Search - :: What's Up, Tiger Lily? / You're A Big Boy Now: 2 Classic Original Soundtracks

The Lovin' Spoonful's dismal track record in reissues obscures their glories as an ebullient '60s folk-rock band from Greenwich Village that bucked the style's West Coast dominance. While not their finest work, this coupling of their two forays into film music--for two then-fledgling filmmakers, Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola--shares a what-the-hell exuberance appropriate to Allen's antic, redubbed Japanese spy flick and Coppola's flawed but engaging coming-of-age comedy. The 1966 film What's Up, Tiger Lily? gets top billing but is the slighter work, boiling down to a terrific, typically funny title theme ("Pow") and various reprises, plus variants on earlier album tracks ("Fishin' Blues" and "Cocoanut Grove") and a folk standard. Their soundtrack for 1967's You're a Big Boy Now is more ambitious, adding orchestral arrangements and cohering around three solid originals, including the tender, romantic "Darling, Be Home Soon," plus more fully realized cues. Film buffs will be disappointed at the annotation's pop-centric spin, but the band's fans will be grateful for another spoonful of their scrappy, good-natured music. --Sam Sutherland