John Williams and Benny Goodman in the Star Wars Soundtrack
After Star Wars first came out in the 1970s, I bought the soundtrack to the movie (there was only one in those days) and read the insert. I was intrigued by composer John Williams’ statement that he used Benny Goodman’s music as the basis for the Cantina scene. You can find one version of the story is in this interview with John Williams available online.*
As a result, lots of folks know that the Cantina music is Benny Goodman material, but no one seems to know what the original pieces were. In late 1979 or early 1980, I saw – and heard – Benny Goodman, who was then 71 years old but still a great musician and clarinetist without par, play John Williams’ version of what is called “Cantina I” on the Star Wars (now Episode IV: A New Hope) soundtrack in the Light Hall Auditorium at Vanderbilt University. The crowd went wild! But I never learned the name of the piece he played.
Recently, I have been wasting a little time (I do that too often, as I am doing now), and discovered what two pieces Williams used.
”Cantina I” is Benny Goodman’s “Love Me or Leave Me”, originally written (as I understand it) in 1928 for the musical “Whoopee” by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. Goodman recorded it twice for Columbia Records, first in 1934 and then in 1936. I found it on the CD Greatest Hits from Benny Goodman released by RCA/Victor.
”Cantina II” is Goodman’s “Oh Baby!” which I found on the CD Benny Goodman Orchestra released by Delta. I am not certain, but I believe “Oh Baby!” was originally recorded in 1946.
This page was created because I could not find this information on the web despite several attempts to search the names of the Goodman tunes that Williams used.
* Thanks to Kamalesh Thakker for noticing that the link to the interview with John Williams was broken, suggesting an update to the Internet Archive instead.