95 Fun Facts About The Blues Brothers

Who directed the 1980 film The Blues Brothers?

John Landis had directed Belushi in Animal House; handed Aykroyd's 324-page first draft, he cut it down into a script he could shoot.

Jake and Elwood set out on 'a mission from God' to save what?

The orphanage where they were raised, St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud, faces closure over an unpaid property-tax bill; Sister Mary Stigmata, 'the Penguin', breaks the news.

In The Blues Brothers, how much must Jake and Elwood raise to pay the overdue property tax bill?

$5,000 is the bill; a record executive's $10,000 advance at the Palace Hotel Ballroom covers it, with money to spare for the instruments the band took on an IOU.

Jake is paroled at the start of the film from which Illinois prison, whose name is also his nickname?

Joliet Correctional Center played itself in the opening scenes, with Jake three years into a five-year sentence for armed robbery; the real prison closed in 2002 and opened for guided tours in 2018.

The Bluesmobile is what make and model of car?

The Bluesmobile is a 1974 Dodge Monaco, a decommissioned Mount Prospect police car with a 440-cubic-inch engine; Elwood traded the old Cadillac for a microphone.

In The Blues Brothers, how does Elwood show off the Bluesmobile right after collecting Jake from prison?

Jumping an open drawbridge settles Jake's complaint about the ex-police car; the Bluesmobile finally falls to pieces outside the Daley Center after months of rigging.

Which soul legend plays the Reverend Cleophus, whose sermon gives Jake his epiphany?

James Brown preaches at the Triple Rock Baptist Church with Chaka Khan as the choir soloist; unused to miming, he re-recorded 'The Old Landmark' live on a soundstage.

What is the name of Cab Calloway's character in The Blues Brothers, the janitor who taught the brothers the blues?

The name honours Curtis Salgado, an Oregon blues singer who inspired Belushi while he was filming Animal House.

In The Blues Brothers, Cab Calloway stalls the Palace Hotel Ballroom crowd with which of his signature songs?

Minnie the Moocher was the number; Calloway wanted a disco arrangement, but the director insisted on the original big-band version.

In The Blues Brothers, Aretha Franklin, as the wife of guitarist Matt Murphy, sings which song to stop him rejoining the band?

Think is belted out in the couple's Maxwell Street soul food restaurant; Franklin needed several takes because she was unused to lip-syncing.

In The Blues Brothers, which song does Ray Charles perform at his shop, Ray's Music Exchange?

Shake a Tail Feather has Ray singing at a Rhodes electric piano while dancers fill the street outside; he then lets the band take its instruments on an IOU.

Who plays the 'Mystery Woman' trying to kill Jake with rocket launchers, bombs and an M16?

Carrie Fisher's Mystery Woman is Jake's ex-fiancée, jilted at the altar; off screen Fisher was Aykroyd's girlfriend, and he saved her from choking on a Brussels sprout during the shoot.

The famous car chase through a shopping centre was filmed at which real, shuttered location?

Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois, had closed in 1978; the production re-dressed its empty stores for the chase, and the mall stood derelict until its demolition in 2012.

Where does Elwood run the neo-Nazi demonstrators off a bridge?

Jackson Park, on Chicago's South Side: the Illinois Nazis are rallying on its lagoon bridge when Elwood drives through them, and Henry Gibson's leader swears revenge.

The band plays Bob's Country Bunker, a honky-tonk in Kokomo, Indiana, by impersonating which booked act?

The Good Ole Boys are the booked act; the real band, fronted by Charles Napier's Tucker McElroy, turns up late in a Winnebago and joins the pursuit for the rest of the film.

At Bob's Country Bunker in The Blues Brothers, Elwood sings lead on which TV Western theme to win over the crowd?

Rawhide is Aykroyd's only lead vocal on the soundtrack; the band also plays 'Stand By Your Man' from behind chicken wire.

The exterior of the Palace Hotel Ballroom in The Blues Brothers was really what kind of Chicago building?

A country club: the former South Shore Country Club, sold to the Chicago Park District in 1975 and later the South Shore Cultural Center, played the outside, while the concert itself was shot at the Hollywood Palladium.

Which famous director cameos as the Cook County clerk who takes the brothers' tax payment?

Steven Spielberg, a friend of the director, plays the Cook County clerk who stamps the receipt; the brothers are arrested by a small army the moment he does.

Muppet performer Frank Oz plays which small role at the start of The Blues Brothers?

The officer returning Jake's belongings is Frank Oz, who reads out the list, down to 'one unused prophylactic, one soiled'; he came back as the warden in Blues Brothers 2000.

Which future comedy star plays the snooty waiter at the fancy French restaurant in The Blues Brothers?

Paul Reubens, later famous as Pee-wee Herman, has one line as the waiter, offering a Dom Pérignon '71 at $120; he had created Pee-wee two years earlier in an improv exercise with the Groundlings.

Which model appears as the 'chic lady' in a Jaguar whom Elwood propositions at a gas station?

Twiggy plays the 'chic lady' in the Jaguar; Elwood promises to meet her at a motel and stands her up, a cutaway late in the film showing her waiting there alone.

Who plays Jake's parole officer, Burton Mercer, who rides along with the police?

John Candy's parole officer comes to the concert to arrest the brothers but decides to watch first, ordering 'three Orange Whips' for himself and the troopers, a drink that was not in the script.

What home address on Elwood's driver's licence sends the Nazis to a famous ballpark?

1060 West Addison is the address of Wrigley Field: Elwood gave the Cubs' ballpark as a fake home address when he registered his driver's licence.

The Illinois Nazis' Pinto drives off an unfinished freeway ramp that was really filmed in which city?

Milwaukee: the ramp was an unfinished stretch of Interstate 794, and for the fall that follows the crew dropped a real Pinto from a helicopter, which needed a special certificate from the FAA.

Dan Aykroyd turned in his 324-page first script for The Blues Brothers bound in the cover of what?

A phone book cover, from the Los Angeles Yellow Pages, wrapped a draft three times the usual length, written in free verse and credited to 'Scriptatron GL-9000'; Aykroyd had never written a script before.

The Blues Brothers first appeared on Saturday Night Live in January 1976 wearing what unlikely outfits?

Bee costumes from the 'Killer Bees' sketches: billed as the All-Bee Band, they played Slim Harpo's 'I'm a King Bee', Belushi singing and Aykroyd on harmonica.

The Blues Brothers made their proper debut as SNL musical guest on April 22, 1978, on an episode hosted by which comedian?

Steve Martin then had them open for him at the Universal Amphitheatre that September, where their first album was recorded live.

The band's 1978 live debut album, which went to number one on the Billboard chart, was titled what?

Briefcase Full of Blues, recorded live at the Universal Amphitheatre, reached number one on the Billboard chart and went double platinum, and its success set two studios racing to make a Blues Brothers film.

On stage, Elwood kept the case holding his harmonicas attached to him how?

Handcuffed to his wrist: Elwood walked on stage with the case cuffed to him, and Jake carried the key that unlocked it so the harmonica could come out.

Steve Cropper and Donald 'Duck' Dunn joined the Blues Brothers Band from which instrumental group?

Booker T. & the M.G.'s, the Stax house band: Cropper plays guitar on Sam & Dave's original 'Soul Man', where Sam Moore's 'play it, Steve' calls out his part.

Who played piano in the original act but was replaced on film by Murphy Dunne?

Paul Shaffer helped assemble the band but missed the film; by his own account Belushi dropped him for working on a Gilda Radner record. Murphy Dunne, son of the Cook County Board's president, took the part.

The Blues Brothers sealed their bond by cutting their fingers with a guitar string said to have belonged to whom?

Elmore James, the 'King of the Slide Guitar', supplied the string in the backstory Aykroyd devised, told in the debut album's liner notes, where the brothers cut their middle fingers to become blood brothers.

Jake's character was modelled partly on the lead singer of which Canadian blues band?

Downchild, the Toronto blues band founded by brothers Donnie and Hock: Jake drew on Hock's singing and Elwood on Donnie, and the Blues Brothers covered Downchild's 'Shotgun Blues' on their debut album.

Belushi borrowed the Wayfarers and soul patch from which bluesman, who also appears in The Blues Brothers?

John Lee Hooker plays a street musician in the film; Aykroyd has said the act's hats came from him too, while the black suits copied what jazz players wore to look straight.

The Blues Brothers ends with the band performing which Elvis Presley hit?

Jailhouse Rock closes the film, played to fellow inmates once the whole band is locked up; Elvis's original spent seven weeks at number one in 1957.

The 1998 sequel Blues Brothers 2000 paired Aykroyd with which actor as new frontman 'Mighty Mack' McTeer?

John Goodman plays Mighty Mack McTeer, a barman recruited as the new singer; Joe Morton is Cabel Chamberlain, a state police commander who also ends up joining the band.

In Blues Brothers 2000 the band loses a Battle of the Bands to a supergroup of blues legends called what?

The Louisiana Gator Boys, led by B.B. King with Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley and Koko Taylor, win the contest staged by Erykah Badu's Queen Mousette, a voodoo witch who has just turned three of the Blues Brothers into statues.

Which Chicago mayor welcomed The Blues Brothers production and let it film across the city?

Jane Byrne, mayor from 1979 to 1983, opened the city to the production, even letting the Bluesmobile crash through the Daley Center lobby's glass.

Whose idea was the name 'The Blues Brothers'?

Howard Shore, who was SNL's musical director from 1975 to 1980, suggested the name; he went on to score The Lord of the Rings and win three Oscars.

Which film kept The Blues Brothers off the top of the box office when it opened in 1980?

The Empire Strikes Back, released a month earlier, held first place; The Blues Brothers, far over budget and expected to fail, went on to gross over $115 million worldwide.

Which song is performed live in the Maxwell Street market scene of The Blues Brothers?

Boom Boom, a 1962 hit, is played live on Maxwell Street by its writer, with Big Walter Horton and Pinetop Perkins in the band, yet the song was left off the soundtrack album.

In The Blues Brothers, which band member has become the maître d' of an expensive restaurant?

Mr. Fabulous, trumpeter Alan Rubin, turns the brothers down at first, then gives in when they eat at his restaurant with appalling manners and threaten to come back as regulars.

Which Japanese manga and anime franchise was inspired by the film?

Nerima Daikon Brothers, a 2006 musical comedy anime from Studio Hibari about a daikon-farming trio, borrowed its name, black suits and song-and-dance structure from The Blues Brothers.

How did John Belushi seriously injure his knee just before The Blues Brothers' final concert sequence was shot?

Falling off a borrowed skateboard nearly cost the scene; Lew Wasserman got a top orthopaedic surgeon to numb the knee so Belushi could sing, dance and cartwheel.

Horn players Lou Marini, Tom Malone and Alan Rubin had all previously played in which band?

Blood, Sweat & Tears: Lou Marini, Tom Malone and Alan Rubin had all played with the jazz-rock band, and Belushi and Aykroyd then recruited them from the Saturday Night Live house band.

Which newspaper marked The Blues Brothers' 30th anniversary by declaring it a Catholic film?

L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily paper, found the story full of positive symbolism and moral references tied to Catholicism.

The Blues Brothers' Palace Hotel Ballroom building later hosted which future president's wedding reception?

Barack Obama and Michelle celebrated there in 1992, by which time the lakefront landmark had become the South Shore Cultural Center.

The real penitentiary seen at the start of The Blues Brothers later played Fox River in which TV drama?

Prison Break moved in three years after the 144-year-old lockup closed in 2002, renaming it Fox River State Penitentiary for the screen.

John Belushi fell for the blues after hearing a local singer in Oregon while shooting which film?

Animal House was shooting in Eugene in 1977 when Belushi heard a young harmonica player at a hotel, then talked blues with him for hours.

In The Blues Brothers, Elwood tells Jake he traded the brothers' old Cadillac for which piece of stage gear?

A microphone was all Elwood got for the 1968 Cadillac, which is why he turns up to collect Jake in a retired police cruiser.

Which part of the Bluesmobile fails to work in The Blues Brothers, prompting Jake to throw it out of the window?

The cigarette lighter is the lone flaw in a machine that can otherwise flip backwards in midair and briefly fly.

Which easy-listening standard plays in the elevator as Jake and Elwood ride up to pay the tax bill?

The Girl from Ipanema drifts through the elevator on the way to the 11th floor while an army of police and soldiers storms the building below.

Which classical piece thunders on the soundtrack as the Illinois Nazis chase the Bluesmobile up an unfinished ramp?

Ride of the Valkyries, in a Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recording, scores the pursuit just before the Nazis' Pinto plunges from the sky.

Which neo-soul singer plays the voodoo queen who stages the Battle of the Bands in Blues Brothers 2000?

Erykah Badu's Queen Mousette, rumoured to be 130 years old, turns Elwood and two bandmates into statues before letting them compete.

Dan Aykroyd turned his Elwood persona into a business by co-founding which chain of live music venues?

House of Blues opened its first hall in 1992 with backing from Aerosmith and Harvard University, and Aykroyd made a habit of playing its openings in character.

Which nickname do Jake and Elwood use for Sister Mary Stigmata, the nun who raised them in The Blues Brothers?

The Penguin returns in the 1998 sequel as Mother Mary Stigmata, by then working at a hospital because the children's home has closed.

Jake Blues leaves prison at the start of The Blues Brothers after serving three years for which crime?

Armed robbery earned Jake a five-year sentence, and his rhythm and blues outfit broke up while its lead singer was inside.

Why does the vengeful 'Mystery Woman' keep trying to kill Jake throughout The Blues Brothers?

He left her at the altar, and when she finally corners him in a service tunnel he reels off a string of ridiculous excuses.

In The Blues Brothers, five old bandmates are playing a deserted hotel lounge under which name?

Murph and the Magic Tones, fronted by keyboardist Murphy Dunne, walk out of their Holiday Inn residency the moment Jake and Elwood ask.

The Blues Brothers' cover of which Memphis classic, from their debut album, reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Soul Man reunited guitarist Steve Cropper with a part he had played on the 1967 original, and the cover opened an episode of Saturday Night Live.

Which Robert Johnson blues standard do Jake and Elwood perform at the climactic Palace Hotel Ballroom concert?

Sweet Home Chicago gives the brothers cover to sneak offstage, and it fills nearly eight minutes of the soundtrack album.

The Blues Brothers opened for which band at the final concert at San Francisco's Winterland on New Year's Eve 1978?

Grateful Dead headlined the venue's farewell, with the New Riders of the Purple Sage also on the bill, weeks after the comedians' first album came out.

Which blues great, cast as a used-car dealer, fronts the supergroup that beats Elwood's band in Blues Brothers 2000?

B.B. King leads an all-star line-up that also features Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley and Dr. John, and his character sells Elwood a replacement Bluesmobile.

Among films spun off from Saturday Night Live sketches, which is the only one to out-gross The Blues Brothers?

Wayne's World arrived twelve years later as only the second film based on a Saturday Night Live sketch, and it out-earned the first.

The tie-in book Blues Brothers: Private was co-written by John Belushi's wife and a friend from which comedy troupe?

The Second City hired Belushi and Tino Insana together, and Insana later helped Judith Jacklin flesh out the brothers' backstory in print.

Which Chicago critic awarded The Blues Brothers four stars and put it on his list of 1980's ten best films?

Gene Siskel of the Tribune ranked it eighth for the year, outdoing his rival at the Sun-Times, who gave it three stars out of four.

Jake and Elwood dine with dreadful manners at which upscale Chicago restaurant to win back a reluctant bandmate?

Chez Paul was a real restaurant inside a Chicago mansion, so the crew built a replica of its interior on the West Coast instead of shooting there.

Jake has his epiphany during a musical sermon at which Chicago church in The Blues Brothers?

Triple Rock Baptist Church is where an old friend sends the brothers, and where Jake leaves convinced he must put his musicians back together.

Which Laugh-In regular plays the leader of the Illinois Nazis in The Blues Brothers?

Henry Gibson built his early comedy act around playing a poet from Alabama, a long way from the neo-Nazi commander he portrays here.

Which actor plays Tucker McElroy, the Winnebago-driving country singer whose gig the Blues Brothers steal?

Charles Napier went on to play a CIA bureaucrat in Rambo: First Blood Part II and military brass in two Austin Powers comedies.

Which future 'I Feel for You' hitmaker is the choir soloist in The Blues Brothers' church scene?

Chaka Khan was lead vocalist of the funk group Rufus when she shot her gospel solo, years before her Prince cover crossed over.

Which crooner, long partnered on stage with wife Eydie Gormé, plays the Blues Brothers' booking agent Maury Sline?

Steve Lawrence found a new generation of fans as Maury Sline and came back to the part in the 1998 sequel.

Elwood takes a rare lead vocal on which doo-wop novelty cover from the Blues Brothers' debut album?

Rubber Biscuit was first recorded by a vocal group called the Chips in 1956, and the cover climbed to number 37 with Aykroyd out front.

Which Spencer Davis Group hit gave the Blues Brothers a top-20 single from their film soundtrack?

Gimme Some Lovin' peaked at number 18, in an arrangement that swaps the original's rumbling organ for the horn section.

Which soul singer first recorded Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, later a signature Blues Brothers number?

Solomon Burke co-wrote the song and cut it in 1964, but his version missed the US top 40, stalling at number 58.

Which live album was the last record the Blues Brothers cut with John Belushi as Jake?

Made in America was taped on the tour promoting the film and includes Green Onions, an instrumental hit that guitarist Steve Cropper co-wrote.

Which rock band shared the Super Bowl XXXI halftime stage with the Blues Brothers in 1997?

ZZ Top joined a show built to hype the coming sequel, which opened with a spoof news bulletin about Elwood.

Which label, home to many soul greats, released the Blues Brothers' chart-topping debut album in 1978?

Atlantic issued the live set less than three months after it was taped, and it went on to sell over two million copies in the US.

Which nickname does guitarist Steve Cropper carry in the Blues Brothers Band's line-up?

The Colonel had real soul pedigree, having co-written Knock on Wood with Eddie Floyd and In the Midnight Hour with Wilson Pickett.

Under which stage name does Jim Belushi perform alongside Dan Aykroyd's Elwood in the modern revue?

Zee Blues was written into the 1998 sequel as well, but a TV drama contract forced John's younger brother to drop out of the shoot.

Which Terminator 2 actor plays Cab, the police commander who joins the band in Blues Brothers 2000?

Joe Morton's character, Cabel Chamberlain, is named in tribute to Cab Calloway, who died in 1994, before the sequel was made.

In Blues Brothers 2000, the voodoo queen turns the Russian mobsters and the militia into which animals?

Rats are all that remain of both gangs after they storm the Battle of the Bands, moments before the state police finally arrive.

In Blues Brothers 2000, Matt 'Guitar' Murphy and his wife now run a dealership selling which make of car?

Mercedes luxury has replaced the Maxwell Street diner, and this time it is his wife who tells him to go and rejoin his old bandmates.

Which retired police model becomes the new Bluesmobile that Elwood buys for $500 in Blues Brothers 2000?

Ford Crown Victoria duty goes well beyond patrol work here: the 1990 cruiser drives underwater like a submarine and leaps a construction site.

The Bluesmobile is said to be a decommissioned police cruiser from which Chicago suburb?

Mount Prospect's black-and-white paint scheme matched the California Highway Patrol cruisers the production bought, so the conversion was simple.

The Bluesmobile crashes through the glass lobby of which Chicago landmark during the final chase?

Daley Center had its real windows swapped for breakaway panes, yet the stunt still did $7,650 of damage to paving stones and a bronze grille.

Interior scenes of The Blues Brothers' big Palace Hotel Ballroom show were shot in which Los Angeles venue?

Hollywood Palladium supplied the ballroom's inside once production returned to California, while a lakefront building in Chicago supplied the outside.

Which composer of The Magnificent Seven theme wrote the heavenly 'God Music' cue for The Blues Brothers?

Elmer Bernstein, long famed for westerns and war epics, reinvented himself in comedy and also scored Airplane!, Stripes, Trading Places and Ghostbusters.

The Bluesmobile's licence plate, BDR 529, pays tribute to what kind of Toronto organisation?

A motorcycle club called the Black Diamond Riders supplied the initials, a nod to Aykroyd's Canadian roots.

Which engine powers the Bluesmobile, the model Dan Aykroyd called the hottest police cruiser of the 1970s?

440 Magnum power came as part of a squad package that the manufacturer really offered on its patrol sedans of the day.

Cab Calloway wanted to perform his signature song in which fashionable style before the director insisted on big band?

Disco was Calloway's plan, and he was angry at being overruled until audiences warmed to the classic big-band arrangement.

Blues Brothers trumpeter Alan Rubin left which famous music school at 20 to tour with singer Robert Goulet?

Juilliard admitted Rubin at 17, and while there he turned down a tour with composer Paul Hindemith to play behind Peggy Lee instead.

Blues Brothers drummer Willie Hall earlier played with which Memphis group and in Isaac Hayes's band?

The Bar-Kays had Hall behind the kit, and he also drummed for the Movement, the outfit that backed Isaac Hayes.

Which vintage American tanks join the blockade awaiting Jake and Elwood in The Blues Brothers' finale?

Sherman tanks rolled into the plaza alongside helicopters, National Guardsmen and hundreds of extras for the showdown.

The Blues Brothers' album liner notes place Jake and Elwood's Catholic childhood home in which Illinois city?

Rock Island is where the sleeve notes have the pair growing up and learning the blues from a janitor, before they became blood brothers.