Brunch With the Breakfast Club
Don't you forget about brunch!
The Breakfast Club (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), 1985
What do a princess, jock, outcast, brainiac, and rebel have in common? The answer on paper is absolutely nothing, but in reality these five teenagers learn they are a lot more alike than they realize. Their natural disdain for authority and adult figures brings them together on one Saturday in detention.
This realization is brought to life by their assistant principal’s task for the day. To write a one thousand word essay on, ‘Who You Are.’ Little did they know it would force them all to explore the hard truths of being a teenager. They all begin to open up and talk to each other about why they are in detention and these reasons also explain each character’s outer persona that they want the world to see, as well as a side that was well hidden from society.Â
John Hughes’ cult classic, The Breakfast Club, explores the complex life of teenagers in the 80’s who in reality really are misunderstood by themselves as much as their parents. It is 1985 and the Vietnam War generation’s children are exploring adolescence and realizing they really are rebels without a cause. Their struggles are real though; peer pressure, meeting the lofty expectations of their parents, and conformity.
The Music of the Breakfast Club
John Hughes wanted the soundtracks in his movies to be reflected in the teenagers he brought to life on the silver screen. The music chosen was a popular genre titled, New Wave.
New Wave is considered a catch-all for 80s pop music that came after the Punk movement of the late 70s. This music also introduced us to synthesizers, electronic sounds, and a departure from the political and social undertones of its predecessor. This included groups such as, The Psychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, and many others.
Hughes knew his audience and as someone who had an ear for music he knew the best way to reach them was understanding their music and how it captured their feelings. What better way to do that than open and end his movie with the most iconic song in any 80s soundtrack (in my opinion), Simple Minds hit song, Don’t You Forget About Me.
To accomplish this task he brought in Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff to find the perfect mood setting music to what he anticipated to be his directorial debut. Before helping create the soundtrack to, The Breakfast Club, Forsey won an Academy Award for co-writing Irene Cara’s hit for the movie Flashdance, Oh What A Feeling. He also wrote the song, Don’t You Forget About Me as well as co-writing Wang Chung’s song in the movie, Fire in the Twilight which would almost make its way to the top 100 songs on the Billboard music charts by landing at 110 on the list.
Other songs in the film included, Karla Devito’s song, We Are Not Alone. You might remember this song as the one the teenagers danced to during their detention.
Elizabeth Daily’s song, Waiting was also present on the soundtrack. Both did not rise to fame with their songs but they were important to the mood and theme of the movie nonetheless which was carefully selected by Hughes himself.
The Song That Almost Wasn’t
One would think such an iconic song was going to be performed by one of the biggest artists at the time. In reality it was but life had a strange way of getting in the way. At first John Hughes offered the song to Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music who had to decline as his father just recently passed away. After Ferry refused Hughes then moved on to Billy Idol (who also declined) and Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders, who also declined after realizing she would have to do a music video which to her was out of the question as she was pregnant at the time. She loved the song so much that she passed the song to her then husband (they ended up divorcing in 1990), Jim Kerr, the lead singer for Simple Minds.
Hughes and music producer Keith Forsey pitched the idea to Kerr and his bandmates who were not overly impressed with the overall song, but after deliberation the group decided to record the song as they felt it might make their entrance into the US market easier. Little did they know it would rocket them to stardom and appearances at Live Aid (where they did a three song set) and Saturday Night Live (one of the a cast members for their appearance was none other than Anthony Michael Hall who starred in the movie).
The song was recorded over a 3 hour period at a Wembley recording studio which included such improvisations that one can sing along to: ‘La La La La’ and ‘Hey Hey Hey’ and placed on the soundtrack produced by A&M Records.
Not bad for someone’s last choice to perform the opening and closing number in the movie. As of 2020 the song has been played more than 200,000,000 times on YouTube and sold over a million copies worldwide.
Here’s To You Mr. Vernon
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Breakfast Club Bloody Mary (serves 2-4 people)
2 cups vodka
4 cups tomato juice
1 tablespoon horseradish, or to taste
5 dashes hot sauce, or to taste
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
You can also add skewers with assorted items such as candied bacon, buffalo tenders, pickles, etc. to compliment your Breakfast Club Bloody Mary.