The summer of '89 is producing a bountiful crop of hit movie sound-tracks. Something, in fact, for just about every musical taste.
"BEACHES," by Bette Midler (Atlantic Records)The music from "Beaches" may technically constitute a soundtrack, but really this is a Bette Midler album - and a truly excellent one at that. Arguably her best ever.
Many of today's soundtracks are descendants of the "Flashdance"/
"Footloose" school of pop anthologies. Not "Beaches." This is a collection of gentle ballads and golden standards - with Bette throwing in a Midleresque comic tune or two just to remind us that it is, after all, the Divine Miss M doing the singing here.
So what do you get for your money? For one thing, the No. 1 hit "Wind Beneath My Wings," a tribute to whomever you want to pay tribute to: a friend, a parent, a child, a mentor, a mate; a sultry remake of the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk"; a light and sassy Cole Porter tune, "I've still Got My Health"; a haunting version of Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today"; a touching rendition of "The Glory of Love" (no, not Peter Cetera's hit - Billy Hill's 1936 classic . . . "You've got to give a little/Take a little/And when your poor heart breaks a little/ That's the story of/That's the glory of love." Remember?)
And more, including the slightly warped "Otto Titsling," the Ned Washington-Frank Churchill lullaby "Baby Mine" and a thoroughly contemporary '80s duet, "I Know You By Heart," sung by Midler and David Pack, once the voice of Ambrosia.
For those in search of kinder, gentler musical fare, "Beaches" should prove a fine, fine-tuned treasure. "GHOSTBUSTERS II," by various artists (MCA Records)
"Ghostbusters II" is heavy on the beat, chock full of rap chat and - shooting for the hip listeners. Ultra-hot soulster Bobby Brown has the leadoff single, "On Our Own," a part-rap, part-pop mix that could easily top the charts in a few weeks, boosted by a celebrity-studded music video.
"On Our Own" isn't the only rap-oriented song on the album. Brown returns after a few tracks with a similar if less potent mix in "We're Back," Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew offer the spirited rhy-min' rap of "Spirit," and Run-D.M.C. reworks Ray Parker's No. 1 theme from "Ghostbusters (I)" . . . without quite matching the good-natured, boisterous fun of the original.
Elton John joins in with a danceable rocker, "Love Is a Cannibal" and Glenn Frey offers us "Flip City" (which, like his other soundtrack contributions of recent years, is decidedly more contemporary and pulsating than his blue-eyed-soul-oriented albums; why is that?).
One of the movie's musical linchpins is the conceit that the psycho-reactive slime surging below mean-tempered New York digs the sounds of '60s soul man Jackie Wilson, in particular Wilson's "Higher and Higher." So what do we get on the "Ghostbusters II" album? Not Jackie Wilson, but a revved-up remake with hyperactive percussion featuring Howard Huntsberry. Well, this is closer to Wilson's original than the Rita Coolidge-Booker T. Jones version of a decade or so ago.
"ROADHOUSE," by various artists (Arista Records)
Yes, "Roadhouse" features heart-throb Patrick Swayze both in the movie and singing on the soundtrack album, but the LP is definitely not a sequel to the multimultimillion-selling "Dirty Dancing" song collection. "Roadhouse" is a growly, gritty set given a unifying thread by the bluesy guitar and voice of blind Canadian hero Jeff Healey, who, with his band, contributes four songs.
Healey resurrects the Doors classic "Roadhouse Blues" (apt for this movie, certainly), Willie Dixon's "Hootchie Coochie Man," Sonny Thompson's "I'm Tore Down" and, most impressively, Bob Dylan's "When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky," which is strongly reminiscent in sound and production to the Jimi Hendrix rendition of Dy-lan's "All Along the Watchtower."
Other artists contribute to the album's rough edge: Bob Seger rasps his way through Fats Domino's 1957 hit "Blue Monday"; we get the late Otis Redding's plaintive plea for love, "These Arms of Mine"; and Little Feat is in search of the recipe for "Rad Gumbo."
Even Swayze gets in on the sound-track's gruffness - or at least the instrumentation on his two songs, "Raising Heaven (In Hell Tonight)" and "Cliff's Edge," joins in on the bluesy power play. Swayze's vocals are a bit tamer, safer and more "contemporary" than most here - but his fans certainly won't avoid the album because of that quibble.
"SAY ANYTHING," by various artists (WTG-CBS Records)
In the mood for a bit of anything and everything? Well, "Say Anything" may be the soundtrack for you.
The eclectic set (which isn't doing badly on the charts, considering the John Cusack movie isn't performing all that well in the theaters) revives Peter Gabriel's haunting "In Your Eyes" for a second run into the pop chart's midrange and also features a live version of Living Colour's heavy-hitting "Cult of Personality."
The other selections on the LP include a nice if rather unspectacular love song featuring Heart's Nancy Wilson (sister Ann is still a better vocalist though and could have added a few welcome acrobatics . . . sorry, Nance); sizzling instrumental guitar from Joe Satriani ("One Big Rush"); rockin' (as opposed to balladeering) Cheap Trick ("You Want It"); and party rock from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone.
The final track is Freiheit's "Keeping the Dream Alive," a song chillingly reminiscent of the late '60s Beatles in their romantic mode.
Oh, and the longish liner notes, by Seattle disc jockey Joey Carnuba, aren't half bad either . . . if you don't mind gleaning bits of information about the songs from among the chuckles and stream-of-consciousness patter.