If you’ve seen Beetlejuice Beetlejuice—and a lot of people have by now—you know that a rendition of Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” a centerpiece of the 1988 film, does appear. But the main musical number this time around is set to a very different retro ditty: “MacArthur Park,” written by Jimmy Webb and performed by Richard Harris (the Donna Summer version also gets a little moment too). Considering the spotlight it commands in Tim Burton’s sequel, the 1968 song might feel like a random choice. But the people who made the movie have a simple explanation.
Turns out it’s a personal favorite of Burton’s, occupying a spot on “the director’s personal jukebox located in his home,” according to Entertainment Weekly. (Wonder what else is on there, that almost made the cut?) In a new interview focusing on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s climactic musical number—a more involved and elaborate version of the lip-sync dance seen in the first film’s “Day-O” dinner party—co-screenwriter Alfred Gough told the magazine that everyone knew they wanted a musical number in the sequel. That said, as the film’s choreographer Corey Baker emphasized, all involved also knew the sequence had to carve out its own space in the Beetlejuice realm.
“Knowing that ‘Day-O’ in the first film is so iconic, we were all really clear on day one that we were not trying to replicate that,” Baker told EW. “We’re going to have the device of Beetlejuice makes people perform and do crazy things … but of course it’ll be different because we’re in a different time of his journey and a different story.”
In creating the scene, Baker explained how the goal was to make the characters’ movements feel spontaneous, rather than obviously choreographed. He also revealed that getting the tone right in the scene was a challenge. “We were constantly developing and changing,” he told the magazine, experimenting with versions of the dance that were “disgusting” and “really grotesque,” as well as one where the performers pretended to be animals. Those were scrapped before the final version was created, but there’s still a free-flowing quality to what ended up on the big screen.
Baker also took a moment to give Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star Jenna Ortega props for another of her iconic Tim Burton-adjacent dance scenes: that instantly viral Wednesday routine. When they met, the choreographer said, “I congratulated her on it, because it’s not an easy feat.”
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is now in theaters; see it and be warned, you’ll be crooning “Someone left the cake out in the raiiiin” to yourself for days after.
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