Mad Men is known
for its retro soundtrack, but it’s always the most fun when the characters are
hearing the background noise too. Check out these memorable Mad Men episodes that featured musical
moments that were actually part of the storyline.
"Lady
Lazurus," Season 5 (Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles)
The year was 1966.
Megan Draper (Jessica Pare) bought The Beatles' "Revolver" album and
told her hubby Don (Jon Hamm) to listen to the final track, a little Lennon
ditty titled "Tomorrow Never Knows." Don showed his age in this
scene-he stopped the record mid-song-but he played enough of the track for Mad
Men execs to get their money's worth. At least we hope. According to the Wall
Street Journal, Lionsgate paid close to $250,000 to use the song, the
first time a master recording of a Beatles song was ever licensed for a TV
show.
"A Night to
Remember," Season 2 ("Early In The Morning" by Colin Hanks)
Remember Peggy's
(Elisabeth Moss) parish priest Father Gill? Way back in Season 2, Colin Hanks
played the musical man of the cloth, who pulled out a guitar to sing Peter,
Paul, & Mary 's "Early in the Morning" to an audience of none.
The musical montage panned to a lonely Don Draper, who was drinking Heineken solo
in the Sterling Cooper break room after first wife Betty told him not to come
home.
My Old Kentucky
Home," Season 3 ("My Old Kentucky Home" by John Slattery)
Season 3 of of the
series featured one of the series most shocking scenes ever, when Roger
Sterling (John Slattery) serenaded his young bride Jane at a Kentucky Derby
party -- in blackface. Sterling crooned the notoriously racist "My Old
Kentucky Home" while sporting smeared dark face paint, even commenting
that his wife liked when he sang it at home with a bit of shoe polish on his
face.
"A Little
Kiss" Season 5 ("Zou Bisou Bisou" by Jessica Pare)
The 5th
season premiere featured Megan singing a birthday song at a bash for Don's 40th
But this was no ordinary "Happy Birthday." Instead, a mod Megan chose
"Zou Bisou Bisou," an obscure French tune originally recorded by
Gillian Hills in 1960 and later performed by Sophia Loren in the movie
"The Millionairess." Decades later, Pare's buzzy version was a
trending topic on Twitter, but what was a song and dance number doing in the
middle of the AMC drama, anyway?
In an interview with
Entertainment Weekly, Mad Men
executive producer Matthew Weiner said he incorporated the slinky song into the
script so viewers could get to know the real Megan Draper: "I kind of
wanted to give her a character moment, especially if the whole season was going
to be about their relationship and what it meant to Don," he said. "I
was looking for the right sort of sexy song for her to sing, and for some
reason or another I found this song … and it just had the perfect mix of childishness
and sexiness that made it a socially-appropriate strip tease."
"The
Strategy," Season 7 ("My Way" by Frank Sinatra)
Don Draper likes to
do things his way, and on a Season 7 episode of the AMC drama he proved it with a slow dance to the Frank Sinatra song
"My Way" with co-worker Peggy Olson. The impromptu dance came at the
end of a late night cramming session for the Burger Chef account, and it was
genius musical moment on the AMC drama.
Sinatra's My Way album came out in March of 1969,
and the title song proved to be the perfect soundtrack to this scene set in the
summer of that year. While Peggy resting her head on Don's shoulder could have
conjured up visions of Paul Anka's 1963 single "Put Your Head on My
Shoulder,” we're glad this classic from Ol' Blue Eyes turned up on the radio
instead.
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