The cops have staked out the concert hall. The lead performers are nowhere to be found. The crowd is growing rowdy. The show must go on.
Yet, just when all hope seems lost for a great Blues Brother reunion at the Palace Hotel Ballroom, the great Cab Calloway lifts the curtain with “Minnie the Moocher” — an official selection on our new list of the 100 greatest songs— and gets the crowd swinging. (Apologies for the foreign dub)
The Blues Brothers tends to be remembered most for its comedy – the Nazi parades, the car chases, the four-fried-chicken lunches, the evil nuns, the Orange whips, etc.
But I’d like to think that that my dad turned on me on to the comedy at such a young age because of the stunning musical performances that line the heavy-handed plot. Starring alongside Dan Akroyd and John Belushi are some of the greatest musicians of all time, and many of these intricately-choreographed interludes endure to this day as some of the greatest such movie sequences.
One of my favorite scenes — the haphazard “Rawhide” sequence — is copied below, along with two of my other faves:
