Drawn from previous posts, this is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).
An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
Rock 'n' roll as we know it might not even exist if not for the movies. That may be an overstatement, but it's certainly true that rock's first crossover success came via Hollywood. When the film The Blackboard Jungle appeared in 1955, its opening credits sequence propelled a novelty fox trot called "Rock Around The Clock" to the top of the pops, making the seemingly unlikely figures of Bill Haley and his Comets the world's first rock 'n' roll stars. The ongoing sheet-shakin' between rock and film has been consummated again and again over the ensuing decades, from Jailhouse Rock through A Hard Day's Night, the Monkees in Head, the Ramones in Rock 'n' Roll High School, Earth, Wind & Fire in That's The Way Of The World, and the fictional Wonders in That Thing You Do!, plus whatever more recent iterations have occurred since I grew too old to keep up with what you crazy kids are up to. Just stay off of my lawn already.
Paul McCartney's 1985 film vehicle Give My Regards To Broad Street is not very good. It's probably not that bad; I should watch it again to see if it holds up better than my memory claims. If nothing else, hey: It's Paul McCartney! I mean, what the hell, right? It's not like he owes us anything. And the soundtrack is frequently terrific, with remakes of "Eleanor Rigby" and "Ballroom Dancing," and a great hit single in "No More Lonely Nights." The album's highest points are two tracks Paul recorded with an ace combo consisting of Linda McCartney, Ringo Starr, Dave Edmunds, and Chris Spedding, and I woulda killed to see that combo live! McCartney claimed that a new song called "No Values" came to him in a dream, a song he imagined seeing the Rolling Stones perform in concert. When he realized no such Stones song existed, he wrote and recorded it himself. It's the second best song on the Give My Regards To Broad Street soundtrack.
The best song? Glad you asked! "Not Such A Bad Boy" is not just the best song on Give My Regards To Broad Street, it's one of McCartney's very best tracks, period. Its relative obscurity is maddening. And it's second only to "Maybe I'm Amazed" among my favorite post-Beatles McCartney songs.
Give My Regards To Broad Street may get a worse rap than it really deserves. It's not bad, but nor is it in any way special. Well, let's amend that a bit--even by itself, the presence of McCartney does make it sorta special. The soundtrack justifies it, approaching the transcendent with "No Values" and "Not Such A Bad Boy," neither of which is on any other album, and they're just as solid as anything Sir Paul ever did after leaving the act you've known for all these years.
In particular, "Not Such A Bad Boy" is such a confident rockin' pop number, oozing with swagger and amiable panache. It's aching for rediscovery as one of McCartney's best. Not such a bad song after all. Give it my highest regards.
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My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book, its six-chapter novelette digest A Band Called GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!, and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here
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