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.

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.