Our Favorite Movie Soundtrack Albums
As the World Cup takes over my city this month, I find myself hunkering down here in the B&V labs. It’s not that I don’t like large crowds of people, but as they say in Barfly, “I just sort of feel better when they’re not around.”
Although admittedly, I’m hearing the folks from Scotland drank all the beer in Boston… that’s quite a feat. Trust me, I lived in Boston one summer. That actually sounds like something that might get me out on the streets, but alas, I’m too far away.
Whenever the Rock Chick and I are hidden in our bunker, it’s typically to binge watch some show she’s decided we’re watching. Every couple has a “keeper of the shows-to-watch list” and in my house it’s not me. Better yet we might watch a movie. Or even better (best) a concert video or rockumentary like the newish doc on the Chili Peppers (The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel).
Lately I’ve been watching Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical story of a young journalist. I think it’s a cool movie and it’s been on repeat on one of the movie channels of late. It may also have to do with my just finishing his book, Uncool. In my next life I want to be Cameron.
Watching that movie got me thinking about the use of music in movies. I’ve always thought the rise of MTV brought about a lot better music in films. It truly influenced how music is used on screen, especially in action sequences. Even the TV show Miami Vice used music extensively.
But that’s probably an unfair assessment. There were a lot of good movies with great soundtracks prior to MTV. This internal debate in my head got me thinking about soundtracks and how many great ones are out there. I posted a playlist once on original songs written specifically for a movie. I think that was during COVID when we couldn’t go to the movies.
I thought I might sit down and compile a list of my favorite soundtracks. I mean, we’re in a bit of a summer lull in terms of new music right now while we wait for new LPs from the Stones and Jack White. These are the soundtracks that I absolutely love but I also think they had some cultural significance.
This list is not meant to be exhaustive. I’m sure there are great soundtracks out there that I’m forgetting here, as I’m only listing 15… If there’s a great soundtrack that I’m forgetting, please drop it in the comments so I can check it out. Hell, I might even watch the movie just to hear the music.
And yes, I’m Cameron Crowe heavy here… but he’s kind of top of mind. Am I wrong to think he looks like Severus Snape? Well, on Wikipedia he does, but I digress. Here is my “tip of the iceberg” list.
- The Big Chill (1983) – This might be my favorite movie… other than maybe Highlander. This soundtrack introduced me, a newly minted high school graduate to a bunch of great stuff from the 60s that I’d never heard.
- Saturday Night Fever (1977) – I’m a “Death Before Disco” guy, I don’t dance, when I do paramedics show up and try to force wood between my teeth, but you can’t ignore one of the highest selling soundtracks of all time.
- Singles (1992) – Our first of several Cameron Crowe flicks… This soundtrack is like a Grunge primer.
- Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) – This movie and its soundtrack capture my high school/suburbs/mall growing up experience to a T. And Phoebe Cates certainly owns “Moving In Stereo.”
- Almost Famous (2000) – The Rock Chick owned this soundtrack when I met her. It turned her onto Zeppelin’s “Tangerine” so it had to be on here.
- Purple Rain (1984) – This feels like cheating. Prince saw the impact of 3-4 minute videos and blew that up into a movie. Greatest music of his career?
- A Hard Day’s Night and Help! (1964 and 1965) – These were more long form videos than actual movies. And as John Lennon said on Live At The Hollywood Bowl, “One is in color and one is black and white.” So much great Beatles’ music on these albums.
- Rushmore (1998) – Great Bill Murray film, great soundtrack. From the Kinks to John Lennon to my favs the Faces. It’s all offbeat stuff and I love it.
- High Fidelity (2000) – Great movie based on a great book about a guy who owns a used vinyl shop. How was I gonna skip this one? It made “Walking On Sunshine” listenable to me.
- Dazed And Confused (1993) – Another movie I felt like I grew up in. It spawned not one but two compilations of some of the greatest 70s rock n roll ever. Like the man says, “Alright, alright, alright.”
- The Harder They Come (1972) – This film introduced so many people to reggae and the legend Jimmy Cliff.
- The Crow (1994) – A dark soundtrack for a dark movie. I may be the only person who just loved this soundtrack, but sometimes the selections are only for me.
- Heavy Metal (1981 – An animated feature I saw at the midnight movies! It has not one but two theme songs, one by Sammy Hagar and one by Don Felder. Very groovy stuff.
- Highlander (1986) – Ok, this soundtrack that features only songs by Queen was a last minute add after I mentioned it above. This soundtrack got me interested in Queen again in the 80s, so there’s that. “There can be only one…”
These are our favorites down at B&V. I’m sure I’ve missed hundreds of other soundtracks that are simply awesome. Please drop your favorites in the comments section for all to share! I need some good movie ideas while I’m hiding out from the World Cup droves of people…
Cheers! (And I hope wherever you are your World Cup Team does well)!
Animal House!
YES!
‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ Tarantino adds snippets of dialogue to the soundtrack. Gotta love Cheech!!!
Oh damn, I gotta check that out!! Thank you!
Easy Ryder by Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, the film classic of the counterculture. 1 downside: they should have replaced ‘If You Want to Be a Bird’ with ‘Find the Cost of Freedom’ by CS&N, written specifically for the film by Stephen Stills at Hopper’s request but was not used in the film.
And Crossroads by director Walter Hill with music full of delta blues by Ry Cooder. Not all songs from this album by Cooder were included in the film, and Steve Vai’s guitar duel is not present on this soundtrack, but it is fantastic music.
This is a great one Guy! Thank you! Love the title track!
Great post. I think there is a to contribute to this list as many groups are using soundtracks as a way to breakthrough. A couple from me are The Breakfast Club, and the Wonder Boys. There was a series called the OC which introduced a lot of music. Not really a move (a series) but credited by several bands as a way they got noticed. Another series that is great for finding new talent was an obscure series called True Detective that only ran for 4 seasons but featured a soundtrack that (I believe) was curated by T Bone Burnett. Lots of good stuff there.
Excellent thoughts here. I did think about ‘The Breakfast Club,’ but for reasons unclear didn’t add it. I was also going to add ‘I Am Sam’ which features 90s acts covering the Beatles but had a brain cramp and forgot about it. I love the suggestion of ‘The Wonder Boys.’ Dylan’s “Things Have Changed” is on there (it’s first appearance) and that makes it a strong contender.
It’s funny you mention series soundtracks. When I was first mulling this over, I was bouncing ideas off the Rock Chick and she said the same thing, there are series that had great soundtracks that I should consider.
I’ve never heard of the ‘OC’ but completely agree with you on ‘True Detective.’ Great music on that one. I didn’t think they’d ever match season 1 with Matthew McCauneghy (sp?) and Woody Harrelson but that last one with Jodie Foster was top notch.
The first series that popped into my mind – and I’m a little embarrassed by it – was ‘Miami Vice’ from the 80s. They were one of the first shows to really use the soundtrack as an asset. I think even Glenn Frey and Phil Collins had cameos on the show.
Thank you sir!! Great thoughts! Cheers!
I have always been a lukewarm fan of soundtracks. Most of them are soundscapes meant to support the film and are merely musical fragments. Others, however, are by artists like The Beatles, Prince, or Elvis Presley and are more interesting. However, other soundtracks are usually of existing recordings by various artists, so one can actually speak of compilation albums.
But I mean that in a positive way, because films can serve as an introduction to new listeners who discover artists that way.
Not that I didn’t already knew Jackson Browne back then, but when I was watching Taxi Driver in the cinema and suddenly the song Late for the Sky was playing in full lenght while almost nothing was happening on screen, it left me speechless. It was a magical moment. A great movie and a hell of a song.
Indeed Guy, that Jackson Browne song is a great one. I haven’t seen ‘Taxi Driver’ in a long time and I guess I’d forgotten it was used in that film.
I tend to agree with your remarks in general on soundtracks. It’s hard to find one that hangs together well – if it’s not by the aforementioned Prince, Beatles or Elvis – and I’ve rarely purchased soundtracks. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even think of the King, Elvis, when I was putting my list together.
But, when you find a soundtrack like ‘The Big Chill’ or some of the others we’ve mentioned that does hang together well, it certainly helps tell the story.
Cheers!
I am still undecided whether the song Late for Sky was meant to serve the film, or vice versa. I do know that Martin Scorsese is a great music lover, so I assume it was for both.
I know for a lot of the late 70s the Band’s Robbie Robertson was his musical expert that helped on some of those soundtracks…. most notably ‘The King of Comedy.’
I knew there was a soundtrack by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from the film ‘She’s the One’, but I never paid any attention to it. Until now. I looked it up and it turns out to be a fantastic piece of music full of classics and a number of covers by Lucinda Williams, among others. Some songs also ended up on ‘Wildflowers’ and were later re-released under the title ‘Angel Dream’ with some outtakes.
In any case, I am going to look for the CD.
Yes! I almost included that one. I actually enjoyed that Ed Burns movie. A lot of those songs were “leftovers” from the ‘Wildflowers’ sessions. I reviewed it when they put out the “reimagined” version under the title ‘Angel Dream.’ I think it’s well worth looking into.
I see there haven’t been any comments about the movie Dazed and Confused…so I’ll chime in here… When I first saw it, 100 years ago, I recall wondering how they got all those songs into one movie. It’s like an anthology of the year 1976. It’s about a bunch of seniors in high-school, and what happens on graduation day… Not so much my graduation day… spent drinking Coors and smoking hash with my friends. Anyway It’s worth a watch!
Also, I believe you have a mix tape for that year as well… A great year in music before R&R turned kinda into dance music.
It sounds like your graduation day was better than mine! It really is a great encapsulation of that year. Great movie, greater soundtrack. And yes, we have our 1976 playlist out on Spotify under ‘BourbonAndVinyl.net Rock Songs of 1976’ and it’s similar.
Disco and punk were right around the corner. Watching that movie felt like I was watching guys from my local high school, who were slightly older than me, party and have a good time. I wasn’t even in jr high at the time but my buddy had an older brother…I’m sworn to secrecy regarding their miscreant behavior beyond that.
Cheers my friend!
Agreed, better soundtrack than movie!
I’m not saying music turned bad…but yeah, disco dominated after that movie… top 40 songs in 1977-79 were a friggen dance-off!
Very true… however, I’ve been peeking ahead to 1977 for my January 2027 “50 year lookback” and I have to say there’s some good stuff! I’m most excited about the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’!
Whoops, I hit send too soon. Yes totally agreed about the preponderance of disco and dance music. Even the rock bands we loved were slipping disco-esque songs onto their albums. Certainly Rod, the Stones and Queen. Sigh.
Great Post, Ken. You have some great ones on your list. A few of those would have made my list too, especially Heavy Metal, Fast Times, The Big Chill, Dazed and Confused, and Almost Famous.
Here are a few others that came to mind for me:
Vision Quest – Great soundtrack. I own it and still play it. Hard to argue with a soundtrack that includes Journey, Foreigner, Sammy Hagar, Dio, and John Waite.
Blues Brothers – World class musicians all over the place. Maybe not quite as strong as Briefcase Full of Blues, but still a great listen in its own right.
American Graffiti – A fantastic collection of 50s and early 60s music. My dad loved both the movie and the soundtrack.
Good Morning, Vietnam – Another great soundtrack packed with classic 60s songs.
FM – Great soundtrack and a great movie. It was WKRP before WKRP.
Roadie – Decent soundtrack, not-so-great movie. But it did star Meat Loaf, so it has that going for it.
Urban Cowboy – Joe Walsh and Bob Seger alone are worth the price of admission.
Valley Girl – I’m going to call a little revisionist history on this one. The original U.S. soundtrack wasn’t very good. The UK version was much better, and Rhino finally gave us the definitive soundtrack in 1994.
I’m leaving The Last American Virgin off my list. The movie had a lot of great songs, but most of the best ones never made it onto the soundtrack.
For TV soundtracks, my pick is That ’70s Show.
For documentaries, it’s hard to top The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Outstanding music throughout.
And finally, you could make a case that these are soundtrack albums too since they all had accompanying films, but that’s probably a debate for another day:
Pink Floyd – The Wall
Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same
U2 – Rattle and Hum
The Beatles – Let It Be
Now you’ve got me wanting to pull a few of these off the shelf. That’s probably going to cost me the rest of the evening.
Dr Rock, it’s always wonderful to hear from you and to get your thoughts on these things,
I actually thought of ‘FM,’ ‘The Blues Brothers,’ and ‘Urban Cowboy’ but feared my list was getting too long so I omitted them. Actually I think I just spaced off ‘FM.’ I loved the Blues Brothers and that soundtrack – Aretha, Ray Charles, and James Brown – wow! ‘Urban Cowboy’ is another great one – Seger’s “Nine Tonight” and Joe Walsh’s “All Night Long,” oh yes.
The rest didn’t even occur to me and they’re all great selections. I can’t believe I didn’t think of ‘American Graffitti’ or ‘Good Morning Vietnam’!! I love those movies.
I never watched ‘That 70s Show’ but I can imagine a great soundtrack there! And yes, I’m happy to discuss those last 4, but perhaps as you say, best saved for a later day.
Cheers, my friend!
If we can talk about soundtracks of series, Tour of Duty naturally cannot be left out. It features a compilation of the best music of the ’60s spread across four albums. The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Small Faces, Them, The Band, The Animals etc.etc. 72 Classics. Cheerio.
I don’t think I’ve seen this show, ‘Tour Of Duty’ but based on the soundtrack I’m going to have to check it out! Thank you Guy!