This was so great!! It would be soooo hard for me to just name 5!!
As Matty did, I would have to start with a Disney soundtrack! Love The Jungle Book, but I would have to choose Mary Poppins. It was one of my earliest memories of music. My mom would play that soundtrack, and we would dance around the living room doing the chimney sweep! I’m positive this had an impact on my love for music.
Second, I would have to pick The Crow. I stand behind the reasoning that this was one of the films that really shot movie soundtracks into high gear. There had been great soundtracks previously, but this one just seemed like a turning point where after, so many films relied on soundtracks- some to the point where the soundtrack was better/more popular than the film.
Third, Tank Girl! So many awesome artists! Bjork, Bush, L7, Veruca Salt, Portishead, Devo, Hole, Belly…
Fourth, Singles! Again, so many artists and such a fantastic soundtrack! Paul Westerberg (who also did a song with Joan Jett for the Tank Girl soundtrack!), Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Chris Cornell solo, Mudhoney… I think Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns would definitely make the list of my all time favorite songs.
And fifth, Judgement Night. Definitely a case of the soundtrack being better than the film. I Love You Mary Jane by Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill would also be on my list of top favorite songs. The pairings of groups/artists for this soundtrack was phenomenal!
High Fidelity and Pulp Fiction would be on my list of 10! LOL 😂 so would Pump up the Volume, Romeo + Juliet, and the Nightmare Before Christmas. Now I’m going to stop thinking about it! Hahaha!
This was fantastic! Back when I was still collecting physical media, I was a big fan of the movie soundtrack. Here are a handful that stand out for me.
The soundtrack for the 1978 Jamaican film Rockers is jam packed with incredible reggae classics by acts like Inner Circle, Junior Murvin, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Burning Spear and Third World.
I thought the soundtracks to the John Hughes were excellent. If I had to pick only one it would be Some Kind of Wonderful. With “Brilliant Mind” by Furniture, “I Go Crazy” by Flesh For Lulu, and appearances by Pete Shelley and The Jesus And Mary Chain, there wasn’t a bad track on there.
The 1986 film Something Wild starring Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels has some great tracks including tunes by Fine Young Cannibals, UB40, Oingo Boingo, Jimmy Cliff, New Order and Sister Carol.
While very “of its time” the soundtrack from Empire Records was chock full of tunes from fantastic artists of the time including The Cranberries, Gin Blossoms, Edwyn Collins, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Better Than Ezra and Cracker.
My number one soundtrack, despite not having ever seen the movie, would have to be Stealing Beauty. I mean, just take a look at this loaded track listing!
The Lost Boys opens with an airborne, point of view shot of the fictional coastal town of Santa Barbara at night, with the lights of the fairground and the roller-coaster away in the distance and the dark water below, as a choir of children's voices chant the chorus of Gerard McMann's 'Cry Little Sister'. The next shot is of the carousel, with the riders going around and around, and up and down on the wooden horses, while the vampires move freely through the herd like a pride of hungry lions. As openings to movies go, it's pretty damn great, as is the entire film – a true classic of the horror genre and very funny too in places.
The soundtrack is a strange beast, where the star power is semi-recognisable and out of step with what was in vogue at the times. The Doors' 'People Are Strange' is handed off to Echo and the Bunnymen who do a serviceable job with it. INXS turn up twice in their bar rock incarnation, with 'Good Times' channelling a 1950s roadhouse vibe. Lou Gramm from Foreigner shows up and it really shouldn't work but it does. Roger Daltrey of The Who steps into Elton John's shoes for a cover of 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me'.
However, it is the unknowns that provide the highlights: the aforementioned Gerard McMann working the same dark seam of high-production theatrical goth as the Sisters of Mercy did on Floodland. I initially mistook 'Beauty Has Her Way' by Mummy Calls for a Madness ballad, on the basis of the vocals which sound a bit like Suggs. 'I Still Believe' was performed on stage in the film by the muscle-bound Tim Cappello, where the saxophone is either soaring like a comet tail out of the chorus, or coiled in the darkness, vibrating menacingly like a rattlesnake.
I would love to know how this soundtrack came together because it has the feel of something that was meant to promote, and in some cases, kickstart the careers of certain artists, which it absolutely failed to do, though in the process it coalesced into a quirky and relatively succinct collection of cool songs that have stood the test of times.
Winged Migration – a documentary that follows the seasonal journeys undertaken by different species of birds – tells a white lie in order to convey a greater truth. The astonishing close-up footage of these flocks in mid-flight was achieved using birds that had been imprinted from birth to fly alongside an airborne camera crew. In a touching moment in the making-of documentary, a tired pelican moves in for a hug from one of its handlers. The soundtrack by Bruno Coulais is an avant-garde fabrication of ambient environmental sounds accompanied by breathless, wordless vocals and brittle musicianship that seeks to emulate the rhythms of nature. It also includes a pair of majestic songs by Robert Wyatt and Nick Cave that, in addition to being tremendously moving in context, stand among the highpoints of their respective careers. Wyatts's hymnal 'Masters of the Field' is a humble, quietly-awestruck commentary on the totality of birdlife. Nick Cave's 'To Be By Your Side' is underpinned by a plucked music box melody, and rides a slowly building swell of grandeur before it dies away and is replaced by the clamour of migrating geese.
The Blue Max, based on a novel by Jack D. Hunter, sees George Peppard (Hannibal from The A-Team) cast in the role of Leutnant Bruno Stachel – a WWI German fighter pilot from a poor background, who is desperate to prove his worth at any cost, and whose naked ambition and insecurity prove to be his undoing. Jerry Goldsmith builds the soundtrack around a recurring motif that plays out initially on airy strings and is subsequently re-sketched by a thin fanfare of trumpet as the biplanes appear over the battlefield – a symbol of hope. In the airborne dogfights that occur later in the film, the same piece of music is marshalled under the relentless mass beating of war drums while a full orchestra churns away in the background. It stands as an example of what can be achieved in terms of tone by what is essentially the same piece of music.
There seem to be a few variations of the soundtrack to the atmospheric psychological horror film, Angel Heart. My copy takes an interesting approach. The score - a labyrinthine, unwaking nightmare of echoing sax scuffed patches of strings, and chaotic free jazz dredged from the filthy back alleys of post-war New Orleans, is seasoned with dialogue from the film, creating a montage effect – a loose narrative that charts the progress of Mickey Rourke's private eye, Harry Angel, as he follows the trail of the missing crooner, Johnny Favorite.
My final choice is a bit of a cheat. Mack Avenue Skullgame is a soundtrack to a fictional film – a grimy patter of heavy Detroit funk from the band, Big Chief, who lay down the bones of a grim tale of a pimp and a hooker named Sonica, played by Thornetta Davis. The highpoint – 'No Free Love on the Streets' has one of the greatest openings I think I have heard to any song: Guitar like tumbleweed blowing through overgrown vacant lots; a bellowed count-in from somewhere way off in the background – “five, six, seven, eight” and then this incredibly deep, rumbling bassline that gets the song moving. What follows can never live up to it, though the emotional maelstrom of the chorus and the wailing guitar fade-out are still pretty great.
Thanks so much for having me, Chris. This was a blast to put together.
I really appreciate you joining me!
This was so great!! It would be soooo hard for me to just name 5!!
As Matty did, I would have to start with a Disney soundtrack! Love The Jungle Book, but I would have to choose Mary Poppins. It was one of my earliest memories of music. My mom would play that soundtrack, and we would dance around the living room doing the chimney sweep! I’m positive this had an impact on my love for music.
Second, I would have to pick The Crow. I stand behind the reasoning that this was one of the films that really shot movie soundtracks into high gear. There had been great soundtracks previously, but this one just seemed like a turning point where after, so many films relied on soundtracks- some to the point where the soundtrack was better/more popular than the film.
Third, Tank Girl! So many awesome artists! Bjork, Bush, L7, Veruca Salt, Portishead, Devo, Hole, Belly…
Fourth, Singles! Again, so many artists and such a fantastic soundtrack! Paul Westerberg (who also did a song with Joan Jett for the Tank Girl soundtrack!), Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Chris Cornell solo, Mudhoney… I think Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns would definitely make the list of my all time favorite songs.
And fifth, Judgement Night. Definitely a case of the soundtrack being better than the film. I Love You Mary Jane by Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill would also be on my list of top favorite songs. The pairings of groups/artists for this soundtrack was phenomenal!
High Fidelity and Pulp Fiction would be on my list of 10! LOL 😂 so would Pump up the Volume, Romeo + Juliet, and the Nightmare Before Christmas. Now I’m going to stop thinking about it! Hahaha!
Mary Poppins does have some excellent tracks--good choice!
The Crow, Tank Girl, Singles!! All excellent choices, particularly Tank Girl. Never seen the film but loved the soundtrack
Let's not forget the soundtrack to Heavy Metal.
This was fantastic! Back when I was still collecting physical media, I was a big fan of the movie soundtrack. Here are a handful that stand out for me.
The soundtrack for the 1978 Jamaican film Rockers is jam packed with incredible reggae classics by acts like Inner Circle, Junior Murvin, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Burning Spear and Third World.
I thought the soundtracks to the John Hughes were excellent. If I had to pick only one it would be Some Kind of Wonderful. With “Brilliant Mind” by Furniture, “I Go Crazy” by Flesh For Lulu, and appearances by Pete Shelley and The Jesus And Mary Chain, there wasn’t a bad track on there.
The 1986 film Something Wild starring Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels has some great tracks including tunes by Fine Young Cannibals, UB40, Oingo Boingo, Jimmy Cliff, New Order and Sister Carol.
While very “of its time” the soundtrack from Empire Records was chock full of tunes from fantastic artists of the time including The Cranberries, Gin Blossoms, Edwyn Collins, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Better Than Ezra and Cracker.
My number one soundtrack, despite not having ever seen the movie, would have to be Stealing Beauty. I mean, just take a look at this loaded track listing!
1. 2 Wicky - Hooverphonic
2. Glory Box - Portishead
3. If 6 Was 9 - Axiom Funk
4. Annie Mae - John Lee Hooker
5. Rocket Boy - Liz Phair
6. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
7. My Baby Just Cares for Me - Nina Simone
8. I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday
9. Rhymes of An Hour - Mazzy Star
10. Alice - Cocteau Twins
11. You Won't Fall - Lori Carson
12. I Need Love - Sam Phillips
The Lost Boys opens with an airborne, point of view shot of the fictional coastal town of Santa Barbara at night, with the lights of the fairground and the roller-coaster away in the distance and the dark water below, as a choir of children's voices chant the chorus of Gerard McMann's 'Cry Little Sister'. The next shot is of the carousel, with the riders going around and around, and up and down on the wooden horses, while the vampires move freely through the herd like a pride of hungry lions. As openings to movies go, it's pretty damn great, as is the entire film – a true classic of the horror genre and very funny too in places.
The soundtrack is a strange beast, where the star power is semi-recognisable and out of step with what was in vogue at the times. The Doors' 'People Are Strange' is handed off to Echo and the Bunnymen who do a serviceable job with it. INXS turn up twice in their bar rock incarnation, with 'Good Times' channelling a 1950s roadhouse vibe. Lou Gramm from Foreigner shows up and it really shouldn't work but it does. Roger Daltrey of The Who steps into Elton John's shoes for a cover of 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me'.
However, it is the unknowns that provide the highlights: the aforementioned Gerard McMann working the same dark seam of high-production theatrical goth as the Sisters of Mercy did on Floodland. I initially mistook 'Beauty Has Her Way' by Mummy Calls for a Madness ballad, on the basis of the vocals which sound a bit like Suggs. 'I Still Believe' was performed on stage in the film by the muscle-bound Tim Cappello, where the saxophone is either soaring like a comet tail out of the chorus, or coiled in the darkness, vibrating menacingly like a rattlesnake.
I would love to know how this soundtrack came together because it has the feel of something that was meant to promote, and in some cases, kickstart the careers of certain artists, which it absolutely failed to do, though in the process it coalesced into a quirky and relatively succinct collection of cool songs that have stood the test of times.
Winged Migration – a documentary that follows the seasonal journeys undertaken by different species of birds – tells a white lie in order to convey a greater truth. The astonishing close-up footage of these flocks in mid-flight was achieved using birds that had been imprinted from birth to fly alongside an airborne camera crew. In a touching moment in the making-of documentary, a tired pelican moves in for a hug from one of its handlers. The soundtrack by Bruno Coulais is an avant-garde fabrication of ambient environmental sounds accompanied by breathless, wordless vocals and brittle musicianship that seeks to emulate the rhythms of nature. It also includes a pair of majestic songs by Robert Wyatt and Nick Cave that, in addition to being tremendously moving in context, stand among the highpoints of their respective careers. Wyatts's hymnal 'Masters of the Field' is a humble, quietly-awestruck commentary on the totality of birdlife. Nick Cave's 'To Be By Your Side' is underpinned by a plucked music box melody, and rides a slowly building swell of grandeur before it dies away and is replaced by the clamour of migrating geese.
The Blue Max, based on a novel by Jack D. Hunter, sees George Peppard (Hannibal from The A-Team) cast in the role of Leutnant Bruno Stachel – a WWI German fighter pilot from a poor background, who is desperate to prove his worth at any cost, and whose naked ambition and insecurity prove to be his undoing. Jerry Goldsmith builds the soundtrack around a recurring motif that plays out initially on airy strings and is subsequently re-sketched by a thin fanfare of trumpet as the biplanes appear over the battlefield – a symbol of hope. In the airborne dogfights that occur later in the film, the same piece of music is marshalled under the relentless mass beating of war drums while a full orchestra churns away in the background. It stands as an example of what can be achieved in terms of tone by what is essentially the same piece of music.
There seem to be a few variations of the soundtrack to the atmospheric psychological horror film, Angel Heart. My copy takes an interesting approach. The score - a labyrinthine, unwaking nightmare of echoing sax scuffed patches of strings, and chaotic free jazz dredged from the filthy back alleys of post-war New Orleans, is seasoned with dialogue from the film, creating a montage effect – a loose narrative that charts the progress of Mickey Rourke's private eye, Harry Angel, as he follows the trail of the missing crooner, Johnny Favorite.
My final choice is a bit of a cheat. Mack Avenue Skullgame is a soundtrack to a fictional film – a grimy patter of heavy Detroit funk from the band, Big Chief, who lay down the bones of a grim tale of a pimp and a hooker named Sonica, played by Thornetta Davis. The highpoint – 'No Free Love on the Streets' has one of the greatest openings I think I have heard to any song: Guitar like tumbleweed blowing through overgrown vacant lots; a bellowed count-in from somewhere way off in the background – “five, six, seven, eight” and then this incredibly deep, rumbling bassline that gets the song moving. What follows can never live up to it, though the emotional maelstrom of the chorus and the wailing guitar fade-out are still pretty great.
I'm with you on The Big Chill! Also big in the 80s: Beverly Hills Cop & Footloose soundtracks.
70s, of course, should also include Saturday Night Fever and Grease.
I'm a bit stumped on recent soundtracks!