Ten Fictional Songs That Are Bops Part II

 

I previously wrote a blog about fictional songs. More importantly fictional songs that are bops, and will have you loving it like it's a real song. So I decided to do a follow up blog, since you know the choices are endless. Without further ado, part II of Ten Fictional Songs That Are Bops.

10. Spell On You

The Hex Girls were a fictional band in 1999's Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost. Mistaken as witches, they are just goth girls trying to make an impact with their band. While they performed a few songs in the film, Spell On You is a bon a fide fictional hit. It goes triple platinum in my house during the fall leading up to Halloween.

9. You Belong With Me

Many people don't know this but Tyler James Williams of Everybody Hate's Chris and Abbott Elementary fame, actually has bars. He put them on display in 2012's Disney Channel Movie Let It Shine. A adaptation of the 1800's play Cyrano de Bergerac, CoCo Jones, Courtney B. Vance, and Trevor Jackson also star in the film. In this particular song You Belong With Me has a catchy teen bopper/hip hop beat to feed the ear's of the channels target audience. 

8. Dance With Me Tonight

The B-side of That Thing You Do in the universe of the film. It in itself is a standout track and tonally different from That Thing You Do. This song is more upbeat and has a mean guitar riff in the middle of it. The lyrics of the song are about asking a young lady to party on the dance floor, and that is exactly what this song could do. Get a party and whole lot of dancing started.

7. Friends Forever

In season 4 of Saved By The Bell, episode 22 Rockumentary features Zack having a dream about the group's band achieving worldwide success. Zack Attack the band is on top of the world, and are even subjects of a documentary by legendary Casey Kasem. As they achieve more success, the jealousy and infighting occurs until the group disbands.

Then in the magic of 30 minutes the group reunites, and releases a new episode about friendship. Friends Forever is quite campy looking back, but the show itself is campy so that's not shocking. However if you need a little reminder how important friends are, give it a listen.

6. Be Alone Tonight

People often forget that Tisha Campbell can actually sing, and she put her singing prowess on display in Spike Lee's School Daze. As the lead singer of the Gamma Ray's sorority and the quartet her and her groupmates strut across stage while beind sultry and seductive. As she belt's out her notes, clamoring for her man to stay the night with her.

The song is definitely a fictional song classic and has that old R&B feel to it. You can envision any R&B female singer hitting these same notes and providing the same feels to the listeners.

Side note Jasmine Guy sings backup on this track as a Gamma Ray, but it's a shame she didn't have a solo part. As she can sing pretty damn good herself.

5. Going Up

In 2010's Get Him To The Greek Jonah Hill's character Aaron Green has one job, get Rock Legend Aldous Snow played by Russell Brand to a concert. Despite some hijinks Aldous successfully get's to the concert and lays out his heart and soul to the audience. He kick's things off this song, that is actually inspiring. The song's message is about moving past life's punches and even when you feel down, you'll come back up.

A good message for anybody who's listening really, and that makes it a bop.

4. Make Up Your Mind

In season 5 two-part premiere of Fresh Prince, Ashley becomes a one-hit wonder through the success of her song Make Up Your Mind. The song is the personification of 90's era R&B, hip-hop infused and a perfect dance track. Tatyana Ali who is also a very talented singer really embodied the aura of a rising pop star every time she sung the track. Many fan's of the song have it on their playlists, which is a testament to how infectious the song is 30 years later.

3. Something He Can Feel

Legendary musician Curtis Mayfield composed this classic song that has become the centerpiece of 1976's Sparkle. Sung by the motown-esque trio of Sisters, Sister & The Sisters. Taking the tone of song's from that era, it's a sultry love R&B ballad with a hint of gospel in it (more common than you think). You really feel the cast putting their all into the vocals and the drumming background Mayfield crafted keeps you hypnotized the entire time. 

While Aretha Franklin performed the song for the original soundtrack, in the early 90's En Vogue did their own cover of the song. Which highlights how influential as a fictional song it is.

2. In The Middle

In my last blog I shouted out my favorite song from The Five Heartbeats, Night's Like This which is untouchable as far as fictional songs in my opinion. This blog I have to give credit to another favorite of mine from the movie, In The Middle. While Night's Like This is more 60's soulful doo-wop, this song is 70's inspired to fit the time period at that point in the movie. 

The opening keyboard riff let's you know it's time to get out your seats and dance, which most people do when hearing it. It is one of those song's that you can play on a Saturday while your cleaning and pass down to younger generations, as if it is a real jam.

1. He Still Loves Me

I have this song on my inspirational playlist, cause that's what it does for me. Sung by a chorus led by Beyonce, The O'Jays, Angie Stone, and Montell Jordan in the 2003 film Fighting Temptations, the song hit's you in the feels. Since the core of the movie focuses around a church choir, the song is of the gospel genre. You feel the pain of the chorus, as well as the weight being lifted off their shoulders as they sing about their imperfections. Knowing that although they are imperfect, God loves them regardless.

How can you not be moved by a song like that? So when I'm being hard on myself or just something to pick me up, I play this song. 

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Robert Townsend Deserve's His Flowers Now

 Today is the 30th anniversary of one of my favorite movies The Five Heartbeats. Watching the movie which is a beloved amongst the Black culture, I thought about just how much Robert Townsend has given the culture that is often acknowledged but really overlooked. With The Five Heartbeats Townsend was a star in the film, in addition to producing, writing, and directing the film. That's alot of hats to wear for a movie that is about as close to perfection as they come.

Looking over his filmography his first major break in Hollywood was Hollywood Shuffle. Another film he starred in, produced, wrote and directed. The movie is a satire on the Hollywood industry and it's treatment of Black actors when it comes to finding the "right" role, very relevant today as it was in the 80's when the film was made.

In 1993 before Blade, before Black Panther, hell a year before Blankman. He gave us the first Black superhero on the big screen I remember Meteor Man. A film that at the time had a who's who of Black actors and actresses in it (Marla Gibbs, James Earl Jones, Bill Cosby, Luther Vandross, Robert Guillaume, Don Cheadle) and the list goes on and on. This film employed alot of Black people and likely inspired the next generation.

Those three films are probably Robert's most well known contributions to Hollywood, but it doesnt stop there. He directed Eddie Murphy's RAW standup movie, he wasn't credited but I'm inclined to believe him and Keenan Ivory Wayans helped write some of the jokes for the film. He directed B.A.P.S, starring Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle. Carmen:An Hip Hopera, Holiday Heart, Playin' For Love, Living For Love: The Natalie Cole Story, and The Little Richard movie are some of the additional films he's directed.

On the TV side, he created and starred in one of the WB's first sitcoms in the Cosby inspired Parent'Hood which ran for five seasons. He had his own variety comedy special on HBO called Robert Towsend and His Partners in Crime. Directed episodes of Love Is, Black Lighting, Last O.G., Soul Food and American Soul along with other TV series.

For some reason when the conversation about legendary or most influential Black filmmakers comes up. Robert Townsend is almost never bought up, not sure if thats just because he's never came across as a guy who really cares for the spotlight. In any case he has provided the culture with so much, and it's time we start giving him his flowers now. 

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