Key Change: Baz Luhrmann on "Time After Time."

Hrishikesh Hirway· Host0:00

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Hrishikesh Hirway. This is Key Change, where I talk to fascinating people about the music that changed their lives. My guest is Baz Luhrmann, the award-winning director whose films include Moulin Rouge!, Strictly Ballroom, The Great Gatsby, Elvis, and Romeo + Juliet. His newest film is Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert, a critically acclaimed documentary about Elvis that's playing right now in theaters and in IMAX. Before becoming a massively successful film director, Baz began his showbiz career as an actor and as a ballroom dancer in Australia. His first film was Strictly Ballroom, which came out in 1992 and became one of the highest grossing Australian films of all time. It was originally a play, and there's a song in the film that was part of the story all the way back when it was first performed on stage, and that's what Baz and I talked about for this episode.

Baz Luhrmann· Guest0:58

[gentle music] There are quite a few songs that have changed my life, but no song really changed the trajectory of my life more than Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper.

Hrishikesh Hirway· Host1:14

I'm so thrilled that you picked Time After Time, because that is already a song that I associate with you because of Strictly Ballroom.

Baz Luhrmann· Guest1:26

Yeah. Well, you know what, in growing up in a tiny