<P> That was what we liked to call a "pay the rent" job . It wasn't a script I liked, but I remember my agent at the time saying, "Look, you only have to work two weeks, and they're going to pay you a lot of money . We'll just say it was your first movie and they just didn't release it ." I think people were all fucked up on drugs . I don't know . I was a little removed, because I wasn't on the movie the whole time, but it seemed like it was just a mess . Like, when I'd go, I'd think--I like to make a movie where I know who the boss is . I like a big boss . I like a real director . And it seemed like it was just, "Who's driving the ship here? What's going on?" </P> <P> According to Davidson, when he completed the film, three different studios wanted to distribute it, and he went with Embassy Pictures because they offered him the most money . However, they had no prior experience in distribution and were unable to properly release it in theaters . Davidson remembered, "And six months later, somebody said,' Your picture is appearing on HBO this weekend,' and I didn't even know ." </P> <P> Vance asked Davidson to describe his fictitious band and their music . Initially, Davidson said that the Cruisers sounded like Dion and the Belmonts, but when they meet Frank, they have elements of Jim Morrison and The Doors . However, Davidson did not want to lose sight of the fact that the Cruisers were essentially a Jersey bar band, and he thought of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band . The filmmaker told Vance to find him someone that could produce music that contained elements of these three bands . Davidson was getting close to rehearsals when Vance called him and said that he had found the band--John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band from Providence, Rhode Island . </P> <P> Davidson met the band and realized that they closely resembled the band as described in the script, right down to a Cape Verdean saxophone player, whom he cast in the film . Initially, Cafferty was only hired to write a few songs for the film, but he did such a good job of capturing the feeling of the 1960s and 1980s that Davidson asked him to score the entire film . </P>

Who did the singing in the movie eddie and the cruisers