From Doris Duke to Tina Turner: John Waters names his all-time favourite love songs
The films of John Waters could certainly be seen as love stories, yet don’t go in expecting anything similar to the saccharine works of Nancy Meyers or Nora Ephron. Indeed, Waters’ love stories speak to the liberty of life itself, with the director frolicking in the vat of bad taste, creating films that repulse and disgust but also make you feel so full of feverish life that you want to run around naked.
While his early provocative feature films sought to simply place him on the cinematic map and claim the world of underground cinema as his own when the 1980s rolled around, he got caught up with the excitement of Hollywood and moved on to a few more commercial projects. The quirky comedy Hairspray was one such film, telling the story of a local TV dance show and the young teenager eager to appear on it.
Retaining Waters’ idiosyncratic style, Hairspray remained far more palatable than his earlier works, being a charming tale about self-love having priority over anything else in one’s life. Cry-Baby shortly followed at the dawn of the 1990s, with the film being the closest thing to a straight-up love story that Waters has ever directed, starring Johnny Depp at the height of his ascendency in a beloved satire of the corny romance of 1950s cinema.
A lover of love in all its shapes and styles, Waters even went so far as to release a compilation album of his favourite romantic tunes of all time, giving A Date with John Waters to the world in 2007. To promote the album, the director took to the All Songs Considered podcast to share some of his personal top-tier favourites, revealing a number of classics from the likes of Tina Turner and Doris Duke.
One of the many classics Waters names is the Patience and Prudence tune ‘Tonight You Belong to Me’, released in 1956. First written in 1926 by Billy Rose, these days, the song has been reclaimed as one of the sweetest love stories of all time. The first record Waters ever got, the director called the song “so pure, so good,” with other filmmakers clearly agreeing, as it has since appeared in such movies as Marvel’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Elsewhere, the director also names Edith Massey’s ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ from 1982, not to be confused with the song of the same name from 2007 by the former Black Eyed Pea, Fergie. A punk song written and performed by Massey, one of Waters’ long-time collaborators, who starred in 1972’s Pink Flamingos and 1980’s Polyester, among other movies, choosing this song demonstrates the director’s fondness for promoting his co-stars and creative collaborators.
Take a look at the full list of love songs John Waters calls his favourites below.
John Waters’ favourite love songs:
- Al Hibbler – ‘After the Lights Go Down Low’
- Doris Duke – ‘I Don’t Care Anymore’
- Edith Massey – ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’
- Eileen Barton – ‘If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake’
- Lorraine Ellison – ‘Stay With Me’
- Patience and Prudence – ‘Tonight You Belong to Me’
- Shirley & Lee – ‘Bewildered’
- Tina Turner – ‘All I Can Do is Cry’
