Album: Jumpin' Jack Flash Soundtrack
Video: From DailyMotion.
Billboard Hot 100 Peak: 21
MTV Top 20 Peak: 19
MTV Top 20 Weeks: 2
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" was a huge hit for the Rolling Stones in 1968, and it became one of their signature tunes. Aretha Franklin is the queen of soul music and one of the greatest female vocalists of all-time. But somehow the two in combination were not that great. Even with Keith Richards and Ron Wood playing guitar, the feeling elicited from this production is little more than a shoulder shrug.
Aretha had a boatload of #1 R&B singles in the late 60's and early 70's. While her commercial success declined a bit in the following years, she had a comeback album in 1985 which although I didn't enjoy, did produce three top 20 singles. Because I came of age listening to efforts like this, it took me that much longer to come around to her genius. Late 60's Aretha is the best ("Respect", "Chain of Fools", etc.)
This remake was released in tandem with a Whoopi Goldberg film of the same name. A spy film or some such nonsense. It was Penny Marshall's directorial debut. I've never seen it and I don't think you could pay me to watch the trailer. I just don't care.
I'm going to start categorizing videos in terms of the fairness of their ranking in MTV's Top 100. For example, this video was ranked #90. Did it deserve to be? It entered the weekly top 20 countdown in late October at the #20 spot, rose to #19 the next week, and then disappeared from the countdown entirely. Considering that 160 different videos ranked higher than #19 during 1986, and 150 different videos spent more than 2 weeks in the top 20, #90 does seem a bit high. Maybe the superstar power was too great for MTV to resist, but clearly this video is OVERRATED. I have tagged it as such.
Speaking of the video, it does include some entertaining moments. Five in particular come to mind:
1) Whoopi Goldberg urgently racing into a cab and admonishing the driver to go, only to find that the driver is Jim Belushi, who is pointing a shotgun directly at her head. Goldberg screams. I’m guessing that’s a scene from the film.
2) Whoopi Goldberg clocking Belushi with a frying pan and escaping the cab. She just happened to have a frying pan?
3) As Whoopi Goldberg is chased she finds refuge in a recording studio where Keith Richards just happens to be. She impersonates one of Aretha Franklin’s backup singers, thereby gaining entry to the stage and the sound recording as well.
4) The song performed in the video is “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. I suppose that factoid isn’t all that surprising.
5) Keith Richards is hilarious to watch, just doing Keith Richards sorts of things.
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" was a huge hit for the Rolling Stones in 1968, and it became one of their signature tunes. Aretha Franklin is the queen of soul music and one of the greatest female vocalists of all-time. But somehow the two in combination were not that great. Even with Keith Richards and Ron Wood playing guitar, the feeling elicited from this production is little more than a shoulder shrug.
Aretha had a boatload of #1 R&B singles in the late 60's and early 70's. While her commercial success declined a bit in the following years, she had a comeback album in 1985 which although I didn't enjoy, did produce three top 20 singles. Because I came of age listening to efforts like this, it took me that much longer to come around to her genius. Late 60's Aretha is the best ("Respect", "Chain of Fools", etc.)
This remake was released in tandem with a Whoopi Goldberg film of the same name. A spy film or some such nonsense. It was Penny Marshall's directorial debut. I've never seen it and I don't think you could pay me to watch the trailer. I just don't care.
I'm going to start categorizing videos in terms of the fairness of their ranking in MTV's Top 100. For example, this video was ranked #90. Did it deserve to be? It entered the weekly top 20 countdown in late October at the #20 spot, rose to #19 the next week, and then disappeared from the countdown entirely. Considering that 160 different videos ranked higher than #19 during 1986, and 150 different videos spent more than 2 weeks in the top 20, #90 does seem a bit high. Maybe the superstar power was too great for MTV to resist, but clearly this video is OVERRATED. I have tagged it as such.
Speaking of the video, it does include some entertaining moments. Five in particular come to mind:
1) Whoopi Goldberg urgently racing into a cab and admonishing the driver to go, only to find that the driver is Jim Belushi, who is pointing a shotgun directly at her head. Goldberg screams. I’m guessing that’s a scene from the film.
2) Whoopi Goldberg clocking Belushi with a frying pan and escaping the cab. She just happened to have a frying pan?
3) As Whoopi Goldberg is chased she finds refuge in a recording studio where Keith Richards just happens to be. She impersonates one of Aretha Franklin’s backup singers, thereby gaining entry to the stage and the sound recording as well.
4) The song performed in the video is “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. I suppose that factoid isn’t all that surprising.
5) Keith Richards is hilarious to watch, just doing Keith Richards sorts of things.
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