The Blues Brothers Movie & Soundtrack - 40 Years Old

This past Saturday, June 20th, marked 40 years since the release of my favorite movie of all time, The Blues Brothers.  As best as I can tell, it's also the 40th anniversary of the release of its accompanying soundtrack.  I figured that it would be interesting to take a picture of the 2 versions of the soundtrack that I have along with the various singles that I've collected over the past few years.  Even I was a little surprised of just how many there were when I took this picture.  I have already shared this picture on Twitter and Instagram and the like, but I wanted to take a moment to write a little bit more about it here.

I've had the soundtrack since I was a little kid and absolutely played it to death.  Songs like "She Caught the Caty," "Sweet Home Chicago" and Gimme Some Lovin'" have always been perennial favorites of mine.  Couple that with Aretha Franklin's tremendous rendition of "Think" and Ray Charles' "Shake a Tailfeather" and you've got the makings of something pretty special.

The only things that ever bothered me about this soundtrack are the things that aren't there.  The Blues Brothers' version of "Stand By Your Man" and John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom Boom Boom" are super obvious omissions as is some of the non-Blues Brothers songs played in the background during the movie.  I think that a few contributions from Elmore James and Louis Jordan would only enhance the overall experience of the album.

But the thing that has always bugged me the most is that the version fo "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is different than what is played in the movie.  The unnecessary addition of backing vocals to the album version has always been a pet peeve of mine.  But despite these grumbles and the wish that this could be a double LP of music, I will always cherish this album along with the movie.  They are both hugely important to me and I have a hard time imagining how my life would have turned out without them.