Sounds of Summer

For guys of my generation, no movie conjures up semi-fictionalized memories of childhood quite like The Sandlot. A coming-of-age classic, The Sandlot uses the prism of the American pastime to hearken back to a highly idealized America - the summer of 1962 minus the racial tension and the impending danger of nuclear holocaust. That notwithstanding, the story of Scotty Smalls's struggle to make friends in a new town and the legend of future MLB benchwarmer Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez makes for a timeless look at American pre-adolescence and, as Roger Ebert put it, "its memories of what really matters when you are 12." 

As I re-watched The Sandlot for the 406th time last night, I was also struck by the quality of its period soundtrack. In terms of both era-defining songs and pure musical value, I'd have to put The Sandlot right up there with Forrest Gump in the all-time movie soundtracks Hall of Fame (other first-ballot HOFers: The Big Chill, Saturday Night Fever, Superfly, Pulp Fiction). Here's the tracklist:

1. Hank Ballard and the Midnighters - "Finger Poppin' Time"
2. Bill Black's Combo - "Smokie Part II"
3. The Tokens - "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
4. The Drifters - "There Goes My Baby"
5. The Drifters - "This Magic Moment"
6. Ray Charles - "America the Beautiful"
7. Booker T and the MGs - "Green Onions"

8.The Champs - "Tequila"
9. The Surfaris - "Wipeout"

It's not just the quality of the music itself, but the situational usage of the songs that really knocks this soundtrack out of the colloquial park. I challenge anyone to find a better pairing of music and scene in film history than The Champs' "Tequila" providing the backdrop for the great Chewing Tobacco - Amusement Park Disaster of '62.

Except, perhaps, for another song-scene pairing from maybe the best-remembered scene of Sandlot: the day at the pool. Squints's unlikely steal of first base with Wendy Peffercorn undoubtedly inspired countless ill-advised attempts at replicating his legendary achievement; champions are often imitated, but rarely duplicated. I can't put it any better than Scotty Smalls did, so I won't even try. Just listen to the sweet sounds of Ben E. King and the Drifters and be transported back to a time when behind every fence was a Beast, every busted baseball was an omen, and the game would go on as long as fireworks lit up the summer sky.

Ben E. King and the Drifters - This Magic Moment


Michael "Squints" Palledorous walked a little taller that day. And we had to tip our hats to him. He was lucky she hadn't beat the crap out of him. We wouldn't have blamed her. What he'd done was sneaky, rotten, and low... and cool. Not another one among us would have ever in a million years even for a million dollars have had the guts to put the moves on the lifeguard. He did. He had kissed a woman. And he had kissed her long and good. We got banned from the pool forever that day. But every time we walked by after that, the lifeguard looked down from her tower, right over at Squints, and smiled.