They come on like a Mafia version of Laurel and Hardy, their black hats, sunglasses and shiny suites casting them in a comic-sinister light. At first glance, it's impossible to tell that Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues are two of TV's Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players. John Belushi (a.k.a. Jake) and Dan Aykroyd (a.k.a. Elwood) are currently the most successful crossover performers in the country.
In less than a year, Belushi--the zaftig samuri soldier of "Saturday Night Live"--has appeared in three movies, including Animal House, signed a three-picture deal with Universal and released (with pal Aykroyd) one of the year's biggest hit records. Although Aykroyd, 26, has not yet appeared in a film, he, too, has signed a three-film deal with Universal. The first movie, a big-budget comedy directed by Steven Speilberg (Jaws, Close Encounters) about a Japanese attack on Los Angeles just after Pearl Harbor. The second film will be about the Blues Brothers. "It will be a road film like Hope and Crosby," says Belushi. Aykroyd will write it.
The distinction between TV and movies is blurred these days, but the crossover between cracking a joke and belting out the blues is rare. Belushi, 30, claims to have had no experience with the blues. "Even though I grew up in Chicago and it was all around me, I didn't really hear it," he admits. But while filming Animal House, he was turned on to the blues by a friend, Curtis Salgado. "I couldn't stop playing it," he adds. He knew Aykroyd had played some blues in Canada, and Belushi liked to sing, so one day, they became the Blues Brothers.
Their first album, Briefcase Full of Blues, was platinum a short time after its release. The LP was recorded during a nine-day concert series in Los Angeles, where the Blues Brothers opened for Steve Martin to sellout crowds. Accompanying them were such blues greats as Tom Scott, Matt Murphy and Steve Cropper. Despite its sensational popularity, some reviewers have criticized the presumption of two white comedians simply deciding to play the blues. Blues king Muddy Waters joined the public in leaping to Belushi and Aykroyd's defense. "They may not have been musicians," says Waters, "but they're musicians now. You don't need to be one color to play the blues."