I’m a big baseball fan. The title of this post (for the un-baseball fans out there) refers to the situation where a pitcher – known as the ‘closer’ – is brought into the game with his team leading in the 9th inning to get the final three outs – sometimes only one or two outs. If he is successful in maintaining the lead and winning the game for his team, he is credited with a “save”.
I received a question in the comments from Phillip yesterday:
“My question for you is regarding Season 1 Episode 9 ‘Life in the Fast Lane’. What song is played during the scene where Homer carries Marge out of the Nuclear Power Plant? It sounds like “Up Where We Belong” however it is a different version. I’ve been looking around the internet for quite some time now with no luck in finding it. Thanks so much for your help!”
I thought I covered this in a previous post, so I spent some time word-searching the blog for the answer to point Phillip to that post. Alas, my memory is playing tricks on me as I cannot find any such post. If, by some weird chance, I did already tell this story, forgive the rerun (or “encore performance” as they like to call it now).
At the end of the music spotting session for 7G11 “Life On The Fast Lane”…
SIDEBAR: OOH! WAIT! Fun story about the title. It was originally titled “Bjorn To Be Wild” because the man that Marge almost had her affair with was first written as a Swedish tennis instructor. Then it got changed – don’t know if it was the writers or Albert Brooks – to the French bowling instructor Jacques. For a while the title became “Jacques To Be Wild”
which was kind of fun and quirky, but didn’t make much sense. Eventually the episode was renamed “Life On The Fast Lane” which has a punny bowling reference in it.
…where was I? At the end of the music spotting session for 7G11 “Life On The Fast Lane” we came to that final scene that parodies “An Officer And A Gentleman” and the music that you hear was temped into the cut we were watching. I piped up and asked, “Did you clear that music? Is that what we are going to use in the show?” And I was told, “Yes, we are. We cleared ‘Up Where We Belong.'” I immediately had the same reaction Phillip had. The cue is an instrumental that has some of the melody line from “Up Where We Belong”, but it was not the song version that was a big hit at the time the movie was released. I pointed this out to the producers and they said they’d look into it.
A few days later I received a “thank you” call from the producers telling me that I was right and that they had cleared the wrong cue. The name of the instrumental is “Up Where We Belong (Zack Gets Paula)”
I was credited with my first “save” as music editor on THE SIMPSONS. I’ve had a few more since then, but the timing of that one was pretty significant because the show was still new, I was still new to the producing team, and I had showed them that my head was in the game and an asset to the production.
That’s it. A cool anecdote from nearly 26 years ago that I still remember clearly. Where are my car keys?
Simpsons Music 500 
Howly… I’m actually traveling and just remembered that scene and this was something I’ve had almost 30 years haunting me in my head. Well, thank you for the information! And for all the good moments we’ve had with the show!
You’re welcome!
I have a question about some of your non-Simpsons work. While I am more of a Simpsons gal myself, my mom is a big Hallmark channel fan and has been hounding me for years to find the soundtrack for one of their movies called, “The Love Letter.” The only information I can find is that you were the music editor. Do you have any memory of this movie or any idea how to hunt down the music? Not to add any pressure but my mom has been sick and it would mean a lot to her if I could find it. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you kindly, sir! I enjoy your work.
Hi. The music for The Love Letter was never commercially available. I do see that copied of the movie are for sale at Amazon and eBay in various formats. I really enjoyed working on this movie and worked for many years with its composer, Bob Cobert. Bob sadly passed away last year. If you search our names together on IMDB you’ll se we did numerous projects together over about a ten year period.
Hello Chris, is there a I could legally obtain a copy of “Up Where We Belong (Zack Gets Paula)”?
Thanks,
Nick
I did a little poking around the ‘net and it seems that the only soundtrack album from AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN that was released contained only the songs used in the movie, not the underscore cues. BUT, I did find a clip of the ending of the movie (click here) so you can hear the cue. I also found a clip of OUR scene (click here) using that music at the end of LIFE ON THE FAST LANE. Enjoy!
That’s a pretty cool story about Life In The Fast Lain. I actually think of the Eagles song and the guitar riff when I read or hear that title, as apposed to the bowling pun in the title. By the way, I noticed the song was different too but it didn’t really strike me as odd.
By the way, I was one of the many who wished you a happy birthday on Twitter on Thursday. Thanks for liking my tweet and you can check out my blog if you like. Al Jean has helped me out sometimes and I also do my own research into what I am writing about. One thing that I am curious about is who plays the guitar in the episode The Otto Show? He is obviously a great shredder and he sounds very much like a 1980s guitarist. I play too and have perfect pitch.
Oh, has anyone thought of using any music by Slipknot in the show for some seen which involves anything really spooky, like in a Treehouse Of Horror episode? There are probably a few songs that would be perfect for The Simpsons, despite them being a very heavy band.
Thanks for all the kind words and birthday wishes. I can’t remember back to The Otto Show to pick out who the guitarist was and I don’t keep lists of our orchestra personnel. But, the three guitarists we have regularly used over the years are George Doering, John Goux, and Tim May so I feel confident it was one of them.
Thanks. I’ve been trying to find out through other sources and had no luck. I’m looking forward to your next post and mine will be coming down the pick in about an hour or so.