Song View

Australian director and screenwriter Baz Luhrmann was working on a charity album with remixes of songs from his films. With regard to the film "Romeo + Juliet", which featured a version of "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)", originally by Rozalla, he had the idea of using a sample of the version by Quindon Tarver used in the film as a music version of an interesting text with life advices, which he had found on the Internet as a graduation speech by the American writer Kurt Vonnegut addressed to university graduates.
From the name of the performer, you might think you were listening to Baz Luhrmann himself. But he found a suitable dubbing artist for his project, Lee Perry, who presented the text.
Baz Luhrmann found out that the text was not actually written by Kurt Vonnegut, but by Mary Schmich, a female columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She agreed with Baz Luhrmann's plan and he landed a hit with this track under his own name.
Baz Luhrmann found out that the text was not actually written by Kurt Vonnegut, but by Mary Schmich, a female columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She agreed with Baz Luhrmann's plan and he landed a hit with this track under his own name.
Mary Schmich's was not a real graduation speech that was actually given, but she spontaneously had the idea to write one when she saw a woman sunbathing on Lake Michigan. The text was then falsely attributed to Vonnegut on the Internet.
A 7:09 minute version from the album “Something For Everybody” with excerpts from the chorus of “Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)” was deemed too long for airplay and so a single was released in 1999 with a radio version only 5:05 long without the chant elements.