VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Karate Kid Soundtrack
Polygram Records 1984

What’s the 4-1-1?
If you were just a kid in 1984, chances are you loved this movie. It was your typical ‘fish out of water’ story. Young Daniel (Ralph Macchio) moves to a new neighborhood and gets picked on by the high school bullies. At the same time he’s fallen for the most popular girl in school (Elizabeth Shue), who just happens to be connected to the main bully Johnny that keeps kicking the crap out of Daniel. All the bullies belong to the local karate studio the Cobra Kai’s. They train for ‘no mercy’ and that’s just what they give to Daniel. Eventually his landlord Mr. Miyagi takes him under his wing.

Sure, the first thing you start to think is, he’s clearly going to teach him karate so he can fight back. I mean he is from Okinawa and all. Nope, Mr. Miyagi makes Daniel wax his car, sand his deck, paint his house, and paint his fence. However, there’s a plot twist. All these hard labor tasks are actually karate blocks. Once that is discovered (and all of Mr. Miyagi’s house chores are completed) Daniel begins training for the big karate tournament. Ironically enough he makes it to the finals to face Johnny. Just when you think he’s down and out, Daniel breaks out the secret ‘crane technique’ to win the match, get the girl, and earn Johnny’s respect.

As for the soundtrack, I’m not sure that The Flirts and Jan & Dean were relevant at the time, but their song “Bop Bop (on the Beach) made it to the soundtrack. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie, but this probably played during the beach party scene. Why they included this instead of “Cruel Summer”, I’ll never know. What’s an overcoming the odds movie without a song by Survivor? The Moment of Truth is more keyboard oriented than their past guitar heavy anthems. The song builds to an over-the-top chorus. “No Shelter” by Broken Edge adds a little new wave sound to things with its muted riffs and driving keys.

“Young Hearts” by Commuter is a catchy power-pop love theme. You know, the kind of song that plays in the background of a montage where the guy and girl are shown doing things together. I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that Gang of Four is a punk band. 1984 must have been the year they sold out because “Desire” is more of a pop song. I guess their could be another Gang of Four. Finally, the big tournament anthem “You’re the Best” by Joe ‘Bean’ Eposito rounds out the soundtrack. I love the songs energy and emotion, but damn it’s short.

The Verdict
I bought this soundtrack for just one song (“You’re the Best”), hoping that the other songs would be just as good. I was wrong. There were one or two that I liked, but the rest were just crap. I didn’t even recall most of them from the movie.

Did You Know?
The name ‘The Karate Kid’ was actually a character in a D.C. Comic book series. Special permission was given by D.C. for the term to be used. Ralph Macchio passed on the role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future.

Rating: out of 5

--George Dionne