Light Of Day was a movie that came out in 1987 starring Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox as two musicians struggling to make it in the tough, no-holds-barred world of the Cleveland bar scene. It was a box-office dud that went nowhere and is remembered now more for its (out-of-print) soundtrack and that Trent Reznor is in one scene for about two seconds.

While the soundtrack itself is out of print, most of the songs on it were either from other albums to begin with or have since been included on other albums, so I’m not featuring the entire album, only some highlights that are still hard-to-find, as well as the title track, which is just awesome.

The Barbusters
Light Of Day
It’s All Coming Down Tonight
Rude Mood
All three of these tracks are credited to The Barbusters, which was the band in the film. “Light Of Day” is the stand-out, which makes sense since Bruce Springsteen wrote the tune. “It’s All Coming Down Tonight” is kind of meh, while “Rude Mood” is an instrumental blues song and a cover to boot, the original being by Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The Hunzz -Rabbit’s Got The Gun
Now, I’ve never seen Light Of Day, but I’m assuming that The Hunnz is a band that Joan Jett joins later in the movie, since she sings on this track too. The Hunnz are actually a band called Joined Forces, but I don’t know anything else about them.

Michael J. Fox – You Got No Place To Go
That’s right, Michael J. Fox decided to perform a song solo for the movie. It’s…not bad, but Fox’s vocals are about as strained as can possibly be for this one.

Rick Cox, Chas Smith, Jon C. Clarke & Michael Boddicker – Elegy
This is a quiet instrumental number that I’m betting closed out the film. It’s very minimal and I’m kind of shocked that it took four people to record it. Of those four the only one I recognize is Boddicker, he’s probably known to nerds as the composer of the Buckaroo Bonzai theme. He also is a session musician and has worked with Michael Jackson in the past.

In case you’re wondering the other tracks from the soundtrack were:
The Barbusters (Joan Jett) – This Means War
The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Twist It Off
Ian Hunter – Cleveland Rocks (Live)
Dave Edmunds – Stay With Me Tonight
Bon Jovi – Only Lonely

Get the live version of “Cleveland Rocks”, it’s bitchin’.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 4:19 am and is filed under Joan Jett, soundtrack. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.