Episode 4

(Episode title:  Cinderbella)

 

“Have It All,” by Jeremy Kay (on his album, Jeremy Kay, 2000)

Played in episode 3 while Paige gives Bella a French manicure, and tells her she plans to bed Scout.  Played again near the start of episode 4, when Sean brings Bella lobster rolls, and she calls him a prince.

The lyrics of "Have It All" are given on the "Episode 3" page of the "Songs" subsection of the "Music of YA" section of Rawley Revisited.


“Opened Eyes,” written by Luke Ehret and Margot Paige, performed by Idol (on their album, Idol, 1999)

 Played during two girl-girl scenes:  in episode 3 when Paige drives into Bella’s gas station, and in episode 4 when Bella asks Grace to cover her shift so that she can attend the cotillion with Will.

One of  three songs by Idol ("Opened Eyes," "The One," and "So Little") played in the soundtrack of Young Americans.

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The lyrics of "Opened Eyes" are given on the "Episode 3" page of the "Songs" subsection of the "Music of YA" section of Rawley Revisited.  A 2.5 MB MP3 file of the song is accessible from the bottom of that webpage.

 

“Ooh! Look-a There Ain’t She Pretty,” by Clarence Todd and Carmen Lombardo, first performed by The Charioteers (1947), as performed by Red and the Red Hots (on their album, Boogie Man, 1998)

A classic swing dance number.  The first song played at the Rawley summer cotillion.

Ooh look-a there ain't she pretty 

Ooh look at her she's a beauty

Look at her hair, look at her curls,

look at her teeth, look at her pearls


Ooh look-a there ain't she pretty

She looks like a beautiful wax doll

and you are bound to fall

I like-a the dress, I like-a the hose,

I like-a the hat, I like-a the pose


Ooh, look-a there ain't she pretty

She looks like a beautiful wax doll

and you are bound to fall

I like-a the dress, I like-a the hose,

I like-a the hat, I like-a the pose


Ooh, look-a there ain't she pretty

Ooh look-a there ain't she pretty


Comment:  The dancing during this song, far livelier than any other at the cotillion and featuring faces not subsequently seen (presumably professional dancers), serves to display the talents of Robin Antin, whom credits for Young Americans show as its choreographer.  In 1995 Robin, the sister of Young Americans’ creator, Steven Antin, founded the PussyCat Dolls burlesque troupe, an enterprise in which Steven Antin has been active.  The Antins, like Scout Calhoun in episode 1 of Young Americans, take dancing seriously.  Not by accident does the drama climax at a dance.


“I Won’t Stand in Your Way,” composed by Brian Setzer, performed by The Stray Cats (on their album, Rant ‘n Rave with The Stray Cats, 1993)

Played as Will escorts Bella into Rawley’s summer cotillion.

I’ve got a low down dirty feeling 

That I've been cheated on, and lied to 

If it's so then it's wrong, 

we've hung on for so long 

Why don't we have that magic anymore 


I got a strange sneaking suspicion 

That it's been going on for some time now 

Something shines in your eyes, 

Something hurts deep inside 

I won't stand in your way anymore 


You said that I'm just a little guy 

Who's easily led astray 

Well aren't you the same little girl 

Who always gets her way?


Comment:  The lyrics of this song, about cheating, lying and “loss of magic” in a relationship, contrast jarringly with the visual context of its use in Young Americans.  In this scene, Will and Bella are visually the perfect couple, she in a wedding gown, and all eyes on them.   This scene powerfully symbolizes what many other scenes in Young Americans suggest – that Will ends up married to Bella, an artist-writer in love with beauty. 

But in fact they’re not a couple at all yet – at least, not inside Will’s dream that is Young Americans.  They won’t even start to become a couple until the last episode of the drama, when proximity to Jake and Hamilton seems to begin catalyzing their mutual compassion into passion.  They haven’t lost the magic, they’ve never had it.  But that’s about to change, because Hamilton is about to pass the “test of true love,” and, in so doing, unite Bella and Will, not just Jake and himself.


“Maddest Kind of Love,” written by Scotty Morris, performed by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (on their album, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, 1994)

A song by a contemporary swing revival group.  Played when Hamilton first sees Jake at the cotillion, and Lena tells him he and Jake are obviously in love, and that he should throw caution to the wind

   

The maddest kind of love 

is a love you know is wrong 

It burns a hole right through your soul 

And cuts you like a knife.


The maddest kind of love

is a love you know won't last 

It fills your heart with passion 

And makes you lie about your past. 


You know I speak from experience 

I live it each day 

It's something she does 

It's something she'll say 

It's the maddest kind of love. 


The maddest kind of love

is a love just for the thrill 

It doesn't have a conscience 

Only lives... for the kill 


The maddest kind of love

is a love you know's a lie 

It leaves you feeling empty 

To weak too cold to cry


Comment:  The irony with which the lyrics describe Hamilton’s love for Jake is delicious.

(The word "ironic" is used repeatedly in the dialogue of Young Americans in episodes 3 and 7 to let us know that the irony that pervades the drama is deliberate.  But more persuasive still, Hamilton, at his moment of greatest passion, is about to check the toilet stalls to make sure they're empty, saying he's throwing caution to the wind as he does so.)


 “Since I don’t have you,” by The Skyliners (1958), performed by the Brian Setzer Orchestra (on their album, The Dirty Boogie, 1998).

A doo-wop rock-and-roll song played while Scout talks with Bella at the Rawley summer cotillion.

During the early 1990s, Brian Setzer transitioned from The Stray Cats, a small rockabilly group, to The Brian Setzer Orchestra, a larger swing revival band. 

      I don't have plans and schemes 

And I don't have hopes and dreams 

Baby, I just don't have anything 

Since I don't have you 


I don't have fond desires 

And I don't have happy hours 

Baby, I just don't have anything, anything 

Since I don't have you, I don't have you 

I don't have happiness 

And I guess I never will ever again 


When you walked out on me 

In walked old misery 

And he's been here since then 

I don't have love to share 

And I don't have one who cares 

Baby, I just don't have anything 

Since I don't have you, I don't have you 

I don't have happiness 

And I guess I never will ever again 


When you walked out on me 

In walked old misery 

And he's been here since then 

I don't have love to share 

And I don't have one who cares 

Baby, I just don't have anything 

Since I don't have you


Comment:  Young Americans' cotillion-episode use of this song, as of "The Maddest Kind of Love," is fraught with irony.   Scout proves almost as unwilling as Bella to risk what he has to investigate the allegation that he and Bella are half-siblings.  If he were truly in love with Bella, he’d already have found out that it’s false.

The two songs help these two cotillion scenes to highlight, ironically, the contrast between Hamilton’s willingness to risk and sacrifice everything to save Jake and Scout’s unwillingness to take risks to love Bella.  That contrast is Young Americans in a nutshell.  But it’s not that Scout is less loving than Hamilton; it’s more that Bella isn’t nearly so needy, so at risk, as Jake.  Scout has choices; Hamilton has no choice.  Compassion responds to urgent need, giving birth passion, as inexorably as fate follows from character in a Greek tragedy.  When a broken-winged raven shows up at your window with the courage to hope for a miracle, your fate is sealed:  you can’t not give it.


“That’s No Lie,” written by David Young (music) Julius Robinson (lyrics), performed by Patrick Tuzzolino, published (i.e., deposited with the U.S. Copyright Office) by Project R Music and Free Hand Music (on one of three cassettes submitted to that office by Project R and Free Hand in 1987 and 1988).

This song, played during the Jake-Hamilton interaction at the cotillion, was written for prospective sale to TV and film producers for use in soundtracks.  Its widespread misattribution to “PEN Swing” – no entity by that name exists – dates from a summer 2000 error in the musical credits on the official website of Young Americans.  That error may have resulted from this song’s having been marketed to Young Americans as a swing number through PEN Music Group, an LA-based distributor of such works founded in 1994.

This song also is played – even more fragmentarily than in Young Americans – in the 1997 film, Stag, directed by Gavin Wilding.  Although it plays for only about 30 seconds, about 5:45 minutes into that film, it is unmistakably the same song played in episode 4 of Young Americans during the Jake-Hamilton interaction at the cotillion.  The musical credits at the end of Stag include the following entry:  “THAT'S NO LIE / Written by Julius Robinson and David Young / Performed by Patrick Tuzzolino / Published by Project R Music and Free Hand Music / Courtesy of Skywriter Productions, Inc.”  This accreditation is also accessible online in the musical credits for Stag on the IMDB website.  The credits at the end of Stag also include a thank-you to Julius Robinson and Cindi Avnet-Robison (Robinson's wife and heiress to the Avnet radio-equipment fortune). This, plus the language in the credits saying that "That's No Lie" was provided "courtesy of" Skywriter Productions,” then Robinson's corporate façade, suggests that Stag used the song gratis.

Julius Robinson (born 1954), who writes, records and sells soundtrack songs for a living, does so, as of 2014, through Uprising Entertainment, his biography on the website of which says that he previously did so through Skywriter Productions, which he founded in 1992.  Patrick Tuzzolino specializes in singing swing jazz songs.  Information about David Young seems less readily accessible, although he, too, plainly writes soundtrack songs professionally, and Copyright Office records indicate that he was born in 1955.

“That’s No Lie” is listed in the online repertoire of Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), from which it may be purchased, as BMI Work #4127382; its description in the BMI repertoire is identical to that in the credits of Stag.  “That’s No Lie” seems to have been deposited with the Copyright office of the Library of Congress among the following deposits listed by that office’s online catalog of copyrighted works: 

The full lyrics of “That’s No Lie” are unknown; one could read them at the U.S. Copyright Office, but one wouldn’t be allowed to photocopy them or even take written notes without permission from Julius Robinson.  In episode 4 of Young Americans, only fragments of the lyrics of “That’s No Lie” are audible enough even to guess at.  An effort to transcribe those fragments is offered below:  

Could be talkin' beautiful smiles. 

Fill a cup and while about some things all worthwhile.

Refrain:

Ain't straying off the straight and narrow:

Waitin' for you. That's no lie!


[inaudible – Hammy’s sputtering, “I can’t do this.”] … I can shut my eyes,

We’re cheek to cheek in paradise

[inaudible]… stardust, so … [inaudible] … sweet

Sweeps me off of my feet.

 

Come on and love, I know just why

[Inaudible.  Hammy’s saying he’s throwing caution to the wind while checking the toilet stalls. ]

Refrain [clearly audible as Hamilton kisses Jake]:

Ain't straying off the straight and narrow:

Waitin' for you. That's no lie!

At least one more verse, inaudible due to Jake’s description of her fondness for Sarah McLachlan, Seventeen Magazine, and “Barely Pink” nail polish, is followed by a final reiteration of the refrain, fully audible as Hamilton flees in speechless horror.

Comment:  As with all the cotillion songs, the lyrics interplay ironically with the dramatic content.  

(1) “Aint’ straying off the straight and narrow.”  Jake’s not gay, isn’t “straying off the straight and narrow,” and isn’t asking Hamilton to do so.  But far from being relieved, Hamilton is horrified – she has lied to him, she’s far more troubled emotionally than he realized, she’ll have to leave Rawley no matter what, and to love her while she’s still at Rawley in drag would risk expulsion, his relationship with his father, and his father’s job, all of which the Dean’s son must intuit immediately. 

(2) “Waiting for you.”  It’s not just that Jake has been waiting for Hamilton to kiss the frog, to pass the test of true love.  We’ve all been waiting for Hamilton – waiting for a retelling of the old fairy tales and myths that makes the possibility of “true love” credible for moderns.

(3) “That’s no lie.”   With lovely irony, the title of the song played while Jake reveals her lie points to the one thing she hasn’t lied about – she needs him.   In fact, being more screwed up than he had ever dreamed, she needs him more than he had ever imagined.  That’s all that really matters.  Yes, it’ll be hard, and risky, and he’ll get hurt, but she truly needs him – so he has no choice.


“The Way You Look Tonight,” written by Jerome Kern (music) and Dorothy Fields (lyrics) for first performance by Fred Astaire in the film, Swing Time (1936), as performed by Julius La Rosa (on his album, On the Sunny Side, 1960) and unknown female artist (lip-synched by Bella).

The last dance at the cotillion, while Scout dances unhappily with Paige.  Surreally, it is simultaneously sung by Bella to Sean, in town, as they dance at the gas station.  And it plays while Hamilton broods on his bed after learning that Jake is a not a gay boy but rather a straight but seriously troubled straight girl who will have to leave Rawley.  An instrumental rendition is briefly reprised in the climactic scene of Young Americans, when Hamilton commits to Jake at first light the next morning.

It is also the theme song of the film, My Best Friend’s Wedding, which Jake, Hamilton and Scout discuss in the diner at the start of episode 6, when Scout, describing the interaction of its two lead actresses, says: “Cameron kills Julia.”

       Someday, when I'm awfully low, 

When the world is cold,

I will feel a glow just thinking of you...

And the way you look tonight.


Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm

And your cheeks so soft,

There is nothing for me but to love you,

And the way you look tonight.


With each word your tenderness grows,

Tearing my fear apart...

And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,

It touches my foolish heart.


Lovely ... Never, ever change.

Keep that breathless charm.

Won't you please arrange it?

'Cause I love you ... Just the way you look tonight.

Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm,

Just the way you look to-night


Comment:  This song’s use at the climax of Young Americans is unmistakably ironic.  The whole point of the Hamilton’s passing the “test of true love” is that he gets past what Jake looks like.  Similarly, what makes Bella go for Sean that night isn’t his good looks – it’s his kindness.  And what repulses Scout about Paige isn’t her looks, it’s her emasculating assertiveness – she’s a contrastive dramatic foil to Jake, showing what unattractive manliness in a woman really is.

This song, specifically its line, “tearing my fears apart,” plays during the decisive and most ambiguous scene of Young Americans:  Hamilton brooding on his bed, having found the courage to kiss a frog, and now finding the courage needed to play Orpheus to Jake’s Eurydice, to try to save a girl in emotional hell, as both visual and verbal allusions associating Jake and suicide in the next episode will underscore.  The deepest irony of the song’s use is that it underscores that the latter task is even harder than the former – because appearances are not what matter.

 

Ichabod Grubb

Created: April 2014

Last updated: April 2014