The Super Bowl XXXI halftime show took place on January 26, 1997 at the
Louisiana Superdome
The Caesars Superdome, commonly known as the Superdome (formerly known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome), is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints ...
in
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. The show was titled "Blues Brothers Bash" and featured actors
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, producer, musician and writer. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1979). During his tenure on ''SNL'' ...
,
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series '' Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he received a Golden Globe Award, an ...
, and
Jim Belushi
James Adam Belushi (; born June 15, 1954) is an American actor. He is best known for the role of Jim on the sitcom ''According to Jim'' (2001–2009). His other television roles include ''Saturday Night Live'' (1983–1985), '' Total Security'' ...
as
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on ''Saturday Night Live''. Belushi and Aykroyd fronted the band, in character, respective ...
. The show highlighted
blues music
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
and also had performances by the
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
ZZ Top and singer
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
.
Background and development
The show's producers were
Select Productions
Select or SELECT may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Select'' (album), an album by Kim Wilde
* ''Select'' (magazine), a British music magazine
* ''MTV Select'', a television program
* ''Select Live'', New Zealand's C4 music program ...
,
Radio City, and
House of Blues.
The show's sponsor was
Oscar Mayer
Oscar Mayer is an American meat and cold cut producer known for its hot dogs, bologna, bacon, ham, and Lunchables products. The company is a subsidiary of the Kraft Heinz Company and based in Chicago, Illinois.
History Early years
German immigr ...
.
While practicing for the show, stuntwoman Laura "Dinky" Patterson, one of a 16-member professional
bungee jumping
Bungee jumping (), also spelled bungy jumping, is an activity that involves a person jumping from a great height while connected to a large elastic cord. The launching pad is usually erected on a tall structure such as a building or crane, a ...
team, jumped from the 152-foot high temporary show truss hung from the roof and collided head-first with the concrete floor, causing her death. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported on January 29, 1997 that Patterson had been working with bungee cords that were being handled by volunteers who had received little training. The bungee-jumping portion of the halftime show was removed. A title-graphic commemorating Patterson and acknowledging her death was displayed during the TV broadcast of the Super Bowl.
The inclusion of a segment featuring
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
personality
Catherine Crier
Catherine Jean Crier is an American journalist and author of ''A Deadly Game'' and ''The Case Against Lawyers''.
She was the youngest elected state judge in Texas history at age thirty and served as a Texas State District Judge for the 162nd Dis ...
was seen as an attempt for
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
, broadcasting their first-ever Super Bowl, to give their news channel free publicity.
The show was intended to create hype for the then-upcoming film ''
Blues Brothers 2000
''Blues Brothers 2000'' is a 1998 American musical comedy film directed by John Landis from a screenplay written by Landis and Dan Aykroyd, both of whom were also producers. The film, starring Aykroyd and John Goodman, is a sequel to the 1980 fi ...
''.
Since original Blues Brother
John Belushi had died fifteen years prior, remaining member
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, producer, musician and writer. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1979). During his tenure on ''SNL'' ...
performed instead with
Jim Belushi
James Adam Belushi (; born June 15, 1954) is an American actor. He is best known for the role of Jim on the sitcom ''According to Jim'' (2001–2009). His other television roles include ''Saturday Night Live'' (1983–1985), '' Total Security'' ...
and
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series '' Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he received a Golden Globe Award, an ...
.
Synopsis
The show began with a fictional
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
bulletin presented by Catherine Crier, announcing that Aykroyd's Blues Brothers character Elwood J. Blues had escaped the
Joliet State Prison
Joliet Correctional Center (originally known as Illinois State Penitentiary, colloquially as Joliet Prison, Joliet Penitentiary, the Old Joliet Prison, and the Collins Street Prison) was a prison in Joliet, Illinois, United States, from 1858 to ...
.
The Blues Brothers then performed the songs "
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a song written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke, and Jerry Wexler, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke under the production of Bert Berns at Atlantic Records in 1964. Burke's version charted in 1964, but miss ...
" and "
Soul Man".
James Brown, wearing a
pink
Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
satin suit, then performed his songs "
I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "
Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine".
ZZ Top then appeared, entering on
motorcycles, and performed their songs "
Tush" and "
Legs
A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element ...
".
All the performers ended the show by performing "
Gimme Some Lovin'" together.
Reception
Critical
Steve Johnson of the
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
heavily criticized the show, particularly The Blues Brothers, likening the inclusion of ZZ Top and James Brown to placing prime
roast beef "between
moldy
white bread". He also argued that The Blues Brothers were only chosen to act as "a stealth ad for the House of Blues chain of musical malls."
Many outlets have retrospectively ranked the show poorly among Super Bowl halftime shows. In 2019, Maeve McDermott of
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
ranked the show as the second-most "disastrous" Super Bowl halftime show.
Also in 2019, Roy Trakin and Jem Aswad of
Variety magazine ranked as one of the six "least memorable" Super Bowl halftime shows.
Conversely, in 2013, Dan Hyman of
Rolling Stone magazine
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cov ...
retrospectively ranked the show as the eighth-best Super Bowl halftime show.
In 2020, Aaron Tallent of
Athlon Sports
Parade Media (previously known as AMG/Parade and Athlon Media Group) is a publisher founded in 1967 that is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville's Spencer Hays was its majority stockholder. It was purchased by The Arena Group in 2022 and now ...
ranked the show well, writing, "This performance epitomizes what a Super Bowl halftime show should be: big and fun, but not overdone and torturous to watch." In 2020, Daniel Tran of
Yardbarker
Yardbarker is a digital media property focused on the publishing of sports and entertainment news and information. Founded in 2006, the property distributes content on Yardbarker.com, social media platforms and via third party syndication partne ...
also ranked the performance well.
Commercial
Upon release on February 6, 1998, ''Blues Brothers 2000'' received mixed reviews and was a
box-office bomb.
Setlist
* "
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a song written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke, and Jerry Wexler, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke under the production of Bert Berns at Atlantic Records in 1964. Burke's version charted in 1964, but miss ...
" (The Blues Brothers)
* "
Soul Man" (The Blues Brothers)
* "
I Got You (I Feel Good)" (James Brown)
* "
Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" (James Brown)
* "
Tush" (ZZ Top)
* "
Legs
A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element ...
" (ZZ Top)
* "
Gimme Some Lovin'" (The Blues Brothers, James Brown, ZZ Top)
Controversy
Some criticized the decision to have a faux news bulletin, which some may have mistaken as real. The segment was criticized as undermining the upstart Fox News Channel's journalistic integrity, as well as Crier's own.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Super Bowl 031 halftime show
1997 in American music
1997 in American television
1997 in Louisiana
January 1996 events in the United States
Mass media in New Orleans
The Blues Brothers
James Brown
ZZ Top
031
Radio City Music Hall