COMMITMENTS, ANDREW STRONG, THE

O.S.T. - COMMITMENTS

Alan Parker’s adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s crackerjack novel The Commitments (1991) kept its focus on the music - the classic American R&B and Soul the titular workingman band cranked out in pubs across Ireland.

As a book and film, The Commitments was all about love of music, so it didn’t matter if the soundtrack offered workmanlike versions of oldies the band and audience knew by heart: as long as it was done with some soul, the film would work, and the soundtrack would too.

In that sense, the Commitments were a cousin to the Blues Brothers, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s tribute to the very same music but where Jake and Elwood managed to hire Stax’s house band (such are the perks of stardom) , the group Parker assembled were working Irish musicians.