It has a somewhat autobiographical feel; Allen's voice is the narrator and talks about memories he has as a child growing up listening to the radio. Various songs remind him of various occurrences in his childhood and the movie lets us in on the hilarious fun. Seth Green in one of his first roles plays the young and lovable scamp.
There are a few songs from this movie's soundtrack I would like to make note of. First is the song by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra called "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". I think it's just one of the prettiest pieces of music ever, and I love when it pops up. During a trip to Disneyland even, I was outside of the Tower of Terror ride, and they play 1930's style music. Lo and behold "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" comes on and I was as happy as a clam!
Another song is a wartime era tune called "I Don't Wanna Walk Without You, Baby". In the movie it's sung by Mia Farrow's character to a group of military gents, and again it's just such a sweet and pretty tune that I end up with it in my head all day long. I think I heard a version of that song sung by Helen Forrest that I really liked.
A really fun tune that this movie introduced me to, and come to think of it haven't heard anywhere else, is "Pistol Packin' Mama" sung by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. "Oh lay that pistol down, babe, lay that pistol down! Pistol packin' Mama, lay that pistol down!" If memory serves, this song is played during a scene in the movie where the protagonist and his buddy are building a snowman outside of their school, and decide to use a carrot not for the nose but for the... ahem, specific part of the snowman's anatomy ;). So a teacher comes out, yells at them and shoo's them away, then proceeds to remove the carrot and then take a bite out of it, HA!
If you've not seen Radio Days definitely add it to your Netflix queue! Or at least check out its soundtrack.... xoxo!
