I’m all about the soundtrack. I’ve often wished my daily life had one. Maybe I can get some ideas for it from this week’s Ten on Tuesday topic, “10 Favorite Movie Songs.”
For the purposes of this assignment, I’m sticking with songs that were written specifically for, or were heard for the first time in, a particular movie. A lot of recent movies have made use of existing music for their soundtracks, which is fine (although some have done a better job with it than others), and in some cases certain songs have become so associated with particular movie scenes that we tend to forget we once knew them elsewhere. But I’ve chosen to interpret the prompt more narrowly and leave those songs out. I’m also not counting songs from movies that were originally Broadway musicals, unless they were new for the film version (which means I have to leave out “The Cell Block Tango” from Chicago, unfortunately).
I think I make these things much harder than they need to be. But having set those conditions, I thought I’d start by consulting the Wikipedia page of nominees and winners of the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It wasn’t terribly helpful – turns out that some pretty awful, or at least forgettable, songs have been up for this prize, although I did have a few “oh yeah, that was in that movie, wasn’t it?” moments while reading it.
I ended up with an oddball list, which should be no surprise, and there are a few extras at the end. As usual, in no particular order:
“A Hard Day’s Night,” A Hard Day’s Night (The Beatles)
“Theme from Shaft” (Isaac Hayes) (this is one of my husband’s favorite songs of all time, so I expect you’ll see it on his list too)
“Out Here On My Own,” Fame (Irene Cara)
“Nine to Five,” Nine to Five (Dolly Parton) (because Dolly is awesome)
“Once Upon a Time/Storybook Love,” The Princess Bride (Mark Knopfler) (my processional music at my wedding to Tall Paul)
“Things Have Changed,” Wonder Boys (Bob Dylan)
“The Galaxy Song,” Monty Python’s Meaning of Life
“Come What May,” Moulin Rouge (Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman)
“If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” Harold and Maude (Cat Stevens)
“Something to Talk About,” About a Boy (Badly Drawn Boy)
Guilty-pleasure division:
Two songs from Footloose: “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” (Deniece Williams) (I used to sing this to my son when he was a baby – the movie came out the summer he was born); “Almost Paradise” (Ann Wilson and Mike Reno)
Guilty-pleasure division, fake band category:
“Fever Dog,” Stillwater, Almost Famous
“Big Bottom,” Spinal Tap, This is Spinal Tap
What are your favorite movie songs? I’ve embarrassed myself, so now it’s your turn!
And while we’re playing musical topics – here, have a Blogthings quiz!
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Your Taste in Music: |
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Adult Alternative: High Influence Alternative Rock: Medium Influence Nineties: Medium Influence Classic Rock: Low Influence |
This “quiz” is just a pretty random list of musical artists – you check off all the ones you like, and I guess they’re weighted somehow. If the list had included the Beatles, the “classic rock” influence might have been a little higher, but overall I think the assessment is probably about right.
I have Come What May also. Great song!
Embarrassing, but I used to sing The Commodores Three Times a Lady to my baby boy, (waaaay back in the late 70’s) Of course, I changed the lyric from “once, twice, three times a lady” to “three times my baby….” sheesh……
i didn’t think about “Out Here on My Own” – that’s a great song!
btw i’ve got a lot of guilty-pleasure songs on my list (including one of yours) and could have done most of the whole list from Footloose. 🙂
i’ve got to go listen to The Princess Bride – it’s an all-time favorite movie of mine, but i’m drawing a blank on the music.
Spinal Tap doesn’t need to be a guilty pleasure. Those were great songs. Almost Paradise on the other hand… 🙂
I remember seeing Nine to Five with my aunt. That was a good movie, the song was good too.
Kimber – There are some other good song interpretations in that movie, but since I was trying to stick with film originals, that’s the one that made the list – it is a great song, though.
Bookfool – I think many of have sung silly songs to our babies. I won’t talk about the silly songs I sing to my dog, though :-).
Alisonwonderland – The Princess Bride music is from the end credits, before the vocal starts. (The lyrics are lame, but the instrumental is lovely.)
I think Footloose may be one reason that the whole concept of “guilty pleasure” exists :-).
Mike – Nine to Five is being turned into a stage musical, with all new music written by Dolly Parton. It’s opening here in LA pre-Broadway, but I haven’t decided whether I want to see it or not.
I think Spinal Tap is less of a guilty pleasure for guys – but I agree with what you said in your post: it was hard to pick just one song.
Okay Florinda–I’m a musical fan, but given your rules, I’ll have to leave all those out. Sigh.
I love Mark Knopfler and I agree, the music from Princess Bride was great.
Two songs that immediately jump to mind are Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” from the movie Say Anything and “Cancion Del MariachiI (Morena de Mi Corazon” by Los Lobos and Antonio Banderas from Robert Rodriguez’s movie Desperado. Actually, I really like most of the Desperado soundtrack. I think I need to go listen to it now!
And speaking of Mark Knopfler–Dire Straits’s Six-Blade Knife is also on the Desperado soundtrack. And his score for the movie Local Hero is haunting and beautiful. Gee. Think I like Mark Knopfler??!
If I think of any others, I’ll post later.
Oh yeah, and Smashmouth’s “I’m a Believer” from Shrek and Pete Yorn’s “Ever Fallen in Love” from Shrek II. Actually, the Shrek soundtracks are, overall, pretty good.
Karen – My husband has the Local Hero score in out iTunes library; he’s a pretty big Mark Knopfler fan himself.
And those were just my rules for ME, Karen – you didn’t have to follow them! But if I hadn’t made that a condition, I would have probably had nothing BUT songs from musicals on my list :-).
OH yeah! The Harold and Maude song, I love that one.
Oh yes!! Love the previous commenter’s suggestion of “In Your Eyes” from Say Anything.
But no Top Gun references??? Gotta love “Take My Breath Away” or the theme song, or even “Danger Zone.”
This cracks me up because everything I think of is from 80’s movies . . . “Don’t You Forget About Me” from Breakfast Club — although I don’t know if that was made specifically for the movie.
Good topic!!
http://www.barefootinhighheels.wordpress.com
#4’s a fun song!
I played too 🙂
Teresa – My husband introduced me to that song – and the movie. Both are terrific.
Barefoot (Lori) – “In Your Eyes” is an existing song that was put into a movie later, so I couldn’t include it. It was originally on Peter Gabriel’s album So (1986), which is one of my all-time favorites.
And I think “Don’t You Forget About Me” (also the title of the book I’m reviewing this week) actually WAS introduced in The Breakfast Club…I’ve just overdosed on it :-).
Teena – Yeah, it is. I should program my alarm clock to play it every morning :-).
Hi! I LOVE Fever Dog.
i love the bob dylan song from wonderboys! and what a great book by michael chabon and what a great movie!
KTP – I love that MOVIE! I think it is criminally under-appreciated.
Amanaceer – I was pleasantly surprised by how that movie turned out, and that’s my favorite Chabon novel.
Florinda, I’ve been looking for someone to see the 9 to 5 musical w/ me. Email me!!
What a fun post! I like to think I have a daily soundtrack sometimes. 🙂 No Cell Block Tango? But that’s a good one!
You’ve got some great songs listed there, Florinda. I am a sucker for the St. Elmo’s Fire Soundtrack. I especially like Young And Innocent by Elefante and Love Theme From St. Elmo’s Fire (For Just A Moment) by David Foster.
My taste in music quiz:
Country: Highest Influence
Adult Alternative: Highest Influence
Eighties: Highest Influence
Nineties: Highest Influence
Pop: Highest Influence
If you can wait Florinda, I will let you know how the 9 to 5 stage show is. My husband and I are going the end of this month.
I did e-mail April, and she and I are going to meet up and see 9 to 5: The Musical on September 30. I’ll let y’all know how it is. Literary Feline and her hubby are going to see it the weekend before I do.
LF – “The Cell Block Tango” is one of my favorite songs from Chicago. I just made this more work for myself by limiting the list to songs that originally came from movies :-).
How did your score come out as “highest influence” in all 5 categories, I wonder?
I’m not sure how I ended up with such high scores in five categories. Maybe I picked too many choices. 🙂