Music
The horses he rode in on
BB&HKC

Team March

(compiled by ArcLight from info supplied by relayer at BBS#23, the BB presskit and Michael Boddicker)

The music played over the ending credits is generally referred to as the "Team March" and was composed by Michael Boddicker, who did the soundtrack for TABB, his first complete motion picture score.

He composed and performed the music in his extraordinary state-of-the-art recording studio, which is full of all the latest in digital and analog synthesizer equipment. Many of Boddicker's "instruments" are so advanced they aren't yet available on the open market.

Besides composing the catchy theme and score for the film, Boddicker provided many weird sound effects, most notably for the arrival of the alien thermopod on Earth.

Boddicker is a composer (formerly a studio keyboard/synth player) and played synth on many pop, R & B and jazz LPs, among them those of Celine Dion, Joao Gilberto and Flora Purim. He also won a Grammy in 1983 for his song "Imagination" on the soundtrack to "Flashdance" was a player on "We Are The World."

Boddicker has a stellar reputation as a synthesizer performer for Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, Sheena Easton, Manhattan Transfer, Donna Summer, Al Jarreau, Earth, Wind & Fire, Randy Newman and Quincy Jones, among many others.

Boddicker has also contributed many original compositions to films, including the original score for "Get Crazy" and songs and compositions for "Flashdance," "Outland," "Xanadu" and "Battlestar Galactica." His recordings include the Grammy- winning "Imagination" on the "Flashdance" soundtrack, "Starscape" on the "Get Crazy" soundtrack and contributions to albums by Patti Austin, Lani Hall, and John Ford Coley. Boddicker has also composed music for television shows, advertising and advertising for film.


Billy Vera

Check out Billy Vera's Homepage for info and show dates.

Buy Billy Vera music.


"Since I Don't Have You"

(some info about the "love theme" from Buckaroo Banzai, researched by Silver Fox)

Dig through The Skyliners releases for "Since I Don't Have You."

Joe Rock, a teenager in Pittsburgh, wanted to be a studio backup singer. Attempts at this led to his becoming a local record promoter. A friend told him about a group called The Crescents, a 13-year-old, 14-year-old and two 15-year-old singers. After adding another 14-year-old named Jimmy Beaumont, they recorded "Be Mine", the first song Joe ever wrote. With this recording The Crescents became the #1 a capella group in Pittsburgh after being played on a local radio request show. The request line operators, six girls known as the Saturday Secretaries, started The Crescents' fan club, which soon numbered over 2000.

Joe sent a demo tape to ABC Records and was offered a contract. The group waited too long to sign, however, and the label withdrew the offer - but not before the group had spread a rumor that they were recording on ABC. Soon several members quit; with replacements, The Crescents were Janet Vogal, Jackie Taylor, Joe Ver Scharen and Wally Lester, with Jimmy Beaumont singing lead and Joe Rock as manager.

Joe's girlfriend broke his heart by moving to an Oklahoma stewardess school. One night, while driving to rehearsal and thinking of her, Joe wrote lyrics, stopping at each traffic light to jot down words, and gave the sheet to Jimmy for comments. The next night Jimmy came with a melody, and the group started singing the song. Someone was there with a tape recorder and the first version of "Since I Don't Have You" was completed. Thinking the tape had stopped running, Janet ad-libbed the beautiful counterpoint notes of the ending.

Joe Rock sent tapes to thirteen record companies; all sent back rejection letters. One letter stated that the song was too negative and should be changed to "Since I Have You". Another commented, "A song with thirteen 'you' 's at the end will never sell." When a new label, Calico, formed in Pittsburgh, Joe set up an audition. On the way, the group had a head-on collision in their 1952 Dodge, but no one was hurt. They signed with Calico after singing "Since I Don't Have You" and "One Night, One Night".

"Since I Don't Have You" was recorded on December 3, 1958, at Capitol Studios in New York City. The record was released the day after Christmas and was heard for the first time at 10:20am on Art Pallan's KDKA show. Since the name "The Crescents" had been used in the falsely rumored ABC signing, Joe chose the new name The Skyliners for the group. The record stayed at #1 in Pittsburgh for seven weeks. Dick Clark invited The Skyliners to perform on American Bandstand on Friday the Thirteenth of February, 1959. The very next Monday they received orders for over 100,000 copies of the song.

"Since I Don't Have You" is registered as written by "Beaumont-Vogal-Ver Scaren-Taylor-Lester"[group credit]; Joe Rock's name is not included. The song, featured in several movies (including "American Graffiti"), is currently available on recordings by The Skyliners, Art Garfunkel, Gus Hardin, Don McLean (probably closest to the original), Dorothy Moore, Patti LaBelle and Barbara Streisand -- and, of course, by Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, who never got around to finishing it for us...


"Rocket 88"

(courtesy relayer, BBS#23)

Sam Phillips, born January 5, 1923 in Florence, Alabama, is best known as producer and owner of Sun Studios and discovering Elvis Presley, but prior to Elvis and the "birth of rock 'n' roll," Phillips and his Sun Studios played a very important and influential role in Memphis blues; at Sun he recorded future greats like BB King, Howlin' Wolf, Roscoe Gordon and others. Phillips was to Memphis blues what Leonard and Phil Chess were to Chicago blues.

In 1951, Phillips did not have Sun set up yet, but he had a deal with Chess Records; Phillips recorded "Rocket 88," written by Jackie Brenston, and leased it to Chess. Often called the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88" went to the top of the R&B charts and forced Chess, RPM and other labels to take a serious interest in Memphis music, paving the way for Phillips' Sun Studios and the rise of rock 'n' roll...

Until the general public embraced the new sound coming out of Memphis and took it to their hearts and to the top of the charts, the major music centers in New York and Los Angeles ignored and even ridiculed it. Sam Phillips and the Sun musicians didn't give a damn. It was their music, real, honest and from the soul. It became popular without being pop, accepted without being acceptable. Still today, Memphis musicians share the non-conformist attitudes of the Sun Studio revolutionaries, refusing to manufacture the corporate sound being force-fed to America by the major labels. One of the most common comments made by visitors to Sun Studio, after seeing its tiny size and its primitive form, is that they can't believe it could all have happened here. The truth is, it probably could not have happened anywhere else.

Whether "Rocket 88" was indeed the first rock 'n' roll record is subject to debate. But for many the song did sound and feel like a rock 'n' roll record, and it may have provided an important link to the black R&B records that preceded it.

Jackie Brenston may be best known for this song. A saxophone player and singer from Clarksdale, Mississippi, Jackie wrote the song and recorded it with Ike Turner's band in early 1951 at the Sun Recording Studio in Memphis. Similar to Jimmy Liggins's "Cadillac Boogie," "Rocket 88" climbed to the top of the R&B charts and, overall, was the second most successful R&B record of 1951, yielding only to the Dominoes' "Sixty Minute Man."

Jackie released a few more singles between 1951 and 1953, but none of them came close to matching the success of "Rocket 88"; Brenston wound up playing sax in Lowell Fulson's band until 1955 when he teamed up with Turner again. He remained a member of Turner's band until 1962. He died in Memphis in 1979.

The song being played as Buckaroo takes the stage (played by Billy Vera and the Beaters) is none other than "Rocket 88." It was written by Brenston to showcase his souped-up boogie-woogie piano playing skills, hence the "88," the number of keys on a piano. "Rocket 88" was an ode to cruising - the name derives in homage to that fabled Oldsmobile engine spoken of in the Garage.


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Page updated 21 January 2001