Remember the Squirrel Nut Zippers?
I remember them well, and I wish they had made more CDs. I’ve been a fan of various forms of swing/jazz/ragtime music since my earliest exposure to jazz band in school. Of the bands that rode the swing revival wave of the 90s, the SNZs were my favorites. Turns out some form of the Zippers played a free outdoors concert in Houston last night, but I was unable to make it.
That song is of course called “Meant To Be”. A song by that same name provided a critical plot point in Disney’s Teen Beach Movie, a more-fun-than-it-had-any-right-to-be mashup of West Side Story, Back To The Future, Grease, and, well, teen beach movies.
Long story short, the girl with pigtails and the blond boy need the girl in the red polka dot dress and the boy with the guitar to be the “meant to be” in question. Watch the movie for yourself if you want to know more – it ain’t Shakespeare, but I’ve watched way worse. There was of course a Teen Beach Movie 2, which believe it or not generated some controversy in how it ended. It also generated this reprise of that song:
No word yet if Teen Beach Movie 3 will be a thing that happens or not.