SINGLES GOING STEADY: SOUNDTRACK OF MY SUMMER BY MIKE VIOLA
/
Mike Viola
If someone ever decides to remake the musical Grease and replace the old tunes with newer, original material, Mike Viola's "Soundtrack of My Summer" would be the updated version of "Sandy." Melodically, there are plenty of similarities and the lyrical sentiment of Viola's song has that same melancholy, broken-hearted feeling of the Grease favorite.
Mike Viola is no stranger to writing songs for movies. He has written some hilarious pop songs, including "Furry Walls" and "African Child," the controversial hits that Russell Brand's character Aldous Snow sings in the movie Get Him To The Greek. He's also responsible for about one half of the seriously funny soundtrack to the movie Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
But, make no mistake, Viola is no novelty songwriter. Keep in mind, he was hired to write ridiculous tunes for those movies. The reason the producers chose him over someone else is because he is a gifted songster who seems to come up with affecting material effortlessly.
"Soundtrack of My Summer" rides that line between solid-album track and hit song. One thing I like about Viola is that he has an ability to trick you into thinking he's going in one direction but, instead chooses to go somewhere pleasantly different.
What do I mean by that? Well, take the first verse, for example. It begins with "A dreamer/ Who's forgotten how to dream." Cool.
The next line is "a singer..."
I'm willing to bet that most listeners will anticipate the following line to be "who's forgotten how to sing." Indeed, that would be boring and predictable. But, instead Viola cries "a singer/ when no one's listening." Much better!
Soundtrack of My Summer by Mike Viola
Does his voice sound familiar to you? Perhaps it's because you heard him sing lead vocals on this movie hit—which, was written by Adam Schlesinger (NOT Mike Viola)!
