Celebrity Rock: People Like Us (1986)

Before he joined the Blues Brothers, even before he became a TV icon as blue collar breadwinner Dan Connor on Roseanne, John Goodman made one of his first movie appearances in 1986's "True Stories", written & directed by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.

The soundtrack CD that was released was a de facto Heads album, rather than use the same songs, but performed by the cast instead of the band. Byrne had lobbied his label, Sire Records, to use the cast performances, but the label opted instead to have the Heads record the songs themselves. As it turned out, the Heads got two hits out of the CD, "Love For Sale" and the riotous "Wild, Wild Life". Goodman, performing as "The Country Bachelor", knocked one out of the park with his rendition of "People Like Us", commanding the stage as if he were a hardy veteran, his vocals in sharp contrast to Byrne's version on the CD.

Uploaded by bookr98:



I think Byrne realized he had a potential hit on his hands, but the label suits disagreed. Who was right? You be the judge.