alternate soundtrack to blue velvet

lynch built the film on bobby vinton’s 1963 record: “i forget who sung it first, but it wasn’t bobby vinton.” tony bennett recorded it first, in july 1951.

every draft of the screenplay opens: “theme and mood music for blue velvet will be from symphony no. 15 in a major by shostakovich.” lynch couldn’t afford it, so badalamenti wrote like it; for jeffrey and sandy’s night walk, lynch played shostakovich over loudspeakers in the street.

in the screenplay, dorothy opens her set at the slow club with “blue moon”: the house lights go down and a blue spotlight finds her on the word “blue”.

in the screenplay, dorothy comes home, hides a photograph under a pillow, puts on this record and starts to cry, while jeffrey watches from her closet.

during the shoot it came on a cab radio and lynch said: “that! i’ve got to get that for blue velvet.” then he played “in dreams”, “and as soon as i did, i forgot ‘crying’.”

in the first draft, frank slams a tape of screamin’ jay hawkins into the car and lip-syncs to it with a flashlight under his chin. in the film, it’s ben who mimes, to roy orbison.

lynch played it during the shoot and wanted it for the dance, but couldn’t afford it, so badalamenti wrote “mysteries of love” in its mood. he used it eleven years later, in lost highway.

the screenplay ends on “the last lines” of vinton’s record. here they are as the clovers sang them, eight years before him.