If nothing else, owning Real Gone Music’s reissue of the Revenge of the Nerds soundtrack means that a listener can play Bone Symphony’s “One Foot in Front of the Other” every time they tidy up their kitchen, thus allowing them to have their very own cleaning montage just like the film’s titular nerds.
That said, while the film itself hasn’t aged very well at all – sexual assault, peeping tom-ism, and casual racism are just a few of the “shenanigans” gotten up to for yucks and grins – the soundtrack is a cavalcade of underrated 80s new wave which is guaranteed to get the feet moving. The aforementioned Bone Symphony cut is ace, as is “Are You Ready for the Sex Girls” by Gleaming Spires.
The Rubinoos probably ought to be sued for their “Revenge of the Nerds”. Not because it’s a knockoff of Devo’s herky-jerky angular punk, but because it’s basically ripping off “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Devo style parody, “Dare to Be Stupid”. It’s catchy and dumb fun though, because there’s nothing better than a song which takes its title from the movie in which it appears, while also summarising the plot.
The most intriguing part of the soundtrack is that the most notable songs from the film, such as Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” and “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, aren’t on the soundtrack, nor is any aspect of Thomas Newman’s score – which has, to the best of our knowledge, never been released at all. We’d have settled for the tricycle race music, with “Daisy Bell” interpolated in Japanese.
Also, and to the everlasting torment of fans everywhere, the Tri-Lam’s rap from the Greek games has never been officially released. The backing track was taken from Revenge’s “They’re So Incredible”, which has totally different lyrics, and which does appear on the soundtrack. It’s not quite as satisfying as one would hope, but it gets the job done.
The reissue is roughly equivalent to the original 1984 pressing, with the same front and cover art on the jacket, although the vinyl pressing has been updated as “pocket protector” brown. That seems a tad arbitrary – most pocket protectors are white – but everything looks and sounds quite good. It’s by no means deluxe, as there are no extras in terms of liner notes or bonus tracks, but for those who’ve been looking to source a copy not beaten half to death, it’s well worth the money.
REVENGE OF THE NERDS / LABEL: REAL GONE MUSIC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
