SINGLES (1992 FILM)

'''Singles''' (1992) is a film written and directed by Cameron Crowe.
Starring Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, and Matt Dillon, it focuses on the course of two couples' rocky romances, as well as the love lives of their friends and associates. It centers around the lives of a group of young people, mostly in their 20's, living in an apartment block, and is divided into ''chapters''. The events of the film were set against the backdrop of Seattle and the grunge movement in the city during the early 1990s.
Cameron Crowe wrote the part of Janet Livermore specifically for Bridget Fonda to play.
The ''Singles soundtrack'' included music and the film included cameos from key bands from the Seattle music scene of the time, such as Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and grunge favorite, Tad Doyle (lead vocalist of the Seattle bands Tad and Hog Molly). Nirvana (who had gained major success a year earlier with the multiplatinum record ''Nevermind'') was the only major grunge band of the time to not appear on the soundtrack. Paul Westerberg of The Replacements contributed two songs, and scored the soundtrack (some would say the Replacements' music, as well as Hüsker Dü's music, is one of the precursors to, and originators of "grunge"). The Smashing Pumpkins also contributed to the soundtrack with their song "Drown".
The success of and buzz around the film's soundtrack largely eclipsed the film itself, which was neither as commercially nor as critically successful as either Crowe's previous film, ''Say Anything'', or his next film, ''Jerry Maguire''. Nevertheless, ''Singles'' has been credited with inspiring a wave of films marketed towards a Generation X audience, spawning numerous imitators (most notably ''Reality Bites'' and ''Threesome'').

Contents

Casting and filming notes

External links

Casting and filming notes

★ While completed in early 1991, the film was not released until September 1992. Warner Bros. did not know what to do with the film, but after grunge exploded, the movie was finally released.

★ The film was shot at a number of locations around Seattle and includes scenes at Gas Works Park, Capitol Hill, Jimi Hendrix's grave at Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton and Pike Place Market. The central coffee shop featured in the film is the now demolished OK Hotel. The apartment building is located on the northwest corner of the intersection of E Thomas St & 19th Ave E. Additional concert footage was shot in the now-defunct RCK CNDY bar.

★ Chris Cornell has a cameo as the guy who comes out to listen to a car radio. He also appears in a later scene with his band Soundgarden performing the song "Birth Ritual" (the studio version of that song, as well as Chris' solo song "Seasons" appear on the soundtrack). Playing over the same scene is a demo version of Soundgarden's song "Spoonman".

★ Cameron Crowe himself has a cameo as a club interviewer.

★ Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, and Eddie Vedder, all members of Pearl Jam, have small parts as members of Cliff's band Citizen Dick. Pearl Jam also released two songs on the soundtrack; "Breath" and "State of Love and Trust".

★ Citizen Dick's song name "Touch Me, I'm Dick" is wordplay on the song "Touch Me, I'm Sick" by the Seattle band Mudhoney. Also, the inside cover photo to the soundtrack, there is a Citizen Dick CD with the track listing on the CD itself. One of the songs is called "Louder Than Larry", a wordplay on the Soundgarden album Louder Than Love. The band name Citizen Dick is a play on the Seattle band "Citizen Sane".

★ There are brief cameos from ''Alias'' star Victor Garber, Paul Giamatti (in one of his first film appearances), Tim Burton, and Jeremy Piven. Eric Stoltz (whom Crowe has said is in all of his films) plays the loud mouthed mime.

★ The members of Alice in Chains also appear in the film as a bar band, playing their songs "It Ain't Like That" and "Would?".

★ One of the few Seattle bands of this era not to have a cameo was Nirvana, and according to Everett True's book "Nirvana: The Biography," Kurt Cobain hated this film.

★ Jennifer Jason Leigh was Crowe's first choice for the role of Linda Powell. When she turned it down, Kyra Sedgwick won the part.

External links

★

★ Making the Scene: A Filmmaker's Diary, a log kept by Crowe during the production of ''Singles'' and published in ''Rolling Stone'' in October 1992.