—————————————————— 5 Bands George Clooney Likes | Rocks Off | Houston | Houston Press | The Leading Independent News Source in Houston, Texas

Movie Music

5 Bands George Clooney Likes

Boy, the Houston media is in a tizzy about George Clooney today. The King of Hollywood is in town this evening as part of the "Brilliant Lecture Series" at the Wortham Center. (Celebrity with a Cause Alert: Clooney, who will be interviewed by Houston socialite Lynn Wyatt, will probably discuss his activism in Central Africa.)

The anchors on the morning news program Rocks Off watches could barely cut to the traffic report, they were so excited. Culturemap is beside itself. Far be it from Rocks Off to steer clear of this particular bandwagon. We understand Clooney is a musical fellow, so we did a little research to find out a few of his favorites.

Mostly we wanted to run the above clip from O Brother, Where Art Thou? Even though that's not George singing (it's Dan Tyminski from Alison Krauss & Union Station), we love that song.

5. Pink Floyd: After seeing Roger Waters Tuesday, Rocks Off was glad to see Clooney put "Another Brick In the Wall, Part 2" on a list he did for BBC-4's Desert Island Discs program. The rest of the list is a mixture of sad ballads (Hank Williams), soul (Bill Withers) and Clooney's prankish sense of humor (William Shatner's "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds").

4. Bob Dylan: Clooney included D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 Dylan documentary Don't Look Back on a list of his 100 favorite films he gave to Parade magazine.

3. Rosemary Clooney: Clooney is a well-established lover of classic pop balladry. Supposedly, Dinah Washington's "Destination Moon" is his all-time favorite song. No doubt he came by it honestly, and at an early age -- the late actress and singer (and singing actress) Rosemary Clooney was his aunt.

2. Marvin Gaye: "George Clooney listens to Marvin Gaye when he makes love." Who doesn't? That's according to British Web site femalefirst.uk, who got Clooney's onetime paramour Lisa Snowdon to spill the beans about Clooney's boudoir listening. His current flame, former WWE personality Stacy Keibler, seems to prefer Coldplay.

1. Foo Fighters: A journalist once caught Clooney listening to Dave Grohl & Co. in his car. The Foos headlined a fundraiser for Barack Obama in L.A. back in February, and Clooney was part of the "Donor's Club" of people who wrote checks with many, many zeroes. Therefore, that makes him a Foo Fighters fan.


Follow Rocks Off on Facebook and on Twitter at @HPRocksOff.

KEEP THE HOUSTON PRESS FREE... Since we started the Houston Press, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Houston, and we'd like to keep it that way. With local media under siege, it's more important than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" program, allowing us to keep offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food and culture with no paywalls.
Chris Gray has been Music Editor for the Houston Press since 2008. He is the proud father of a Beatles-loving toddler named Oliver.
Contact: Chris Gray