Pod Insights DISGRACELAND Bonus Episode: Mafia Murders and the Music Behind Them About this episode Adele’s love of Al Pacino led us into a Mafia/Music Murder Rabbit Hole. Help us climb out of it in this bonus episode. Plus your voicemails, texts, emails, comments, DMs—and as always, a whole lotta Rosie.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Speaker 00 This is exactly right.
0:17 Speaker 01 She'd throw things, wander, and started hoarding. Mom's Alzheimer's was already so hard. But then we found out she had agitation that may happen with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. And that was a different kind of difficult. So we asked her doctor for more help.
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1:07 Speaker 01 I'm glad I asked for help.
1:09 Speaker 02 Ask your loved one's doctor about Rexulti.
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1:44 Jake Brennan? I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.
2:16 Jake Brennan? Hey Discos. Need a little more DisgraceLand in your life? Just a touch to get you through? Yeah, me too. This is the podcast that comes after the podcast. Welcome to DisgraceLand, the after-party.
2:43 Jake Brennan? Welcome to the DisgraceLand bonus episode, a little thing we like to call the after-party. This is the show after the show, the party after the party, the bridge to get you from one full episode of DisgraceLand to the other, the backyard to dig into the dirt. Our mission, as always, guys, to uncover the truth, to confront the myth, to reclaim the story on this bonus episode, the music from the mob movies with the real-life hits, okay? As inspired by this week's full episode on Adele and her love of Al Pacino. Plus, your voicemails, texts, emails, comments, DMs, and as always, a whole lot of Rosie. This is the podcast for the musically obsessed, the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. DisgraceLand is where I tell the stories they didn't want told, the kind that you'll end up telling someone else.
3:27 Jake Brennan? All right, Discos, let's get into it.
3:37 Jake Brennan? Okay, so in this week's episode of DisgraceLand, as I just alluded to, as I just mentioned, we talk about Adele. And part of her story revolves around her love of Al Pacino movies, gangster movies, to be precise. I share this trait with Adele, as I'm sure many of you do as well. But specific to Italian movies, Italian gangster movies. For some reason, at the end of the day, after my wife and kids have fallen asleep, watching violent sociopaths navigate their way through a secret society to deal with their problems, it relaxes me. I don't know why. I do not know why. I've always been into gangster movies, specifically Italian mafia movies.
4:22 Jake Brennan? Lately, though, it's, it's become, I don't, I don't know, it's, it's, it's...
4:28 Jake Brennan? I've gone deeper and deeper and deeper. And I'm even watching straight up garbage. Just looking for historical nuggets that I can mine and that I can connect in my brain. Like, oh, that's based on this thing that was based on this other thing that I learned from this thing. And I've watched all the good stuff, I think. And now I'm watching the trash. I don't want to, I don't want to call this show trash because that's unfair. It's unfair to the filmmaker or the showrunner. But have you watched Graves End on Amazon? I have, I have. I've watched both seasons. Season three is about to drop. I'm going to watch that, too. This is not a good show.
5:11 Jake Brennan? It's, it's bordering, it's right on the line of so bad, it's good, but it's, it's doesn't go that far. So you can't even really use irony to appreciate it.
5:22 Jake Brennan? But still, man, it's got all the actors from every great mob movie and every Sopranos episode that you've ever seen. Okay, so it should be great. The acting should be great. It's a testament to, I think, bad directing and bad writing.
5:38 Jake Brennan? Because it's so bad, the acting can't save it.
5:43 Jake Brennan? I say all that and I'm laughing and I'm kind of ashamed of myself for saying this because part of me really loves what this filmmaker is doing. He's completely, this guy grew up in Graves End, Brooklyn. He's completely, I forget his first name, his last name is DeMayo. I think it's William DeMayo. He's completely following his passion and what he knows and, and who he is. And he's making something that people clearly love. So who am I to shit on it, right? And I, but I do, I do like it. I watch it, but I can't, I can't tell you it's a good show. It's not. You should, you should check it out. Let me know what you think. Graves End, it's on Amazon. Again, I watch it all, okay? But the mob movies that I love the most are the ones that incorporate rock and roll.
6:26 Jake Brennan? So I thought, there's no rock and roll in Gravesend, by the way. I thought that it would be cool to look at mob hits, like actual killings, murders from mob films. And the music, the actual hits that accompany those murders. Okay. But the caveat is, the murders have to be based on real life mafia murders. Okay. This will keep us in the realm of music and true crime. Okay. So I should tell you, spoiler alerts, all right? All over the place here. If you haven't seen these movies and you hear me mention them, just stop, stop what you hear. Okay. Just wait 30 seconds.
7:04 Jake Brennan? Now, first up, the infamous head in the vice scene from Martin Scorsese's Casino. This murder executed by Joe Pesci's character, Nicky Santoro, who is playing a version of a real gangster named Anthony Spolatro. This murder, the real murder, it didn't happen in Las Vegas. It's based on the torture of a mobster named William McCarthy. McCarthy was part of the Chicago outfit and was tortured and killed in 1962. And yes, just like in Casino, his eye popped out from the pressure of the vice around his head. The song that's playing in the scene is Cream's instrumental "Toad" from their debut album,
7:46 Jake Brennan? Fresh Cream, released in 1966. This murder, I believe, is also connected to, the real life murder is also connected to the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. So there's another music connection here. I believe of the four connected guys who were killed in relation to that crime, one of them was killed, or at least reportedly killed in the same way with the vice around the head. And that was not William McCarthy, I don't think. I don't think I could have it wrong. All right, next, we're gonna travel back to the great year of 1996 and the HBO film Gotti, starring Arman Asante in the title role. First of all, this movie is incredible.
8:31 Jake Brennan? It's great. I love it. I love it. And if you watch, as I do, interviews with real life mafia members on YouTube, they will tell you that this is one of the most accurate portrayals of mafia activity that's ever happened on film. Do I believe that? Well, I don't know how accurate it is, but it is dramatic as hell and it is really interesting. And Arman Asante is just, he's so cool. He's such a great John Gotti. He's so awesome. But early in this film, very early on, Arman Asante as John Gotti enters a bar and he kills
9:14 Jake Brennan? an enemy of mob boss Carlo Gambino. It's a real life hit. It happened in retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of Gambino's nephew. That actually happened. Somebody fucking kidnapped and murdered Carlo Gambino, the boss of all bosses, I believe, at the time, and kidnapped and murdered his nephew. Anyways, this hit, John Gotti does in retaliation for Carlo Gambino. It puts him on the fast track to becoming a leader in the Gambino family. But more important, it made me love Three Dog Night because when Gotti kills this dude in the movie Gotti, the dude's name is James McBratney, that was his real name.
9:55 Jake Brennan? When this happens, Three Dog Night's excellent tune, Shambala, Shambala, that song is so good. It's playing in the background. Now, Shambala was released on May 11th, 1973, and the murder of James Jimmy McBratney took place on May 22nd, 1973. So kudos to the filmmakers for the historical accuracy here. Side note, Jimmy McBratney didn't actually kidnap and kill Gambino's nephew. It was a case of mistaken identity. It was a bad hit, but still it worked for Gotti. Again, put him on the fast track in the Gambino family. All right, number three on my list, but probably should be number one. We're going back to Joe Pesci here, but it's Joe Pesci's character, not from Casino, his
10:35 Jake Brennan? character from Goodfellas, Tommy DeVito, based on real life gangster Thomas D. Simone, Tommy D. Simone. And it's the scene where Tommy kills the Billy Bats character for the first time, played by Frank Vincent. All right, they think that he kills him. And when this happens in Henry Hill's bar, we hear Donovan's excellent Atlantis playing in this scene. Okay. Now, this scene is a fairly accurate portrayal of what went down in real life. De Simone, Tommy De Simone murdered a guy named William Bentvena. I think that's how you say that, who was a made member of the Gambino family. The hit happened in 1970.
11:19 Jake Brennan? Donovan's Atlantis was released in 1968. I don't know, would that have been playing in Henry Hill's bar? Maybe, maybe. The interesting thing about this, in the movie, they attack Billy Bats after Billy Bats insults Tommy, or later on in the night. It's not immediate. You know, Billy Bats tells him to go get a shine box. And, you know, a couple hours go by, they wait for the girls to leave. They let, they let Billy Bats relax. And then, then, once everyone's gone, Tommy goes to work on Billy Bats and they think they kill him. Of course, they don't, they kill him later in the trunk of the car. He survives for a couple more hours.
12:03 Jake Brennan? However, in real life, what happened was the insult happens in a couple of weeks go by before Tommy De Simone kills William. How do you say his last name? Bentvena, who is the Billy Bats character. So there you go. All right, next, I want to take you to a rooftop in Boston, Massachusetts, here in the early aughts. Billy Costigan, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. He gets a bullet in the head. Okay, in the elevator, in the departed. And just before that happens, there's a bit of the live version of Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, but it's the Roger Waters live version. Okay. It's when he's up on the roof with Matt Damon. It's also earlier in the movie.
12:45 Jake Brennan? It also happens earlier in the movie when Matt Damon is in the middle of a sex scene. But anyways, it happens on the roof there, just a bit of it's like some guitar playing. Now, the reason I mentioned this is because, again, spoiler alert for The Sopranos here. It's the same version of Comfortably Numb that is playing in Christopher Maltisante's truck before Kennedy and Heidi run him off of the road, and Tony as well, and then you know what happens there. Now, Christopher Maltisante, that character in The Sopranos, is based loosely on mobster Anthony Bruno in Delicato. Anthony Bruno in Delicato, from the Bonanno family, a gangster with a severe drug addiction.
13:28 Jake Brennan? That's who they based the Christopher Maltisante character on in Sopranos. Now, Bruno in Delicato is also the inspiration behind the Bruno character from Donnie Brasco, the son of Sonny Red. The actor who plays Bruno in Donnie Brasco is Brian Tarantino. Brian Tarantino plays Salvatore Mustang Sally in Tle in The Sopranos. Mustang Sally is eventually murdered. There is no music accompanying the hit, and the death is not inspired by true events, at least that I know of. But Mustang Sally is a song by Wilson Pickett that I never need to hear again, and neither do you. They can take that one in Brown Eyed Girl, and they can send him straight to the moon. Now, listen, Bruno in Delicato is still alive, okay?
14:11 Jake Brennan? I wonder what he thinks of being portrayed in two iconic mafia, I was about to say films, but The Sopranos and in Donnie Brasco. Now, let's talk about Tony Soprano. Killed a bunch of people, obviously, but let's talk about his musical taste. I loved it. Struck me as totally accurate. Basically, he's got like, you know, middle-aged classic rock radio tastes. I love it. It's perfect. Pink Floyd makes all the sense in the world when they're driving in that car and they're listening, and Christopher is excited to play Tony that Roger Waters' Pink Floyd CD. When I heard that Roger Waters' version of Comfortably Numb in The Departed, however,
14:55 Jake Brennan? it struck me as weird because it wasn't the studio version of the song. And I immediately thought, oh, well, you know, Scorsese just couldn't get Pink Floyd to license him the studio version. Maybe they wanted too much money, or they just didn't want it used, or whatever, and he ended up going with the live version. Turns out, that's exactly what happened. I was right about that. I'm not sure, however, why it's used in The Sopranos.
15:21 Jake Brennan? Because they, they use one of these days, they get to license Pink Floyd's One of These Days in a 2006 episode called The Fleshy Part of the Thigh, it's used in the credit sequence. This episode is the one where Bobby Bacalag is paid by the aspiring hip hop artist Marvin M V P Bellfield to shoot him on purpose so that Marvin can gain some much needed street credibility. And that storyline is reportedly a parody of the real life 50 Cent shooting. And Marvin, to further connect to music history and to real life music, Marvin is played, the character is played by naughty by nature's Tretch. And
16:02 Jake Brennan? Tretch's manager, excuse me, Marvin's manager in this episode is played by Lord Jamar from Brand Nubian. There's even a Brand Nubian reference in the dialogue. Now, the depiction of hip hop artists like M V P being so desperate for street credibility was so accurate that Nas references this episode on his 2006 album Hip Hop Is Dead. Incredible. Love these connections. All right. I'm going too deep down the rabbit hole, but we will go deeper. We're going to do that in the exclusive section of this after party. Zedd and I, we're going to talk about real life rock stars, real life musicians caught up with real life gangsters. Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, you're wait, you're like Marilyn Monroe, she's an actress. No, she's
16:41 Jake Brennan? also a pretty damn good singer. Okay. Put out records, the whole bit. Okay. Anyways, some surprising connections between real life musicians and the mafia that we're going to discuss in the exclusive section of this after party. Go to www dot disgrace land pod.com to sign up, become an all access member to unlock exclusive content like this plus ad free listening. Now, this is the stuff that I am obsessed with. I probably need a hobby. Maybe Adele needs a hobby as well. Like I said, our new story on Adele is available for you to listen to right now. Coming up in the rewind slot this Sunday, we've got our episodes on Paul McCartney and John Lennon, both of their early 70s
17:25 Jake Brennan? solo career stuff. That's what's going to be detailed in these episodes. Paul McCartney Stint in Jail, John Lennon's Stint Under FBI Surveillance. These are great episodes. You're gonna dig them. I promise. If you haven't heard them before, get in there and listen. And then on Tuesday, we've got our episode on the Hillsborough Disaster. This is a special episode of Disgrace Land. We are releasing it because the World Cup is about to get underway. And we originally wrote this episode for a different series other than Disgrace Land. But make no mistake, this is a Disgrace Land episode, and it depicts the horrible tragedy where 97, 97 Liverpool football fans died
18:07 Jake Brennan? in a fatal crowd crush during a 1989 soccer match at Hillsborough Stadium. This is one of the episodes that we've produced here at Double Elvis that I am most proud of. It's an incredible story. We are releasing it once again, timed with the World Cup that's about to start happening this weekend. Now, whether or not you're a soccer fan, you're gonna dig this, so I hope you check it out. And when you're listening to that episode, be thinking about tragedies, be thinking about music tragedies, sports tragedies, and what's the most tragic event from music history, sports history, just culture in general. 617-906-6638. Leave me a voicemail, send me a text, and let me know. @disgracelandpod on the socials. You want to get at me there. [email protected] .
18:51 Jake Brennan? If you want to email me your answers, I'll be back right after this quick message with your answers to last week's question of the week, your voicemails, texts, emails, and more coming up.
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19:36 Jake Brennan? I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.
20:15 Jake Brennan? All right, we got a lot of different conversations going on with you guys. Let's check in with Rob from the 303.
20:21 Speaker 04 Hey Jake, this is Rob from the 303. It's the first time I've ever had to stop a podcast and dial your number, man. You asked for unlikely covers, and I work for a radio station in Denver, and I did not know, it's a classic rock station, that PM Dawn covered Beatles' Norwegian Wood. Really good song, both versions. That's all I got, man. Thanks.
20:45 Jake Brennan? Rob, thanks for the call. I love the PM Dawn vibes. I love the 90s vibes. I had no idea they covered Norwegian Wood. Did they cover it or just sample it? I'm gonna check it out. Very interested in this, Rob. Thanks so much. Russell from the 704.
21:03 Speaker 05 Hey there, Russell from the 704. I did finish listening to the 1994 after-party. I graduated high school in 1994, so a lot of what you talked about really hit home for me. I listened to it because I wanted to find out about these punk albums, not by punk artists, see who'd mention what. And there's one that came to mind that I was surprised it wasn't mentioned, and that is Rage Against the Machine's album, Battle of Los Angeles. You know that a punk album is relevant when you have someone like Weird Al covering, not parodying, but covering.
21:42 Speaker 05 Rage Against the Machine in one of their concerts. All I have to say about that is, Fuck You, I Will Do What You Tell Me. Love the show, love Hollywood land, looking forward to hearing more of it. Have a great day.
21:56 Jake Brennan? Love the passion, Russell. Is that true? Weird Al covered Rage Against the Machine and didn't parody it? That's, that's, uh, that's pretty interesting. What's more punk than Fuck You, I Won't Do What You Tell Me? That's what I want to know. Chad from the 604.
22:12 Speaker 05 Hey Jake, Chad calling from up in Miero, British Columbia, Canada. Um, more, nothing disgraceful, just like feel good, you know? Music, which for me, it's the number one super group, the only fucking super group that exists on the planet ever of all time, in my opinion, Traveling Wilburys.
22:39 Jake Brennan? Chad, thank you. I appreciate the call and Traveling Wilburys might be the greatest super group of all time, but are they the only one? The only one? I don't know, man. What about The Firm? Come on, dude.
22:50 Jake Brennan? I'm kidding. The Firm were a B, B team super group at best. There's gotta be other examples of great super groups, though. Someone was just talking about Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave. There you go. There's one, but there's a mythology to the Traveling Wilburys that some of these other super groups just don't have. Appreciate the call, Chad. Get back at us anytime. Amber from the 620 writes in, hey Jake, Amber from the 785. But Amber, I'm looking at your area code, it's 620. Amber says, hey, I would also love a Tori Amos episode. For a crime perspective, Tori was raped at, oh my God, at knife point by a fan. I did not know this. My goodness.
23:36 Jake Brennan? Her song, that's my, I just said that, not, not Amber here. Amber goes on to say, her song, Me and a Gun, on the Little Earthquakes album is about that experience. It's also one of the main reasons, she's a spokesperson, co-founder for Rain. I hope this helps. Keep up the great work, rock-a-rola. Amber, it absolutely helps. Thank you so much. Wow, that's heavy. That is heavy. Yeah, we'll definitely get into a Tori Amos episode at some point. 206 writes in the question of outlier albums, this spawning from our Weezer conversation last week relative to Pinkerton and our Weezer episode. 206 texts in, "Hey, I'm behind on the podcast. I agree with
24:21 Jake Brennan? Pinkerton for Weezer. I would say Paul's Boutique is the Beastie Boys' best album, best Beastie Boys album and an outlier." I never thought of Paul's Boutique as an outlier because, but it is, I see your point. But at the time, they were still defining who they were going to be. And I look at License to Ill, Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, chronologically, their first three albums as a progression. You can hear them creatively going from one to the other versus Weezer, which is the blue album, Pinkerton, and then what, the green album after that? And the green album kind of reverts back to what they were. It'd be like if Check Your Head reverted back to License to Ill. But to your point, however, 206, the Beastie
25:06 Jake Brennan? Boys, once they, once they land on Check Your Head, they kind of stick the landing for a while. Ill Communication is still in that vein. They've kind of found what they're doing. They've identified themselves. But pretty interesting to think of Paul's Boutique as an outlier. Certainly sounds like one now. 917 writes in, "Hey, Adele, where's the Fiona Apple episode?" 917? How'd you know we were gonna do a Fiona Apple episode? 917 also writes in, "Pavement, he just wants to keep your hardcoreness in check and sounds extremely insecure. Nothing about swans? No Def Heaven? Weak." I don't know what the hell you're talking about, 917. I did find out an interesting thing about the swans recently, though. Michael Gere dated Madonna for a while back in the day. 917, a lot of texts here, also writes in,
25:50 Jake Brennan? "Look up Kanye's obsession with Adele before his first album came out." Okay, I will. Keep texting me, 917. Appreciate it. 617-906-6638. You guys want to get at me about anything here? Jeff McDermott writes in, "Hey, episode request. Jeff here from the 815. I just finished the re-release, the rewind of the Aaliyah episode, and it got me thinking of a hip hop artist..." Started to blow up around the same time that she did DMX. Please make a DMX episode for exclamation points. There is enough crime and drama to make a very interesting story. And believe it or not, he did make some pretty great music. Keep on keeping on Jeff from the 815 Jeff, we got DMX on the list. This year, I believe it's in the works, so to speak. We're planning for it to be in the works, I should say.
26:36 Jake Brennan? You guys want to hit me up with requests for subjects to cover in disgrace land, you can do so [email protected] . In the exclusive section of last week's after party, we were talking about pulp fiction. Casey writes in, Casey Juvenal writes in, hey, I heard in the after party exclusive section on pulp fiction this week, and I wanted to bring to your attention something that I recently noticed about the movie. It is my all time favorite, and I watch it about two times a year and always find something new. You guys mentioned Steve Buscemi playing Buddy Holly. Well, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but there is a theory that Buddy Holly is actually Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs. And I'm sure you remember his classic dialogue in which he talks about how he doesn't
27:16 Jake Brennan? tip waiters and waitresses. So the theory is that Mr. Pink went underground after the robbery and is hiding out as a waiter because no one would expect it. Anyways, just something to think about. Love your work. Keep up the good work. That's from CJ CJ. This theory is awesome. I love it. Would would Mr. Pink, though, would he recognize Vincent Vega as Vic Vega's brother? You know what I mean? Because he's waiting on him, you know, he might have him. Is there anything? Is there anything in that scene where Buddy's kind of like, where Mr. Pink is kind of like, wait, who the fuck is this? This guy looks like someone I know. You know what I mean? Maybe a look, a glance, a raised eyebrow even. Last one here relative to Weezer. G'day Jake, Rob, originally from Auckland, now living
28:00 Jake Brennan? in Queensland, Australia. Love your podcast. I am so glad someone else thinks Pinkerton is a great album. Weezer played Auckland in 1996, right in that strange window where Pinkerton was still new and uncomfortable. And I really liked it, but none of my mates did. It was no Buddy Holly, slightly unhinged in a way that didn't quite fit Weezer's Blue album. And Weezer played Auckland just after we finished high school, end of exams, blow out. That weird feeling where your life is suddenly open, but no one has told you what it's supposed to look like yet. Damn, Rob. Well put. Rob, we hope to capture that sentiment in the sentence you just, you just wrote, or that I just read that you wrote. In our latest
28:43 Jake Brennan? episode of This Film Should Be Played Loud, which is on Dazed and Confused, we're releasing it this month. We recorded it last night. We're releasing it this month because it is the end of the school year and it is probably the greatest graduation movie that I've ever seen, even, even more than The Graduate. How about that? How about that? Is Dazed and Confused better than The Graduate? I watch it more. I appreciate it more. I don't know. I don't know if I'm actually saying that. I should probably watch The Graduate again, but you know, I don't love The Graduate. I never have. What's wrong with me? I don't know. Rob, you're a good writer. Write back anytime. All right. You guys want to email with disgrace on pod at gmail.com. Now, listen, May Madness, May Madness has been consuming all of us here at Double Elvis and everybody over in the Patreon feed
29:25 Jake Brennan? for the last 30 plus days. Okay, we have arrived at the end of the line. We have a winner and that winner will be announced to you coming up right after this.
29:42 Speaker 06 Cash flow crunch. On Deck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
30:13 Jake Brennan? I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.
30:49 Jake Brennan? So we are back here in the after party and over on Patreon, you may or may not be aware for the month of May, which has now ended, we were covering May Madness. Now, May Madness, you might be like, what are you talking about? I know about March Madness. Is May Madness the NCAA baseball tournament? No, it's not, but I am deeply invested in that as well. May Madness is our sitcom theme tournament. Okay. And we have a winner. The sitcom Botron 2000, it finally tabulated all the votes and you know, it started spewing out some, some white smoke, just like the Vatican and we, we got news. Okay. So I'm not going to blow it here. I'm going to go to our, our special May Madness correspondent, Matt Boden.
31:34 Jake Brennan? Check in with Matt here. Matt can give us a recap of what exactly went down with May Madness and how we arrived with our winner and who that winner is. Matt, give it to him.
31:46 Speaker 07 Well, we had a lot of, you know, great deserving theme songs in this contest, but ultimately we wound up with an all New York final with Mr. Cotter and the Sweat Hogs from Brooklyn going up against George and Wheezy on the east side of Manhattan, formerly of Queens. And ultimately our winner was the Jeffersons, who defeated Welcome Back Cotter 54 to 25. I don't think anybody was surprised to see the Jeffersons in the final. It's an incredible theme with the indelible images of Wheezy wiping her eyes and, and George with that hilarious,
32:25 Speaker 07 yet confident strut as they head into the, the apartment building. So there you have it. The Jeffersons, the greatest sitcom theme of all time, according to our listeners.
32:38 Jake Brennan? All right, Matt, thank you for that. We appreciate the recap, appreciate all the work you put into this and appreciate everybody over on Patreon who voted and took part and made madness this year. This was a lot of fun. I think the thing we learned is that we like doing, we like doing tournaments. We want to do another one. We want to, we want to finally figure out these, these long, these long, mused about cultural questions, you know, like what the greatest sitcom theme of all time is. Obviously, The Jeffersons. I kind of feel like my, that's not my answer. My answer is Taxi, maybe Cheers, but you know, I can understand. And actually, the story behind the creation of the song that is the theme song for The Jeffersons is really fascinating and also speaks to that tune's
33:21 Jake Brennan? greatness. But there, there are other great cultural questions that we want to answer here in Double Elvis. So I think we're going to do some more tournaments over in Patreon. You guys want to become an All-Access member? You want to take part in these conversations? You can do so for as little as a buck. Go to disgracypod.com to sign up. You're also going to get access to our new video podcast, This Film Should Be Played Loud, which explores our favorite movies and the soundtracks behind them. We've got episodes on Goodfellas, Royal Tenenbaums, Boogie Nights, got a new episode on Dazed and Confused. That's coming up this month. You're not going to want to miss that. Go to disgracypod.com to sign up and become a member today. So we, all of a sudden, in Hollywood, we have young people
34:06 Jake Brennan? making great movies that are also wildly successful. This is kind of happening out of the blue. Zeth gets into all of this in the Hollywoodland feed this week, relative to our Lucille Ball re-release episode that's over there. But in the Rap Party, we're giving music recommendations based on music recommendations and film recommendations, but my recs are music-based from artists who were very young, under 20 years old in most cases, making great music that we're still listening to today. All my recommendations are happening exclusively in the Hollywoodland feed during the Rap Party episodes, which are released on Wednesdays.
34:48 Jake Brennan? If you're not Hollywoodland listener, make sure you become one today. Go to the Hollywoodland feed and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. As promised, Zeth and I are going to dig into some pretty, pretty revealing music connections, rock and roll connections, music history connections to the mafia, ones you likely haven't heard about here in the exclusive section of the after party coming up right now. Go to disgracypod.com to sign up if you're not already a member. All right, we'll be back right after this.
35:24 Jake Brennan? All right, guys, welcome back. Listen, we talked about, uh, go, which artist did we discuss? Going back to my memory here, we talked about Cream, so we've got an Eric Clapton episode in our archive. You can check that out. We've got a Pink Floyd episode. We talked about Pink Floyd. We talked about Nas, Brand Nubian, Naughty By Nature. We don't have episodes on any of those artists, but we do have a full season on the Wu-Tang Clan. That's in the archive. If you really want to go deep on the Wu, we got you covered. Matt will provide information on these episodes in the show notes section of this here after party to help you easily navigate our archive. All right, let's recap, shall we? This week, our new episode on Adele in the rewind slot coming up on Sunday. This is number two. We've got Paul McCartney and John Lennon, the solo
36:09 Jake Brennan? episodes. You're not going to want to miss those. Next week, our episode on the Hillsborough disaster timed with the World Cup event, which will be happening in four. Zeth gives you those Hollywood and crime vibes in the Hollywoodland podcast. So make sure you're subscribed. That way you can get my music recs. That's over in the wrap party. Number five, this film should be played loud. Our new episode on the Royal Tenenbaums is available for you right now. We just recorded our latest episode on Dazed and Confused. Go to disgracypod.com to sign up, become an all access member. Get into the Patreon chat. Let us know what other types of tournaments should we be doing? Cultural tournaments. Number six, 617-906-6638. Your voice keeps us digging into the dark corners of music history, so keep calling, keep texting with your answers to
36:52 Jake Brennan? this week's question of the week, or whatever else you want to talk about. Number seven, don't forget discos. This isn't just content. It's a community, a community of the obsessed. No one cares about music, books, records, and the crime and grime that ties them all together like you do. Well, that's a disgrace. All right, Adele's mega smash album 21 was released on January 8th, 2008, and here's what America was listening to on that day, according to the Billboard charts. Number one, Low, Flo Rida featuring T-Pain. Last week, one. Peak position, one. Weeks on chart, 12. Number two, No One, Alicia Keys. Last week, two. Peak position, one.
37:34 Jake Brennan? Weeks on chart, 19. Number three, Apologize, Timbaland featuring OneRepublic. Last week, three. Peak position, two. Weeks on chart, 24. Number four, Kiss Kiss, Chris Brown featuring T-Pain. Last week, four. Peak position, one. Weeks on chart, 18. Number five, Clumsy, Fergie. Last week, five. Peak position, five.
38:12 Jake Brennan? Quit talking and start mixing. Cut it! I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wines since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle. Hey guys, time to dust off your detective While unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyages.
38:55 Jake Brennan? Backed by popular demand, this five-night, adults-only escape sets sail March 20th, 2027 to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year, along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version of DisgraceLand, along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, podcast of the year award winners, Wyscrack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind-the-scenes storytelling, exclusive meet-and-greets, and immersive true crime programming throughout this one-of-a-kind voyage. Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot.
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