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“Joker: Folie à Deux” is dancing into theaters today.

The highly anticipated sequel, which returns Joaquin Phoenix to the grimy world of Gotham City and adds Lady Gaga as his Harley Quinn, is a very different movie than the $1 billion-grossing original. Chiefly: it’s a musical.

You see, when Harley and Arthur Fleck feel the world is getting too crazy, they slip into an alternate reality where they are a Sonny and Cher-style singing duo. Nobody can hear them sing or see them dance, but to the two of them, that’s all they’re doing. But is it enough to permanently escape the horrors of reality, where Harley is an inmate accused of burning down an apartment building and Arthur is on trial for multiple murders?

But what songs are Arthur and Harley belting out? Well, you’ll find the full list below, along with other songs that...

“Happiness is a Warm Gun” isn’t the only connection between The Beatles and Peanuts. Both groups exemplified the optimism of the 1960s era. Charles M. Schulz’s Charlie Brown was so assured of positive outcomes he repeatedly tried to kick a field-goal-placed football held by the town’s resident five-cents-a-session psychiatrist, Lucy, in spite of the knowledge she would pull it out from under him at the last moment. He faced defeat and realized “the world didn’t come to an end.”

When Schulz’s comic strip moved into animated TV specials, much of that expectant wonder was expressed through the music. Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi joined the Peanuts’ creative gang in 1964, when he was hired to score a TV documentary about Schulz, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The documentary never aired, but jazz label Fantasy Records released the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack, Jazz Impressions of A Boy...

Tommy Morgan, a harmonica soloist who contributed to hundreds of movie and TV shows including “Roots” and “Dances With Wolves,” died June 23. He was 89.

Morgan played on film soundtracks and record dates going back to the early 1950s. His estimated 7,000 recording sessions, according to statistics on his website, suggest that more people have heard his harmonica work than that of any other player of the instrument.

That’s Morgan’s harmonica on Quincy Jones’ “Sanford and Son” theme, Mike Post’s “Rockford Files” theme and the scores for numerous shows including “Maverick,” “The Waltons,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “China Beach,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Family Guy.”

He played on the Emmy-winning score for “Roots” and its sequel, “Roots: The Next Generations.” And his bass harmonica was the signature sound of Arnold Ziffel, the pig on “Green Acres.”

In addition, Morgan played on dozens of classic films including “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,...

The Specials will release an album of cover songs, Protest Songs – 1924-2012, on September 24th. The release will include 12 new versions of protest songs by artists like Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, and Frank Zappa.

The British group has previewed the album with a rendition of “Freedom Highway,” a song by the Staple Singers that was written for the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

“The beginning of 2020 saw us all together making a reggae record before we each fell ill with Covid-19 and had to put the album on ice,...

Zoe Caldwell, a veteran stage, TV and film actress who won four Tony Awards and originated the Broadway roles of Maria Callas in Master Class and the title character in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, has died. She was 86.

Her son, Charlie Whitehead, said she died Sunday of Parkinson’s disease complications at her home in Pound Ridge, NY.

Caldwell won four lead actress Tony Awards spanning 30 years. Along with Master Class (1996) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968), she also scored trophies for Slapstick Tragedy (1966) and Madea (1982).

Along with her 45-year career on the Great White Way, the Australia native appeared in such films as Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo and the 2002 Disney toon Lilo & Stitch. Among her many telefilm roles were adaptations of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Her most recent credit was as Oskar’s (Thomas Horn) grandmother...

On July 16, 1969, Variety ran a package of stories under the headline “Greatest Show Off Earth,” detailing the three TV networks’ fever over the July 19 moon landing. CBS exec producer Robert Wussler predicted “the world’s greatest single broadcast.” Variety called it a “31-hour TV super-special,” running all day Sunday through midday Monday. The networks and four radio companies pooled resources and spent a then-huge $13 million collectively. NBC was handling the action at Kennedy Space Center, CBS at Mission Control in Houston, with ABC assigned “downrange pickups.”

But each network also wanted to plant its own distinct footprint on the moon landing. CBS offered Arthur C. Clarke, Walter Cronkite and Orson Welles (think “War of the Worlds”). ABC had Rod Serling, Isaac Asimov and Marshall McLuhan; ABC also commissioned Duke Ellington to compose a piece of music. NBC had a special hosted by John Chancellor and Danny Kaye, which Variety described...

[Brightcove "4804745844001" "" "" "auto"] Frank Sinatra Jr., one of the most visible torchbearers of his father's legacy, died Wednesday at 72. Sinatra the younger was born Jan. 10, 1944. By the time he was 6, his parents had divorced. His father's heavy performance schedule - something like two films and four albums a year through the 1950s and '60s - meant that the pair didn't have a close relationship during Jr.'s early life: "He was a good father as much as it was within his power," he told The Guardian diplomatically in 2012. Regardless, Jr. followed in his father's footsteps. He'd studied music formally since the age...

[Brightcove "4804745844001" "" "" "auto"] Frank Sinatra Jr., one of the most visible torchbearers of his father's legacy, died Wednesday at 72. Sinatra the younger was born Jan. 10, 1944. By the time he was 6, his parents had divorced. His father's heavy performance schedule - something like two films and four albums a year through the 1950s and '60s - meant that the pair didn't have a close relationship during Jr.'s early life: "He was a good father as much as it was within his power," he told The Guardian diplomatically in 2012. Regardless, Jr. followed in his father's footsteps. He'd studied music formally since the age...

Rod McKuen, the scratchy-voiced poet and performer whose avalanche of lyrics and poems flooded pop culture in the '60s and '70s, died Thursday morning at a rehabilitation center in Beverly Hills. He was 81. His half-brother Edward McKuen Habib said McKuen was being treated for pneumonia and had been ill for several weeks, reports the Associated Press. McKuen songs were recorded by everyone from himself to Frank Sinatra and included "Love's Been Godo to Me," "If You Go Away," the Oscar-nominated "Jean" (from the movie The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), whcih he sang over the closing titles, and...

While everyone was buzzing about big releases from Frank Ocean, Fiona Apple, Mumford & Sons and Taylor Swift, you might have missed some must-listens. Here's what you should know about, and why:

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Grizzly Bear, "Shields" (Warp)

Yes, iTunes named Grizzly Bear's "Shields" the best album of 2012. Yes, the critics adored it. And yes, it debuted in the Top 10.

But did it earn any Grammy nominations? No. Is it selling well? No. Have you heard it? Probably not.

And that needs to change.

"Shields" is a semimasterpiece that feels both old and new – and in the best ways possible. Anchored by the voices of Edward Droste and Daniel Rossen, this Brooklyn, N.Y.-based foursome has created a disc that is genre-defying and consistent throughout.

The 10 tracks that make up "Shields" are drum-filled and smoky, and half the songs are more than five minutes long. That's a bit unusual, but it's...

Gene Ween (Aka Aaron Freeman) has long been known to cult music fans as one-half of the restlessly prolific genre-mashers Ween, and he's ready to strike out on his own, announcing his upcoming, first-ever solo record. "Marvelous Clouds" (Partisan Records) includes 13 interpretations of songs written by poet/songwriter Rod McKuen. The album reunites reunites Freeman with Ben Vaughn, producer of the Ween's 1996 album "12 Golden Country Greats." McKuen was a beat poet-turned-songwriter who earned two Oscar nominations, one Pulitzer nomination, and sold millions of books and records. Freeman isn't the first singer to cover McKuen; his songs have been recorded...

Durham, N.C. - During lunch a filmmaker tells me that of all the festivals he’s attended with his movies, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is the only one he wants to attend as a spectator. He enjoys how the various screens and activities aren’t spread all over the city. There’s a relaxed atmosphere as the festival-goers aren’t hustling hard to get tickets to sold out screenings. It’s a sweet Southern festival in the middle of Tobacco Road. Even the world’s biggest superstar just hangs out with the festival goers inside of hiding behind a wall of security.

Who is the superstar? Elmo! And we have an exclusive chat with him at the end of this column.

The film selection was once more top notch. An ample number of documentaries received their world debut in Durham. There were a few films that had built a buzz at Sundance,...

Like the early Peanuts holiday specials, the 1969 feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown can sneak up on a viewer. Early on, it’s little more than an adaptation of a few unconnected Charles Schulz strips, intercut with musical interludes. Vince Guaraldi’s score—arranged by John Scott Trotter, and peppered with Rod McKuen songs—is more lavish than the music in the TV series, and the tone’s more sentimental than befits Peanuts. But then the movie develops a plot, having to do with Charlie Brown’s effort to prove he’s not useless by winning a spelling ...