favorite song by Aretha. It has this groove that you don’t really hear in a lot of her more popular songs, but it works.
Her vocals as always are on point and more importantly, it gets you up and going. That was one of the best things about using this song while everybody is at the record store on a Saturday afternoon.
4. Seymour Stein by Belle and Sebastian (The Boy with the Arab Strap)
This song is a prime example of discovering a band at the right time. When I first saw the movie back in 2014, I had heard the band be mentioned on TV shows like How I Met Your Mother, but never heard their music. Not long after I saw the movie, their latest album came out and that had Casual Party on it, a song that was in heavy rotation for a while.
When you think about setting a mood, this works extremely well because it’s right after Laura breaks up with him and he’s down on himself. Then Jack Black brings his energy and tries to cheer everybody up even when no one wants to hear Walking on Sunshine right now.
3. Oh! Sweet Nuthin by The Velvet Underground (Loaded)
The last album that the group had with Lou Reed with the group and it seems almost fitting with the best track on the album being the final track with Reed’s fingerprints on it.
When this track comes on about an hour into the film and it just hits you in a certain way a lot like the news about Laura hit Rob.
2. Dry the Rain by The Beta Band (The Three EPs)
If I was in the record store and this came on, I would’ve likely bought five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band. One of the reasons I love listening to this song is because of how it morphs into a different song as it progresses.
After each verse, there’s something new added to the track and then the horns hit which is a sharp contrast from my point of view, but it works for this group. In fact, this was the first track on the collection and was the first track on their first EP Champion Versions. Heck of a way to start if I say so myself.
1. Fallen For You by Sheila Nicholls (Brief Strop)
I mentioned this a while back in the Love Songs edition of Top Five Fridays. It felt too easy to go for the Stevie Wonder track, so I decided to show this track some love a lot like the college radio scene did when this song hit the scene. It’s a stellar track that deserves a little more love.
-Clint@1063RL