MovieChat Forums > Shag (1989) Discussion > Clarification of versions in re: soundtr...

Clarification of versions in re: soundtracks: HBO/ VHS/ DVD


I've read in several places how people are confused about the songs that were originally in the movie so I'm offering my 2 cents. I guess it all boils down to whether you know this movie from its original airing on HBO or from watching the VHS version... I taped the movie off HBO which must have aired it in 1989/1990. At the beginning a song called "The Shag" is played. Later when I got the movie on VHS, which I believe came out in 1998, the opening song was "Mama Said." I noticed there were several other instances where songs from the original HBO version had been changed to completely different songs on the VHS version. Then when the DVD was released in 2001 I found they had put the original songs back in. Someone else on this message board posted a helpful list of each song played throughout both the original HBO release ("old") and the VHS release ("new.") The 2001 DVD release of Shag is the same as the original movie shown on HBO. The VHS version is different. So to sum up- the original songs found in the movie- what HBO aired- are replaced on the 1998 VHS version with some different songs but have been put back in on the 2001 DVD release. If you know and like the songs from watching a VHS copy then you will probably not be happy with the DVD songs. If you know the movie songs from watching it on HBO then you will hear the same songs on the DVD version. Sadly all are out of print. As far as the soundtrack to the movie on CD, it looks like they put various random tracks from both versions of the movie on there but I don't own the CD so I can't say for sure. Again, check out the thread here where someone listed every song played at every scene in both "old" (HBO/DVD) and "new" (VHS) versions. Most of the songs are the same but probably 5 or 6 (?) have been changed. The person who posted the songs put a star by the ones that remained intact in both versions. The ones with no star signify that there has been a change.

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