Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [127]
3. “Kokomo,” from the 1988 film, Cocktail, which won the Worst Movie of the Year award and for which Tom Cruise was nominated for Worst Actor.
4. “Werewolves in London,” the Warren Zevon song from the 1986 film, The Color of Money soundtrack, performed/butchered by Elena Rogero. There is no way to explain how bad this was; you had to see it to believe it.
5. “Mondo ’77,” from the 2001 film Vanilla Sky. This song has no lyrics so what appeared to be an interpretive dance was performed by three of the girls from Mad Hatter Studios. None of them dance professionally and this was well demonstrated in the video.
6. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” from Top Gun soundtrack, performed by Stacey Francis.
7. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” from the Cocktail soundtrack performed/butchered by Elena Rogero.
8. “Iko Iko,” from the 1988 film, Rain Man soundtrack performed by Stacey Francis.
9. “Tutti Frutti,” from Cocktail soundtrack performed by Stacey Francis.
10. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” from Top Gun, performed/butchered by Elena Rogero.
11. “Take My Breath Away,” [Love Theme from Top Gun] performed by Stacey Francis.
12. “Sympathy for the Devil,” from Interview with the Vampire butchered/hacked to millions of little pieces by Elena Rogero.
13. “Playing With the Boys,” from Top Gun, attempted by Stacey Francis, the song was so far out of her range that she broke into laughter throughout the song when she could not hit the notes.
14. “Mission Impossible” theme, done “Limp Bizkit” style by Chris Maio and the rest of the Golden Era Musicians.
15. “Old Time Rock and Roll” reprise where Tom Cruise got up and sang the song with Stacey Francis, sweaty pits, bad dancing and all.
When the show ended, there was a full minute of applause and a standing ovation.
Tom Cruise stood in front of the crowd and said the following:
“Whoa! ...(laughing)...Thank you! ...(laughing)...I’m just... I am not… I don’t know where I am right now.”
Crowd laughs.
“You know, you have to be there to understand this reality. Ya know how that is? This is incredible, this is just, I will never, this is just, how do I thank you?
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
“This was the best, best birthday ever, ever, ever, ever, I mean EVER!”
It was over. It was by far the cheesiest performance ever recorded by seven broadcast quality cameras in the history of the world.
But would Dave be happy? There were screw-ups during the performance and these did not go unnoticed. But Tom Cruise was happy, that meant no matter what happened, Dave could not be that upset. Overall, the gig was a success and Tom Cruise was apparently happy.
The big day had come and gone. The show was put on. We were on pins and needles back at Gold. From all accounts on the ground, it seemed to have gone off okay.
Tom was happy and this would represent itself in many ways. Over the next few days, a lot of the musicians and a few other crew stayed at the Freewinds instead of immediately returning home to the Int Base.
Tom was trying to get a theme song nailed down for Mission Impossible III, which was in pre-production, and he wanted the Gold Musicians to help come up with some ideas for this. I mean, how could he have not come to this conclusion? Danny Elfman updated the theme in 1996 and it was a huge hit.
In 2000, the band Limp Bizkit totally reinvented it for Mission Impossible II and that movie was the most successful of the Mission Impossible franchise to date.
If the Gold Musicians could come up with a red-hot theme for the new movie, they would be stars forevermore. Just getting to work with Tom Cruise was considered a privilege. Here he was asking them for their help! But trying to get the Golden Era Musicians to come up with something that was even on the same level as the previous versions was a joke. They knew it and it only took so many hours before Tom would as well. After two days of back and forth with the musicians, Tom Cruise no longer needed their help. They came up with nothing.
In fact, in the process of trying to work