The Blues Brothers never intended to become movie stars. The group evolved from a fun time at Dan Aykroyd’s blues bar, to a musical duo on “Saturday Night Live,” to a hit movie.
“The Blues Brothers” movie premiered June 16, 1980, in Chicago, four days before its national release.
Aykroyd played Ellwood Blues, and John Belushi played “Joliet” Jake Blues. They wore dark suits, dark ties, fedora hats and sunglasses.
The SNL cast would hang out at Aykroyd’s bar after the show, and Belushi and Aykroyd often would sing. The first time Aykroyd played the harmonica and Belushi sang on SNL was in 1976 when they were dressed in killer bee outfits.
They made their debut on SNL as the Blues Brothers in April 1978, singing “Hey Bartender,” and the Song of the Day, "Soul Man."
Making the movie proved far more complicated than singing some songs on SNL. Aykroyd, who had never even read a script let alone write one, turned in a bloated screenplay that director John Landis had to rewrite.
The movie quickly went over budget and fell behind schedule, partly because of Belushi’s drug use. One-hundred three cars were crashed in the movie. The movie earned more than $115 million.
Sam and Dave had the most success with our Song of the Day. Isaac Hayes and David Porter wrote it. Hayes said he came up with the idea after seeing film footage of storefronts that survived the Detroit race riots in 1967. The word soul was written on them.
Sam and Dave took the song to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Blues Brothers’ version reached number 14.
Song of the Day is a creation of Sheldon Zoldan. Today's SOD was edited by Simon Dunham.
