Hello!  CineSavant continues with its gloriously inessential  Movie Tie-In kick.

You think you’ve heard some weird music in your time? A lot more obscure and sometimes-listenable Movie Tie-In novelty songs came in this week… I haven’t time to try and track down the suggestions submitted without links, but some of the new titles are quite surprising. I’ve amended the ‘already accounted for’ list below the new arrivals, and dropped some titles that fall outside the hard definition (not actually heard in the movie itself). Selections with (✓) I would actually want to listen to more than once.

New Today:

Vaughn Monroe’s Hercules for the Steve Reeves film (Earl Baucom).
✓  Thurl Ravenscroft and the Tinglers’ The Tingler for the Vincent Price film (Earl Baucom).
Thurl Ravenscroft and the Tinglers’ 30 Foot Bride (of Candy Rock) (Earl Baucom).
Mitch Miller’s The Guns of Navarone (nice choral orchestration, but what laughable lyrics… for the Gregory Peck Film Rick Notch, Bart Steele).
✓  The Skatalites’ really original take Guns of Navarone (Charlie Largent).
Dewayne Blackwell, T. G. Sheppard and Clint Eastwood’s Make My Day tie-in for Sudden Impact (Brian Thibodeau).
Rod McKuen and Bob McFadden’s The Mummy for the Hammer film? (Dan Mottola).
✓  Dean Parker, Joe Lipman Orchestra’s Vera Cruz vocal, and
✓  Tony Martin’s Vera Cruz vocal for the Burt Lancaster film (Pete Apruzzese of Big Screen Classics).
Ringo Starr’s Blindman not heard in his spaghetti western (Lee Broughton).
Alice Cooper’s The Man with the Golden Gun not considered for the James Bond film (Lee Broughton).
Blondie’s The Spy Who Loved Me also not considered for 007 (Stuart Feldstein).
The Tubes’ Attack of the 50 Foot Woman inspired by the film and here just for fun… (Lee Broughton).
The John Barry Seven’s Zulu Stamp and
✓  Monkey Feathers, neither used in Zulu (Owen Greenwell).
Claude King’s The Comancheros for the John Wayne film (Craig Reardon).

… and finally, a whole series sent in by efelesijr, who ought to write a book!

The Rockin’ Ramrods’ Don’t Fool with Fu for The Face of Fu Manchu.
Johnny Cymbal’s Robinson Crusoe on Mars for the George Pal film.
Roy Castle’s Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors for the Amicus film.
Pat Boone’s To the Center of the Earth for Journey to the Center of the Earth.
James Stewart’s rather gloppy The Legend of Shenandoah, a tie-in for Shenandoah.
Nat King Cole’s Marnie for the Hitchcock film … interesting!
Fred MacMurray, The Sherman Bros’ The Flubber Song for The Absent Minded Professor.
The Three Stooges’ Have Rocket, Will Travel for their comeback sci-fi film.
Judy Harriet, Les Baxter’s Goliath tie-in with Goliath and the Barbarians.
Andy Griffith’s There’s No Time for Sergeants for the film of the same name.

Wait… just under the wire, Earl Baucom sends in an authentic tie-in song — a children’s song — for the sci-fi classic Them!  Them! is sung by an almost unrecognizable Art Carney. If his name weren’t on the record, I wouldn’t have believed it. What possible connection could there be, besides the one word?  Earl links back to an earlier (2006) Greenbriar Picture Shows article documenting the whole thing.

Earl also sent in Robert Mitchum’s cover version of his song Thunder Road. Even though it’s a classic and a favorite, it’s an official cover version, not a sideways tie-in, so it doesn’t belong in this list and I’d never include it.

Already listed:

✓  Nino Tempo & Pete Rugolo’s Jack The Ripper (Bill Shaffer). Johnny Horton’s Sink the Bismarck.
✓  Gene Pitney’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
WB soundtrack cue Have You Heard of Bonnie and Clyde?
✓  Georgie Fame’s The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.
The Nightmares’ Oooh I’m Scared for Horrors of the Black Museum, and
The Headless Ghost (Earl Balcom, efelesijr).
Rod McKuen and Bob McFadden’s Dracula Cha Cha Cha for The Brides of Dracula, plus
✓  the Italian precursor by Bruno Martino, Dracula Cha Cha Cha (also Earl Balcom).
The White Suit Samba for The Man in the White Suit (Edward Parker Bolman).
✓  Anthony Restaino’s The Web from The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (also Edward Parker Bolman).
Ricky Nelson’s Restless Kid for Rio Bravo (also Todd Everett).
Johnny Cash’s Thunderball unused in the 007 movie Thunderball (again Todd Everett).
Phil Harris’s The Thing loosely tied-in with The Thing from Another World (Bill Shepard).
Freddie Martin’s 1932 Trouble in Paradise , connected to the Ernst Lubitsch film (Jonathan Gluckman).
Petula Clark and Joe Henderson’s The Card from the Alec Guinness movie of the same name (Randall William Cook).
Anne Leonardo’s Sinbad for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (also Randall William Cook).
Johnny Burnette’s One-Eyed Jacks not from the Marlon Brando movie (Tony Convey).
A dreadful 55 Days at Peking (Mark Throop).
✓  Mack David, Burt Bacharach and Jack Jones’ Wives and Lovers, not heard in the movie of the same name.
✓  Mack David, Burt Bacharach and The Five Blobs’ The Blob (a cheat, heard in the show but legendary just the same) (John Black, Cameron Mackert).
✓  The Fortunes’ The Ghoul in School from Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory (also a cheat… John Black, John Hall).
Tony Casanova’s Diary of a High School Bride (also John Black).
Bette Davis’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Brendan Carroll, who says a 45 was released as well, a duet with Debbie Burton).
Alvino Rey’s The Bat (Charlie Largent).
Big Boy Groves’ Bucket O Blood for the Roger Corman/Dick Miller movie (efelesijr).

Meanwhile, if you’re within 500 miles of Topeka Kansas, there’s something happening I can strongly recommend for the weekend of February 22 & 23, the Kansas Silent Film Festival. They’ve got a full schedule of fine silent fare — and it’s free! (They’re really hoping for NO SNOW.) Rare items include entertaining items from Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, famed swimmer Annette Kellerman, John Ford, Marion Davies, and restored Laurel & Hardy silent.

The silent title that makes me want to hop on a Topeka-bound plane is the Complete Metropolis with a live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra. I’ve experienced the group’s incredible metallic score for the Fritz Lang film, and it’s sensational. The full Program is viewable online.

The Kansas Silent Film Festival has been a special event for many years; CineSavant’s online associate Bill Shaffer takes charge of a lot of the details. I really wish I could jet out there … what I discovered in Topeka makes me ashamed of what we call hospitality in Los Angeles.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson