B-Sides: This Song Came from Uranus
Steve Barton
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A sci-fi space adventure about a rocket crew journeying to the seventh planet, where they confront a mind-reading alien that forces them to contend with their innermost nightmares; this lounge lizard love song is certainly not the sort of theme song you would expect to kick off such a flick.
Sid Pink’s 1962 Danish-American science fiction extravaganza Journey to the Seventh Planet starred the late, great John Agar as the captain of a five-man international rocket crew exploring the solar system, as the United Nations space program was known for in 2001, the year in which the film takes place. Uranus is the last vestige in our galaxy in need of exploring so off they go on a journey to the seventh planet. What they find is a being that preys on them by getting inside their minds and manifesting their desires and fears, whether it be beautiful women or mutant rat and centipede monsters.
Opening the film is a song boasting the same title as the film, but a less befitting tune you’d be hard to find. Sung by Otto Brandenburg, the theme to Journey to the Seventh Planet sounds like a love song you’d heard a 1960’s Las Vegas lounge lizard crooning to a crowd that are only there for his show because they couldn’t get tickets to Sinatra. To be fair, it’s not a bad song for what it is, but certainly not my cup of tea.
A love song about Uranus… Take it away, Otto!
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Categorized:B-Sides
