My Rom Com Song

You know the scenario: a 90 minute movie featuring interesting and quirky characters, romantic overtures, misadventures, the first kiss, the big fight, and the ending with a fun pop song while the new lovers share one final kiss before the cameras fade to black.

While the script and casting are important, to be truly memorable, you need a great song for that last scene. A boy professing his undying love and passion for the girl he loves just doesn't hit the same if they have "Refuse/Resist" by Sepultura playing in the background.

There's been many great ones over the years: "I've Had the Time of My Life" in Dirty Dancing, "Don't You Forget About Me" in The Breakfast Club, and "Crazy for You" in Vision Quest, just to name a few.

Not all were Rom Coms but all had that certain DNA. Boy meets girl, boy loves girl, various chaos and hijinx ensues, boy gets girl.

Of these movies, whether Rom Com, Comedy with Romantic moments, Dramedy, Teen Comedy, or whatever, my favorite is Can't Hardly Wait from 1998.

It shows the craziness of the seniors last high school party after graduation. Not only is the cast amazing (Ethan Embry, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green, Lauren Ambrose from before Six Feet Under, Peter Facinelli from before Twilight. Plus small parts with Breckin Meyer, Jason Segel, Jaime Pressly, Melissa Joan Hart, and Jerry O'Connell) but the characters they play are wonderful as well.

In between all the craziness of the party, the whole time Ethan Embry is trying to get his letter to Jennifer Love Hewitt that shows how much he cares for her. Various hijinx prevents this and once she does find it, a misunderstanding causes him to almost leave for college without saying goodbye.

As they meet up in the train station, it seems as though they may go their separate ways. They say their goodbyes but then the song kicks in: "Only You" by Yaz (or Yazoo, if you really want to be technical).

Ethan stops in his tracks, drops his bags, turns and runs a full sprint to catch up to Jennifer. He then says "You know, there's probably another train later that I can catch." She smiles and they slowly lean in for their first kiss as the song hits the chorus. After a quick text crawl (followed by an entertaining post movie scene), the screen fades to black as the credits roll.

I've seen this movie dozens of times (as you can tell) and it never gets old for me. It's been a while since I've seen it but even longer since I thought about the song.

Despite the movie being a quintessential 90s feature, the song itself is quintessentially 80s. The band Yazoo was formed by former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke and singer Alison Moyet. Written and released in 1982 by the band, Only You is most likely the only song most people know from them. They didn't last long together but the song has endured.

While it was featured prominently at the end of Can't Hardly Wait, it's also featured in the movie The Chocolate War and TV shows such as the British version of The Office and the Sex and the City follow up And Just Like That (just to name a few).

Even so, I hadn't heard it since the last time I saw the film until the last few months. I go regularly to the movies and there's been a recent commercial before the trailers featuring "Only You" and involving two young lovers meeting for the first time.

It instilled in me a sense of nostalgia and also a sense of love and warmth. That's why, if I ever had my own Rom Com, "Only You" would be the song. I've decided to write out such a story and I'll start posting it here whenever I feel it's ready enough. Maybe next week?

Anyway, hopefully you all have not only your own Rom Com Song but also the beautiful boy to kiss you at the end.


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Half the Person I Used to Be

People can have lots of different vices to help when they're stressed. Some drink, some smoke, some even do drugs (I don't judge anyone enjoying a little bit of Mother Earth's great green herb. I mean the harder stuff). My vice was always food. Whenever I was stressed or sad or even just bored, I'd immediately go straight for the kitchen or pantry to find something to eat. Any good feelings from doing so would quickly evaporate whenever I would next step onto the scale. Stress eating became a big habit at one point in my life due to working in a hospital at the time and my continuing issues in my marriage. Even after I left that job and the divorce was finalized, I still used food as a coping mechanism. By the time 2023 rolled around and I was actually ready to do something about it (or so I thought), the scales read 336.5 pounds. I was up to wearing size 5XL shirts that had to be specially ordered because no local stores carried them. I talked to my doctor and they sug...
Read more

Voting Day

While it's not one of the "big ones," such as the midterms or the Presidential elections, today is still voting day. You could say that elections like this are even more important since they cover local offices that can affect you everyday. I was born and raised as a Republican because of my parents and their background. However, I became more and more liberal in my thinking once I got to college and beyond. In fact, it became clear to me that my thought process growing up had usually been socially liberal anyway. I officially changed parties to Democrat in 2016. I refused to be associated with Drumpf and the way in which he'd bastardized my idea of the Grand Old Party. I don't have to tell you how upset I was over the results from last year. That orange faced goon won lots of support by actively campaigning against LGBTQ causes, especially the trans community. Not only did his base just lap it up but it felt like Democratic leadership wasn't doing nearly enou...
Read more

Thanks Dad

 My dad was born to a hardworking father and stay-at-home mother in a tough neighborhood. Not only my father but all of his siblings served as living PSAs on what NOT to do in life. I had a family member for each issue raised: drinking, smoking, drugs, infidelity, raising children, racism. Everything they did seemed wrong to me. In fact, I could've made this blog entirely about them and would never run out of material. However, for brevity, I'll focus on my father.  He married his highschool sweetheart and had my sister. It wasn't long before that marriage ended on divorce and my father moved away. While my sister will never admit it, I've always believed that she secretly resented him for leaving her. My father eventually met my mother but it would be ten years before they married. One reason was because her family didn't really like him. They were all very straight laced while he was an alcoholic biker (I guess my mom was into bad boys). Another reason was, at one...
Read more