Trivia / Whale Music

• Dawson Casting: While Claire claims to be 19 years old, her actress Cynthia Preston was 26 when the movie came out.
• Defictionalization: The song "Claire"—Desmond Howl's newest hit in the book and a potential hit in the film—ended up being the Rheostatics' biggest in in real life, reaching #61 on the Canadian singles chart and winning a Genie Award (Canada's equivalent of the Oscars at the time) for Best Original Song.
  • The accompanying soundtrack album, Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music, could be considered a real-life version of Desmond's magnum opus.
• Fake Brit: The Canadian Kenneth Welsh plays the very British record executive Kenneth Sexstone. (Also an example of The Danza).
• Non-Singing Voice: Though Desmond is played by actor Maury Chaykin, the voice that comes out of him while recording the lead vocals for "Claire" is that of Rheostatics bassist Tim Vesley.
  • In fact, this applies to every other Howl Brothers/Desmond Howl song in the movie; Rheostatics did all of them.

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