That Time THE BODYGUARD Soundtrack Saved Nick Lowe’s Ass

In 1992, I worked at a CD/tape store called Record Bar at a mall in Greensboro, NC. The manager of the establishment would play the soundtrack to the hit Whitney Houston movie, THE BODYGUARD, constantly. Even if I or another employee would put on something else, it seemed that THE BODYGUARD disc would be back on pretty quickly.

At one point, I hid the CD where I thought it wouldn’t be found for some time. I located a narrow spot behind a cabinet, and slid it in such a way that it couldn’t be seen. Or so I thought. The next day, I walked in and it was playing again. Nobody said anything so I moved on and tried to come to terms with my own personal hell.

 

The soundtrack wasn’t made up exclusively with Whitney Houston songs; there were also a group of tunes by other artists including Kenny G, Lisa Stanfield, and Joe Cocker. But the one that bugged me the most of the non-Whitney material was a cover of Nick Lowe’s 1974 classic “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” by an American jazz singer named Curtis Stigers.

Stigers’ cover wasn’t terrible, it was just a bland, overly poppy rendition that stripped away the wit of Lowe’s original, and ignored the passion that made Elvis Costello’s version into a foot-stomping anthem. I remember cringing every time it came up again on the countless spins I had to endure of the wretched soundtrack.

Later, when I heard that the album’s massive success – to this date, it’s the biggest selling soundtrack of all time – impacted Lowe greatly with ginormous royalties, I felt like my torturous time with the in-store selection was justified in some way. If Lowe, who had just been dropped by his label and was at a Low (sorry) point, was able to score  huge payday, then my suffering through the film’s pop platter of dreck seemed a small price to pay.

 

The subject of Lowe’s lucky windfall was touched upon in many interviews. When Lowe discussed the latter-day success of the song that he had originally written for his pub rock outfit Brinsley Schwarz, Fresh Air’s Terry Gross told Lowe that she’s seen the movie but didn’t remember “where it was used.”

 

Lowe responded, “I haven’t got a clue – I haven’t even seen it,” and that “I know lots of people who have seen it, and they all tell me that my song isn’t in it at all. Even my mother, who has ears like a Mum, has sat and watched it, and she said she couldn’t hear it anywhere. But I presume that it’s on a car radio or something playing in the background.”

 

This begs the question, does “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding” actually appear at all in the movie, THE BODYGUARD? To answer this, I did something I never thought I’d do – watch THE BODYGUARD. I’ve been long familiar with the premise of the film – Kevin Costner plays Whitney Houston’s bodyguard, protecting her from imminent danger – but never thought to actually sit through it.

 

Hey, it was written by Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, several of the STAR WARS movies, and BODY HEAT, so how bad can it be?

Pretty bad it turns out. The dialogue is simplistic, the plotting obvious, and the whole production is plagued by empty MTV-style glitz at every turn.

But was Lowe’s song as covered by Stigers present in the movie? Yes, about 10 seconds (or less) of the chorus hits the screen around the 33-minute mark. It accompanies a shot of Houston’s character opening a letter that contains a death threat. It’s such a brief flash of the tune that appears amid a bunch of fussy noise that I can see how Lowe’s Mum missed it.

It’s a wonderful thing that this cover on a soundtrack added up to a big payday. In a 2001 interview he told Jeffrey Stringer that “It was just like winning the jackpot or something. It meant that I could tour really above my station, if you know what I mean. We could have a nice bus, I could pay my guys right, we could stay in reasonable hotels. So I just sort of ‘invested the money back in the firm.’”

In the nearly 50 years since its conception, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” has become a rock standard. Along with Costello and Stigers’ versions it’s been covered by a wide range of artists including Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen, Yo La Tengo, Lucinda Williams, the Flaming Lips, Bon Jovi, Pretenders, Wilco, Steve Earle, Ani Difranco, and many others. Hell, even John Lennon quoted it in his last interview (though he attributed it to Costello).

On a concluding note, I’ll just out this out there – I wonder how much of a payday did Lowe get from this:

More later...