My John Hughes Story

I met John Hughes several times back in the early 80's when i was managing a north suburban record store. We had a great selection of import, punk, metal, noise, 12" singles and a lot more. We were the only store with such records in the northern suburbs outside Wax Trax Records on Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. First time i met him, he was in the store by himself for a while and finally checked out with some lame, domestic lp's. It was a nice pile and i had to ask if he was a collector or a wedding dj (he had the most intensely feathered haircut and i was a bit of a punk smart ass with my blonde hair, spiked with glue days). He said he was a screen writer and that he was writing a new movie and he was finally going to get to produce something he wrote and he was looking for music because that was a key element of the movie. I was a bit freaked and thought this guy might be wacked or be the real deal. he went on to say he had written or co-wrote 3 of the top 10 grossing movies that year (1983); National Lampoon's Vacation, Nate and Hayes and Mr. Mom. I told him i was way into vacation and had seen it several times this past summer. He then told me a little known fact re: the movie. In the movie; Chevy Chase has the encounters with Christie Brinkley, the original script which he wrote had the son messing around with Christie. However, when Chevy read the script, he had it re-written and it killed John. I told him that the lp's he had just bought were ok, but did he ever hear of....English Beat, Dead Kennedys, Simple Minds, Black Flag? I said next time in here, i will show him the import section and give him my input. He said that sounded good and he left. Skip ahead several months now, John comes back in. he got the movie ok'd, he is the director of it and they are filming here in the 'burbs: Sixteen Candles. He also mentioned he had another movie written and ready to go after this: Breakfast Club. This was the movie he needed some cutting edge stuff in it. The music kids actually listen to at that moment! He told me to pick out $300 or $400 worth of music ( that's equivelant to 1K+ today of cd's). I went ot town and got him all four of the acts above and so much more. We hung for an hour and a half, listening to all the stuff i was pulling for him and explaining what it was and who was into it. I was really into Simple Minds and English Beat that month.... so he got their import catalogs from my store. They were a cult act here in the states and after he added "Don't You" to Breakfast Club, it was all over!! Same with the Beat, he added their songs to several of his movies. DK's and the Flag also made it into a movie soundtrack of his. The last time i saw him was when BC was wrapping and he brought in Molly & Anthony Michael. I remember how young and small they looked. They were a bit brattish and were in no mood to hang in a record store and talk music with John and me. He thanked me and asked me to write down some more bands and i did. I handed him the paper and said i would see him later as Molly and Anthony Michael dragged him out of the store to go clothes shopping and to buy a bass or guitar. I never saw him again. The movie came out the next year and that song was everywhere. The old manager of that store was there everytime he came in and witnessed my time with him. She was actually the person who ordered the imposts and loved it that he had deep pockets. She turned to me one day and said that Simple Minds should have paid me royalties on that song....i had to laugh,