Chuck's Incredible Soundtrack

Whenever people talk about cult shows that have a passionate fanbase, one of the ones that come to mind is NBC's Chuck. The spy comedy series delivered the laughs, thrilling action, and shocking plot twists you want from the genre but also had so many nods to popular nerd culture. Though it was never a ratings hit, the show stuck around because of the loyal fanbase.

Like most shows, Chuck had its highs and lows. At times, it was among the most creative and impressive things on television, and at other times, it felt like it wasn't up to the high levels that fans had become accustomed to. That makes it interesting to see which seasons have the best average ratings on IMDb.

#5

Season 1 (8.3)

It says a lot about the quality of this show that the worst season still clocks in with an average score of 8.3. Season 1 of Chuck was a place where it did have some lesser episodes while getting its footing. "Chuck Versus The Helicopter" (8.0) is good but it didn't quite have the Chuck/Sarah/Casey dynamic down yet. Even the lowest-scoring episode of the season, "Chuck Versus The Sizzling Shrimp" (7.9) is still a highly entertaining 42 minutes of TV.

A lot of this season was simply setting the tone and establishing who these characters are. It still brought greatness like the Bryce Larkin arc of "Chuck Versus The Alma Mater" (8.6), "Chuck Versus The The Truth" (8.7), and "Chuck Versus The Disc Jockey" (8.6). The romance between Sarah and Chuck quickly became one of TV's all-time best "will they/won't they" dynamics.

#4

Season 5 (8.4)

A show that got the kind of ratings each week that Chuck did often wouldn't sniff 100 episodes. However, it was announced that the fifth season would be the final one, bringing the episode count up to 91. The series got surprisingly experimental with this last season. Starting with "Chuck Versus The Zoom," (8.2) it had to deal with Morgan Grimes as the Intersect, while "Chuck Versus The Baby" (8.5) shed new light on Sarah's past.

Most impressively, the biggest chances taken came in the two-part series finale. The show ran a storyline where Sarah loses her memory and every feeling she had built up over the years for Chuck, who continues to fight to get back his love. It's an emotional and somewhat controversial plot point. Still, the results were great as "Chuck Versus Sarah" and "Chuck Versus The Goodbye" both scored very high (9.1 and 9.3, respectively).

#3

Season 4 (8.5)

Since Chuck didn't bring in huge viewership numbers, it was always on the brink of cancellation. So, there are several points that feel like it could've worked as a series finale. That was the case twice during the fourth season. The incredible "Chuck Versus The Push Mix" (9.3) could've been the ending as it culminates the Alexei Volkoff storyline, brings Chuck's mom back to the family, sees Ellie give birth, and has Chuck propose to Sarah.

However, NBC ordered more episodes and season four continued. Lauren Cohan was a welcome guest star as Alexei's daughter Vivian but this back half was less well-received than what came before. There were some true highlights in "Chuck Versus The Wedding Planner" (8.7), "Chuck Versus the Last Details" (8.8), and the shocking finale, "Chuck Versus The Cliffhanger" (9.2).

@2

Season 2 (8.7)

For many, season 2 was Chuck at its peak. Every installment seemed to drive the Chuck and Sarah romance closer but keeps them just far enough apart. There are things that shouldn't work but come off excellently. For example, Nicole Richie made for a surprisingly great guest star in "Chuck Versus The Cougars" (8.8), and then an episode surrounding music by Rush and an arcade game, "Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer," (8.7) was somehow a blast. Jordana Brewster, Chevy Chase, Gary Cole, Tony Hale, and Michael Clarke Duncan made up some of the best guest actors in series history. They even got Robert Englund for a horror episode.

It's hard to top the Die Hard homage, complete with Reginald VelJohnson in "Chuck Versus Santa Claus" (9.1) or the stunning reveal that Chuck's father was the mysterious Orion. It all comes to a head in some of the most gripping TV of the era. Chuck must go on the run and Sarah goes with him with Casey hunting them down. "Chuck Versus The Colonel" (9.5) and "Chuck Versus The Ring" (9.6) ended the season on the highest of notes while seeing Chuck get a new Intersect with even more special abilities. It also threw down the gauntlet, wrapping up with a "to be continued" tag despite the show not officially being renewed.

#1

Season 3 (8.8)

chuck-versus-the-ring-part-ii

Thankfully, after the shocking conclusion to season 2, Chuck made good on that potential with a tremendous season 3. Chuck's new Intersect allowed him to have the skills to become a real spy, which he chose to try instead of running away with Sarah. That set up more "will they/won't they" for the couple, which included them showing interest in other characters played by Brandon Routh and Kristin Kreuk. Routh's Daniel Shaw ultimately became one of Chuck's greatest rivals.

There are so many fantastic episodes in this season, from "Chuck Versus The Beard" (9.2) where Morgan discovers his best friend's secret to "Chuck Versus The Honeymooners" (9.1) where Chuck and Sarah go on something of a vacation as a couple. "Chuck Versus The Other Guy" (9.5) was an episode that could've marked the end of the series since Chuck and Sarah finally got together but the show returned for more installments. It then still ended on a high note with "Chuck Versus the Subway" (9.4) and "Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II" (9.5).

The theme song for the Chuck TV series is called “Short Skirt-Long Jacket” by Sacramento alternative rock band Cake.

Chuck theme tune lyrics – Full Version

I want a girl with a mind like a diamond
I want a girl who knows what’s best
I want a girl with shoes that cut
And eyes that burn like cigarettes

I want a girl with the right allocations
Who’s fast and thorough
And sharp as a tack
She’s playing with her jewelry
She’s putting up her hair
She’s touring the facility
And picking up slack

I want a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket
I want a girl who gets up early
I want a girl who stays up late
I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity
Who uses a machete to cut through red tape
With finger nails that shine like justice
And a voice that is dark like tinted glass

She is fast and thorough
And sharp as a tack
She’s touring the facility
And picking up slack

I want a girl with a short skirt and a long long jacket

I want a girl with a smooth liquidation
I want a girl with good dividends
At Citibank we will meet accidentally
We’ll start to talk when she borrows my pen

She wants a car with a cupholder arm rest
She wants a car that will get her there
She’s changing her name from Kitty to Karen
She’s trading her MG for a white Chrysler La Baron

I want a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket

Pizza and Jazz

Burt Wilson, trombonist and leader of the Silver Dollar Jazz Band died of Covid-19 on January 6th, he was 87. While in college he arranged activities for the USC Trojan Marching Band. During Army service stationed in Germany (1955-1958), he was a radio announcer and produced entertainments for the troops.

Wilson formed The Silver Dollar Jazz Band with friends while still in high school in 1949. They became the first jazz band to play the original Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Sacramento, starting in 1954. On strict instructions from Shakey, the band modeled its sound on the Lu Watter’s band. They had two banjos but no regular trumpet player. The sextet’s success inspired a wave of pizza parlors and other restaurants to feature traditional jazz bands into the 1970s and beyond.

Jazz historian K.O. Eckland, author of the book Jazz West: 1945-1985, credits the Silver Dollar Jazz Band with igniting the Sacramento portion of the jazz revival, inspiring the formation of the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society in 1968 which, in turn, founded the world-famous Jazz Jubilee. Wilson appeared as a guest artist in many Sacramento Dixieland Jazz Jubilees. He played piano, trombone, ukulele, and sang.

While we will remember him for his place in jazz history he was also a philosopher, writer, broadcaster, political activist, playwright, and former advertising executive. His books included A history of Sacramento jazz, 1948-1966: A personal memoir, and Shakey and Me. In 2004 he produced a documentary called “The Roots of Sacramento Jazz” that was featured in the “A Place Called Sacramento” film festival. Those interested in learning about his amazing life and work outside of jazz are encouraged to read the long entry on his Wikipedia page.

Song: Pretty Woman

In this modern update on Cinderella, a prostitute and a wealthy businessman fall hard for one another, forming an unlikely pair. While on a business trip in L.A., Edward (Richard Gere), who makes a living buying and breaking up companies, picks up a hooker, Vivian (Julia Roberts), on a lark. After Edward hires Vivian to stay with him for the weekend, the two get closer, only to discover there are significant hurdles to overcome as they try to bridge the gap between their very different worlds.

Julia Roberts was far from the first choice for the role of Vivian. It was offered previously to many successful A-list actresses including "brat pack" member Molly Ringwald (who starred in Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty in Pink (1986)). Ringwald turned it down because she felt uncomfortable with the content in the script, and did not like the idea of playing a prostitute. She has since stated in several interviews that she regrets turning the role down.

Cosmetic surgery

Demi Moore turned down the role of Kit.

Disney didn't want Julia Roberts for the role of Vivian, instead they wanted Meg Ryan.



Pretty woman, walking down the street
Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet
Pretty woman
I don't believe you, you're not the truth
No one could look as good as you

Mercy

Pretty woman, won't you pardon me?
Pretty woman, I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman
That you look lovely as can be
Are you lonely just like me?

Wow

Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman, talk a while
Pretty woman, give your smile to me
Pretty woman, yeah, yeah, yeah
Pretty woman, look my way
Pretty woman, say you'll stay with me

'Cause I need you, I'll treat you right
Come with me baby, be mine tonight

Pretty woman, don't walk on by
Pretty woman, don't make me cry
Pretty woman, don't walk away, hey...
OK

If that's the way it must be, OK
I guess I'll go on home, it's late
There'll be tomorrow night, but wait
What do I see?

Is she walking back to me?
Yeah, she's walking back to me
Oh, oh, pretty woman

Song: Magic Carpet Ride

Released in September 1968, Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” became one of rock’s first songs to open with an extended passage of guitar distortion. The eerie prologue lasts 20 seconds and includes chugging electronic tones before dissolving into the song’s rhythmic power chords and blues-rock vocal.

Though the song came out a year after Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady” with its shorter guitar distortion intro, “Magic Carpet Ride’s” thick guitar riff set the tone for hard rock and heavy metal bands that followed in 1969 and ’70. The single reached No. 3 on Billboard’s pop chart.


I like to dream, yes, yes
Right between the sound machine
On a cloud of sound I drift in the night
Any place it goes is right
Goes far, flies near
To the stars away from here
Well, you don't know what
We can find
Why don't you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet ride
Well, you don't know what
We can see
Why don't you tell your dreams to me
Fantasy will set you free
Close your eyes girl
Look inside girl
Let the sound take you away
Last night I hold Aladdin's lamp
So I wished that I could stay
Before the thing could answer me
Well, someone came and took the lamp away
I looked
Around
A lousy candle's all I found
Well, you don't know what
We can find
Why don't you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet ride
Well, you don't know what
We can see
Why don't you tell your dreams to me
Fantasy will set you free
Close your eyes girl
Look inside girl
Let the sound take you away

Best Wedding Music

Creating the music soundtrack for your big day of your life is a big deal. Before you start trying to curate the perfect list of songs, there are a few things to consider. From hunting for inspiration to making the whole thing sound cohesive, it’s a touch more complicated than throwing all of your favorite songs into a Spotify playlist. But don’t get stressed! We’ve made you a list of everything to remember when choosing your wedding music songs.

Wondering how to choose wedding music? In the midst of thinking about flowers, cakes, dresses, honeymoon destinations, vows, and everything else, your ceremony music timeline is yet another aspect of your wedding to figure out. Music sets a tone, stirs up emotions, and shares a message with your guests, so picking the right songs is key—as is making sure they’re a good fit for the ceremony you have planned. Here are our top tips for getting that music right.

Start your search by looking for some musical inspiration. Watch wedding videos on YouTube, rent a couple of rom coms or search Spotify for love playlists. You may find some hidden gems you never would have known about.

Think about your wedding style

While your music doesn’t necessarily have to match your wedding style, it’s a nice way to keep things feeling cohesive. If you’re hosting your soiree in a Gatsby-style historic home, consider asking your disc jockey for a playlist that’s full of oldies, or heavy on the jazz frontier. If you’re doing a barn soiree, why not throw in a few extra country tracks? Florida Georgia Line and Dierks Bentley have released more than a few love songs.

Plan Your Dance

You may find yourself rushing to dance lessons every Monday night—you've been warned. Maybe you have four left feet between the two of you or one of you is dead set on wowing guests at your reception. If you have the time and budget, we say get the lessons! Even if you loathe dancing, you'll spend 45 minutes locking eyes with your other half—there are worse ways to spend an evening, right? As soon as you figure out who's the leader, it may will be the best part of your wedding planning.

Jazz Music is Like Lawyering

Being a lawyer is a lot easier than being a jazz musician. In a sense, I’ve freed my art from the burden of having to support myself. And I would do it all over again. Do musicians make good lawyers? Or do lawyers make good musicians? Or is it, as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brett Klein jokingly suggests, just that lawyers can afford the time and money to buy instruments?

While several studies claim a link exists between music training and intelligence, many personal injury attorneys have a background in music and attest to some correlation between music and law.

Plato wrote in the Book of Laws II that a well-educated man was one trained in music, because music training was required to develop a healthy sensitivity. However, Santa Monica Deputy City Attorney David Fairweather admits, “people wouldn’t expect a lawyer or a judge to have the sensitivity to be a musician.”

If I had to do it all over again I’m not sure I could have done it any differently. I enjoyed playing music so much that it didn’t matter how much I got paid or what I had to give up to experience the thrill of bending the guitar to my will and making beautiful sounds. You’re an artist for the art, not for the money.

The same headwinds that face the working-class -- declining income, increased housing and health care costs -- have long been pushing against professional artists as well.

I think you can be an artist anywhere, even in the United States, if your passion is strong enough to drive you. Enduring sacrifice is part of the job. But you need money to eat and pay the rent, and the same headwinds that face working-class Americans -- stagnant or declining income, increased costs of housing and health care -- have long been pushing against those who make their living in the arts. And raising a family is expensive for everyone.

For me, the financial pressures were tolerable when I was single and childless. They became much less so as I was approaching 40 and longing to start a family with my new wife. It may have been possible to earn enough to support a family as a modern jazz guitarist and composer, but it would have required extensive touring (in other words, time away from family) and reliance on a capricious and unpredictable business.

I did enjoy scoring independent films and documentaries, but these hardly paid the bills, and the commercial gigs just weren’t for me. I didn't want to be Miki Navazio Music, Inc. My fate was sealed when the National Endowment for the Arts terminated funding for individual artists in the mid 90s.

Clarity for Jazz

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States. It originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen by many as "America's classical music". Since the 1920s Jazz Age, jazz has become recognized as a major form of musical expression. It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms". As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style and Gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were the prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed near the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines.

New Orleans Jazz

Dixieland, sometimes referred to as hot jazz or traditional jazz, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. One of the first uses of the term "Dixieland" with reference to music was in the name of the Original Dixieland Jass Band (which shortly thereafter changed the spelling of its name to "Original Dixieland Jazz Band"). Their 1917 recordings fostered popular awareness of this new style of music.

Chicago Style Jazz

The distinctive "Chicago style" of jazz originated in southern musicians moving North after 1917, bringing with them the New Orleans "Dixieland" or sometimes called "hot jazz" styles. King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton became stars of the Chicago jazz scene. Louis Armstrong's recordings with his Chicago-based Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven band came out in the years 1925 to 1928. These recordings marked the transition of original New Orleans jazz to a more sophisticated type of American improvised music with more emphasis on solo choruses instead of just little solo breaks. This style of playing was adopted by white musicians who favored meters of 2 instead of 4. Emphasis on solos, faster tempos, string bass and guitar (replacing the traditional tuba and banjo) and saxophones also distinguish Chicago-style playing from New Orleans style. When Chicago musicians started playing 4 beat measures, they laid the foundation for the swing era. The Lindy Hop was originally danced to 4 beat Chicago style jazz and went on to become one of the iconic features of the swing era.

Kansas City Jazz

Kansas City jazz is a style of jazz that developed in Kansas City, Missouri during the 1920s and 1930s, which marked the transition from the structured big band style to the musical improvisation style of Bebop. The hard-swinging, bluesy transition style is bracketed by Count Basie who in 1929 signed with the Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra and Kansas City native Charlie Parker who ushered in the Bebop style in America. "While New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz, America's music grew up in Kansas City". Kansas City is known as one of the most popular "cradles of jazz". Other cities include New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York City. Kansas City was known for the organized musicians of the Local 627 A.F.M., which controlled a number of venues in the city.

Gypsy Jazz

Gypsy jazz (also known as gypsy swing or hot club jazz) is a style of jazz generally accepted to have been started by the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in Paris during the 1930s. Because its origins are in France, and Reinhardt was from the Manouche Sinti clan, gypsy jazz is often called by the French name "jazz manouche", or alternatively, "manouche jazz" in English language sources. Django Reinhardt was foremost among a group of Romani guitarists working in Paris from the 1930s to the 1950s. The group included the brothers Baro, Sarane, and Matelo Ferret and Reinhardt's brother Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt.

Bebop

Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States, which features songs characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure, the use of scales and occasional references to the melody. Bebop developed as the younger generation of jazz musicians expanded the creative possibilities of jazz beyond the popular, dance-oriented swing style with a new "musician's music" that was not as danceable and demanded close listening. As bebop was not intended for dancing, it enabled the musicians to play at faster tempos. Bebop musicians explored advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords, extended chords, chord substitutions, asymmetrical phrasing, and intricate melodies. Bebop groups used rhythm sections in a way that expanded their role. Whereas the key ensemble of the swing era was the big band of up to fourteen pieces playing in an ensemble-based style, the classic bebop group was a small combo that consisted of saxophone (alto or tenor), trumpet, piano, guitar, double bass, and drums playing music in which the ensemble played a supportive role for soloists. Rather than play heavily arranged music, bebop musicians typically played the melody of a song (called the "head") with the accompaniment of the rhythm section, followed by a section in which each of the performers improvised a solo, then returned to the melody at the end of the song.

Cool Jazz

Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz music that arose in the United States after World War II. It is characterized by relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the fast and complex bebop style. Cool jazz often employs formal arrangements and incorporates elements of classical music. Broadly, the genre refers to a number of post-war jazz styles employing a more subdued approach than that found in other contemporaneous jazz idioms. As Paul Tanner, Maurice Gerow, and David Megill suggest "the tonal sonorities of these conservative players could be compared to pastel colors, while the solos of [Dizzy] Gillespie and his followers could be compared to fiery red colors."

Free Jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz that developed in the 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during this period believed that the bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz that had been played before them was too limiting. They became preoccupied with creating something new. Free jazz has often been combined with or substituted for the term "avant-garde jazz". Europeans tend to favor the term "free improvisation". Others have used "modern jazz", "creative music", and "art music". The ambiguity of free jazz presents problems of definition. Although it is usually played by small groups or individuals, free jazz big bands have existed. Although musicians and critics claim it is innovative and forward looking, it draws on early styles of jazz and has been described as an attempt to return to primitive, often religious, roots. Although jazz is an American invention, free jazz musicians drew heavily from world music and ethnic music traditions from around the world. Sometimes they played foreign instruments, unusual instruments, or invented their own. They emphasized emotional intensity and sound for its own sake.

Smooth Jazz

Not worth talking about!