Music That Matters (Top 50 Movie Symphonies): #24 Beach Merengue Mix by Ira Newborn

At #24 is the first of two brilliant merengue tunes composed by Ira Newborn and heard in the classic 1990 comedy, My Blue Heaven. For those of you not familiar with Newborn's work, he also has composed scores for important movies like Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Mallrats. Newborn probably is most famous for composing the theme from the 1982 cult TV series Police Squad which would be reused in the three Naked Gun movies. Ira Newborn might not be one of the most familiar composers or even been nominated for an Oscar, yet his themes including the merengue tunes in My Blue Heaven have achieved cult status.

The Beach Merengue mix is the second merengue tune heard in the movie. During Barney Coopersmith's (played by the great Rick Moranis) company picnic, based on the fact that he now has experience with the dance thanks to some prior coaching from Vincent Antonelli (Steve Martin), he wants to impress his date and dance the merengue with his date, Hannah Stubbs (played by Joan Cusack). Barney tips the band leader a few bucks to play some merengue music which he is more than happy to oblige on. At first Hannah is hesitant, especially since she is a lot taller then him and also is a bit of a prude herself. But soon enough, the couple are having a great time performing the dance and then taking their dance moves all over the beach. Not only is the song a hit with Barney and Hannah, but Barney's partner Kirby can't seem to stop his feet from moving even though his colleagues would probably look down on him for being a sissy. So Kirby (played by Bill Irwin) also goes off on his own and dances up quite a storm until he almost trips and breaks his leg. Although not as good as the original meringue scene which I'll be writing up later on the countdown, this scene is still magnificent and really clues you in on the fact that Barney Coopersmith does have a personality and is a fun guy thanks in part to his Mob boss turned state witness and new friend, Vincent. The music really works over the scene in which two former straight-edged characters have shed their rough interiors to have a great time which probably will lead to some bedroom activity

By the way, this song is extremely difficult to obtain!! The My Blue Heaven soundtrack was never released, and the Beach Merengue mix was never added to itunes or available on any peer to peer networks. My brother was only able to get his hands on the song from another soundtrack collector on the internet that claimed he got them directly from Ira Newborn himself.

Ladies and gentlemen... #24 The Beach Merengue Mix by Ira Newborn from My Blue Heaven