The Blues Brothers was the first movie based on a Saturday Night Live skit, though, certainly not the last.
The story is a tale of redemption for paroled convict Jake (John Belushi) and his brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd), who take on “a mission from God” to save from foreclosure the Catholic orphanage in which they grew up. To do so they must reunite their rhythm and blues band, The Blues Brothers, and organize a performance to earn $5,000 to pay the tax assessor. Along the way they are targeted by a destructive “mystery woman”, Nazis, and a country and western band—all while being relentlessly pursued by the police.
It earned just under $5 million in its opening weekend and went on to gross more than $115 million in theaters worldwide before its release on home video.
The Blues Brothers: Music from the Soundtrack was released on June 20, 1980 as the second album bythe Blues Brothers Band, which also toured that year to promote the film. “Gimme Some Lovin’” was a Top 20 Billboard hit, peaking at number 18. The album was a followup to their debut, the live album, Briefcase Full of Blues. Later that year they released a second live album, Made in America, which featured the Top 40 track, “Who’s Making Love”.
The songs on the soundtrack album are a noticeably different audio mix than in the film, with a prominent baritone saxophone in the horn line (also heard in the film during “Shake a Tail Feather,” though no bari sax is present), and female backing vocals on “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”, though the band had no backup singers in the film. A number of regular Blues Brothers’ members, including saxophonist Tom Scott and drummer Steve Jordan, perform on the soundtrack album but are not in the film.
