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Watch: YouTuber redubs Steve Vai’s Crossroads duet – “the results are truly cursed”

Was this how it sounded on the set?

YouTube/Bradley Hall
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YouTuber Bradley Hall has redubbed Steve Vai’s duet with actor Ralph Macchio from the 1986 film Crossroads to sound more accurate.

Vai, who played the character Jack Butler, is seen battling it out with Macchio (who played 17-year-old Juilliard guitar prodigy Eugene Martone) to settle a debt.

But it’s now been dubbed over so you can hear how it should’ve sounded.

To do this, Hall removed Macchio’s part and replaced it with his own recording, based on how the actor mimed.

“The results are truly cursed,” he captioned the video.

To listen, click the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEc0xOsmWk

At the time still an up and coming guitarist, Vai originally turned down the role after film composer Ry Cooper asked him in just to record parts.

“They needed a hot rod guitar player for this guitar-duel scene,” he told Loudwire in 2021. “I read the script, built a duel concept and we recorded it.

“After the director [Walter Hill] had met me and heard the recording, he asked me if I’d be interested in being in the film.

“I told him no at first, but then I read the script again and felt that a certain side of my personality could relate to the character of Jack Butler. Celluloid history.”

Macchio, on the other hand, had come from a line of blockbuster hits like 1984’s Karate Kid and 1983’s The Outsiders, and was continuing to climb the Hollywood ladder.

Screenwriter John Fusco told American Blues Scene in 2020 that the actor was even chosen for Crossroads over Tom Cruise and Sean Penn, who’d both been interested.

Macchio also turned down a role in Back to the Future for the part.

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