Monday, January 05, 2009

Speaking of Fey Folk Songs . . .

So, last night I saw THE JERK all the way through for the first time (yes, I am/was a culturally deprived philistine). It was, as I expected, intermittently hilarious. But as all of you (who I assume have seen it) know, in the middle of the movie out of nowhere (after a lot of nonsense) is this absolutely adorable duet between Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters. It was stuck in my head all morning, and thankfully it's on youtube. I have seriously watched it about fifteen times today (not unlike after the Single Ladies performance on SNL, which totally smokes the studio version, BTW). Anyway, after all of our best of 2008 talk, this is the music that is totally killing me right now.

(For some reason embedding is disabled, but here's the link-- the song is only the first two minutes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI8NuFAETMQ



I can't listen to it enough times and it makes me want to get a ukelele and sing duets-- if you search for the song on youtube, you get a bunch of tutorial videos showing how to play it on uke. How much does a decent ukelele cost?

4 comments:

drischord said...

I was in the airport today and feeling kind of stressed with all the people sprinting for their gates around me, and suddenly I had the urge to hear Steve Martin sing "King Tut." Had it on my iPod, cued it up, and damn if it didn't calm me down. Can't explain why, but I'll take it.

Via Chicago said...

I used to watch this all the time as a kid and had completely forgotten this scene. Thanks for posting it - it was a great joy.

Also, if you did not, I highly recommend checking out the Fiona Apple/Jon Brion version recorded live at the great Largo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQddapeaIRw

Eric said...

Oh I did-- I really did have an unnatural obsession with the song yesterday and watched all the versions, including the Eddie Vedder/Janet Weiss version from Sleater-Kinney's last show.

Jordan and Julia said...

Man, this scene is great. And after I watch it on youtube I decided to click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d1Qoz8EsUM&NR=1

And this girl is pretty terrific, I think. Lovely voice.