The Cue Sheet Podcast, Episode 9: The Best Musical Moments of Mad Men, featuring the hosts of Rock Docs
After a temporary sick leave, The Cue Sheet Podcast returns with a visit to the 1960s and the music of acclaimed period workplace drama Mad Men.
Way back when the show was still on the air, we actually published a list of some of the best needle drops on Mad Men, but now that we’re taking a look back, we invited some friends of ours to join us for a chat about those musical moments. Our guests this month are David Lizerbram and Andy Keatts of Rock Docs podcast (who had Candice and Jeff on as guests last year to talk about Seattle grunge doc Hype!). We talk about the songs that scored the unforgettable moments from the show, including The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Nancy Sinatra, and ask the all-important question: What are The Decemberists doing here?
Listen to our episode on the best musical moments of Mad Men below (and some that maybe weren’t the best), and check out our playlist of songs in our favorite moments from the show.
Share some of your favorite Mad Men music moments in the comments, and let us know if there’s a show you’d like us to cover on a future episode!
Subscribe to the Cue Sheet podcast on Apple or on Spotify.
Our theme music is by Bit Maps. Listen to and download their music via Bandcamp.
This podcast references the following articles:
A (Nearly) Comprehensive Guide to the Music of Mad Men – NPR
25 Best Mad Men Musical Moments – Rolling Stone
What We Learned from the Music of Mad Men – Pitchfork
The truth about the Mad Men Theme Song – Looper
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Jeff Terich is the founder and editor of Treble. He's been writing about music for 20 years and has been published at American Songwriter, Bandcamp Daily, Reverb, Spin, Stereogum, uDiscoverMusic, VinylMePlease and some others that he's forgetting right now. He's still not tired of it.
Really enjoyed the podcast. MAD MEN was a great choice to talk about the music soundtrack for many of the reasons that you and your guests hit upon.
Granted that there are *dozens* of choices here but one musical moment that stood out to me was when Meghan/Jessica Paré sang Gillian Hillis’ “Zou Bisou Bisou.” The episode already stood out on its own because of the birthday party for Don. And the song qualifies as a *moment* by your own reckoning of including it on your playlist. But having the “performance” — there’s that word again — at the heart of the episode was a particularly crucial juncture in their relationship, for that season and for the series as a whole.
Nice work. I’ll be back for more…
Thank you!!
*Amendment: “Welcome Back, Don,” Mad Men Season 7 begins with Don moving through LA Airport, meeting Meghan to Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man.” I’ll stop now…