The Blues Brothers An epic friendship, the rise of improv, and the making of an American film classic

This boisterous romp by de Visé (King of the Blues) recounts how Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi came up with the Blues Brothers and turned the Saturday Night Live characters into a beloved movie. Aykroyd introduced Belushi to the blues while the two were performing improv with Chicago's Second City troupe in the early 1970s. Belushi was a quick convert and, after he and Aykroyd joined the inaugural cast of SNL in 1975, he often made guest appearances singing with Manhattan blues acts. SNL creator Lorne Michaels caught one of Belushi's performances and suggested he repeat the shtick to warm up SNL's audience. With Aykroyd's help, the Blues Brothers were born, but Michaels remained skeptical the act was ready for television and relented only when he needed to pad out a 1978 episode that was running short. The skit became a passion for Aykroyd and Belushi and they soon got a movie greenlit. De Visé recreates the film's troubled production, which was beset by the logistical difficulties of shooting on location in Chicago and Belushi's worsening drug addiction, and offers perceptive portraits of Aykroyd and Belushi, describing the former as an "obsessive method actor" and the latter as an impassioned performer with "impeccable instincts but no real plan." The result is a loving ode to a comedy classic. Agent: Deborah Grosvenor, Grosvenor Literary. (Mar.)

The Blues Brothers has retained its prominent place in the cultural zeitgeist 40-plus years after its release; its iconic line "We're on a mission from God" is one of the most memorable in movie history. The film's longevity is a testament not only to its cameos from music legends--Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles--but also to the comedic stars at its center: John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Their time on Saturday Night Live, as part of the show's first cast, is given its proper due in this book by de Visé (King of the Blues), which takes readers into the chaos of the making of the film and its aftermath. The narrative becomes even more riveting as filming of The Blues Brothers kicks off, and it's also more tragic as it shows the steady decline that ultimately led to Belushi's tragic death in 1982. VERDICT Will be popular with fans of pop culture and aficionados of film and TV history, as it not only covers the creation of The Blues Brothers abut also serves as a dual biography of Aykroyd and Belushi.--Brett Rohlwing

An award-winning journalist chronicles the story of the iconic 1980 film and the bond between its two stars. In the first half of this exhaustively researched, highly informative book, de Visé, the author of King of the Blues and Andy & Don, provides an in-depth profile of the upbringing and career arcs of the film's stars: the immensely talented, overgrown child John Belushi, who needed constant stimulation and elicited among his friends and colleagues the need to protect; and the quieter, highly intelligent Dan Aykroyd. The author also describes the rivalry-rich, drug-fueled evolution of 1970s comedy in the forms of Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon, and Chicago's Second City group, all of which laid the groundwork for the movie. Gleaned from primary research and interviews with Aykroyd and director John Landis, among others, the narrative details the relationship between Belushi and Aykroyd, the sincerity with which they immersed themselves in the blues to live out their fantasies of fronting a great band, and how they overcame accusations of cultural appropriation to revive and amplify the careers of talents such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Cab Calloway. The book is also the definitive scene-by-scene account of a film--ambitious and over budget, panned by most critics of the day--that endures as a well-written and directed comedy doubling as a loving homage to a uniquely American genre and its capital city. "The Blues Brothers endures as a big, noisy, noir valentine to the city of Chicago," writes the author. "Landis and his crazy car-crash musical ushered in a golden age of cinema filmed in the city and its suburbs," and "no film inhabited the Windy City quite like [it]." Ultimately, writes de Visé, the film "earned immortality as a priceless artifact of American music." A complete portrait of a classic film and the zeitgeist of its era. (Acknowledgments; Notes; Index forthcoming) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.