That Thing You Do!

That Thing You Do! was Tom Hanks' debut as a writer and director that chronicled the rise and fall of a fictional garage rock band called The Wonders in 1964. Climbing the charts with their hit single that doubles as the namesake of the film, the band went from local talent shows to Hollywood prime-time TV in only a matter of months. Co-hosts Jon and Mark revisit this hurricane of 1960's rock stardom led by Hanks himself as Mr. White.

Are you alone in your principles?

Transcript

Jon (00:00)
Today in the Rock and Roll Theatre, we tackle a one-hit wonder, That Thing You Do, a film by Tom Hanks.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Rock and Roll Theatre podcast. I'm John, joined by my brother Mark. Each week we take a dive into pop culture, music, movies, all sorts of fun stuff. And today we're taking a bit of a different take. We have a fictional band today in the theatre, The Wonders, and we're gonna tackle the film, That Thing You Do, which was made by Tom Hanks.

Mark (00:38)
Thing You Do was released on October 4th 1996, rated PG. It runs one hour 48 minutes. In this case, we're talking about the main theatrical release. There is an extended cut version released on DVD that is not the one we'll be talking about today. It is classified as a comedy, drama and musical. It was actually considered a commercial disappointment grossing only $34.5 million dollars against a $26 million dollar budget.

It was written and directed by Tom Hanks. So it's really important to note that this was Tom Hanks' debut as a writer and director. It's claimed that he wrote the screenplay during downtime on the set of Forrest Gump. It was inspired by Tom Hanks' love for 1960s pop and rock music and the phenomenon of one-hit Wonders in that era.

Jon (01:33)
Unlike the previous films we've looked at where the performers have also been the stars of the movie, The Wonders are not a real band. They're a fictional band created for the film and all the music is original and created for the movie as well. Tom Hanks was about as big of a star as you could get in the 90s. He still is a huge star today. So this being his directorial and writing debut was a big thing at the time.

Mark (01:52)
So this film is set back when rock and roll was very clean cut and it really had a desire for mainstream acceptance. So the Elvis and Sun Records wave had passed through the United States in the 1950s. Now the British invasion was starting with bands like the Beatles. So this film captures a look at how an American garage band called the Wonders climbed to the top entirely from one hit song in 1964.

Jon (02:19)
In the 1960s, singles were everything. It could make or break you basically. If you had a top number one hit, even if you only had the one song, you were now a huge band. Things like a period on the Ed Sullivan show and many of the other shows of the time, variety shows, entertainment style shows, could really launch a band. Everybody knows about the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and how that basically launched a revolution in music in America. any sort of exposure in that vein would basically turn a band from a garage band into an overnight sensation.

superstar.

Mark (02:51)
The title song, That Thing You Do, was composed by Adam Scheslinger from the band Fountains of Wayne and we hear it 10 times in the film. I counted that as I watched along. The song was nominated for several movie industry awards. Kind of hard to believe it didn't win any of the major ones considering how it's basically the centerpiece of the entire film and it actually charted in real life, but we'll get into that a little bit later.

Jon (03:16)
We're gonna get into all the details of that thing you do. But just a quick aside here, spoilers are ahead. If you haven't seen that thing you do or haven't seen in a long time, we will be discussing the entire plot. And just another quick note, wherever you're at in the world, the Rock and Roll Theatre depends on you for likes, subscribes, ratings, followings, downloads, whatever the case may be. You can interact with us on all the social media as well too. So without further ado, let's get into that thing you do.

Mark (03:43)
So the film opens with an opening credits montage. The song we hear in the background is called Lovin' You Lots and Lots. We see scenes of a shop called Patterson Appliances in downtown Erie, Pennsylvania. This was actually filmed in downtown Orange, California. Tom Hanks wanted an authentic mid-century architecture to capture the nostalgic feel of the 1960s.

Jon (04:10)
everything in this opening scene has the exact right feel. puts you right back into that moment. From the building design, the cars on the street, the music in the background, it all sets the, you know, immediately what decade you're in, the 1960s.

Mark (04:22)
We get introduced to Guy. He's working the floor and he's being watched by his dad, a hardworking, no-nonsense man. He's reading the paper. He's not liking what he reads. He wants to see some sales. After his shift, Guy goes downstairs and he puts on a Dell Paxton record. This is Jazz Piano, again, another fictional artist composed for the purposes of this movie. And he plays along with the record on his drum kit. So we learn that Guy's a drummer.

He likes playing drums. We also see that the Patterson appliance sign gets left on at night and this becomes a running joke throughout the movie.

Jon (05:01)
Guy's dad's very conscious about the hydro bill. So then Guy hits the road, gets in his car, he's cruising around town, he runs into his girlfriend played by young Charlize Theron. I think it's one of her first or second movies she did in America. there's this ongoing storyline where they're hanging out but she has to leave to go to a dentist appointment. it's basically implied that the dentist appointment is more than that.

Mark (05:22)
So Guy walks into a restaurant for breakfast the next day and he passes by a table with the other members of what we will know as the Wonders having a band meeting. So this is Jimmy, Lenny, the bass player is simply called TB Player, and the drummer Chad. What they're doing is they're trying to figure out a name. They have a sketchbook, they're scribbling down different things, maybe the echoes, maybe the...

Cord vets not Corvettes but cord vets that tempos the herdsman, you know, cuz hearing is one of the six senses

Jon (05:59)
I mean, all of these names could work in the 1960s bands. I'm surprised there aren't some bands out there called the Chord-ettes or the Heardsman from the 1960s. So they were pretty bang on on this one. we're to introduce the character of Faye, which is Jimmy's girlfriend. Faye is played by Liv Tyler, who is the daughter of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. in the early 90s, she starred in a lot of Aerosmith videos, the crazy video crying and kind of became a sensation off of that. I do believe it's one of her very first feature film debuts.

Mark (06:24)
So Lenny is very friendly with Guy and he invites them to the talent show that they are booked to play that weekend. We then see the band outside on the sidewalk and the drummer Chad breaks his arm jumping over parking meters.

Jon (06:38)
Dumb move, Chad. A drummer shouldn't be breaking his arm. It's very easy to see where this plot point is going. I think Guy might be called into duty here in a second.

Mark (06:46)
So the band needs Guy now. So Jimmy and Lenny go to the appliance store and try and get them to join the band. They say, you know, we're going to win $100 at the talent show if we place first. Guy makes a deal with them, he's got to satisfy Patterson Appliance. So he says they must buy two new record needles and a clock radio.

Jon (07:10)
So Guy's always in for the sale they agree, they buy all the stuff and I guess look, Guy's in the band.

Mark (07:16)
So Guy meets the band for a jam session in the garage. We hear that thing you do for the first time as a slow, serious ballad.

Jon (07:26)
It's kind of dull, it's kind of safe. It's something that won't ruffle any feathers. Also probably won't get any teenage girls screaming either.

Mark (07:34)
Jimmy's girlfriend offers the Wonders as a name, but Wonders is spelt O-N-E-D-E-R-S. So there's no W and there's that extra E, you know, as if the number one spelled out. Lenny cracks it out right away and says, "o-needers." And this becomes a running joke throughout the film.

Jon (07:57)
basically to take on the Beatles, which had a different spelling of the word beetle. that's a nod to them. We're gonna be talking about the Beatles comparisons a lot here.

Mark (08:05)
Fast forward to the talent show night. So we are welcomed into the talent show by a group of younger women playing folk rock on the stage. There seems to be a kind of mouthy younger guy in the audience. What does he say,

Jon (08:20)
He says, you're drowning in the river with a reference to what they're singing about the river. That's one of my favorite lines in the movie. this guy, he'll keep appearing here in the movie. he's definitely one of my favorite characters.

Mark (08:32)
So we see Guy with his date Tina again, but she clearly hates this idea. She is not into going to the local talent show in a high school gym. We see the host introducing the band and the mouthy younger guy appears once again and he yells, eat my shorts Ken. The host turns away from the microphone and with a very, I'll say exceptionally hostile tone and a really a true, true sense of anger.

screams at him, shut up or I'll kick your ass.

Jon (09:05)
The vibes of this talent show are insanely hostile for what seems to be high school generation kids out for a talent show. They're hating on everything and they seem almost to the point of violence.

Mark (09:17)
So the host proceeds to introduce the band, once again calling them the One-ders. The band is about to start playing that thing you do, but out of nowhere, Guy speeds up the tempo of the song and starts drumming way faster than he did in the garage.

Jon (09:32)
And it's a good choice because the song sounds much better faster and immediately starts to get a reaction out of the crowd. Although the rest of the band's turned around kind of annoyed. However, Lenny's like, yeah, let's go with this. This sounds good.

Mark (09:43)
It does seem a bit risky though, because he never really briefed them that he was even going to try to do this. there's only so much time in the movie. I guess we couldn't fit in another scene there where he tries to pull that off. Anyway, so in the moment, Jimmy does try to call it off, but he kind of has no choice but to go with it. The plane does look real though, I'll add. The actors actually learned how to play for this movie. So it does come off pretty well.

Jon (10:10)
In real life, how do you start the tempo that way the entire song would have train wrecked. But for the magic of movies, that didn't happen. And the crowd loves the song. They get super into it. Everybody's up. They're dancing. They're screaming along. And guy was right. Fast version works. And then they win the talent show with the wicked category response.

Mark (10:28)
They also get approached for a playing gig at Villapiano's Pizza Parlor. Tina is very impressed now that Guy has this new found fame, I'll call it.

Jon (10:39)
She's not impressed enough to cancel her dentist appointments, but she is impressed. So they get to practice and Jimmy is super serious about everything. we sense a little bit of, you joking around, maybe a little bit tension between Faye and Guy.

Mark (10:52)
So now we go to the first show at the pizza joint and we hear a different song this time. hear All My Only Dreams. This one is also serious and slow.

Jon (11:02)
It's a 50s style ballad, pictured like Earth Angel, the Everly Brothers, that sort of thing. And the mouthy younger guy at the show yells for that thing you do. And of course they bust into it and everybody loves it.

Mark (11:14)
band gets free pizza after but again Jimmy remains serious and more concerned about recording. They have an offer to record at Uncle Bob's church.

Jon (11:27)
A fun fact here, Uncle Bob is actually played by music legend Chris Isaac in a short little brief cameo. And Bob's got rules though, however, there's to be no bad language. so they do that thing you do and the mix sounds a little bit different, like with more echo on it, I guess kind of reflect the church acoustics. And I thought that was a nice little touch. Probably most people didn't catch it, but I thought it was kind of cool. So Jimmy gets his way and all my only dreams is the B side for that thing you do.

Mark (11:51)
So now we're back to the pizza joint for more shows. The band is still being called "O-Needers." We see the mouthy younger guy buying a handful of records. We also see an older polite man buys a record that might be hinting at something in a little bit.

Jon (12:07)
Of The Mouthy Guy is their biggest fan, so he bought a ton of records. And then they started to a new song we haven't heard yet called Little Wild One, which is an up-tempo rock number and the crowd gets so into this that a fire extinguisher is pulled out, sprayed on the crowd, and a riot starts. So there's no time for the encore.

Mark (12:24)
The next day we're back at Patterson Appliance and that polite older man, his name is Phil Horace, shows up at Patterson Appliance and convinces Guy that the band should sign a record contract. So he has his camper truck parked outside of the store and the rest of the band joins Guy and Phil in the camper truck.

Jon (12:45)
So Jimmy's not sure about signing the contract. He's hesitant about signing anything to do with his music. And I agree, Jimmy, I've worked in the music industry a long time myself. Managers are sketchy and do love to steal your money.

Mark (12:58)
But Phil does promise radio play and shows in Pittsburgh, so they sign it. Eerie Local Radio plays that thing you do for the first time while Guy is working the floor and the entire cast hear it and they run to the store to celebrate it.

Jon (13:13)
This is a really good, fun scene. see all the main characters, where they're at when they hear the song, and they all converge in the appliance store to celebrate and party, and they've made it onto the radio.

Mark (13:23)
So now we're at the first show in Pittsburgh. It's not going too well. The band is up on stage, but the mics are turned off. There's some bad feedback happening. One of Guy's cymbals tips over. The crowd is not really vibing with what's going on. The host is looking at them from behind the curtain. He's losing patience. We start to hear a few seconds of that thing you do, but the sound is really bad.

Jon (13:49)
The character of the radio disc jockey Boss Vig Koss is played by Kevin Pollock briefly here, another big star. there's a fun scene too where they get there. They think that Boss Vig Koss' dress room is theirs. So he starts setting up and smoking his cigars and eating his food until he shows up and kicks them all out.

Mark (14:08)
After the show, Phil takes Guy to a Chinese restaurant to meet Mr. White, played by Tom Hanks, from the record label called Play-Tone. Seems pretty easy to get signed in 1964.

Jon (14:22)
They bombed, but yet they got a record deal. So Guy's kind of suspicious of this, of like, okay, we've played half of a show and you want to give us a record deal. Tom Hanks' character kind of plays off to that and says, Mr. White, I should say, and say, yes, Guy, you're the smart one, of course. And we can kind of see where this might be going for the Wonders.

Mark (14:42)
So, Mr. White decides to rename the band as The Wonders, this time we're spelling it W-O-N-D-E-R-S, so what you would think it would sound like. Jimmy wants to redo the B side, but Mr. White says no.

Jon (14:58)
Mr. White is right. Come on, Jimmy, you've played one real show.

Mark (15:03)
TB Player, the bass player, he decides to join the Marines, but he says he can stay on until the end of summer. So the band was very bummed when he said that, but okay, he'll be there for a few months. Mr. White tells Guy he wears shades from now on and throws him a pair of sunglasses. We then go over to the State Fair Touring Circuit, where the band is being featured on the Play-Tone Galaxy of Stars.

Jon (15:28)
And when the guys in the Wonders arrive, they are fanboying hard on all the different celebrities from the tour they're getting to meet. They're being super unprofessional, they're trying to sneak into buses, they're basically, screaming every time they see somebody. And in a funny scene from earlier, Mr. Downtown, the singer actually Freddie Fredrickson goes up to Guy and is kind of nice and says, hey, nice to have you on here, your song's catchy. But Guy fanboys out so hard that Freddie just kind of walks away in disgust.

Mark (15:52)
we're at a big show in Columbus. The band is really feeling the pressure. There's radio DJs that are watching. It's very crucial for them to nail this one, and they do. The band nails that thing you do, a very fast upbeat version, and everyone is loving it.

Jon (16:08)
They fit right in with what's going on in the scene at the time, in the mid 1960s. They're a perfect, perfect act to have on this tour. And I think everybody knows it and feels it after this performance.

Mark (16:17)
We then go through a touring montage with that thing you do as a charting single. So we see it climbing the charts. We see number 93, then number 71, number 49, number 21. And that leads us to another big show. This time we're in Illinois for Dance With Me Tonight. Sounds really good. The playing still feels authentic.

Jon (16:40)
first time hearing Dance With Me tonight. I think it's a really good song, a really strong song. Could it be their second hit? We'll see.

Mark (16:47)
Afterwards, we see Jimmy. He's talking to Diane Dane. This is an elder stateswoman lounge singer type of character.

Jon (16:57)
Jimmy's getting very friendly with Diane Dane after the show. They're having a little private conversation in a booth. Lenny's playing goldfish, trying to fleece some people out of some money. Guy's wandering around being a jazz fanboy and trying to talk up jazz to everyone he meets. However, our bass player is on a bit of a side quest here. He's chatting with the girls from the Chantrellines.

Mark (17:15)
So now we hear that thing you do again, this time in Wisconsin, and we have some backup dancers.

Jon (17:20)
The budget for the Wonder set's clearly been expanded now that the song is rising in the charts. They now have backup dancers, they have risers. I think they're trying hard to become the Beatles of the USA.

However, the Wisconsin concert ends a little bit chaotic. The girls in the crowd basically cause a riot. They're so excited the Wonders are in town. So they need to escape using the old Hello Cleveland route to try to get them safely out of the building.

Mark (17:42)
We go back to our montage with the single climbing up the charts. This time it gets to number seven. Mr. White says it's time to go to California. From now on, Guy is renamed to Shades. We're on the plane. Faye is feeling kind of sick on the plane. Jimmy really doesn't care. So we see Guy caring for her. Jimmy is focused on recording again.

Jon (18:06)
Jimmy's won't let the recording thing drop even though they've barely had one song yet on the charts and the Guy & Faye relationship is definitely growing here Jimmy's completely rude to her ignoring her but guy comes to a rescue takes care of her and make sure she's doing okay

Mark (18:22)
Now we're in Hollywood. We see the band on the set of Weekend at Party Pier as Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters.

Jon (18:32)
This is a really good scene. You could totally see this movie being made in the 1960s, even for a one-hit wonder band. It's very reminiscent of Elvis movies, maybe a little bit less of the Beatles movies from the time, like Jan and Dean, that sort of like surf culture type of film that was a staple of the 1960s. And there's an actor called Goofball who does a whole bunch of different takes and he pretty much kills it. the band's super excited because they get to keep their wardrobe.

Mark (18:58)
Wow, Jimmy wants serious gigs though. He doesn't want to be on these sort of circus type shows. We go now to our LA radio interview and we hear that thing you do once again.

Jon (19:10)
The DJ is totally rude to them, blows them off, couldn't care less. He's like, yeah, leave the headphones on there and get out. They're starting to see now this is a business and they are a product. And this is just the product of the week that they've decided to push. But on one of their different promo stations, they go to a jazz station. So of course Guy has to talk jazz with the DJ and they sort of bond a bit.

Mark (19:30)
we move along to a press photo shoot in the Play-Tone lobby. One of the photographers says, don't you like the Beatles? Jimmy decides he wants to talk to the Play-Tone president, but he is not having it.

Jon (19:44)
So we meet Saul Sully, who is the president of Play-Tone Records, and he's a humongous jerk to everyone. He basically tells some fictionalized, made-up story of how he discovered the Wonders out in Pennsylvania, and he's totally responsible for all their success.

Mark (19:59)
Never trust a label. That key advice from Diane Dane. Jimmy leaves us with the line that he is alone in my principles. While this is going on, Lenny decides he's going to chase after the Play-Tone receptionist.

Jon (20:13)
And without too much convincing, Lenny is very successful and they make plans to meet up later on.

Mark (20:19)
The bass player decides to stay in the hotel cafe to do pushups in front of Marines.

Jon (20:25)
At first the Marines are mocking him, but then they're kind of impressed with his performance, and they basically kidnap him and take him on an adventure.

Mark (20:32)
So Guy is kind of left to himself. He decides he's gonna go for a night out at the Jazz Club.

Jon (20:38)
Fun little fact here in this scene that the waitress that Guy is speaking to is Rita Wilson, who is Tom Hanks' real life wife. Guy gets to meet Del Paxton, his hero, who's there, hanging out. But Guy's pretty drunk by the time he comes over to talk to him. Del is super friendly to him, however, as long as he's buying the drinks, and he tells a story about how they were both in Germany at the same time and how bands come and go. And his big advice, his big takeaway for Guy is keep on playing, but watch your money.

Mark (21:06)
We have now reached the time where we're gonna have our big television appearance.

Jon (21:12)
they're getting ready to be on a variety show and there's a skit with the Chimples, which is clearly the Beatles, but played as monkeys.

Mark (21:20)
Yeah, they're mocking the Beatles on that one pretty hard. Jimmy though, he's sick. And the bass player, he's never returned. They show a montage of him at Disneyland with the Marines. So, Mr. White's gotta do something drastic here. He brings in the Wolfman to replace TB Player.

Jon (21:30)
kidnapped.

The Wolfman is a higher gun and a smooth character. You kinda get the feeling Mr. White had this guy lined up from the day the second he heard, ⁓ our bass player's leaving later on to go to the Marines. And this guy clearly knows the song and is ready for TV.

Mark (21:55)
So we hear that thing you do for the 10th time live on TV. The crowd is loving it. Everyone's, super happy. People are screaming. The cameramen are yelling at each other to make sure they get the perfect shot.

We see some text on the screen when they flash to Jimmy and it says, careful girls, he's engaged. Jimmy is furious.

Jon (22:18)
It was common back in the day for these record companies just to make up whatever backstory, fictional backstory they wanted for their performers. Very famously, the Beatles, when they first came to America, they were told in the press that they were all single. In fact, was not even further from the truth. I do believe John Lennon was already married when the Beatles came to America for the first time. So it's not surprising that the network just makes some funny thing up to put on while he was playing.

Mark (22:42)
Back in the dressing room, the band is not in a good mood. Jimmy's throwing a fit and he says this is the last thing he needs in the world. Faye is pretty offended with how Jimmy is taking all of this, so she decides to break up with him right then and there.

Jimmy's comeback should have dumped you in Pittsburgh.

Jon (23:03)
So Jimmy's a complete jerk in this scene. Everyone feels bad for Faye. Obviously she's better off without him. But the band has to keep moving on here. And sadly, they don't really celebrate after their performance on network television, which went great. The band has to meet up in the studio with Mr. to record. Jimmy's finally getting to go to the studio. But.

Mr. White wants to record a bunch of cover songs, which was really common at the time. Bands would have an original song and then several covers in between to keep everything rolling. Jimmy refuses to do this, basically breaking up the band right there on the spot and the Wonders are finished.

Mark (23:35)
movie doesn't end here. Guy decides he's gonna stay in the studio and he starts playing alone. Del Paxton walks into the studio and sits down at the piano, starts playing with Guy. He tells the engineer to record it and now we have this wonderful session of Guy and Del Paxton freestyling it.

Jon (23:55)
So we see Guy tracking down Faye before she leaves to go home to Pennsylvania. Faye tells Guy that everything has happened, all the success, Wonders, is basically because he joined the band. And I agree with her. He changed their sound and made them sound like a more modern, 1960s style band instead of the 50s tearjerker ballads that Jimmy was trying to do. And then we get the ending that's been teased from the very start. They kiss, they embrace, they're clearly now a couple. And that's kind what we wanted from the very start.

Mark (24:24)
We move on to some ending text screens. We see that Guy and Faye got married and had three kids in California. Then they moved to Washington state and founded a music conservatory where Guy teaches jazz composition. Jimmy went on to form the herdsman and made three gold records for Play-Tone. So I guess, you know, Jimmy was the talent and was onto something. He kind of proved himself with that one.

Jon (24:53)
Jimmy wrote the songs, not Guy. And we see that TB, the bass player, served in Vietnam, so I guess the kidnapping went good. Lenny is now a manager at a hotel casino in Nevada in Vegas.

Mark (25:07)
Then we go to the credits, we hear, need you, in brackets, that thing you do, which is sort of, ⁓ it is its own song, it is its own piece on the soundtrack, but it does kind of sound like that thing you do.

Jon (25:23)
Yeah, they're pretty similar. We'll talk about it later. That's that thing you do

Mark (25:29)
So let's take a look at the film's Released on September 24th in 1996, this is a soundtrack album. It is classified as by The Wonders, but obviously we know that that's not a real artist. Its genre is pop, rock, power pop, jangle pop, jazz. It's on Play-Tone slash Epic records, so I guess Play-Tone being the fictional component, Epic being the real component. So what's important to note here is that

This was nominated for several awards. was nominated for an Academy Award for best original song. It did not win it. I believe the winner was You Must Love Me from the film Aveda starring Madonna. But obviously we all know the song has done very well on the real charts. It charted to number 21 on the US Billboard 200. It received some certifications. It went gold in Canada.

It went platinum in the United States. So obviously this did very well. Let's go through what we have here and get some reaction. I'll start with this. The first song loving you lots and lots, the norm Wooster singers.

Jon (26:43)
This is what opens the movie. Apparently the music is by Tom Hanks, okay, and it's a male chorus type of thing. It's the intro to the movie, kind of sets the stage. Makes sense, would be the first song on the record.

Mark (26:55)
Kind of got a barbershop feel to it almost.

Jon (26:58)
Yeah, exactly.

Mark (27:00)
Second song, the title track, That Thing You Do by The Wonders.

Jon (27:04)
It's the centerpiece of the film. It's a very strong song. And you feel like you know it. You feel like this is a part of the canon of, 60s British invasion or American rock and roll music. If I put on a compilation of songs from that time and threw that one in there, you wouldn't know a difference. That's how well done this song is. It is the homage to the 1960s and they did an excellent job on it.

Mark (27:25)
little wild one that Wonders.

Jon (27:28)
This is a fun 1950s, 60s style rock song. It kind of has the same harmonies as that thing you do. And yet again, it fits right in with the time, fits right in with what they're trying to get to. It has a very kind of a beach boys vibe to it as well. And it kind of has a 50s guitar solo, a bit of a surf sound to it. So that's kind of cool.

Mark (27:44)
Dance with me tonight, the Wonders.

Jon (27:47)
Also featured in the movie, it's a strong song. I could have been featured a little bit more actually. I think after that thing you do, it is the best song on the soundtrack. It has a more USA sound though I would say, though than a British sound. And Dance With Me, how many songs are called that these days? I can think of about 10 off the of my head. But still, I think that could have been the Wonder's second hit had they stuck around.

Mark (28:06)
Yeah, I definitely get the vibe even though I know like the British invasion was happening at that time. This does definitely feel American for sure.

Jon (28:15)
Absolutely.

Mark (28:17)
Up next, all my only dreams, the Wonders.

Jon (28:20)
This is a Jimmy wrote for fame and was pushing very hard to be the second single from The Wonders. It's a ballads, a 1950s style tearjerker. It fits right in with that Everly Brothers, Royal Orbison type of sound.

Mark (28:34)
Next we have, I Need You in brackets, That Thing You Do. This is the song, By The Wonders, that closes out the credits.

Jon (28:42)
This has a much more modern sound. It does kind of have a bit of a 90s vibe to it because the movie was made in the 90s. So it's kind of a good contrast to the classic strip 60s song, which leads the movie. Also, here's an alternate version, which kind of fit more into the sonic landscape of the 90s. It almost has a Matthew Sweet type of sound to it. And of course, that thing you do is the refrain in the song.

Mark (29:02)
Seventh track is She Knows It by the Heardsman.

Jon (29:05)
And the Heardsman of course is a little inside joke there. That's Jimmy's band after the Wonders broke up. I like this song. Kind of a 90s feel to it and a 60s feel to it. Kind of mixed in both. And there's a nice clapping chorus, which the clapping effect isn't used that much today in modern songs. But if you go back in the 60s and in the 70s, there was a lot of tunes that used this.

Mark (29:25)
Mr. Downtown by Freddie Fredrickson.

Jon (29:27)
Yes, guy's favorite song, Shades' favorite song, should I say. It's very early 60s, like even before the British invasion. It almost feels like a TV theme. It's this dark, gritty thing like Mr. Downtown. And it works, it's fun. It works for like what they're trying to do, it for.

Mark (29:44)
Hold My Hand, Hold My Heart by The Chantrellines.

Jon (29:49)
The girl group featured on the tour that the Wonders were on. This has a really good kind of Phil Spector kind of sound to it, like Ronette's kind of girl group vibe. And yet again, you think you know this. If I put on a compilation of those girl groups in 1960s and I put that on there, you wouldn't know it wasn't from the 60s.

Mark (30:05)
Voyage Around the Moon, The Saturn V.

Jon (30:09)
This is a quick instrumental. It's definitely a surf rock type of thing. Not really sure why it was included, but it's there.

Mark (30:16)
My world is over from Diane Dane.

Jon (30:20)
Diane Dane was the older lounge singer also on the tour with them. This is exactly what you think it is. It's a lounge song, it's a breakup song. I didn't like it much.

Mark (30:28)
Drive faster by the Vicksburgs.

Jon (30:31)
Total Beach Boys Jan and Dean ripoff. It's kind of unnecessary. It's filler. It's fine.

Mark (30:38)
Up next we have Shrimp Shack. That is by Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters.

Jon (30:44)
of is from the movie scene that they filmed and the one that made Jimmy so mad. It's also an instrumental, but I think it's a fun inclusion because that was a fun moment in the movie.

Mark (30:54)
We're almost at the end. We have the longest song on the album, Time to Blow by Del Paxton.

Jon (31:01)
Well, you have to Dale Pax in a moment here because he is such a prominent character in the movie. It's a jazz piano number. It's a little out of place on the soundtrack, but I think it's a good inclusion.

Mark (31:11)
We close it off with that thing you do once again. This time we're at the Hollywood Television Showcase. So I guess this is supposed to be an exclusive live cut by The Wonders.

Jon (31:22)
Yeah, they added in crowd noise to it. I don't think we need to include this. We've now heard this song. Was it 10 times in the movie, Mark, that was in?

Mark (31:30)
10 times total.

Jon (31:31)
10 times, multiply it by the amount of times we had to watch this to prepare for the podcast. I'm kind of done with this song at this point. They didn't need to add another version of it.

Mark (31:44)
Let's take a look at some of the critical reception for that thing you do. It scored 93 % on its tomato meter and 78 % on its popcorn meter on Rotten Tomatoes. I kind of thought these values might be closer together. It seems like there's some, there's a gap between what critics and audiences are feeling for that thing you do.

It scored a 7 out of 10 on Internet Movie Database based on 77,000 ratings. That seems kind of low.

Jon (32:13)
Yeah, I was a little bit surprised when you gave me the numbers here. Seven out of 10, I would have figured this was an eight, eight and a half, maybe even a nine for sure. I do remember when the movie came out and to me it felt like it was a hit. I remember the song being on the radio, I remember the trailers. So I'm a little surprised the movie didn't make money and it's only rated seven out of 10.

Mark (32:33)
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 out of 4 and said, I think that's pretty accurate. It is light. It's not a heavy movie. It's not going to get you down. It's definitely upbeat. They don't cover too many serious themes. Again, this is when rock and roll was very clean cut.

and striving for mainstream acceptance. there aren't darker tones, there aren't drugs or violence or anything like that. It's a pretty upbeat movie. I think that's good, but maybe, I don't know, maybe critics, some critics and some audience members thinks that in order for a movie to be good, it has to be very deep and moving.

Jon (33:20)
I think any of those deep themes would have worked in this movie quite frankly. I liked how it was kind of light and just kind of moved from plot point to plot point kind of the way you thought it would, but it's a fun journey to watch this band go from nothing basically in Pennsylvania to being on what the version of the Ed Sullivan show would be in the film. So I don't think it need any extra things like that. And yes, a lot of the plot points move quickly. Things like the whole dentist thing were, you know, barely pay off, but hey, they're fun. They work for what it is. I don't think it need to have some sort of deeper resonance or deeper meaning.

It's a fun film about the 1960s.

However, having said that, we have tradition here at the Rock and Roll Theatre podcast. My brother Mark finds a one-star review of whatever we're watching. No matter how good you think a movie is, there's always someone out there who disagrees. So what do you got for us this week, Mark?

Mark (34:05)
This review is coming from Amazon. It was from Amazon customer in Canada on April 3rd, 2002. I'll do my best to read it with grammatical errors included. The title of the review, Tom Hanks Needs to Try Living Outside of LA. ⁓

This movie is probably one of the worst films ever released. The only reason it made the theatres was because it had Tom Hanks' name tagged to it. Its true home is where it is played now, on USA Up All Night. The funniest part of the movie is the buildup to getting to see Tom Hanks. We don't see him for the first 20 minutes of the film, until the climactic moment

when the camera slowly crawls up from behind him in a slow dolly. When the star is finally revealed in all his glory, Mr. Hollywood is cooler in his Ray-Ban shades. The funniest thing about this is Tom Hanks is the narcissist behind the camera. The only thing more obnoxious than this is the horrible soundtrack. The film digs its own grave by playing the awful one-hit wonder

that the band supposedly rides to glory over and over again.

Jon (35:31)
Well, that was certainly a one star review. The only thing I might agree with in the review is, you know, the song that thing you do is played a lot in the movie. Maybe they could have cut it down to maybe six or seven times instead of 10. Other than that, this review is total garbage. Tom Hanks, first of all, it's not 20 minutes in. It's actually an hour in when Tom Hanks shows up. And also it's not the story is mainly about the Wonders, not about Tom Hanks' character. So it makes sense he's not in the movie as much as the band.

Mark (35:56)
Looking at the legacy of that thing you do, I think it's a strong film overall. It really doesn't have any weaknesses. It moves along at a good pace. Like we said before, it's not too heavy. I think it represents 1960s rock culture well. It's a really good example of actors playing their own instruments, which you don't always see in movies and TV. It's really worth noting that the title song became a real life hit. That's super important. That doesn't happen in a lot of

based on fictional artists. And the last thing I'll note is that there's an emo band from Buffalo called Del Paxton.

Jon (36:34)
I think that thing you do is actually a really strong movie from the 90s. I hadn't seen it since the 1990s. And when it was suggested for the podcast, I was like, oh, oh yeah, that movie. And I went back and watched it and I really enjoyed it. It's Tom Hanks' love letter to the 1960s and he plays it off perfectly. The sets, the costumes, the design, the music are all spot on, dead on what it should be for the 1960s. So I think it's a fun film. Like we said, it's not a deep film, you know, but if you want to, spend two hours revisiting the 1960s, the music and the culture, this is a good way.

to do it. And that's that thing you do.

Thank you very much for joining us today on the Rock and Roll Theatre Podcast. Just a little quick reminder here to like, subscribe, follow, download, comment, whatever the case may be, five stars, wherever you're at in the world and wherever you hear this. But for now, the theatre's closed. We'll see you next time.