Close to "Rome"

(Photo source: Poetic and Chic)

"Rome, Italian Style," which I named after one of my favorite SCTV sketches, is an hour-long block I launched on A Fistful of Soundtracks last summer as a way to give some airplay to the badass and lush Rome album, the '60s Italian film music-inspired project produced by superduperproducer Danger Mouse and Magic City composer Daniele Luppi and featuring Jack White and Norah Jones on vocals. Besides the Rome tracks, the 11am block (which airs every weekday except Friday) also features '60s and '70s film and TV theme covers and tracks from outside the film and TV music world that were modeled after '60s and '70s film and TV scores.

The following tunes that I found on Spotify aren't currently part of the "Rome, Italian Style" playlist, but they ought to be.

Jones' new breakup-themed album Little Broken Hearts, which was produced by Danger Mouse, feels like a companion piece to Rome.

Both the Blue Harlem and Lena Horne tracks are covers of "Meglio Stasera" from the first Pink Panther. For some reason, the shots of Selina Kyle atop the Batpod in The Dark Knight Rises made me flash back to the first few seconds of this:

The Joe Flaherty character in the SCTV "Rome, Italian Style" sketch is obsessed with rumps ("That rump, Padre! Oh, that rump. It proves the existence of God! It's perfect! It's a miracle!"). I think Fran Jeffries' badonk in The Pink Panther would count as a miracle too.

Thanks to Geto Boys, 2nd II None, Ini Kamoze and KRS-One, I'm more familiar with the Three Tough Guys soundtrack than I am with the actual movie, a blaxploitation flick made by Italians.

Steroid Maximus is one of the many gazillion aliases of avant-garde musician J.G. Thirlwell, whose 2002 "Chaiste" instrumental feels like a dress rehearsal for his original score music on The Venture Bros.

Speaking of 007, I hope the action sequences in Skyfall--which that "007 escorts the Queen to Olympic Stadium" bit during the Olympic opening ceremonies was basically one huge ad for--are less choppily edited this time:



It's too bad American Beauty and Road to Perdition cinematographer Conrad Hall died about a decade before Sam Mendes, the director of those two films, made Skyfall. I would have loved to have seen a Bond flick get lensed by Hall.

Listen to all of the above tracks together on Spotify or all at once below.