Friday, September 20, 2013

Thou Shalt Not.... February 2, 1974



A terrible thing to do to a wonderful series
I am reviewing this DVD set, not the series, which is one of my favorites.

I pre-ordered this DVD set as soon as I possibly could, so that I could replace my not-very-high-quality, copied-from-TV episodes on bulky VHS tapes with clean copies on a few DVD's. It had been a while since I had watched the episodes, so I didn't notice anything wrong until I reached "Good Morning, Peoria." When Chick and Rachel were dancing that romantic dance, all I could think was, "Huh? What the heck happened to the music? Wasn't there a *real* song there before?" So I did some digging on the Internet, to make sure my memory wasn't playing tricks on me, and was absolutely horrified to discover that the music in various episodes had been changed. Most especially I was flabbergasted that they messed with the soundtrack of "M.I.A." That is one of the best episodes in the series, and the music felt as much a part of the story as the words. I played the final scene from the DVD, and it was...

A lot more than "Georgia On My Mind" is missing
If you do an internet search with the words "Quantum Leap: The Definitive Music List" you can find a complete list of all the songs that have been removed, along with the episode they were originally in, and also the famous songs that were not removed. Here's a quick rundown of the songs that are missing:

DISCO INFERNO:

"That's the Way I Like It" by K.C. & The Sunshine Band; "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas; "Do The Hustle" by Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony.

GOOD MORNING, PEORIA:

"All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley; "Maybe Baby" by Buddy Holly & The Crickets; "Yakkety Yak (Don't Talk Back)" by The Coasters; "Jail House Rock" by Elvis Presley; "Shout" by The Isley Brothers.

THOU SHALT NOT:

"Locomotion" by Little Eva; "Killing Me Softly" by Roberta Flack.

ANIMAL FRAT:

"Louie, Louie" by The Kingsmen (even though you can see characters mouthing the words in the episode); "Surfin' USA" by The Beach...

Don't buy this, buy the Region 2 version!
As some of the other reviewers have mentioned, this US release has replaced the original source music. But the Region 2 version has been released without these cuts, so for everyone with a multiregion player, I'd suggest using amazon.co.uk to buy a copy there instead!

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