What do Schitt’s Creek, 30 Rock, Parks And Recreation, and Black Mirror have in common? They all produced “fake” bangers that a discerning music critic can loop over and over again on Spotify, of course.
Now, Only Murders In The Building (which earned 17 Emmy Awards nominated this year) has joined this elite group with a full-length rendition and extremely 80's music video for Charles-Haden Savage’s (played by Steve Martin) chart-topping hit, Angel In Flip-Flops. Pittuh puttuh, indeed.
We wouldn’t necessarily call the single good. (Neither would Steve Martin; he said in a statement that he is “as proud of ‘Angel in Flip-Flops’ as [he is] of any work [he’s] done that is not that good.”) But it certainly exists.
We were introduced to this classic track in “Here’s Looking At You...,” the fourth episode of Only Murders’ second season. According to Charles, the song “was a big hit in Germany” before the fall of the Berlin Wall “stopped its upward momentum.” Despite this unfortunate halt, the song enjoyed a second wave of popularity in the world of the show because it was “sampled by like 50 rap stars,” including Post Malone, Missy Elliott, and Del the Funky Homosapien.
The music video was produce by Paul Shaffer and co-written by Martin and Only Murders executive producer, Kirker Butler. In a statement, Only Murders co-creator, John Hoffman, discussed the genesis of the joke song:
When we shared this idea with Steve Martin—well, I think it was a day (if even?) before Steve had a title and a tune making its way through his genius mind and we were more than off and running. Steve dove in with Kirker Butler to craft a late 20th Century classic and then, incredibly, along came Paul Shaffer to arrange that classic that is now our ‘Angel In Flip-Flops.’ We’re all hoping for a revival of interest in the tune, of course—in Germany, and all parts of the world without walls!
At this time, no current “rap stars” have stepped up to answer this call, but fingers crossed.