Holy schnikes: This full-length musical retelling of Tommy Boy is actually really good

Tommy Boy, Chris Farley and David Spade’s 1995 comedy, is beloved by a certain generation, with the likes of “holy schnikes,” “brothers gotta hug,” and “fat guy in a little coat” having infiltrated the lexicon like so many Simpsons quotes. Upon hearing someone recorded a full-length album devoted to the movie, one might understandably expect it to be built around the bits, with songs about t-bone steaks, butcher’s asses, killer bees, and thin candy shells sitting alongside some hokey ode to The Carpenters’ “Superstar.”

Instead, Nashville-based rock critic and musician Dave Paulson has crafted his Sandusky, Ohio as a tight, surprisingly moving retelling of the story that posits itself, first and foremost, as an exploration of Tommy’s emotional journey. On “My Old Man,” for example, Paulson channels that melancholy montage in the wake of Big Tom’s death, singing from Tommy’s perspective: “Now I need to be alone / On the sand, skipping stones / Simple things set me free/ On the shores of Lake Erie.”

Of course, this approach speaks to what truly distinguishes Tommy Boy from its ‘90s comedy contemporaries, which is the warm, fuzzy heart at the center of the thing. Deep down, the movie’s really about a privileged ne’er-do-well and his bitter colleague finding purpose and friendship in the aftermath of a monumental loss.

Sounding like a spritely cross between Ben Folds Five, Randy Newman, and the radio rock of the mid-’90s, Paulson sings of Tommy and Richard’s troubled road trip (“Don’t let it get you down, we got another town”), the duo’s scrap outside Prehistoric Forest (“Turn off the car and take a swing / You leave a mark, I feel the sting”), Rob Lowe’s nefarious subterfuge (“Signals get crossed and lost on the way / I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve been betrayed”), and Ray Zalinsky (“You’ve been on the screen selling us a dream / But back behind the scenes you tear us down now”).