Years ago, when I was pursuing a master's degree at IUPUI, I routinely listened to WTTS, which transmitted out of Bloomington but usually came-in quite clear, and which had one of the best play-lists of the many radio stations to which I've listened in my life.

They occasionally played a grim song, with lyrics such as

You've got nothin' but bad intentions
You've got somethin' to prove
You've got nothin' but bad intentions
Baby, it's your move

(or something very close to those) and made repeated use of a sample from Body and Soul (1947) where Charlie Davis (John Garfield) says What are you gonna do, kill me? Everybody dies.

But I couldn't remember who performed it; and, over the last several years, my googling of the lyrics or of the sampling have not identified the song.

Yester-day, I telephoned WTTS for help. I was told that the man to ask was Todd Berryman, but that he was on vacation until to-day. This morning, I called again and was promptly connected to Mr Berryman. He didn't have the answer at his finger-tips, but he ran various checks against references to which he had access, and gave me a short-list of candidates, one of which was Bad Intentions by Robbie Robertson.

To-night, I found that Robertson's Bad Intentions was part of the sound-track for Jimmy Hollywood (1994), and was released to radio stations to promote the film; and IMDb says that Jimmy Hollywood referenced Body and Soul.

There's still a tiny chance that this song isn't the one that I've tried to identify, but I'm really quite sure that, thanks to Mr Berryman and to WTTS, my question has been answered. (I've ordered a copy of the promotional CD, so you'll read about it if I'm mistaken.)

Tags: music, WTTS

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