It's official, giant Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic World has set records, raking in almost $400 million dollars domestically, the second film ever to top $100 million dollars on two separate weekends. On one hand, we at the Weekly are in complete awe at the tremendous financial success of the film, as well as our insatiable zeal for seeing dinosaurs come to life across the silver screen. However, part of us were seriously thinking about how the film could be an even bigger success. Our answer: the music.
Now, we all remember John Williams' essential theme from the original Jurassic Park, a track which has found a second life via Jurassic World reigniting audiences' nostalgia, bringing the track to the very top of the Billboard Classical Digital Songs Charts this week, over two decades from the film's original release. That said, we were a little bit disappointed with composer Michael Giacchino score for Jurassic World. While we've been a fan of Giacchino's work (namely his Oscar and Grammy winning score for Up) there's something about his work for Jurassic World that, for a film which so loosely is playing to our nostalgic fan-service already, gives a little too much of Williams' original score. If Giacchino really wanted to made some nods to dino-music's past, he should have incorporated a greater array of songs about our best friends from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Here are five songs that should have been in Jurassic World.
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Was (Not Was) – “Walk the Dinosaur”
The same group who gave us the unhinged frantic fury of “Hi Dad, I'm in Jail” comes the toe-tapping standard from every 2-CD party-themed music set ever sold on television, Was (Not Was)'s “Walk the Dinosaur.” It's aged well, and will probably still sound great in another 65 million years. This would have been effective during the scenes in the film when characters opened the door, got on the floor and/or walked the dinosaurs.
Johnny Cash – “The Dinosaur Song”
One of the most important figures in American music, Johnny Cash's ripple effect extends through not just country and rock music, but in the children's albums he created. His song about dinosaurs, fittingly called “The Dinosaur Song” is actually scientifically accurate in terms of how much fun playing with a live dinosaur would likely be.
Norman Foote – “The Dinosaur and The Progress Of Man”
Canadian singer-songwriter and comedian Norman Foote had been actively making jazzy fun children's music for over two decades. Foote left a particularly deep dinosaur-sized footprint in the back of the minds of early 90s children with his incomparable “The Dinosaur and the Progress of Man.” Recorded for Walt Disney Records, the track's ultra-stylized music video became a regular “Music Break” in-between shows on The Disney Channel. There's a good chance a number of curious now-grown-ups will find this clip by Googling the refrain “the day the dinosaur came to life / and gave a poor farmer a terrible fright.” It would have been a lot easier to inform the lost 90s kids had the song been included with proper credits in Jurassic World.
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Suga Free – “Last of the Dinosaur”
OK, so technically this isn't a song about dinosaurs per se, but is it Suga Free talking about pimping, which is appropriate for any and all occasions. Imagine Chris Pratt smacking a raptor to this. Wouldn't that be slick? Or if they T-Rex was lured out for the final battle with “Last of the Dinosaur's” absolute slaps on the beat? It just makes sense, people.
“Weird” Al Yankovic – “Jurassic Park”
So, yes, its inclusion in Jurassic World might open up a meta-wormhole that would make everyone generally uncomfortable with the idea of nostalgia itself, but some sort of nod to “Weird” Al Yankovic's take on Jimmy Webb's “MacArthur Park” would have been a welcome gesture for the rite-of-passage nerd album contingent. Although, it would be fairly problematic to explain how the original Jurassic Park's existence in the universe of Jurassic World is that of a notorious tragedy, meaning “Weird” Al would hypothetically have developed a sadistically dark streak to mock such an event.
See also:
The 50 Best Things About the OC Music Scene
The 50 Worst Things About the OC Music Scene
The 25 Greatest OC Bands of All Time: The Complete List
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