Sir Monkeypants got me the first two Glee soundtracks for Christmas, and I’ve been listening to them non-stop since the holidays. One of the songs on there is “Bust A Move,” which Mr. Shuster, the glee club coach, declared to be his favourite song.
I laughed in mockery at the time, but I have come to see his wisdom. “Bust a Move” is the perfect marriage of hilarity and wisdom, all wrapped up with a groovy beat. Shake your booty and laugh at the same time — it’s like music nirvana.
Witness this lyric:
Ok smartie, go to a party
Girls are scantily clad and showin’ body
A chick walks by, you wish you could sex her
But you’re standing on the wall like you was Poindexter
BRILLIANT.
Or this:
Your best friend Harry has a brother Larry
In five days from now he’s gonna marry
He’s hopin’ you can make it there if you can
‘Cause in the ceremony you’ll be the best man
You say neato, check your libido
And roll to the church in your new tuxedo
The bride walks down just to start the wedding
And there’s one more girl you won’t be getting
Rhyming neato, libido, and tuxedo? PURE GENIUS.
I defy you to sit still while this is playing:
In other Glee news, one of the teen characters on the show is discovered while singing REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” in the shower. Do you think a teen of today would actually sing such a song spontaneously?
I mean, it’s not like Glee is the most realistic show on television, but still, this has got me thinking. When I was a teenager, in the 80s, I knew quite a few hits from the 50s and 60s through my mother. We’d have DJ nights where we’d pull out her extensive collection of 45s and spin them up (you could put a whole stack of them on the record player, and it’d drop them down one at a time) and we’d dance the night away. So if I were 16, and singing in the shower, it’s likely I was singing Debbie Gibson, but possible I was singing Rudy Vallee or Donovan or Petula Clark. But I feel like I was not a typical teen in terms of my musical influences, you know?
But perhaps “Can’t Fight This Feeling” is some sort of famous rock anthem that transcends time, like “Hey Jude” or “Satisfaction”? Having actually lived through the 80s, it seems like just another pop song to me — just another tune that was around for a few months and then gone. I have no perspective on the decade — I can’t identify songs that made it into legend status, versus those that were thrown away.
So all of that is a very long-winded way to say, I wonder if “Can’t Fight This Feeling” is really all that famous. Is it?
TurtleHead 
Your observation is good, but you’re missing the characterization of Finn and his choice of shower song. Remember, he grew to love music with that freaky grass-sprayer dude with the mullet, who was all about the classic softrock.
My all-time favourite scene in the series so far (and I have watched every episode at least three times now because my wife is ADDICTED to Glee) is when Finn is wheeling Artie across the football field after rescuing him from the port-a-pottie and there’s that mullet dude blissfully spraying the turf to Don’t Stop Believing. I have never seen a happier person in real life or in art than Mr Mullet at that moment, and that is what Finn was reaching for in the shower.
So no, it’s not that popular a song. And no, your average teenager would never sing it. And that is exactly the point.
–Mark
P.S. I just KNEW you’d love that show.
Dude! You’re alive!! I thought you and Tanya had been eaten by wolves. Hope all is well.
And yes, Glee is a show that was created just for me. From my brain direct to Hollywood writers!
I love the music in that show. It’s what keeps me coming back. I actually stopped watching it for a bit. The wife was just so annoying and I hated the plot line with her not telling her husband that she wasn’t preg. But I just found out that that is over, so maybe i will fire up the pvr once again for it.
bust a move? classic! love it. can’t fight that feeling? personally, i think it’s another classis. everyone knows all of the words and can sing it on command. well, everyone of our generation i guess. today’s teens? perhaps not.
I think everyone is happy that the fake-baby storyline is over. I wonder if they will just write the wife right out of the show now, or if she’ll be back.
I’m addicted to the music but also to Sue Sylvester. She is SO awesome.
“That’s how Sue “C” it” Love it! She is one of the most underated improve actors around. Glad to see someone finally recognized her talent.
I love Glee with a creepy stalkerish more-than-is-decent-or-defensible kind of love. Also, what Mr. Hand said. Also, I love Ellen, but the fact that they’ve stopped Glee for American idol has tainted it beyond all redemption for me — American Idol, not Glee. If I could sleep until April – well, that just sounds good on so many levels so never mind. The night we did World Trivia together? I had ‘Defying Gravity’ running through my mind the whole time (ask Julie. I totally told her I had ‘Defying Gravity’ running through my head). Ah. Glee.
Defying Gravity is my favourite song on the soundtracks. I really hope they give Kurt more solos next season, his voice is so interesting.
Now I have to find a way to see Wicked!
Am I to understand that there will be no Glee on because of AI? Well there’s another reason not to like it. Ugh.
Thanks for getting Defying Grvity back in my head Allison!
I like this show a lot. How’s that… my favourite episode was with the drunk who joins Glee club. (Amazing pipes on her from Pushing Daisies — Last Name and Maybe This Time were incredible) I just find that it’s a bit spotty. Sometimes it’s fabulous other times it’s … not quite there.
I’d forgotten about sprayer dude and Finn to be honest. What I was going to say was the Finn was raised by his mother, who got pregnant as a teen/young adult no? As such that would mathematically make her about my age (40-ish) and that song was HUGE in the 80s so I think it makes sense. BTW the actor who plays Finn is Canadian.
My almost-40 ass has a thing for Puck.
I have a secret love for Busta Move. (If you want it… you got it… if you want it, baby you got it.)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Kristin Chenoweth. She’s so awesome. You must know her from Pushing Daisies, where she also rocked the entire known universe. Her singing is SO great — you can get her version of Alone and of Maybe Next Time on the soundtracks.
Let us keep our cougar love for Puck a secret between the two of us. But next sleepover we can totally giggle about it and crank call him.
She was incredible on West Wing too. I love her. And the pipes on her! Whoa!
Oh the mortification Lynn! The first time I ever try to comment on your site and…I screw it up! Not sure if my first, half-written, comment just got vapourized or what but here I am, trying again.
Had to concur in every way with the brilliance of Bust a Move. Pure fun.
However I also secretly love it because my husband, who is a treasure-trove of little-known musical facts and obscure musical knowledge (and who likes to show up my ignorance of the same) HAD NEVER HEARD THIS SONG. A small but meaningful win for me 🙂
Oh my heavens! I know basically nothing about music and even I had heard that song once or twice. Was he out of the country for the 80s?
I hope you’re singing it around the house on an endless loop now. It’s so important he catch up with the major musical milestones of the decade :).
Bust’amove. It’s a classic! “There’s one more girl you won’t be getting!” Love it. Was reading an article on Glee in Vanity Fair and he was saying that the mix of songs from all genres and generations is what makes it so appealing (versus Highschool Musical). It’s not realistic, but we love it!