Submitted by UAR-mwfree on Nov 01

More American Graffiti (Movie Soundtrack) (1979):  Every hit movie has to have a sequel, if not a franchise; that is practically a law in Hollywood.  George Lucas was ready to direct the sequel to American Graffiti, but once Francis Ford Coppola declined to participate, he decided to concentrate instead on Star Wars.  At length, More American Graffiti was released six years after the original movie.  Most of the stars of American Graffiti are also in the sequel, sometimes briefly, though not Richard Dreyfuss.  Whereas American Graffiti was set in a single night, More American Graffiti covers more ground by following the characters over four New Year’s Eves (from 1964 to 1967).  Most of the songs on the More American Graffiti soundtrack were major 1960’s hits and provide a good cross-section of American music in that period.  Just three songs on More American Graffiti are by British artists, “Season of the Witch” by Donovan, “Strange Brew” by Cream, and “She’s Not There” by the Zombies.  There is also an alternate version of Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man” by Doug Sahm – the hit version of “I’m a Man” was by the British band the Yardbirds, but Sahm is from Texas.  As with American Graffiti, there is a fictitious band in More American Graffiti called Electric Haze that is led by Doug Sahm, who had his start in the 1960’s faux-English band the Sir Douglas Quintet.  Besides this album called More American Graffiti, an earlier album also called More American Graffiti was compiled and approved by George Lucas for the intended sequel; it was released in 1975, four years before the movie.  According to Wikipedia, this earlier album “was an official album sequel to the first soundtrack to American Graffiti ”.  As it turns out, just one song on the earlier More American Graffiti album was actually used in the movie.  A third album, American Graffiti Volume III was released in 1976.  Adding to the confusion, all of these albums, including the American Graffiti soundtrack album 41 Original Hits from the Soundtrack of American Graffiti (1973), came out on MCA Records.