Song:On The Dark Side
Album:Eddie And The Cruisers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band were hired to provide the music for the 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers. The film flopped but gained a cult following when it aired on HBO in 1984. That fueled sales of the soundtrack album and On The Dark Side was a top ten hit. John Cafferty is from Narragansett, RI and has been playing bars in the Northeast US for years. Other band members were Gary Gramolini on lead guitar, Patrick Lupo on bass, Kenny Jo Silva on drums, Bobby Cotoia on piano and Michael "Tunes" Antunes on sax. Eddie and the Cruisers is about a 60s band that becomes popular many years later and the story of the film is about the whereabouts of the mysterious leader of the band Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare). Other stars of the film were Tom Berenger and Joe Pantoliano. Director Martin Davidson wanted the band in the film to have an authentic feel. So he hired Kenny Vance of Jay & The Americans to help him with that. They decided to base the band on Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. And then Vance saw Cafferty in a bar and thought they would be perfect to do the music. They even hired sax player Antunes to play the sax player in the film. They liked Cafferty's music and he scored the film. Unfortunately, the film's distributor Embassy Pictures botched the film's release and it only grossed $4.7M. But the film gained a following when it began airing on HBO in 1984. There was even a 1989 sequel. The soundtrack reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 200 and On The Dark Side reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Attempts to sell Cafferty afterwards were limited by his band seeming like a Springsteen knockoff. You can get the Eddie and the Cruisers as a budget CD. Bobby Cotoia died in 2004 but John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band still play bars today. Here's the video for On The Dark Side by John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band.
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