Song Sung Blue

The real-life story of Mike and Claire Sardina as Lightning & Thunder was brought to the big screen in 2025 with Song Sung Blue. These life-long musicians teamed up to deliver the hits of Neil Diamond to audiences in the Milwaukee area in the 1980s and 1990s. Join co-hosts Jon and Mark as they venture through this musical-drama crossover and uncover a film with two very different halves.

Welcome to a Neil Diamond experience!

Transcript

Jon (00:00)
Tonight on the Rock and Roll Theatre Podcast, we got the way to move ya. Song Sung Blue, Neil Diamond. Well, Neil Diamond experience, let's say.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Rock and Roll Theatre Podcast. My name is John, I'm joined by my co-host and my brother, Mark. Each episode here, we dive into music, movies, pop culture, all sorts of fun different stuff. And today we're looking at Song Sung Blue, Neil Diamond.

Mark (00:39)
Song Sung Blue was released on Christmas Day 2025. It runs two hours and 12 minutes, rated PG. It's categorized as a biographical musical drama film. It was written, produced, and directed by Craig Brewer. It's based on the 2008 documentary film of the same name. This film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as Mike and Claire Sardina, who performed as a Neil Diamond tribute band called Lightning and Thunder around the Milwaukee and Chicago area throughout the late 1980s and 1990s.

Jon (01:20)
This movie does stick true to the story, the real life story of Mike and Claire and all the trials and tribulations I will be getting into. But I did watch the documentary as well preparing for this and this movie stays very true to it which we will talk about in a moment.

Mark (01:35)
The film has totaled $58 million in box office revenue against a budget of $30 million. It was filmed between October and December of 2024 in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Also important to note here that Neil Diamond granted the rights to use his music in this film.

Jon (01:56)
Just a little bit about Neil Diamond. I'm sure everybody listening here in the theatre knows who he is. But just in case you forgot, Neil Diamond got his start in the music industry writing pop songs, but back to being the Tin Pan Alley days in the Brill Building in New York City, where they would just basically turn out song after song all day long. So that's where he cut his teeth. He got his big break when he wrote, I'm a Believer for the Monkees, for the TV show of the Monkees. And from there, that kicked onto his own career in the late 60s and early 70s, where all of his big hits came from that we will be talking about. But first, before we get started,

here. There are spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen Song Sung Blue yet, you don't want any spoilers, hit pause and come back to us. thank you to all the new people we've seen lately showing up to the theatre. We've got episodes in our back catalog about Bruce Springsteen, the Ramones, Metallica, Kiss, Eminem, all sorts of good stuff in there. So like a click a subscribe a five star rating. All those things are really appreciate. So let's get to Song Sung Blue.

So you open with a graphic telling us that this is a true love story, which it is. We see the guitar being tuned, it cuts in and out of a black screen, then all of sudden we hear, they call me lightning. He's a star.

And we see Mike, who's a Journeyman musician. He's been, playing shows all around the Milwaukee, Chicago area for the last, who knows, probably 20 or 30 years, judging by the age of him. And we see he's also at an AA meeting. He's declaring that he is 20 years sober and he sings Song Sung Blue right away for his AA meeting. I guess it's kind of tradition he has every time he celebrates another sober birthday, he plays a song for them.

Mark (03:30)
We move along to the Wisconsin State Fair. I guess the real Lightning and Thunder played there often. And we see Mike walking through the fair. He goes into the men's room and starts changing. He changes into a Hawaiian shirt and he doesn't really like it. He kind of looks at himself in the mirror like, this doesn't feel right. Anyway, he continues throughout the venue and he ends up in a more formal dressing room and we see him standing alongside other

tribute performers. see someone dressed up as Elvis. We see someone dressed up as Buddy Holly. So the manager comes over the tribute show manager and Mike tells him, well, you know what? I refuse to be Don Ho. I guess he was supposed to dress up as Don Ho. That was the Hawaiian shirt. And he said, no, I'm not doing it. The tribute show manager says, well, Mike, I won't let you play if you're not Don Ho.

Jon (04:25)
The manager really wants tiny bubbles out of Don Ho and Mike isn't having it and basically quits right there on the spot. Also, the Elvis impersonator is quite mad with Mike because Mike has a lightning bolt on the back of his jacket, which is Elvis's TCB, taking care of business logo. So I think the Elvis has a point here that is kind of an odd combination of Don Ho and Elvis and there already is an Elvis, so he ain't happy about it. And on a brief personal note, I've worked as a professional DJ for many, many years and I worked for a very large

We often had tribute acts coming through so I've seen them all and one sticks out to me is one time me and all the other staff were having dinner before the show started with Bruce Springsteen impersonator and once he got up and left the table we all immediately turned to each other and said did he have plastic surgery to look more like Bruce Springsteen? I don't know but it was an interesting pizza party.

So as Mike is leaving, talks to the Patsy Cline performer, Claire Stengl, it's played by Kate Hudson. Kate has a great voice and does a dead-on Patsy Cline imitation.

Mark (05:27)
What I'm thinking so far when I'm seeing these first few music scenes, like the production is really high, it's well done. The plane looks slightly masked for the stars, so you can kind of tell maybe the A-listers are not really playing, but it does seem like good energy, good vibe, high level of production. You get the sense that the music scenes are going to be central to this story. So we move along, Mike is meeting with his dentist. Turns out his dentist...

is also his manager. He's got a gap in his teeth and he's getting that fixed. So the dentist presents him with a new tooth. The new tooth has a lightning bolt on it. Mike thinks this is awesome. This is great. Amazing. He's all pumped up. He goes home and he's in a great mood. So he starts mimicking a sort of, you know, air guitar dance combination. I'll call it a routine.

in his living room to the song Crackling Rose by Neil Diamond.

Mike is back at the state fair. However, this time he's playing with the Esquires, an R &B soul group. He's just one of the players. He's not the leading man. Claire is also there at the state fair and she meets up with Mike. They start spending some time together. They're walking, they're talking. Things are going really well. So Claire invites Mike home to her house and he ends up meeting her kids that evening. This is kind of a funny line. Her teenage daughter says to Mike, don't make a mess on the couch.

Jon (07:02)
And Claire and Mike have great chemistry right from the start. Claire is also in the same industry he's in. So she has lots of ideas and different suggestions for him. We already see that Mike is, in several bands. Claire has mentioned all the different artists that she covers as well, too. So they're really trying just anything that works to get a paycheck, which as a musician, I understand myself, too. But she decides that maybe Neil Diamond would be the right thing for Mike Lightning. she Mike does not like the word impersonator, however. So she strikes the more say you're Neil

Diamond interpreter, which I found kind of funny. So they start playing Cherry Cherry in the living room and already it's jamming, it's sounding good, they're grooving out, she's rocking the piano and he's singing along and playing guitar. Grandma's single comes out, which I also saw the real grandma in the documentary and this woman plays her perfectly and she is absolutely not happy about the noise and wants him to play something quiet. So Mike does and he switches to doing Play Me, another Neil Diamond song.

Mark (07:57)
So there's so much music by this point. I'm thinking to myself, is this movie just a straight up musical?

we progress here and Mike is finishing up the evening with Claire and they're on the porch outside of her house and he decides he wants to call this lightning and thunder, a Neil Diamond experience because he can't do it without her. Claire loves this idea and she kisses Mike.

Jon (08:21)
So after that, move along. Mike meets up with the Buddy Holly tribute impersonator again, who's also a booking agent manager in the scene called Mark Shurilla.

And Mark's already on stage though, doing the Buddy Holly thing, playing every day. And after he's done on stage, they also meet a new booker, a guy, Tom D'Amato, who has contacts for clubs in the area and holds bookings for the casino. I know a little bit about guys like this. Manager might be too strong of a word. There's somebody who loves the scene so much. They'll go out of their way to help bands, DJs, ours to try to promote them and try to get them gigs on the next level.

Mark (08:56)
I thought this character was really well done though and played very well. did feel like a booker that you would see in a maybe a low level casino.

Jon (09:07)
I have met people exactly like this and they look exactly like that. And Jim Belushi, of course, is the actor who plays him and he does a great job. But yes, I felt a very weird parallel to my own real life in a lot of these backstage scenes at the casino.

Mark (09:23)
So then we go back to Mike's place and Claire comes over with her kids. She really wants this to go well. She's trying to calm them down in the car to behave and be nice. We see everyone getting ready for a practice in the garage. I'm really liking this scene. Mike makes reference that, you know, his neighbor has kind of given him the evil eye before. Maybe his neighbor's a little pissed off that, you know, there's about to be some ruckus going on in the neighborhood. So.

We only see a small clip of the neighbor, this older woman, watering her lawn, giving a concerned look. I really wanted to see more of this play out. I think the movie really had an opportunity here to have a memorable funny scene and they didn't take it. So I was a bit disappointed by that. We also see the players from the Esquires, they show up and they mention that this is a favor to Mike. Not to...

play spoiler alert here, they eventually end up in the band what seems like to be full time, but we never really know why. Because they originally show up and they say, hey, we're doing this as a favor.

Jon (10:29)
I know why they joined the band full-time. Money.

Mark (10:29)
We also-

Good call. We also see the Buddy Holly performer, Mark Shurilla, he shows up and he wants to play guitar. He just wants to volunteer his services. He's kind of tired of doing the Buddy Holly thing. He's ready to try something new. So everyone gets together, they're all in the garage, they start rocking out to Crunchy Granola Suite and things are sounding good.

Jon (10:53)
Yeah, everything sounds really great here. The band's obviously full of professionals, so immediately the jam sounds way tighter than it would be with bunch of people who are more amateurish. I do agree, too. The Neighbor could have had a one-liner or a funny insult for Mike, like, you're still at it, Lightning, or something like that, I think would have made the scene a little bit better. But overall, it's a good scene, and the kids like it, and you can see the potential right away of like, hey, this is a good idea, and this could probably work. But in the meantime, Mike has...

Mark (11:19)
I wanted her to call bylaw.

Jon (11:22)
That would have been fun too to have the Neil Diamond experience shut down before it ever even got started. What could have been? But then of course, Mike is still in AA though. And at this point, we've already passed a year in the movie and he's another year sober. But then we see some trouble maybe ahead for Mike. He's out mowing the lawn in the afternoon, I guess after they're done practicing and everything. all of sudden he clutches his heart and passes out and it falls to the ground. Obviously Mike has some heart problems.

Mark (11:50)
We get some foreshadowing, I guess, about that at that point because nothing amounts to it. We just simply move on to the next scene. So the next scene is the full Lightning and Thunder band. They have a show booked at a biker bar. They show up. It appears that there's some confusion over the term motor home instead of motor bike. So I guess their manager, Tom D'Amato, was anticipating some sort of

Jon (11:57)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (12:17)
older senior crowd who, you know, were into motor homes, not motor bikes. However, Mike.

Jon (12:22)
He swears he

heard motor home on the phone call. He swears he heard motor home.

Mark (12:26)
I know,

I know. Mike is fine with this though. There's no issue. Let's play. Why not? Everyone else seems a little bit nervous. The crowd is looking a little tough, but they try and say, hey, maybe we could try to offer up Sweet Caroline or America first. You maybe they'll kind of buy into it if we open with those. Mike insists, no way. We're doing Soolaiman as we've planned. That is the opener. It's his creative vision. We're following through with it.

So they break into Soolaiman. The biker audience, they are not feeling it. Someone throws a bottle on stage and a fight ensues. This gig was a disaster.

In the parking lot after the show though, Mike and Claire have a moment, they embrace each other and Mike says, I was gonna propose to you. And she's like, what? He's like, yeah, yeah, I got the ring right here. They end up getting engaged right there on the spot. And the wedding scene is literally the next scene. That was fast.

Jon (13:26)
Yeah, they get married at the state fair that they play at every year and then immediately go on stage and do a set, which is kind of cool. And also they did that in real life. And now it's a touring montage. You see everybody happy. They're doing a bunch of gigs. know, the Neil Diamond Experience, Thunder and Lightning, I'm sorry, Lightning and Thunder have taken off now and things are going really good. It's the first time we hear Sweet Caroline in any sort of longer form. I'll talk more about that song later. And then now they're back at home and the phone rings and Mike picks up the phone and someone

of booking but he doesn't seem too interested or concerned and he stops and he looks at you know Claire's teenage daughter and says what's a pearl jam?

It turns out it's Eddie Vedder on the phone and he's from Pearl Jam, of course, and he's asking for Lightning and Thunder to open for them in Milwaukee. he says, OK, of course, we'll do that. But Mike still seems a bit confused of like, is this guy famous? Is this band famous? I don't know. He's not super impressed by any of it until he gets there and sees the size of the auditorium. Then he's a little bit more like, OK, this might be for real. And he says, hey, Eddie, would you do us a favor? since this is kind of your crowd, would you mind coming out and singing?

And so sure enough, they open with Forever in Blue Jeans and Eddie Fiery sings the backup. You can see real footage of this on YouTube. The only difference is that was actually at the state fair and not in a theatre, but whatever for entertainment purposes, it's fine. So after the show, their manager Tom confirms that all the casino shows are official and are gonna be a go. And that's what's called the residency in the industry. And everybody likes getting a residency because it means guaranteed money.

Mark (14:59)
So up to this point, I would say that is the first half of the movie. And the first half of the movie is very much, you could almost consider it a musical. Music, music, music in almost every scene. We are gonna take a very different turn here for the second half of the movie. So we're at home now, Claire's at home and it's just a regular home life kind of day, seeing kids running around. She's outside gardening and she's planting some flowers near.

the front of her house where the front lawn is sort of right up beside the driveway. And the camera sort of pans out to almost sort of like a drone kind of view where you can kind of see half of the block and you see this car taken off down the street. It's kind of out of control. Something is not right here. The car is approaching their house. It's not slowing down. This is not good. The car goes onto the lawn.

and the screen cuts to black.

Jon (16:00)
I was completely caught off guard by this scene. Most things we watch in the theatre, admittedly, sometimes are older movies, things we have seen growing up or in the last few years or so. This movie came out not too long ago, so I hadn't seen it yet and I didn't, I purposely didn't do a whole lot of research. I figure here's a chance for me to go into a movie completely new and fresh and not really knowing other than it's about Neil Diamond, nothing else about it. So this scene totally caught me off guard. Did you know this was gonna happen, Mark? I did not.

Mark (16:28)
I didn't, like I said, up until this point, I had a very different feel for this movie. was, like I said, you could almost argue it's just a straight up musical, a feel good musical. Maybe even I thought at that point, things were going a little bit too well.

Jon (16:43)
Yeah,

I kind of got the vibe too of like I knew it was based on a true story. I'm like, but I don't Yeah

Mark (16:47)
They got those shows pretty quick. The casino was their ultimate

goal. They got it in what, a couple months?

Jon (16:54)
Yeah, I mean, I can't say that wouldn't happen. But it seems unlikely. mean, casino gig is something you get after usually 1520 years in the business. I mean, that's what it took for me. And it's not something you normally would do. So that seemed odd. The Pearl Jam thing seemed odd. But I can see Eddie Vedder kind of having the sense of humor of let's have the Neil Diamond tribute band open for us tonight. That seems the kind of thing he would do. But would that lead to long term success? I don't know. So when this this basically curveball right out of you know, left field, I didn't see coming. And this

basically changes everything the vibe of the movie, the feeling of the movie, everything. Of course, the hospital everybody's panicked. And as this is all going on, Mike's heart stops again, he's in a secondary room trying to talk to Rachel Claire's daughter, and his heart, you can tell he's having a heart attack. And he basically tells her to grab the EKG machine or the EKG machine and zap him back to life and tells her how to do it. And he offhandedly says, I've done this before. He never explains or how that came to be. But obviously he knows the signs.

and he didn't want the doctors to know or anyone to take away from Claire and the treatment that she needed. And she badly needed treatment. It turns out the car accident caused her to lose a leg. And then we see after that she's she's come home now. She's, trying to work with her prosthetic. She's having a really hard time with it. I mean, it's obviously a horrible thing to go through, but she's starting to, take too many pain pills, too many drugs, too many things are mixing together for her. And she's really struggling. And the house is starting to kind of fall apart. The kids don't really have the mom figure anymore.

up with. mean, and Mike's got to what he's got to do.

Mark (18:28)
So Mike ends up getting a temporary job as a karaoke host. This is at a Thai restaurant. But the owner takes sort of a special interest in Mike when he's applying for the job. And Mike tells him that, you know, he does Neil Diamond. He likes to play as Neil Diamond. So the owner, he's into this. So he says, okay, you can play as Neil Diamond only on Wednesday nights, and then you have to do the karaoke host role on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Anyway.

Mike takes that as a win. But things aren't going too well at home. Mike and Claire have a really big fight. Mike feels like he's losing Claire. You think maybe at this point in the movie, maybe they separate briefly or there's a bigger crack than there really is. That doesn't really happen. They have the fight. He feels like he's losing her, but they seem to continue. Claire has this strange dream sequence where...

She's on stage performing and everything looks like magic. It's incredible. It sounds great. She's dressed in a really nice dress, et cetera, et But Mike is kind of telling her, stop. Like, you know, we need to go. And she's confused. Then she wakes up in the yard.

Jon (19:46)
Yeah, obviously the drugs now have taken full force and she doesn't know up from down and sadly she has to get checked into a long-term care home, which at the time might be the best option for her. We also learn now after Claire has, tried to go get some help that Rachel, her daughter, is pregnant and she confides in Mike about this and Mike's like, you're gonna get through this the way we get through everything. So we fast forward a little bit in their lives and Claire has now made it through recovery and is back home. She seems much more clear-headed and ready to get back

the game shall we say. However Mike's not motivated at all he's basically said I'm gonna stop being lightning this isn't gonna work for me he's trying to apply for I'm assuming mechanic jobs we see throughout the movie that you know he's got some pretty good mechanical skills he's often teaching the kids how to work on cars but Claire is trying to motivate him to play again and she says you can do this you're still lightning and there's a montage scene here to I'm a Believer which Neil Diamond wrote of course and we see Mike lightning trying to get back in the game.

Mark (20:45)
So he is getting back in the game. We see a live performance of Holly Holy at the Thai restaurant. Everybody likes that one. We see that Claire has recovered somewhat and she's back outside gardening and she's standing on the steps. And again, we see the camera pan out to the, see the full block again, sort of this like drone type of view. And we see another car kind of out of control yet again.

And sure enough, it makes it to their lawn and it doesn't stop and it hits the same spot, right in the front of the flower bed, right beside where the driveway meets the lawn under their living room window. Claire laughs this off and says, lightning can strike twice in the same place.

Jon (21:34)
This is also covered in the documentary that absolutely happened. That's completely true that two different cars hit their house in the exact same spot. I don't know who designs the roads in their little town, city, what have you, but they should really take a look at that corner because it seems that people lose control on it fairly easily. But yes, lightning did strike twice. Yes, in real life, their house was hit twice by cars. Thankfully, the second time nobody was hurt. So Claire is motivated again. She's starting to go out and do shows, as Thunder again with Mike. She's trying to get up there, trying to do it.

it seems like with each passing week, month, she's getting better. We see that Rachel's about to have her baby and Claire is present for her and she's really helping him and basically she decides this is the time that Lightning and Thunder will make their return.

Mark (22:18)
Yeah, some of that, I don't know. Like, did we really need the side journey on the baby? Like, I guess it happened in real life, but it didn't really add anything to the movie. It just seemed like extra time, really.

Jon (22:24)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. There was some parts there too where I'm like, okay, like I know the payoff we're gonna try to get to here. And it just seemed like there's kind of like, Claire's back from recovery. Okay, cool. We did a montage. Now Claire's back from recovery. She's still back from recovery. And we're basically the same montage twice of them getting motivated. So I think we could just moved on to, Lightning and Thunder getting back up there.

Mark (22:50)
So I guess their name still carries a lot of value because Lightning and Thunder get offered to headline at the theatre as counter programming when Neil Diamond plays the arena in Milwaukee. So Neil Diamond's management, I guess they're cool with this, they're into it, and they even said that they agreed to meet Lightning and Thunder after their show at Neil Diamond's favorite custard place.

Can it get much better than that if you're in thunder and lightning? I don't think so. So, Mike though, he's getting ready for the show and his heart stops again. He grasps his chest and this time he falls. When he falls, he hits his head on the sink counter edge in his bathroom. It looks like a really, really, really bad hit too. Not good. So, he's not unconscious though. He's able to get up.

He fumbles around in the medicine cabinet and he finds some nail glue to paste over the cut on top of his head while he's bleeding. All right, that seems a little extreme. However, everything for the most part seems fine. We get another montage of things going well and Lightning and Thunder are getting ready for the big show.

Jon (24:08)
As a quick aside here before we get into the final concert, ⁓ is it weird for the actual artist to meet the tribute person of themselves? Because in my experience, most of these people, they don't just do the songs. They go full on for the look, usually from the most popular period of that performer's career. when Neil Diamond meets Neil Diamond impersonator, is it weird for Neil? I don't know. Anyway, onto the show.

The show is sold out and they open with Soolaiman, which is the one he always wants to open with. Lightning claims he's opening with Sweet Caroline, not that that's the one he wants. And the show is amazing. It's shot really well. Hugh Jackman does a great job here. It's an amazing show. but he seems like he's having some issues. He's struggling maybe with his heart still. But then he kicks right back into gear and keeps right on going. And the show is amazing. So after the show, of course, Mike and Claire are going to go meet Neil Diamond as favorite custard stand.

which apparently is his favorite Custer stand in Milwaukee and the real Neil Diamond goes there whenever he's in town. But sadly once they pull up

Claire gets out of the car first and there's all these fans of Lightning and Thunder that are there too that want to meet them just as well as meet Neil I guess on his tour bus. But sadly Mike does not get out of the car. When Claire comes back in to see what's wrong, Mike's gone. Mike has passed away from his heart problems.

Sadly, we move on now to the funeral scene for Lightning and Claire decides after her eulogy, she's gonna get up and sing a song and she sings I've Been This Way Before by Neil Diamond for Lightning. It's a really nice scene. Kate Hudson has a great voice. And to end the movie there, we see that now, you her kids have grown a little bit. Her younger son, Dana, was, you tell, was a huge fan of Mike. Mike really filled the stepdad role for him great. And he's watching one of the recordings he made of Mike doing Song Sung Blue for his AA group. He couldn't be there on his sober,

birthday because he was out touring and doing shows and was successful and sober so that's a really nice touch and we end with Claire as a side she's still gonna go back out there and she's still gonna plant flowers in the garden despite the two car crashes and that's Song Sung Blue

Mark (26:09)
Looking at the film's official soundtrack, Song Sung Blue, music from the official motion picture, was released on December 19th, 2025, so a little bit before the actual movie. It's classified as Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as the artistic performers. They do perform on many of the songs, not all of the songs. We'll get to those in a moment. The style here for this...

Record basically has a variety of genres here. We'll go with rock folk world and country as the top four It was released on Black Lot music, which is an imprint of Universal Studios music and fun fact here it was released on a double edition 140 gram blue glitter vinyl as well as CD and Cassette so you could listen to Song Sung Blue on cassette

Let's go through what we got here. First song is Hugh Jackman performing Cherry Cherry written by Neil Diamond.

Jon (27:14)
Of course, a huge Neil Diamond song, one of the biggest ones in his catalog. A great way to start it off. It's a very fast, very upbeat song, perfect way to open up an album. And Hugh Jackman sounds good here. so Kate Hudson, would say sounds better, but he's doing a good job. And it's a good scene. It comes from the movie as well, too. So great way to start it off.

Mark (27:35)
Second is Hugh Jackman again, I'm a Believer, written by Neil Diamond.

Jon (27:40)
everybody knows this song as the monkey song, which is kind of a fictional TV show band that kind of became a real band in the 1960s. And Neil wrote this song and it's a humongous hit. We've all heard a million times. It's probably been in a million movies and it gets covered a lot by a lot of different people. This is a good arrangement. It's fine. You know, it's what it is.

Mark (28:01)
Next is Michael Imperioli. He played the Buddy Holly tribute artist. ⁓ Boy, written by Bill Talman, Norman Petty, and Sonny West.

Jon (28:13)
A classic old rock song, one of the best. Buddy Holly was amazing. We may cover him on a future episode of the podcast, so stay tuned. But yeah, and Michael Imperioli does a great job here. He was good in the movie too, as well as Buddy Holly. So a great representation of early classic rock there. And it was a big part of the movie, so good to be included.

Mark (28:32)
Next is Kate Hudson, Walkin' After Midnight. That's written by Alan Block and Don Hecht.

Jon (28:39)
Of course, it's a classic Patsy Cline song. Kate Hudson's character, Thunder, in the movie is also a Patsy Cline impersonator. So it works very well here. And I thought Kate's voice was great on this and she did an excellent job.

Mark (28:50)
Next is the tones that stylized with the letter three instead of an E with Get On Up that's written by Bill Shepard and Gilbert Moorer.

Jon (29:01)
Yes, this is a song done by the Esquires, which is the band that Mike Lighting was in in real life as well too. And the chorus, the pre-chorus is sampled a lot in hip hop. You hear it all over the place. So it's one of those songs maybe you don't think you know that well, but you actually do, because you've been hearing it your whole life, especially in late 80s, mid 80s hip hop.

Mark (29:23)
The next five songs in a row are Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson together, and these are all Neil Diamond songs. The first one is Forever in Blue Jeans.

Jon (29:33)
huge huge Neil Diamond hit. It's a very 70s singer-songwriter type of song. One of his most standout songs The arrangement is good and there's a nice little yeah from Hugh Jackman near the end.

Mark (29:46)
Next is Sweet Caroline.

Jon (29:48)
Everybody knows the song Neil Diamond's most famous song and it's had quite a resurgence over the years. It's used at baseball games, most likely the Boston Red Sox. I worked as a DJ for many, many years. I have played the song countless times. The amount of intoxicated people that have yelled bomp bomp bomp at me in my lifetime must be in the tens of thousands. I get why it's such a huge song. I personally cannot stand it, but hey, it's his biggest song.

And of course, it's going to be featured in the movie and of course, be on the soundtrack.

Mark (30:18)
Next is Play Me.

Jon (30:21)
It's a nice ballad. It kind of reminds me of Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. Very similar sort of vibes, very similar sort of sound, and the harmonies between them all are really good.

Mark (30:32)
Crunchy granola sweet.

Jon (30:35)
This is another upbeat number from Neil. It was used in movie for their first jam scene when the full band gets together. ⁓ I would say Hugh Jackman doesn't quite nail it as well as Neil Diamond does, but it's fun and Kate Hudson's definitely the stronger person on this duet. And yeah, it's got a cool title too. I've always thought that's a strange title for a song even when I saw it as a little kid,

Mark (30:54)
Next is, Holly Holy.

Jon (30:58)
Another big hit for him it works well for the scene the movie that's used in there's not really any deep Neil Diamond cuts here. We're going for all the big hits However at this point, I think I'm to tire a little bit of Hugh Jackman imitating Neil Diamond. It's not as good We looked at it in another episode delivered me from nowhere the Bruce Springsteen movie and Jeremy Allen White recorded a bunch of Bruce Springsteen songs And I think his versions were so convincing Hugh Jackman does a good job here, but I think Jeremy Allen White takes him on that one

Mark (31:26)
We're gonna leave Hugh Jackman for a little bit here. We're gonna go back to Michael Imperioli with Every Day, that's written by Buddy Holly.

Jon (31:33)
Yes, the second Buddy Holly song included here also in the movie. What can I say? Michael does a great Buddy Holly. It's a classic version of the song. Sounds great. It sounds almost like the original. If you didn't know and I had it on low in the background, you would think you're listening to Buddy Holly.

Mark (31:49)
Kate Hudson on her own here with Sweet Dreams. That's written by Don Gibson.

Jon (31:54)
Yes, the second Patsy, Patsy Klein song included here. Not as well known as the other one, but Kate yet again does a great job. I was super impressed with it.

Mark (32:04)
Hugh Jackman on his own, I am, I said written by Neil Diamond.

Jon (32:10)
another Neil Diamond ballad and this one I feel at this point, Hugh's losing it on me. I didn't think his vocals were that strong on this one and that's probably with a ton of production behind it. So you'd probably want to seek out the original if you're a fan.

Mark (32:25)
Next is Kate Hudson on her own. I've been this way before. That's written by Neil Diamond.

Jon (32:31)
I wasn't familiar with this song before the movie actually, I'd never heard it. It was used in the funeral scene for Lightning Mike at the end of the movie. It was a really nice touch, it good song and Kate does a great job as always.

Mark (32:43)
Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are back for the last two songs. First we have a combination. Soolaiman with My Brother's Traveling Salvation Show written by Neil Diamond.

Jon (32:56)
Yeah, I always thought it was just called Brother Loves Traveling Salvation Show. I guess it was kind of two songs at once there. I didn't know that before the movie. Mike is obsessed with this song and this is the one he keeps insisting to everybody, this must open the show, even though it's probably not one of Neil's bigger songs. But, he had his principles and he stuck with them.

Mark (33:15)
Finishing the album, have Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson's song, sung blue, written by Neil Diamond.

Jon (33:21)
And we have gone full circle from the start of the movie to the end of the soundtrack. Name of the movie, name of the documentary, huge song. And it's great cover of it, it's good version.

Mark (33:34)
Looking at the critical reception for this movie, on Rotten Tomatoes right now, Song Sung Blue has 77 % on its tomato meter, 97 % on its popcorn meter. That seems like a pretty wide gap between the two. I was not expecting the gap to be that wide.

On Internet Movie Database, we have a 7.3 out of 10. I think that's a little more in line with what I was expecting.

Jon (34:01)
I would also put it around 7.3, 7.5 out of 10, or 3.5, 4 out of 5. A little bizarre though, the popcorn meter is 97 % and everything else is kind of in line with what we thought it was.

Mark (34:15)
The film has been nominated and has actually won several awards though. Kate Hudson was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. She was also nominated as the Best Actress for the Academy Awards that has yet to occur at the time of this recording, so we don't know if she won that or not. The film also won a couple of smaller film festival awards throughout North America, so I guess it is well received and people do like it.

Jon (34:44)
I think Kate deserves all the nominations that she got for this. I she is, I mean, everyone in this movie is good. There are no real bad performances, but her performance especially is really captivating. It's really well done. You really believe she is this woman after a while. And having also seen the documentary, she captured it perfectly. She's a really great performance for her. So, hey, good luck. Hope she does win the Academy Award. But for everything that we like out there, there are people that don't.

And we have a tradition here at the Rock and Roll Theatre podcast. For every episode, my brother Mark scours the bowels of the internet and finds a one-star review of everything rewatch. No matter how much somebody likes it, there's always a hater out there. So what have you got for us this week, Mark?

Mark (35:25)
This is a review from Rotten Tomatoes. On Rotten Tomatoes, you can actually go lower than one out of five stars. You can give half a star. So we have Mickey G, username capital T, small t, small t, seven six, capital A. This is on January 28th, 2026, half a star out of five.

Jon (35:49)
A half a star is the lowest thing we've ever been able to find for the podcast here. We've gone below one star for this review.

Mark (35:58)
I'll do my best to read it with grammatical errors included.

I think it is genuinely impossible to like this movie if you aren't pushing 40, and not even because it's based on Neil Diamond. It's more the fact that the emotions and tragic events are handled so poorly that there was no way to even slightly care for anyone in the movie, in brackets, like them randomly mentioning he was a war vet just to never further explain it or even bring it up. The acting was nothing special.

I D K why Kate Hudson even got nominated at the Golden Globes. It was such a nothing part in my opinion in brackets. Her character in the movie is very important. It's just so you could swap out the actor and it would be the exact same and someone else should have gotten it. It's just a sad attempt to conjure up old people and pull at their heartstrings. Also,

Hugh Jackman only got this role to try and prove that he can sing and it's unbearable.

Jon (37:12)
Well, our first ever half-star review really brought the hate for this one. I disagree with almost every point that's made here. Kate Hudson's performance is great. Hugh Jackman, yes, well, he does sing in the movie. There's a lot in there too where he doesn't, and he's acting is really good. He's always been a strong performer, and he always will be. And hey, who knew Wolverine could play, Neil Diamond?

Mark (37:33)
Looking at the lasting legacy of Song Sung Blue. I think it's a solid film overall. think the acting performances are very strong. It has tons of music. Like I was saying earlier, basically the entire first half of the movie could be considered a musical just straight up. I also think it's a really interesting concept. It's a biopic of a Neil Diamond cover band rather than Neil Diamond.

but I think it's likely to get lost over time. There's nothing about it that I think captures a large audience. I think it will kind of fall somewhere in the middle of the pack and just sort of peter out without much fuss.

Jon (38:15)
I also thought it was a really strong film. thought the performances were strong. I went in this one kind of cold on purpose. I didn't really, watch any trailers. I just went for the way it was and I really enjoyed it and I liked it. However, in my music circle of friends and community, no one's really talking about this movie and everyone's like, Oh, what's, that one. Yeah, I haven't seen it. So it might get lost and I feel kind of bad because it is a fun movie as well as well as a sad movie in parts two as well and a great love story. Knowing that this is based on a true story and

watching the documentary about it, which is also on YouTube for free. Anyone can go check it out. They stuck really close to the story and it's a really incredible story of Mike and Claire and basically their love story and how their lives went and what a unique, interesting, somewhat weird way to live your life as somebody else basically. It's a really cool look into that kind of world and a cool snapshot into performing and what it's like to be performer when you're not necessarily, the Pearl Jam guy or the Neil Diamond guy, but you still want to have a career.

This is kind of the story of that but I mean overall I liked it. I thought it was good But like mark said I think it might get lost over time, which is a little bit of a shame

And that's Song Sung Blue. Thank you so much for joining us tonight in the Rock and Roll Theatre. If you have a quick moment wherever you're at in the world, if you could like, comment, subscribe, five stars, whatever the case may be. We have older episodes too, so make sure you check out our back catalog. Lots of cool stuff, lots of fun stuff there. But for now, the theatre is closed and we'll see you next time.