The Fantasticks, the film version of the off-Broadway musical that's still running after a record-breaking forty years, was shot five years ago by director Michael Ritchie. No release until now. Uh-oh. Disaster? Pretty much. It was folly for Ritchie to shoot a spare theatrical piece against the sweeping landscapes of the Arizona prairie. But the folly sometimes pays off. Joe McIntyre, of New Kids on the Block, and Jean Louisa Kelly catch just the right note of youthful yearning in their voices (digital wizardry allowed the actors to sing live) as the teens whose fathers (Joel Grey and Brad Sullivan) scheme to bring them together by keeping them apart. The dads' plan involves hiring a traveling magician, El Gallo (a flamboyant Jonathon Morris), to stage a phony rape. Never mind. Even as the movie threatens to derail, the charm of the score, by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt — "Try to Remember," "Soon It's Gonna Rain," "I Can See It" — keeps breaking through.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.