Harrison Ford's American graffiti chant was seen as an insult to Rodgers and Hammerstein

"American Graffiti" is a coming-of-age film about American teenagers doing American teenage things in 1962. Mechanically, it's a series of vignettes featuring talents such as Richard Dreyfuss , Ron Howard and Cindy Williams. It was also the first film released by Lucasfilm. That's right, for those who didn't know, "Star Wars" wasn't Harrison Ford's first job by George Lucas. In "Harrison Ford: The Films," a biographical look at the star's career written by Brad Duke, it's shared that Ford attempted to spice up his "American Graffiti" persona with a little musical theater magic.

According to Duke, Ford wanted his character, Bob Falfa, to try to woo Laurie Henderson (Cindy) with music. After unsuccessfully experimenting with Everly Brothers melodies, Ford landed on "Some Enchanted Evening" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "South Pacific." In Duke's own words..."Some criticized the rendition as an insult to original lyricist Ezio Pinza. It was apparent that Ford suffered from severe tonal deafness, and he was further ridiculed for his poor attempts to 'ad-lib the lyrics he didn't know." Ouch, it can't get much worse than that... can it?

It's possible! Richard Rodgers himself denied Lucas the right to use his music because he considered Ford's performance an insult to the talents of his late partner, Oscar Hammerstein. Despite this, Ford's musical performance would later be added to the reissue of "American Graffiti" in 1978, just a year after "Star Wars: A New Hope." This episode of Star Wars gave Lucas and Ford the social power to do just about anything they wanted, proving once and for all that laser swords earn more street cred than singing nuns. p>