The perfect "JAWS" inspired Spring Break Party Playlist!

It’s the Spring Equinox on March 20th , so what better way to celebrate than a ‘Jaws themed Spring Break Party Playlist!’ We’ve got the crème de la crème. Right here. 25 hits with bite which have been paired song by scene. By the time we’re ‘fin’ you should feel like you’ve jived with Jaws himself. So come on in the water! (Go on, just do it for the old man, will ya?)


Evanescence: Going Under

(For the “party pooper”)

Our opening number is dedicated to that person who always “peaks too soon”, runs on to the dance floor, arms waving, declaring “This is my song!” and 20 minutes later they’re being bundled into an Uber with an entourage carrying their possessions before the buffet’s open.

Poor Chrissie Watkins, But the crew had a tough time too! Did you know that in the scene where Chrissie’s remains are discovered it was thought that the prop arm looked too fake, so a female member of the crew was buried in the sand with just her arm exposed to make it look realistic?



Tinie Tempah: Pass Out

(For the” just one more shot” type)

Which is how Chrissie’s beau, Cassidy, responds. After they make eyes at each other across the campfire, he follows her down to the beach and as Chrissie dives in for her deadly dip, he passes out cold on the beach.

In the opening scene of ‘’Jaws’, it looks like Chrissie and Cassidy have only just met, exchanging coy looks over the marshmallows and kumbaya’s. However, Peter Benchley’s book describes the morning scene when (Tom) Cassidy awakes on the beach, finds Chrissie’s clothes and returns to the house they’ve been staying at.

Discovering that Chrissie hasn’t returned there, he starts to worry and alerts his housemate Jack Foote, who calls the police to report her missing.



The Beatles: Help!

(For the ones who got “lost on the way”)

Panicked on hearing the verdict of Chrissie’s death, Chief Brody decides it’s time for a little art therapy. He heads to the local store, gathering up paint and brushes to make a sign reading: “Beaches closed – No Swimming by order of the Amity PD”.

Another sign synonymous with ‘Jaws’ - “Amity Island Welcomes You” shows a girl swimmer with a red banner running along the bottom announcing the upcoming ‘50 th Amity 4 th of July Regatta’. Only it’s been crudely defaced with a shark’s fin closing in behind the girl and a look of horror painted over her face. Next to her a speech bubble exclaims “Help! Shark”.

Linking us to our next song choice: Just as Chief Brody was about to face the biggest battle of his police career, speaking to ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine in 1970, The Beatle’s John Lennon shared how he wrote ‘Help’ during a tough time in his life at the age of 18. He listed it as one of his favourite Beatles songs saying “Because it’s real. The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension. When ‘Help’ came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n roll song. It was just me singing “help” and I meant it.”


Heart: Barracuda

(For the “snazzy dresser”)

If hashtags had been around in 1975, then #snazzyanchorsuit would have been a thing and here’s the reason. Not many people would attempt to convince the Chief of police to ‘play down’ a fatal shark attack for the sake of an event, but Mayor Larry Vaughn does. And he does it wearing a snazzy anchor patterned suit with this infamous quote “You yell Barracuda, everybody says Huh? What?; You yell shark we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.”

In 2012, US rock band, ‘Heart’ released their 14 th studio album “Fanatic”. We’re still working to confirm that this is a typo and will soon be corrected to “Finatic”. The band, however, were unavailable for comment at the time this blog was published.


The Rolling Stones: 19 th Nervous Breakdown

(For the “ones afraid of cutting loose”)

We follow Chief Brody to the beach where we find him on tenterhooks but trying to enjoy quality family time. With Mayor Vaughn’s veiled threat hanging in the air, he remains on edge. Then a young man starts calling for his dog who is nowhere to be seen “Pipit… Pipit!!” (We get the sense that something very wild and toothy is approaching… and this time, it’s NOT Mick Jagger…)


Australian camerawoman, photographer and shark expert, Valerie Taylor. Alongside her husband Ron, provided the real shark footage for JAWS. Valerie also taught Mick Jagger to scuba dive in Indonesia “He was a quick study, despite the weight belt sliding right down his narrow hips”. Now there’s a woman who understands the moves like Jagger.



LINKIN PARK: Bleed it Out

(For the “poor unfortunate”)

At every party there’s always that one person, you know they type; maybe they’ve slipped on the dip, got locked in the loo or tipped the red wine all over the brand-new white rug. Whatever the event, there’s always that one poor unfortunate.

And they don’t come much more unfortunate than poor young Alex Kintner, the second victim to be claimed in ‘Jaws’. Like Pipit the dog before him, Alex was in the wrong place at the time and was swallowed while taking a swim with his Lilo, disappearing in a haze of blood in plain sight of the other bathers, and confirming Chief Brody’s worst fears. According to Steven Spielberg, the colour red was only supposed to be used for blood and nothing else in the movie so that the shock factor of the gory scenes would be retained. “We did have red wine, but there’s a symbolism to that,” he said.


Massive Attack: Safe from Harm

(For those who” never look back”)

A chilling scene occurs early on in ‘Jaws’ and it’s one of the most skilfully portrayed examples of ‘what you don’t see” Spielberg magic. With the town meeting setting a reward of $3,000 for the capture of Jaws (haggled up to $10,000 by Quint), mutiny breaks out on Amity Island.

Two local fishermen, Charlie and Jenwirder are on the shore trying their luck by attaching a large a chain from one end of the pier to a freezer full of frozen meat. “Better catch something.” Shouts Charlie “This is my wife’s holiday roast!” Suddenly, they get a bite. “He’s takin’ it, he’s takin it” shouts Charlie. We see the freezer pulled out onto the water as Jaws snaps the chains free, taking a large chunk of the pier, and Charlie, into the water. The pier takes a U-turn, and we know Jaws is heading back to the shore, with Charlie still in the water. Jenwirder cries “Charlie, take my word for it, don’t look back. Swim Charlie, Swim!”

SPOILER ALERT: Charlie makes it back. Just, from what could have been a massive attack. This haunting early 90s track features vocals from Shara Nelson and Robert Del Naja who sings the fitting line “I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you”, Again we say ““Charlie, take my word for it, don’t look back!”


Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway: Back Together Again

(for the “Friends Reunited”)

This one brings the drama, but we’ve sweetened the ending with a fin-fact! A crew returns triumphantly back to Amity claiming to have caught the shark. Meanwhile, fresh from ‘snazzy anchor suit’ towers, is Mayor Vaughn, looking camera ready and rallying the troops for front page glory. Hooper stands by ready to disprove them with some pretty damning shark shaped bubble bursting, as he reveals to Chief Brody that the bite marks from examining Chrissie don’t match the bite radius of the shark that’s been caught. He suggests performing an autopsy on the shark to see what it’s eaten which will provide proof. Enter Mrs Kintner, mother of young Alex, Jaws 2 nd victim, who tells Chief Brody she knows he still let people go swimming despite the shark attack the week before. Before leaving, she gives him a thunderous slap across the face.


Here’s the sweetener: A few decades after the movie came out, the actor who played Mrs Kintner, Lee

Fierro, was in a seafood restaurant when she saw they had an item on the menu called the “Alex Kintner Sandwich” She mentioned that she had played the part of his mother and the owner came out to meet her. He was Jeffrey Voorhees, the actor who had played her son. The pair had not seen each other since they made the movie together!




My Chemical Romance: I’m Not Okay (I Promise)

(For the “the broken, the beaten and the damned”)

AKA, the quiet kids at the party who go crazy when the emo song comes on. After his radius revelation, Hooper promptly treats Brody to a date-night, sorry, late- night autopsy by torchlight of the shark to see what it’s eaten. And when he makes that cut into the digestive tract (by the way, if you’re reading this during your lunchbreak, dinner, etc, now would be a good time to down snacks) and that white milky stuff comes out of the shark’s belly… we’re not ok, we promise!

But despite their efforts, no human remains are in there. It’s not the shark. Jaws is still out there. Hooper has another theory. He explains to Chief Brody that the shark that killed Chrissie Watkins and probably Alex Kintner is most likely a rogue shark, meaning the shark swims alone. And it’s a night feeder. This shark is also, like totally emo. (Okay, Hooper never said that.)

In choosing an emo song here, we’re championing the underdog. Steven Spielberg did the same thing the first time he read the book Jaws’. saying he found himself rooting for the shark because the human characters were so unlikeable.

Basement Jaxx: Where’s your head at

(for the “headbangers”)

Things start to go from emo to very heavy metal as Hooper persuades Chief Brody to go out on the boat to look for Jaws. While on the ocean, they find the half sunken and damaged boat of local fisherman, Ben Gardner. And there’s no sign of Ben. Hooper dives into the water telling Chief Brody not to touch any of the equipment and that he’ll be back in two minutes. While he’s under the water investigating the hull, he dislodges a large shark tooth. He finds a big hole and while looking inside, out pops the decapitated head of Ben Gardner. It’s clear that Jaws has struck again. The actual shot with the head popping up in editor Verna Fields’ swimming pool after Steven Spielberg decided the shots, he already had didn’t have the right shock factor.

And to provide this track, UK based electronic music duo, Basement Jaxx used samples from 2 songs written by English musician and pioneer of the New Wave genre, Gary Numan. The tracks are titled “M.E” and “The Wreckage” – the latter giving way to even more synchronicity with our choice of song for track number 10.


Billie Eilish: Bad Guy

(For the “storytellers”)

Fresh from their underwater meet and greet, Hooper and Brody now back on dry land, start telling Mayor Vaughn how this shark’s a real whopper. And they’ve got the tooth to prove it right? Wrong! Hooper dropped it when he got spooked below deck.

So, with no tangible evidence, Vaughn and Hooper engage in a sharky set-to and things get Latin language heated with Hooper proclaiming “It’s a Carcharodon Carcharias. It’s a Great White!” and Vaughn biting back with “But you don’t have the tooth. Look we depend on the summer people here for our very lives” (Can you spell irony, Mr Mayor…)

Despite Hooper’s continued warnings, Vaughn goes further. He even appears on local TV (yes in that suit) declaring “I’m pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have in fact, caught, and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers. But as you see it’s a beautiful day, the beaches are open, and people are having a wonderful time. “Amity as you know means friendship.” Oh Mayor Vaughn… you’re only good at being bad (duh).

Now here’s a thing we bet you didn’t know about the multi-talented singer/songwriter of our song for this scene; her name in full is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell. And her debut single was ‘Ocean Eyes’ We think both Quint and ‘Jaws’ would approve!



Olivia Rodrigo: Déjà Vu

(For those who’ve had “one too many”)

Once again, poor Chief Brody trots down to the beach for some quality time with the fam and this time it’s the 4 th of July! But it’s proving tricky with his insider info that there might be more than cake lurking by the ocean. He packs off eldest son Michael to the pond, despite his grumbles of “the pond’s for old ladies” (and we suggest that you commit this nugget of info to memory for a few lines further on. (#justsharkysayin).

Suddenly, it’s ‘everybody out of the water!’ As panic ensues and a solitary eerie fin glide across the water. But, phew! Turns out it was just that pesky kid with his cardboard fin! Everyone relaxes… for like, a second! Because it’s Déjà Vu - and we’re not talking of Olivia Rodrigo proportions. Somebody yells ”Shark” and this time it’s sneaky ‘Jaws’ heading for the pond (time to retrieve that nugget we told you about) Yep, Chief’s son Michael IS IN THE POIND WITH THE OLD LADIES!

Here’s a gruesome fin-fact: A deleted scene considered by Steven Spielberg too gruesome for the final movie was shot while Michael is frozen in terror as the shark swims up to him. He is saved at the last minute by a man who pushes him out of the way, sacrificing his own life. The alternate shot shows the dying man being dragged along by ‘Jaws’ briefly before he gets pulled beneath the water. The DVD release includes the filming of the scene from the (1995) documentary ‘The making of ‘Jaws’.



Toto: Hold The Line

(For those who love a ‘boat party’)

Now that ‘Jaws’ has made things personal across the pond, Brody presses Vaughn into hiring Quint to go out hunt the shark down. Quint gets the promise of his ten- thousand-dollar bounty, along with two cases of apricot brandy and dinner when he returns (it’s almost like Chief Brody can see into the future…)

The holy trinity that is Quint, Brody and Hooper set out to sea in Quint’s boat The Orca, and before long Quint gets the first twitch on the line. He hooks himself up and the reel goes crazy. He orders Hooper to put the boat into neutral. But this smart big fish (Quint-speak for shark) goes under the boat. Asking Hooper to unbuckle him now, (and giving Toto a run for their money) Quint’s masterplan is to hold steady and grab the nearest rod, hoping to bring the shark to the surface, jab him and bingo! (As in, that’s the shark caught, not sit, and play bingo with it, you understand.)

The original name for Quint’s boat ‘The Orca’ was going to be ‘The Warlock’. The orca or ‘Killer’ whale is the only known predator of the great white shark. A fitting choice for a boat owned by Quint!

Faith No More: From Out Of Nowhere

(For the ‘best of chums’)

It’s that point at the party where the buffet’s looking sad, the pizza’s beendemolished and all that’s left is some limp garnish. Somebody, as the kids say, ate at and table and left no crumbs. Thankfully, it’s Chief Brody to the rescue with another delicious bucket of chum! And as the buffet gets topped up for ‘Jaws’ there are excited cries from Quint to Hooper of ‘go slow ahead’ as he attempts to land the smart big fish.

Cut to a cheesed off Chief muttering under his breath “Slow ahead! I can go slow ahead! C’mon down and chum some of this shit!” and BAM. From out of nowhere and 81 minutes (count ‘em) into the movie, we get to see ‘Jaws’ up close and personal for the first time. The shark lunges clean out of the water and straight into the gaze of a stunned Chief Brody before submerging back down into the depths.

It’s here that one of the most iconic lines to come out of ‘Jaws’ is said by Roy Scheider who plays Chief Brody. He walks back into the cabin and says to Quint “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”. As famous as this line is to us ‘Jaws’ finatics, it is counted among many other misremembered quotes in The Mandela Effect’. A phenomenon that takes its name from an incident occurring in 2010 where large numbers of people online claimed to have remembered South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, Nelson

Mandela dying in prison in the 1980’s. He was in fact released in 1990 and passed away in 2013. The common misconception with the line is that it is remembered as “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”. In the words of Hooper ‘It’s just a slight difference in semantics, but we don’t want to get beaten up for it’.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Scar Tissue

(For the “after party” crowd”)

So now that Team Orca have seen exactly what they’re dealing with, it’s back inside the boat and time to hit the mini bar. Quint and Hooper start comparing various battle scars which naturally turns to scrapes with sharks. Hooper proudly shows off where a bull shark scraped him while he was taking samples, Quint retorts with a thresher attack on his leg. Then they drink to each other’s legs! (As you do). There is a very fleeting and endearing moment where Chief Brody lifts his shirt to look at an appendix scar then we see him think better of sharing it! This was Scheider’s own scar and not a prosthetic.

The Chief points to Quint’s arm and ask’s about the mark there. Quint explains it’s a tattoo he had removed after surviving the sinking of the U.S.S Indianapolis, the vessel responsible for delivering the Hiroshima bomb. He then delivers the most powerful monologue in the movie about the event. Quint’s story of the USS Indianapolis was the original creation of playwright Howard Sackler and worked on by screenwriter John Milius. After a disagreement between ‘Jaws’ author and Peter Benchley and screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, Robert Shaw, the actor who plays Quint, rewrote it Benchley and Gottlieb gave it the thumbs up.


The Smiths: Bigmouth Strikes Again

(For the ones who get a “second wind”)

Every party dips a little in the middle. But you can always rely on that one person to inject a bit of life back into it. Right after Quint finishes his USS Indianapolis speech the shark returns to rock the boat, “He ate the light” announces Hooper as a barrel still floats in the moonlight, teasing calling card. Chief Brody fires out shots, and more barrels are attached to the line.


Eagle eyed viewers might have noticed a meteor flying behind Chief Brody during the night scene while he is loading his gun. This was said to be real and not a special effect according to The Making of 'Jaws' (1995) documentary.


Coldplay: Yellow

(For those looking to “hook up”)

The battle to really bring ‘Jaws’ down begins as the first of the yellow barrels isvattached in an attempt to weigh him down and bring him to the surface. Team Orcavget up to not one, not two but three yellow barrels on the shark and after a heftyvstruggle they even start pulling the shark to shore, believing themselves to be on the home run. But sneaky ‘Jaws’ has other ideas. After biting through the line, we see each barrel pop up one by one and so another plan is foiled.

Just as in the pier scene at the beginning of ‘Jaws’, the use of the yellow barrels was another effect that Steven Spielberg deployed to signify the shark’s presence amidst the difficulty of working with the malfunctioning animatronic sharks on set. The video for the Coldplay single ‘Yellow’ was filmed in one continuous shot on a beach in Dorset, England near where the band had been recording at the time of the singles release. And … the look was inspired by the night swimming scenes in ‘Jaws’!

Elvis Presley: Way Down

(For those who like to get ‘deep and meaningful’)

Some partygoers like to wax lyrical once they feel relaxed enough and hold court. Others prefer to go down the existential route, getting a little deep. This song choice opens that gateway beautifully for the moment when Hooper is lowered down in the cage hoping to ‘take care of business’ by jabbing a lethal injection into ‘Jaws’ through the bars of a diving cage.

As the barrels appear on the surface and we see the shark beneath the water, Hooper unscrews the top of the harpoon, ready and waiting to attack. But sneaky ‘Jaws’ bumps the cage from behind, leaving Hooper ‘all shook up’. (it was too easy). As hapless Hoops drops the harpoon and it falls to the seabed, ‘Jaws’ starts to ravage the cage, the door flies off and Hooper strikes the shark in defence before swimming out.

During the filming of this scene, a great white reportedly attacked the crews’ boat and the cage in the water. Based on that footage Spielberg decided that Hooper would escape from the cage (rather than being ‘caught in a trap’ – thank you very much) which is a different ending from Peter Benchley’s original book, where Hooper is killed by the shark during the dive.



Bjork: Play Dead

(For those who need a “little fresh air”)

Meanwhile back on The Orca, Chief Brody and Quint are on to the fact that all is not going swimmingly beneath the waves. They try to frantically bring the cage up, but the hook and chain that it’s attached to snaps as “Jaws” is still frenziedly attacking it below. As he finally loses interest and swims away, the remaining Team Orca crew haul up the wreckage. But all they find is a battered empty cage, sans Hooper.

So, did Hooper perish? Or is he playing dead somewhere beneath the sea praying he doesn’t bump into something large, grey, fish shaped and really angry? The song choice for this scene is taken from Icelandic singer and songwriter Bjork’s classic 1993 album ‘Debut’. Talking to NME about the inspiration behind her album ‘Biophilia’ in 2011 she cited ‘Sir David Attenborough’ as her rockstar when she was a child, revealing that she had been invited to score a 3D film for National Geographic. She said ““I was like, ‘Wow, that would be the coolest thing ever,’ I would be label mates with sharks and lemurs!”


Avril Lavigne: Bite Me

(For those who need to know when to ‘bow out’)

SPOILER ALERT: We hate to break up a great party… but it’s time to bid farewell to a much-loved guest. Taxi for Quint! Also, back in 2013, Avril Lavigne performed her song ‘Rock N Roll’ on the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ show alongside as someone dressed as a shark, dressed in a bear costume. Why d’you have to go and make things so complicated Avril? (we kinda like it).


Bush: Swallowed

(For those who ‘speak with their mouths full’)

Have you ever been making polite conversation at a party with someone and then felt a piece of tortilla chip or guac land on your cheek after they’ve introduced themselves, or told you a joke and then laughed at their own punchline? Imagine what would land if ‘Jaws’ did that? Anyhoo. Let’s spare a thought now for poor Quint whose turn it is to come face to face with a bite force estimated to be the equivalent of 1.8 tons from a mouth filled with several hundred jagged teeth. ‘Jaws’ has indeed earned his trademark name.

Originally in the script, Quint was to be killed off by drowning as in the original book. In the scene where he jabs the harpoon at the shark, his foot gets caught around the rope, pulling him under by the shark. It was decided however that being eaten by the shark would be the most fittingly tragic end for Quint given the story he tells of the characters and his experience on the USS Indianapolis.

The Black Keys: Lonely Boy

(For the ‘last one standing’)

So, our party’s nearly over and there’s always that one guest where it’s hard to work out if they’re just not reading the (empty) room or they’re simply stuck for a lift home. And with Quint swallowed whole and Hooper on pause, it’s Chief Brody who’s left wondering now exactly how to get himself back to the relative safety of Amity’s dry land.

In the previous scene, sneaky ‘Jaws’ leapt onto The Orca and Quint lost his grip after slipping on a scuba tank which rolled across his hand before falling into the jaws of er, ‘Jaws’. This is another important nugget to commit to memory. Without this scuba tank nearby, Chief Brody would have come unstuck in the next bit!


When Roy Scheider who plays Chief Brody was filming the scenes of The Orca sinking, he didn’t trust the crew to rescue him if needed. So, he stashed away small axes and hatchets instead in the event of an emergency.





Sparks: This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us

(For when you really need to bring the house lights up)

It’s the final showdown of shark v chief. In the blue corner weighing in at approximately 1,500 pounds and with a knockout killer record, we have ‘Jaws’. In the sinking corner weighing in at approximately 160 pounds with an Olivia Newton John record and no crew mates left for solidarity, it’s Chief Martin Brody. Ding ding round one!

Things aren’t looking great for Brody right now, but if you remember rightly, our party has served up a delicious nugget or two in it’s time. And the second one you were asked to pull from your plates during this epic event was the rolling scuba tank during Quint’s demise. It seems that the Chief’s thinking this sea’s not big enough for the both of them, and it’s not him who’s gonna leave!

After the filming for ‘Jaws’ ended director Steven Spielberg said “My next picture will be on dry land. There won’t even be a bathroom scene.” ) Actually fact pickers, Spielberg’s next movie would be “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” There is a bathroom scene in which Richard “Hooper” Dreyfuss completely drenches himself fully clothed in the shower. They just can’t help themselves!)


Deep Purple: Smoke On The Water

(For those who like to make ‘a big exit’)

Because Martin Brody is the Chief of police, he can do anything! He throws the scuba tank into the sharks mouth, fires his gun at the tank uttering the words “Smile, you son of a bitch” and kills ‘Jaws’ making waves with a huge explosion. Fin. Well almost, hey – anyone seen Hooper?


The scene with the shark explosion was scheduled for the last day of filming along with four cameras at the ready. However, thinking that the crew might perform a prank on him to mark the end of principal photography, Steven Spielberg chose instead to make a quiet exit. He was on a plane headed for Boston with Richard Dreyfuss. He asked Spielberg how the final shot went who replied, “They’re shooting it now.” Dreyfuss found this hilarious.



Show me the way to go home: Ray Anthony

(It’s been great, we should do this again… your taxi’s HERE!)

Well, we’ve boogied with the beast. Sung with the shark and danced in the depths.

Everyone’s tired and they wanna go to bed. And as someone who attested to

previously hating water, Chief Brody, now fully submerged in it is reunited with old


pal, Hooper! He is back from the terrors of the deep. He pulled through. Learning of

Quint’s fate, he and the Chief starting paddling and singing their way back home to

shore, with nothing in the water left to fear now (well, not until ‘Jaws 2’ that is.)

Author Peter Benchley was thrown off set after objecting to the ending of the shark

being blown up, rather than drowning as it does in his book. Steven Spielberg

however, felt it needed a more climactic ending.

Benchley was also fired for clogging the story with subplots involving romance

(between Hooper and Ellen Brody) and mafia intrigue. In the original book, the

reason Mayor Vaughn is so desperate for the beaches to remain open is that he is

under pressure from the mafia.

And Finally. What better way to end a party than with a singalong. And who better to

singalong with than Hooper himself, Richard Dreyfuss! Follow the link below to drink

to Richard’s legs and sing “Show Me The Way To Go Home’ here:

WATCH RICHARD DREYFUSS SINGS “SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME” WITH AUDIENCE

List written and compiled by Emma Pearson

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