In a last-minute effort to create the song of the summer, Steve Martin and the Only Murders In The Building team have cooked up what’s sure to be the best track of 1989! Just kidding, but Hulu has been going all-out with their music production here. In the most recent episode of Only Murders In The Building, the crime-solving trio learned about Martin’s character Charles’ hit track from way back in the 1980s.
“Angel In Flip Flops” is a summer anthem, featuring Charles and his beachy hair on guitar singing about his summer love, who happens to be walking around in a pair of flip flops, as one does in the 80s.
Hulu released a music video for the world-famous song, which has been sampled by “like, 50 rap stars” according to Charles’ step-daughter (played by Zoe Coletti). The video features some much-needed context: “The year was 1989 and Brazzos’ single, Angel in Flip Flops, was riding high on the charts… until the Berlin Wall came down.” As we learned in the episode, the song was a hit in Germany, charting at number 83, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Co-creator John Hoffman told Decider how the some came about. “When the notion came up in our writers’ room of Charles-Haden Savage, at the height of his success with his original Brazzos series, maybe having recorded an album that did really well in Germany before the Berlin Wall fell, we knew we had to talk further about it — immediately!” Hoffman explained. “When we shared this idea with Steve Martin — well, I think it was a day (if even?) before Steve had a title and a tune making its way through his genius mind and we were more than off and running.”
Of course, Charles’ friends Mabel and Oliver (Selena Gomez and Martin Short) did not think the song was genius. “I’m such a huge fan of terrible music. How have I never heard this?” Oliver says as they are listening to the track on vinyl. At least he has a nice perm on the album cover!
