Cupid

Song: Cupid
Artist: Sam Cooke
Album: Greatest Hits




I didn’t really know that much about Sam Cooke, the legendary soul singer from Mississippi, but I randomly heard his first # 1 song “You Send Me” late last night and got thinking about him. I am a huge fan of his 1961 hit single “Cupid” and if I’m honest… it’s for the dorkiest of reasons. The song was prominently featured in 1987 action comedy “Innerspace” starring Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, and Meg Ryan. The movie was directed by Joe Dante and produced by Steven Spielberg and was inspired by the classic sci-fi tale “Fantastic Voyage.”

In “Innerspace,” alcoholic pilot Quaid has recently split for good with on and off girlfriend/reporter Ryan, and signs up to be miniaturized and injected into a rabbit for a government experiment. As you can image things do not go to plan and he is accidentally injected into hypochondriac Short, whom is convinced (once Quaid begins to communicate to him from INSIDE him) that he has become processed. It’s silly, ridiculous, and one of my favorite movies. (At least the inner twelve year old boy in me.)

For reasons that don’t actually seem plausible (despite it being a movie about miniaturization) Quaid accidentally gets inside Ryan and can only communicate by driving his body vehicle to her inner ear and blast their song… Sam Cooke’s “Cupid!” Awwwww.

It wasn’t until doing a little research that I found that Cooke was killed at the young age of 33 under “mysterious circumstances.” I won’t bother getting into the details, but you can read about it here and here.

Cooke is also well know for his hits “I’ll Come Running Back to You,” “Twistin’ the Night Away,” (also used in “Innerspace,” though the Rod Stewart version) “Another Saturday Night,” and “Frankie & Johnny.” Recently British soul singer (and part-time mess) Amy Winehouse covered “Cupid” which can be found on the deluxe edition of her latest album “Back to Black.”

Enjoy.