Somewhere In Time Soundtrack

REELING AND SPINNING: CADDYSHACK soundtrack still gets the feet going

There are many things about Caddyshack that people who’ve seen it hold in high, fond regard: The gopher, “It’s in the hole!”  The Baby Ruth floating in the pool, Bill Murray ’s crooked mouth, “Be the ball, Danny” (which I heard from someone in the very bar I’m writing this right now, as a soccer match played on TV), Cindy Morgan’s nipples, “You’ll get nothing and like it!”—and so on. But, for me, what I love the most about Caddyshack , the thing that has made me come back to it time and time again, is the music that starts off the whole damn movie. 

I still remember it like it was yesterday: I must’ve been four or five, popping the heavy VHS tape into the gigantic contraption that we called a VCR, and being taken aback by the serene, sensuous, almost angelic way the movie begins. As we fade in on a country club course at dawn, a four-part harmony forms, reverberating all over the soundtrack. As sprinklers (I’m assuming the sound effects are provided by maracas) are set off on the greens, another melodious voice jumps in, singing the words “own heart beatin’” several times. (When I was a kid, I thought it was “ol’ heart beatin’.”) Even at that age, when I first saw the film after begging my mom to pick it up at the video store, I thought that was a peculiar way to start off a movie I only knew as that comedy where Chevy Chase , Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight seem to do some crazy shit.

The harmony eventually dissolves as the aforementioned gopher (memorably billed in the credits as “Chuck Rodent”) pops into frame and begins happily getting his groove on to the bass-heavy beat. I was quite surprised by what I heard next: Kenny Loggins ’ ‘I’m Alright.” Wait a minute – that song’s in the movie! I heard that song here and there, but I didn’t know it was from this movie. After listening to “I’m Alright” in the opening credits, I found that that harmony from the opening (which sounds as if it were sung entirely by Loggins) reappears briefly in the middle of the song. This made me an instant fan.

However, for the past 30 years, I’ve been more or less obsessed with that opening harmony. (It’s used again in the movie, to even more sensuous effect, during the love scene between a memorably perky Morgan and Michael O’Keefe.) There have been times in my childhood where I have taped it off the TV on either audio or videocassette. In my later years, I wondered why a rapper hadn’t sampled it yet. (It turns out it’s been sampled three times, by Dom Kennedy, The Majesticons and the late, great hip-hop producer J Dilla.

Of Trims and Frills and Furbelows: "Somewhere in Time"...A Review

It’s the story of a Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve), a playwright. On the eve of his first successful play, he is approached by an old woman who gives him an antique watch and asks him to “come back to me”. Several years later, tired of everything in life, he goes to Mackinac Island to the beautiful Grand Hotel to take some time off and relax. While there he sees a picture of a beautiful actress, Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour). He falls in love with the picture and researches about the actress. He finds that she had been at the Grand Hotel in 1912 and that she was also the old woman who had given him the watch. He then decides to travel back in time to meet her. But getting there is only the beginning of his obstacles—he must get past her controlling manager, W. F. Robinson (Christopher Plummer), avoid awkward situations that arise from the "fish out of water" part of a modern man suddenly dropped into the world of 1912, and, once he and Elise realize their love...whether or not he will be able to stay forever in the past. There are so many good things about this movie. Christopher Reeve is fantastic as Richard Collier, giving a boyish, nervous kind of charm to his character. He does a wonderful job showing the growth of the character from devil-may-care to a man who's whole passion is the woman he loves. Jane Seymour, who is my absolutely most favorite actress and IMO one of the most gorgeous women ever-ever-ever, is radiant in this role as Elise McKenna (I've always adored the name "Elise" after seeing this film...) And the chemistry between the leads is awesome. They’re such a great couple (although come to think of it, I think that Jane’s just good with anyone…because in anything I’ve seen her in, she and the male lead always have incredible chemistry—she and Christopher Reeve here…and then with Anthony Andrews in The Scarlet Pimpernel, for starters). Christopher Plummer is a great antagonist (this was the first role I saw him in other than Captain Von Trapp, and he was excellent here!) and there is a large assortment of great supporting actors.

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