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It Was Thirty Years Ago This Week That Ferris Bueller Took a Day Off

The other piece of John Hughes-related news this weekend (the other being the death of Flesh for Lulu singer Nick Marsh) is the 30th anniversary of the release of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Crazy how the film is still so popular…

From The Independent:

Sure, it might not be as easy to feign illness in 2015, not least because you’re more liable to leave a trail of social media (plus dads don’t tend to wear trench coats and trilbys anymore, making it harder to emancipate your girl from high school), but that sense of needing to escape, even just to mooch about in town and try and gather some sense of perspective, is still something most of us can relate to.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off followed Hughes’ other cult classics The Breakfast Club and Sixteeen Candles and made $70 million at the box office despite having a budget of just $5 million and taking him just six days to write the script.

Like all Hughes movies, the soundtrack was pretty damn cool for the era.  I remember trying and trying to track down the record but for some reason, it was either (a) extremely rare; or (b) nonexistent. The movie features material from Big Audio Dynamite (“Bad”), Sigue Sigue Sputnik (“Love Missile F1-11”), Yello (that damn “Oh, Yeah”) and the Beatles (“Twist and Shout”). But the one song I wanted most was the Dream Academy’s version of the Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.”

I never did find a copy of the soundtrack, but I did managed to get the DA song on some weirdo obscure import retro compilation.

Just remember: Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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One thought on “It Was Thirty Years Ago This Week That Ferris Bueller Took a Day Off

  • Apparently a soundtrack album of sorts was released on vinyl in 1994. That Japanese import pops up at eBay from time to time (it’s actually a double-LP set).

    Reply

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