Celebrity Jukebox #45: Cary Grant (Part 1)

There are certain celebrities who are clearly too big and therefore too ubiquitous to even think about including in this feature. Marilyn being an obvious one, James Dean another. When George suggested Archibald Leach, I figured he might well fall into that category… but as I’m something of a Cary Grant fan, I figured I’d give it a go anyway.

I’ve divided the resulting Jukebox into two posts: the first for songs that feature him in the title, the second (on Wednesday) for lyrical appearances. But first, here’s a song from Bristol-born Archie Leach himself…

The most famous act to ever feature Cary Grant in a song title is The Fall. Cary also gets referred to in the lyrics of a couple more Fall tunes, so maybe Mark E. was a fan. But probably not.

The Fall – Cary Grant’s Wedding

All you’re going to is Cary Grant’s wedding
A new-wave Hollywood where everybody’s good
But not great

Curiously, this track was recorded in 1980, a year before Cary Grant’s wedding to his final wife, Barbara Harris. Those who treat Mark E. Smith with the kind of obsessive reverence I only reserve for Nigel Blackwell these days openly wonder about Smith’s amazing precognitive powers. Others suggest this whole song is a metaphor for the British music industry which Smith was dismissing by aligning it with old Hollywood for its glamour and excess.

As you’d expect, Cary Grant isn’t only beloved of the English-speaking world. Here’s Italian band Non Voglio Che Clara (“I don’t want Clara” is the literal translation, though “I want Clara and no one else” is closer to what they mean)…

Non Voglio Che Clara – Cary Grant

E poi va come Cary Grant
E la sua amante perduta
A cui han dato il veleno
E lui la segue in Brasile

Which translates roughly as…

And then it goes like Cary Grant
And his lost lover
To whom they gave the poison
And he follows her to Brazil

…though it sounds better in Italian.

Meanwhile, in Deutschland, we find a band called “Cheerfulness”, I presume with a healthy dollop of irony…

Die Heiterkeit – Wohin gehst du, Cary Grant?

Wohin gehst du, Cary Grant?
Ist an deiner Seite eventuelle noch
Platz fur mich, Platz fur mich?
Wohin gehst du, Cary Grant?

…which roughly translates as…

Where are you going, Cary Grant?
Is there still, by your side, any
Room for me, room for me?
Where are you going, Cary Grant?

But I expect Walter will correct me if I got that wrong.

A little further east in Europe, we find Bedford Falls, one of two bands I’ve discovered on the interweb named after George Bailey’s fictional hometown from It’s A Wonderful Life. They may show up again in Namesakes down the line. Anyway, this Bedford Falls hail from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, although they do sing in English…

Bedford Falls - Cary Grant

The lyrics don’t appear to have anything to do with Cary himself though, concerning themselves instead with a man who lives in a cabin in the woods and spends his time binge-watching and “meditating with his golden good”, which may be a euphemism in Georgia.

Out of Europe and over to the USA, where we find a contemporary Illinois band who specialise in “cosmic jams, psych-pop, and all sorts of stops in between”…

Booth Blues – Cary Grant

I want to live my life like Cary Grant
But try as I might, I can’t
‘Cause I got a job
(Shit, I’m tired)

Down to St. Louis, where discover a band that’s either named itself after Superintendent Ted Hastings… or the East Lothian town in which Davy Henderson of The Fire Engines was born.

Dunbar – Cary Grant

Saw Cary Grant
In a black and white movie
Left the theatre
With the clouds above me

However, I think my favourite track with Cary in the title comes from Long Island power-pop outfit, Early Edison. This was the b-side to their 2021 single “Waiting For George Bailey”, which is the second reference in this post to It’s A Wonderful Life, a film starring James Stewart, NOT Cary Grant.

I wish I could be as smooth as Cary Grant
If I try to be so debonair
I only seem to make people stare

Come back on Wednesday for the second part of this Jukebox...