Ashlee Simpson and Elvis Costello were both interesting in their own ways, but there's no denying that the greatest Saturday Night Live musical guest of all time was Fear. The hardcore punk band performed a tumultuous and violent batch of sets on the show's 1981 Halloween episode at the request of John Belushi. The band's relationship with the comedian didn't end there, however. Now, a long-rumoured Fear/John Belushi song is getting a proper release.
The song is called "Neighbors," and was recorded by Fear and Belushi for the latter's movie Neighbors. It was recorded before Fear's SNL set. In fact, Belushi felt bad that it never made the final cut of the film, which is why he lobbied for them to appear on the show.
As Rolling Stone reports, the song will arrive digitally on Halloween, and as a limited 7-inch single in November. The record features John Belushi singing the vocals on the A-side and Ving taking it over on the B-side.
Talking to Rolling Stone, Ving explained that he and Belushi butted heads over the lyrics' authenticity. "I kept arguing with John, 'I wrote the lyrics for you to sing,'" he said. "I was quite militant on the punk-rock issue of being punk-correct in that I wasn't looking forward to singing lyrics that I had written for someone else to sing that were based on a movie that didn't touch my life. The lyrics weren't authentic enough for me to sing them. We went back and forth, and eventually John says, 'OK, OK, I'll sing it.' John, being such a good mimic, sings it, and you can tell it's not me."
The original song was recorded with Stax Records guitarist Steve Cropper (also of the Blues Brothers). That said, the final recordings were cleaned up at Dave Grohl's Studio 606.
The song is called "Neighbors," and was recorded by Fear and Belushi for the latter's movie Neighbors. It was recorded before Fear's SNL set. In fact, Belushi felt bad that it never made the final cut of the film, which is why he lobbied for them to appear on the show.
As Rolling Stone reports, the song will arrive digitally on Halloween, and as a limited 7-inch single in November. The record features John Belushi singing the vocals on the A-side and Ving taking it over on the B-side.
Talking to Rolling Stone, Ving explained that he and Belushi butted heads over the lyrics' authenticity. "I kept arguing with John, 'I wrote the lyrics for you to sing,'" he said. "I was quite militant on the punk-rock issue of being punk-correct in that I wasn't looking forward to singing lyrics that I had written for someone else to sing that were based on a movie that didn't touch my life. The lyrics weren't authentic enough for me to sing them. We went back and forth, and eventually John says, 'OK, OK, I'll sing it.' John, being such a good mimic, sings it, and you can tell it's not me."
The original song was recorded with Stax Records guitarist Steve Cropper (also of the Blues Brothers). That said, the final recordings were cleaned up at Dave Grohl's Studio 606.