Were The Blues Brothers a real band?
The Blues Brothers is one of the greatest cult films of all time, becoming a box office smash in the 1980s and revitalising the careers of musical legends Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway and James Brown along the way. The stars of the show were John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, who appear as Jake and Elwood Blues, two characters etched into cinema history.
But were Jake and Elwood – collectively known as The Blues Brothers – actually a real band? The answer is a little more complicated than many might think.
The first appearance of The Blues Brothers aired during a Saturday Night Live sketch in January 1976. Based on Aykroyd’s own experiences with Canadian blues groups in the 1970s, the duo performed the song ‘Soul Man’ in their now-traditional black suits, fedora hats and dark Ray-Ban sunglasses. After several more appearances on SNL, their popularity with American viewers soared, with Belushi, in particular, becoming a household name by the end of the 1970s. Then, in 1978, the Blues Brothers decided to step things up a notch: agreeing to support comedian and SNL alumni Steve Martin during his ten-night run at Los Angeles’ Universal Amphitheatre.
For this run of shows – their first genuine live gigs – Belushi and Aykroyd recruited an all-star backing band that included Stax house musicians Steve Cropper and Donald Dunn, famed blues guitarist Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy and respected studio musician Tom Malone. The shows would be recorded by producer Bob Tischler, with the resulting live album A Briefcase Full of Blues hitting number one on the Billboard charts and going on to sell more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.
Owing to their SNL fame, The Blues Brothers were so popular at this point that Belushi and Aykroyd decided to make a spin-off movie. There was plenty of studio interest in the project, which was pretty much deemed as a guaranteed box office success by executives. After Universal Studios narrowly outbid Paramount for the rights to the film, The Blues Brothers was eventually released on June 20th, 1980, after months and months of delays and excessive spending on set. The plot followed the story of Jake ‘Joliet’ Blues and Elwood Blues, played by Belushi and Aykroyd, respectively, who set out to raise money for their old orphanage by playing a fundraiser with their old band.
But did The Blues Brothers actually tour?
This is where the story gets a little complicated. Although The Blues Brothers had played a handful of live shows at this point, they were really still a comedy act on SNL and now their own film. However, to mark the release of the movie, the Blues Brothers actually set out on a nationwide tour of America in June 1980. They played 21 dates across 13 US cities, culminating in a week-long stand at the Universal Amphitheatre – which is where they played their first-ever shows with Steve Martin a few years earlier.
You could argue that this is where The Blues Brothers went from a comedy act or Hollywood creation to a real band. The live shows went down a storm across the country – but it would prove to be their only tour. Sadly, their last appearance at the Universal Amphitheatre was their last ever show in the original guise of The Blues Brothers. Less than two years later, Belushi died of a drug overdose at his home in LA.
The Blues Brothers started out as a comedy sketch on SNL, but they did go on to release two live albums, one soundtrack album, and set out on a nationwide tour of the US. So, by the time of the film’s release, they had morphed into a proper band that you could pay to see live. In the years since Belushi’s death, various iterations of The Blues Brothers have been performed worldwide, including in Universal Studios, but the band features none of the original members that appeared in the film.
What started out as a comedy act became a much more serious – and more real – thing than anyone expected. The only great shame is that their time was cut short by the untimely death of Belushi.
