Once Movie 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.

Tired of Previews?: Soundtrack: Once

At that point I didn't know what the movie was about but was excited to see more music. Then the plot is exposed when a young women, played by Marketa Irglova, shows up to watch the street musician play. Now if you haven't seen the story I won't tell you anymore - obviously. This story is about a friendship although many argue that it is really a love story. Or vice-versa. I think it is about both.

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