Songs of a Second Chance

In September, I already wrote about remarkable songs from rather mediocre films. But since songs and films are now inextricably linked, today I want to write about a few songs (or melodies) that received a second chance (and sometimes an even stronger one) compared to their original versions. Sometimes it’s just an interesting cinematic arrangement; other times, it’s an entirely new “reading.” I’ll share examples of what I believe are very successful adaptations. And I mean specifically movie (or TV series) adaptations, as there are plenty of amazing covers out there, but we won’t count those today, or we’d simply get lost in them.

So, my criteria were simple:

1. The melody or song featured in the film existed long before the movie’s release and was already well-known.
2. It was released as part of the film (soundtrack).
3. To me personally, it seems very interesting and, in some ways, even better than the original.

I’ll start with a film that is truly rich in such “second winds” — Hipsters by Valery Todorovsky (oh my goodness, it’s already been 13 years since its release, but it feels like it was just yesterday!). Every musical number in the movie is outstanding, so I’ll highlight just three of the absolute best.

In 1991, the band Nol released the song “A Man and a Cat.” I was never a fan of this group (although I knew some of their songs), but the version from the film performed by the wonderful Sergey Garmash is absolutely brilliant. It’s worth noting that Garmash stuck closely to the original, and the arrangement is quite similar. Yet, the result turned out to be very impressive:

The next two examples are cases of creative reinterpretation.

Let’s start with “Bound by One Chain” by the band Nautilus Pompilius. In the film, the lyrics were changed, and the meaning seems almost entirely reversed. And in terms of intensity, this version undoubtedly surpasses the original:

But the song I fell in love with the most is one where the lyrics were also completely changed, yet the performance infused it with so much lyricism and romance that I was utterly stunned when I first heard THIS version of my childhood favorite, “Eighth-Grader” by the band Kino. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a direct film clip with the song, but here’s the audio with lyrics:

But in the film, all the other numbers are also worth attention.

Now let’s touch on some Western music. Many of you are likely familiar with the famous song by The Rolling Stones called “Paint It Black.” In the series “Westworld,” there’s a memorable scene where the characters find themselves in a medieval Japan setting, and an intriguing arrangement of this song’s music is used for the visuals. It starts with a calm rendition, but as the action on-screen intensifies, the melody becomes sharper and more aggressive. I now listen to this version more often than the original:

And yet, I’ll return to domestic films—simply because I have more examples from them. This next one is interesting because the song was originally created for a film, later found a second performance, and gained new life in another film. In 1984, the Soviet film “Captain Fracasse“ was released, featuring a young Oleg Menshikov and Leonid Yarmolnik. It included several wonderful songs with lyrics by Bulat Okudzhava, among them “Autumn Rain” performed by Elena Kamburova.

In 2005, while filming the adaptation of Boris Akunin’s novel “The Turkish Gambit,” that same song was reinterpreted as a salon romance performed by the main heroine. Olga Krasko’s rendition stayed close to the original, but her voice is entirely different from Kamburova’s, giving it a fresh “reading.” I can’t even decide which version I like more. But in “The Turkish Gambit,” it turned out very tenderly, in my opinion:

Let’s move closer to more recent years. In 2019, the film “Union of Salvation“ about the Decembrist uprising of 1825 was released with much fanfare. The film, however, is a total flop—because if you don’t know who the Decembrists are or what they wanted, you won’t understand a thing. Even if you do know, it’s still incomprehensible. But it’s beautifully shot and boasts an excellent soundtrack.

One of the main themes of the film is an arrangement of the song “Walking on Water” by the aforementioned band Nautilus Pompilius. This song is one of my favorites in the band’s repertoire, and here the creators clearly decided to have some fun with it, as the film’s protagonist is Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, and the song mentions the apostle Andrew.

The melody is presented in several arrangements throughout the film, with varying emphasis and levels of intensity. At the beginning, it’s more upbeat—almost cocky, I’d say—but becomes much sadder by the end. Both versions turned out to be very interesting. Here’s one of them:

That’s all for now. If I remember more examples, or if friends suggest some in the comments, there will be a new post.