Favorite Songs From Movies Top Ten: The Rubberband Man (#5)

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Next month, in celebration of my birthday, will be another look at songs that are turning 60 this year. But you still have five more songs from movies to endure. Get up and dance to the next song on my list! #5: The Rubberband Man - Spinners Or, “how to ruin a song (in a good way).” This great tune was used in the mud wrestling scene in Stripes, and for years that’s all I could see any time I heard this song. (Of course, Stripes also ruined “Do Wah Diddy” for me. ) Let’s start with Stripes. The first half of the movie was filmed in Louisville. If you look in the background when John Winger (Bill Murray’s character) throws his keys into the river you’ll see the Belknap Building. (That’s now part of Humana’s headquarters.) “Fort Arnold” was actually Fort Knox. And the exteriors for the mud wrestling scene that featured this song were shot along Jefferson Street, which needed no embellishment because it had a LOT of sleazy places in those days. (It’s a Marriott hotel now.) John Larroquette, who played Captain Stillman, was so drunk that broke his nose running into the door during the missing EM-50 scene; and Warren Oates, who was Sergeant Hulka, suffered some dental damage during the obstacle course scene. Oates died shortly after the film was released in 1982. That year, Larroquette got sober. He frequently makes lectures at AA meetings (you can find a couple on You Tube), and when he won his third Emmy for playing Dan Fielding on Night Court he said, “I’d like to thank God and Bill W. for teaching me how to live.” Oh, the song? Wow. I bought the 45 when it came out in 1976. It’s long been a favorite. And I can finally hear it without seeing a mental picture of John Candy covered in mud with five scantily-clad women wrestling him. The Rubberband Man Written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed Recorded by the Spinners From Stripes, 1982 The band got down when it finally reached his nose: