Customer Reviews

Bachelor Party (Remastered)/O.S.T.

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow - I'd waited 19 years for this to come out on CD, having previously owned the Soundtrack on Vinyl. And I'm not disappointed!

This movie, whether or not Hanks likes it or not, is one of his best. A great party thrash it was the Grandfather to todays Teenage crude classics like American Pie and Road Trip. Comedy is the hardest thing to do well, and in Bachelor Party Hanks is just in a class of his own.

The soundtrack reminds you of so many great scenes within the movie, it brings a sentimental tear to the eye. It's less Pop and more of a rock-new wave thrash, which adds to it's lasting appeal perhaps. The highlights for me are Oingo Boingo's 'Something Isn't Right', The Alarm's 'What Kind Of Hell' and Darlene Love's 'Alley Oop' - but the whole album hangs together so well.

Adrian Zmed's little cameo reminds me of the sort of song you might hear at Karaoke parties! If you love the 80's, then do yourself a favour and get this little gem.

I loved this movie when it first came out, as it's a manic 90 minute romp through some of the most (for 1984) disgusting things ever tossed into a movie script.

Look at the cast: Tom Hanks at his most idiotic, Adrian Zmed (!) as the hunky model-type who peaked with "Grease 2" but has some great moments here as the best man, Tawny Kitaen at her HOTTEST (only the Whitesnake videos she made eclipse this), Wendie Jo Sperber as the eternally wonderful plump chick & foil, and a collection of the most obviously talented comedy sidekicks ever invented...

And then the soundtrack was quickly released by I.R.S. Records and promptly vanished.

Here it is almost twenty years later and a record label named "Superfecta" has re-released the wonderful soundtrack, but it falls short. I'll explain why later but here's a track by track review.

10 tracks breeze by at a little over 35 minutes:

1. The Fleshtones "American Beat '84" starts us off with the title track, a bit new-wavey, but has shades of pre-Huey Lewis and sets the tone quickly; this is a party album, pure and simple, so enjoy!

2. Oingo Boingo's "Something Isn't Right" is a quick rocker and as you probably already know Oingo Boingo used to be the greatest West Coast band in the late 70's/early 80's until leader & vocalist Danny Elfman disbanded it. This is not the doom-laden Tim Burton stuff some of you younger consumers are aware of, Danny used to have fun!

3. Jools Holland's "Crazy Over You" is another quick rocker but this also has the distinction of being a song from another artist who was in another influential band - the English ska/rock/pseudo-pop group Squeeze.

4. Adrian Zmed's "Little Demon" has the honor of being the best track off this album; this could have been released back then as a single and it might have made the charts. Move over Van Halen! It has just enough pop, rock and horrible cheesy lyrics that were part of the American fabric and were popular at the time. Too bad for Adrian, huh?

5. R.E.M.'s "Wind Out" is a great quick tune that is upbeat and fun and has a lot of energy. It's everything the pretty much then-unknown band later became the opposite of when they hit it big only two years later.

6. Oingo Boingo's "Bachelor Party" is the most hilarious tribute to male debauchery ever created, and it has hot licks and great lyrics. Danny Elfman was at his creative peak in the 80's, eventually meeting a guy named Tim Burton and then - well, you know the rest.

7. The Alarm's "What Kind Of Hell" is ugly and is desperate to tell you that we had better be careful, and it's almost warning you to never invite donkeys to bachelor parties!

8. Darlene Love's "Alley Oop" is hilarious and will forever be linked to the Chippendales male revue and from what I've heard is STILL used in male strip reviews world-wide. Think about this: Darlene Love sang the classic song "He's A Rebel" with The Chiffons some TWENTY YEARS before this and here she is crooning out a tune that is a classic all to it's own.

9. Angel & The Reruns' "Why Do Good Girls Like Bad Boys" is once again one of the best tunes up there, a definite 1980's time capsule new wave-y girl-rock song of epic proportions. Lead vocalist Hillary Carlip has been in the girl-rock scene for over twenty-five years herself since, and Google her website as she's still got a lot to say.

10. Yip Yip Coyote's "Dream Of The West" is the closer, and to be honest, is the one track they probably didn't need to include here, but Yip Yip Coyote is a long-lost British new-wave cowboy-punk band, kind of like Adam Ant before Adam went all country himself. Finding ANYTHING by this horribly underrated band is a crime, but if you do find a copy of their first and only album, count yourself lucky.

Finally, although I would have given this album 5 stars due to the roster of (mostly) I.R.S. Records bands presented here, there are glaring omissions that were used in the movie as incidental background noise but just weren't included here, such as:

"Dance Hall Days," by Wang Chung
"Rehumanize Yourself" by The Police
"Nature Took Over" by Angel and the Reruns
"Gotta Give a Little Love" by Timmy Thomas
"Prepare to Energize" by Torch Song
"Who Do You Want to Be" by Oingo Boingo
"Hall of Fame" by The Fleshtones

("Dance Hall Days" can be heard as the boys enter the strip club at the beginning of the infamous "footlong hot dog" scene. Maybe Wang Chung and The Police thought having their work being somehow associated with this film was detrimental and didn't give clearances to be included here, but I'll bet when they cashed the check the first time around they then promptly shut the hell up.)

So, due to having almost HALF of the movie's full musical soundtrack missing, I'm giving it 3 stars.

I still say buy it, but be warned - you'll have to find the rest of the missing music on your own - it didn't take me long to find it online (wink-wink) and I'm all the more better for it.

Thanks for reading my review, please feel free to comment, and please check out my other reviews, as I'm not completely full of it!

It took it almost 20 years to do it but it was worth the wait (I.R.S. Records never got this one out on CD). Bachelor Party must be one of the funiest movies of the 80's and it was the spark that ignited Tom Hanks' movie carrer. The songs on this CD can ONLY be found here and there are some hard to find songs by REM, The alarm and Oingo Boingo which die hard fans will be greatful that they are now on CD. My personal fav is Angel & the rerun's "Why do good girl like bad boys" since this song sends me back to the sceens where the party is at it's best. It only gets 4 stars because I find the Yip Yip Coyote song a little dull; other than that, get this CD you won't regret it.

When REM put out "Dead Letter Office" a series of b-sides they dared you to guess what soundtrack that song appeared on...does that make this a trivial album? Maybe. But for any hardcore Oingo Boingo fan this is a must have for the rare two tracks found only here.

This movie inspired director Kevin Smith in Clerks II to have a erotic donkey scene...yikes.

I bought this cd after seeing the movie again I wanted Adrain Zmed's "Little Demon" and Darlene Love "Alley Oop" I am happy with my purchase.