Jason Sudeikis names his five favourite songs of all time: “It’s as good as anything”
If you love the TV show Ted Lasso, and at the last count, many millions of people do, then you’ll know that aside from the superb comic performances it contains from the likes of Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham, it is also packed chock full of outstanding music.
Sometimes you can just tell when you watch something that somebody in charge of the soundtrack knows exactly what they’re doing, and where Ted Lasso is concerned, that someone is likely none other than Marcus Mumford, he of Mumford and Sons, who scores the musical interludes on the football show as well as providing the memorable theme tune.
But the hits that are scattered throughout the three seasons are also of a quality way above your standard televisual fare, think George Harrison’s ‘Beware of Darkness’, some Nick Cave, a dash of Michael Kiwanuka, ‘Rocks’ by Primal Scream, even some Spiritualized. Like I say, someone knows their musical onions. And given the production company in charge of the show is Ruby’s Tuna Inc., run by none other than Jason Sudeikis, perhaps it is actually him.
After all, he’s the man behind the moustache, the former SNL star who traded the U.S. for the quaint pubs of Richmond and created a monster, and he’s also admitted that he was partly inspired by the themes present in season two of Ted Lasso by the rousing Foo Fighters song ‘My Hero’.
That’s aside from appearing in a music video for Dave Grohl’s rockers and again for a Mumford and Sons track, ‘Hopeless Wanderer’. But which songs have given him the most pleasure over the years? Well, he told US station KCRW about his favourite tunes of all time, and the results were an eclectic mix of genres.
He kicked off with some country, picking ‘Guitar Town’ by Steve Earle, saying: “This is a song that I will, on occasion and have recently, sing at karaoke, it’s just a good two and a half minute karaoke song… When you hear a good song and you don’t know it but then someone sings it well at karaoke, it’s as good as anything because you’re actually in the room.”
Next up, in a complete change of pace, was ‘Heaven On Their Minds’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber, as Sudeikis explained: “This is my favorite version, this is from the concept album (Jesus Christ Superstar) from 1970 and it’s sung by Murray Head. This is also, again, another song I would do at karaoke and mean every word from it in an attempt to be as tortured as Judas is during this song.”
Third on Sudeikis’ list was ‘Gangsta Gangsta’ by N.W.A. from their 1989 album Straight Outta Compton. He said: “This album, one of my dear friends Terry, his older brother Brian had it, and the language and content was so foreign to us, that we just fell in love with it, so I wrote out all the lyrics.”
Fourth up was jazz legend Harry Connick Jr with ‘The Bare Necessities’, with Sudeikis saying: “It’s got a sense of humor, it’s got the swagger that I still love about Harry Connick Jr. The song’s just got a lot of soul to begin with, and he just puts a little more on it.”
Finally, to round things off, Sudeikis went with piano pop group Ben Folds Five and their song ‘Evaporated’. The actor said, “I feel like Ben Folds, I’ve referred to him in the past few years as like being a musical older brother. This song, this was right before I moved to Chicago before I decided to become an actor. It represents a culmination of all these other four songs to me.”
Jason Sudeikis’ five favourite songs:
- ‘Guitar Town’ – Steve Earle
- ‘Heaven On Their Minds’ – Andrew Lloyd Webber (sung by Murray Head)
- ‘Gangsta Gangsta’ – N.W.A.
- ‘The Bare Necessities’ – Harry Connick, JR
- ‘Evaporated’ – Ben Folds Five
