Just because critics don’t like a movie doesn’t mean it won’t make a ton of money…or have an awesome soundtrack. Take “Cocktail,” for example. Released in 1988 and starring Tom Cruise as a cocky young bartender with a flair for tossing drinks in the air, the romantic dramedy was a big hit at the box office, grossing $171.5 million worldwide. Unfortunately, “Cocktail” was as panned as it was popular, even winning the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture; years later, it has a rating of just 11% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Absence of critical acclaim aside, “Cocktail” clearly had plenty of box office appeal…due in part to a wildly successful soundtrack that went all the way to #2 on the Billboard 200. The album was packed with hits, like Bobby McFerrin‘s beloved one-hit wonder “Don’t Worry Be Happy” and the Beach Boys’ late ’80s radio mainstay “Kokomo.”
Another classic track that will forever be associated with “Cocktail” was actually a cover…of a cover: “Hippy Hippy Shake.”
The version of “Hippy Hippy Shake” that appears in “Cocktail” was performed by The Georgia Satellites and plays during one of the movie’s most famous scenes showing off Cruise’s aforementioned skills behind the bar. Originally, though, “Hippy Hippy Shake” was released in 1959 by Chan Romero. According to the Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture, Romero was just 17 years old when he wrote the song.
A few years later, in 1963, the Beatles recorded five versions of “Hippy Hippy Shake” for BBC Radio, sparking an interest in the song among other Merseybeat groups, per the Beatles Bible.
“There were millions of groups around at that time — The Blue Angels, The Running Scareds — but they were mostly lookalike groups; The Shadows and Roy Orbison had a lot of followers,” Paul McCartney recalled in The Beatles Anthology.
“Then there were groups like us, more into the blues and slightly obscure material. And because we had the unusual songs, we became the act you had to see, to copy,” he continued.
“We had too much material anyway. We couldn’t record it all when we did get a deal, so other groups took songs from our act and made hits out of them — like The Swinging Blue Jeans with the ‘Hippy Hippy Shake,’ which was one of my big numbers.”
Plenty of other acts have covered “Hippy Hippy Shake” over the years, too, including Dusty Springfield and The Dave Clark Five. As for the possibility of “Cocktail” ever being remade, chances are likely slim.
“There is not a moment in the movie’s last half-hour that is not borrowed from other movies, and eventually even the talented and graceful Cruise can be seen laboring with the ungainly reversals in the script,” Roger Ebert wrote in his review at the time of the film’s release.
“[Elisabeth] Shue, who does whatever is possible with her role, is handicapped because her character is denied the freedom to make natural choices; at every moment, her actions are dictated by the artificial demands of the plot,” Ebert continued, adding, “The more you think about what really happens in ‘Cocktail,’ the more you realize how empty and fabricated it really is.”
Related: 1964 No. 1 Hit, Featured in ‘Goodfellas,’ Ranked Among ‘Greatest Songs of All Time’
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