As anyone who knows me can attest, I have two main passions in life (after my rubber ducky collection): film and pop music. Those rare times when both come together, like chocolate and peanut butter, to enhance one another and make something that transcends the power and beauty of either piece alone. These are some of my personal favorites. Some are well-known and fairly obvious (but usually, the well-known ones are popular for a reason), and some are less so, but they’re the ones I love.
(Note: I set some ground rules for what made it on the list, specifically by excluded any songs from musicals, or songs written specifically for the film they appear in. They needed to have existed on their own previously, but come together to form something new. Of course, it’s my list, so sometimes I bent the rules a bit. So there.)
Warning: Some spoilers ahead.
Almost Famous / Elton John, “Tiny Dancer”
Whenever I hear this song, I immediately flash to the Friends episode where Phoebe insists that this is the best love song ever, the one that Elton John wrote for the guy on Taxi. She proceeds to demonstrate: “Hold me close, young Tony Danza.” Alas, the actual song is not in the episode, and Friends is not a movie. But when everything seems like it’s falling apart, when your rock band is on an endless tour and your guitarist disappeared last night to get drunk and stoned at a high school house party, Elton John comes along to remind you that “You ARE home.” Or was that Kate Hudson? Either way, this is hands down director Cameron Crowe’s best film (sorry, Jerry Maguire), and the man may have some faults as a film maker, but his use of pop songs is almost always flawless.
An American Werewolf in London / Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Bad Moon Rising”
David Naughton, on a backpacking trip through Britain with his buddy, is attacked by a werewolf. The day leading up to the next full moon, he paces the apartment of the friendly neighborhood nurse, wondering if his now-decomposing, possibly-hallucinated-travel mate’s predictions that he is destined to become a blood-thirsty man-eating creature, will come true. What plays on an unending loop in your head as you await your transformation into an unholy beast? Creedence, of course.
The Big Lebowski / Kenny Rogers & the First Edition “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”
Possibly the greatest drug hallucination ever put to film, from the brilliant/wacky/insane minds of the Coen Brothers. This song was unknown to me prior to my discovery of this now cult-classic movie, but it’s made me appreciate that Kenny Rogers’ cultural contributions go beyond the Gambler film series. Who knew?
The Departed / Dropkick Murphys, “Shipping Up to Boston”
While I have my issues with The Departed’s ending, the first 2/3 or so of the film is almost flawless, and no moment drives the propulsive energy home more than the title sequence montage over this song. Just as the film reinvigorates the gangster flick, this song combines old world essence with new world spice, creating the most kick-ass sea chantey ever.
Fight Club / The Pixies, “Where is My Mind”
This song, about the joys of going crazy, plays just after Edward Norton becomes “Jack’s Gaping Head Wound”. He holds his girlfriend’s hand and watches America’s credit debt become “Jack’s Smoking Pile of Rubble,” and the song’s inappropriately cheerful and chipper tune, with its fragile melody and scattered “ooh”s, sprinkled throughout like so many pieces of shattered glass, lets you know that everything’s going to be okay. It is quite possibly the oddest happy ending ever.
Half Nelson / Rosey Grier, “It’s Alright to Cry”
I grew up learning to freely express my feelings and to be fully in touch with my emotions. If I’m angry, let it out. If I’m sad, I should feel free to cry. I remember watching, and listening to, the TV special/record Free To Be, You and Me, a collection of stories and songs breaking down gender roles and empowering children to take ownership of their emotions. Drug-addicted history teacher, Dan Dunne (in a tour-de-force performance by Ryan Gosling) (Can I just say I’ve always wanted to say “tour-de-force,” and now have been given the opportunity?) has been raised by liberal, open minded(ish) parents, and obviously has the same nostalgic memories of that album that I do. It’s ironic, then, that this stand out song sets the soundtrack to the most emotionally stilted and repressed dinner scene I’ve ever seen.
Inglourious Basterds / David Bowie, “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)”
There’s a much longer post about the genius of Quentin Tarantino’s pastiche/masterpiece Inglourious Basterds somewhere in the future, but for now, let’s simply marvel at this hypnotic scene. The overhead tracking shot, the sharp, brutal and alluring shades of red, the imagery of make-up as war paint, and the anachronistic song (Bowie’s version was released in ’82, two generations after the events of the film are supposed to take place) are all as out of place as this almost fairy-tale retelling of World War II, and it’s the freshest the over-explored piece of history has felt on film in years.
Joyeux Noël / Traditional, “Stille Nacht (Silent Night) & Adeste Fideles (O, Come All Ye Faithful)”
I’ve extolled this movie’s virtues elsewhere, and I know that these songs can in no way be considered a pop song, but this exemplifies the perfect marriage of music and motion picture I can think of. The emotions are big and sloppy and grandiose, but they have to be to drown out all of the bombs and screaming and dying of the most senseless war of the modern era. These men, lying in cold mud waiting to butcher one another discover that they have much more that binds them together than the petty politics that separate them.
Miller’s Crossing / Frank Patterson, “Danny Boy”
Again, not exactly a “pop” song (and, like the last film, discussed here), but the soothing, dulcet tones of this Irish standard juxtapose perfectly with this immaculately choreographed and edited shoot-out. Daddy Warbucks was forced to pop some caps in some gentlemen. Caspar should have taken his flunky and dangled.
Once Upon a Time in the West / Arcade Fire, “My Body is a Cage”
OK, so I cheated again. Another anachronistic song, except this time the song didn’t even exist when the movie was released. Hell, no members of the Arcade Fire were even born in 1968. Still, their song, with only a couple of slight edits made to the scene, adds a whole different level of pathos and tension to the movies final shootout. Not to diminish Morricone’s perfect score for the movie, but I think that if Sergio Leone had lived to hear Arcade Fire and seen this fan-made clip, he would have had that fan murdered and gone back and inserted the song into Once Upon a Time in the West for a Director’s Ultimate Edition, ala George Lucas. Maybe.
Reservoir Dogs / Stealers Wheel, “Stuck in the Middle With You”
It’s a great song, but whenever I hear it, my ear hurts. And I smell gasoline. And all I see is Michael Madsen dancing with a razor blade in his hand. Forget Jack Bauer, I’d sell out my own mother to get away from that nut job. Granted, I never really liked my mother…
The Royal Tenenbaums / Every Damn Song
Often, for me, it’s hard to pick specific favorites, especially with music, but screw it: This movie is pop song heaven, easily the greatest mix tape ever assembled for a film. From Elliot Smith’s somber soundtrack to a suicide to the slow motion Van Morrison requiem for the flawed patriarch, this movie gives way too many choices to pick from, which is why I can’t narrow it down and picked all of them, and am posting my two favorite.
The first comes when Luke Wilson’s Richie sees his adopted sister (and forbidden love) Margot for the first time in years, and she, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, literally floats across the pavement towards him. In that moment, the taboo becomes completely acceptable – you love Margot as much as he does. (Supposedly, Jackson Browne was so entranced by the scene that he forgot that he’d written the song for a moment.)
(Skip to 1:20 in the video. Also, NSFW.)
The second is when all of Margot’s secrets and past indiscretions are exposed, and the jarring effect of the punk rock song, along with its exuberance, perfectly match Margot’s whirlwind escapades, clash with the bored and despondent mask she wears throughout the montage, and echo the slap in the face felt by her husband and brother, both of whom love her deeply. It’s a testament to Wes Anderson’s genius that these well placed pop songs do the job of pages upon pages of dialogue.
Say Anything / Peter Gabriel, “In Your Eyes”
How come when John Cusack does it, it’s romantic, but when I do it, it’s harassment? This is probably the pop song/movie moment most ingrained in our cultural psyche – you hear the song, you see the image of Cusack and the boom box. You see the image, and you hear the song. If that’s not a marriage made in stalker-heaven, I don’t know what is.
Shaun of the Dead / Queen, “Don’t Stop Me Now”
This is officially the new soundtrack to the upcoming Zombie Holocaust. Make sure it’s on a jukebox near you. Makes disposing of the undead both easier and much more danceable.
The Squid & the Whale / Pink Floyd, “Hey You”
The Squid & the Whale is a bitterly funny and heartrendingly tragic story of two boys completely screwed up by their divorced parents, played expertly by Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels (in what is probably a career-high performance. At least, after Speed.) In the film, this song is actually performed by the eldest brother, played by Jesse Eisenberg. In a tragicomic turn, he claims to have written the song himself, and even performs it at his school’s talent show. I can painfully and embarrassingly relate to this, because when I was of a similar age, and just as naive and vulnerable, I would claim another well-written song as my own: I partially rewrote the lyrics to a great Weakerthans song to fit the circumstances of my first real heartbreak. (At least I wasn’t stupid enough to rip off one of the most famous rock bands of all time.) This character and I did it for the same reasons, too: desperately in search of the love and attention and validation from those that we loved by were distant and unavailable. It’s no accident that the song he plays is one of reaching out and looking for some form of human contact and comfort in a cold and unforgiving world.
Summer of Sam / The Who, “Baba O’Reilly”
I’m still not clear on the connection between Adrien Brody’s punk-rocker being a die-hard Who fan, but I’ll cut them some slack because of this little gem of a scene. The montage that drives us to the at the end of this film draws the picture, but the song colors it in. New York City in the summer of 1977, when it was clear that the promises made the decade before had all been broken, was just that: a teenage wasteland.
Wayne’s World / Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Party time? Excellent.
Where the Wild Things Are (Trailer) / Arcade Fire, “Wake up”
Another cheat! Sorry, but this is possibly the most perfect trailer ever, and the song intertwines with the scenes playing out before us as almost a visual tone poem about the alternating melancholy and exuberance of childhood. I loved the movie, but this 2 minute trailer does everything the film did in 2 hours, and maybe better.
Young Frankenstein / Irving Berlin, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”
Rumor has it that Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks had a huge fight over this scene, with Brooks convinced that it would bomb. Thankfully for all of us, Wilder won out, and we all get to watch the funniest piece of absurdist comedy put to film since the Marx Brothers.
Zodiac / Donovan, “Hurdy Gurdy Man”
A movie I’d previously forgotten about and now regret not putting onto this list, this may be the best serial killer movie of the past ten years. Donovan’s haunting lullabye (which eventually becomes more of a dirge) plays in the background, as two youngsters become the first of several victims of the mass murderer who called himself Zodiac. The investigation entangles and obsesses three men so deeply that the case haunts them long after all the clues have run dry. Considering the topic, there is surprisingly little violence in the movie, but when it happens it is so abrupt and matter-of-fact that it shocks you to your core. I can’t recommend it enough.
So these are some of my favorites, with a cheat here and there. I know some were pretty obvious, but I didn’t want the list to be overpopulated with obscure movies with obscure songs. What are some of your personal favorites?
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Evan Mather lives just outside of Chicago and is a full-time student with hopes to eventually earn his Masters in Library Science. He spends his limited free time with his wife and cats, subjecting them to his cinematic, musical, literary and culinary interests. Sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes it is not.
The Dropkick Murphys song was such a great pick. It knocked me on my ass when I saw it. Timing the title card with when the vocals kick in was so perfect. I’m curious about what you disliked in the last 1/3 of the film.
It’s funny you should ask, because my dad and I would debate this constantly. At family parties, if there was ever a lull in the conversation, someone would just loudly ask, “So, Evan, what did you think of the end of The Departed?” So my argument and reasoning here is very well rehearsed.
I wasn’t a huge fan of what came after the scene in the elevator. I think that the original ending written for Infernal Affairs is a bit more morally ambiguous. I’m not sure Damon had to “pay” – I think him living with what he’d done would have been more interesting. I also didn’t quite buy Wahlberg’s character doing what he did.
And that last shot? I think the Simpsons put it best, when Ralph said “The rat symbolizes obviousness!”
The ending wasn’t terrible, but a definite let down from the amazing crime thriller that had preceded it, in my opinion.
What do you mean, you never really liked your mother!!!????!!!
Aw, crap.
Just kidding, Mom! Love you!
You forgot to mention your love of list making.
I consider my obsessive-compulsive relationship with making lists to be self-evident.
My favorite movie/music matchup of all time: “Wise Up” by Aimee Mann in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia.” It’s in my Top 10 film list, and it uses Aimee Mann’s music all throughout it, but this scene is perfect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC96_vph-oI&feature=player_embedded#at=11