The Music/Movie Connection
The use of music is as important a part of the movie making process as just about anything else—just ask Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino how important music is to their films. As for us fans, the perfect use of a song in a particular scene can forever connect them together in our minds. Which is exactly the case with these tracks.
"Old Time Rock And Roll": Risky Business
If you tell us you haven't put on "Old Time Rock And Roll" and slid across your floor in your underwear....we don't believe you.
The Geffen Company, Risky Business (1983)
"Don't You (Forget About Me)": The Breakfast Club
Come on. Punch your fist into the air with us. You know you wanna.
Universal, The Breakfast Club (1985)
"Bohemian Rhapsody": Wayne’s World
When we hear "Bohemian Rhapsody," there really isn't any movie scene that comes to mind....NOT!
Paramount, Wayne's World (1992)
"Tiny Dancer": Almost Famous
When it comes to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer," of course we're talking about the tour bus scene. We hear the song, we think of the scene and, to paraphrase Penny Lane, we are home.
Columbia Pictures, Almost Famous (2000)
"Afternoon Delight": Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
Given the subject matter of the song, we should probably be thinking about other things when Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" comes on. However, the first thing that pops into our heads (and we assume most of yours as well) is Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner belting this one out acapella in Anchorman.
DreamWorks, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
"Unchained Melody": Ghost
Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers. Who knew pottery could be so darn sexy?
"Oh Yeah": Ferris Bueller's Day Off
We are, of course, talking about that song that plays as Ferris sees Cameron's father's 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider for the first time. It's a song so associated with the film that many of us thought it was written for the soundtrack. But "Oh Yeah" by Yello was actually recorded the year prior.
Paramount, Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
"Canned Heat": Napoleon Dynamite
We won't say we've practiced Napoleon Dynamite's big solo dance number, but....we've practiced Napoleon Dynamite's big solo dance number.
Paramount, Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
"Bittersweet Symphony": Cruel Intentions
Sarah Michelle Gellar's Kathryn has ruled the roost and been the puppet master throughout the film, but at the end of Cruel Intentions, she gets her comeuppance while "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve fills our ears.
Columbia, Cruel Intentions (1999)
"Kiss Me": She’s All That
Glasses off and hair done, nerdy girl Laney Boggs is revealed as a beautiful girl—walking down the stairs to "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer.
Miramax, She's All That (1999)
"The End": Apocalypse Now
It probably isn't ironic (unless maybe in an Alanis Morissette kinda way) but the truth is we always think of the beginning of Apocalypse Now whenever we hear "The End" by The Doors.
American Zoetrope, Apocalypse Now (1979)
"Hip To Be Square": American Psycho
The Huey Lewis song doesn't just bring to mind the bloody events at the end of the scene, but also the lead up in which Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman gives us an essay-like monologue about the song and the album.
Lionsgate, American Psycho (2000)
"Mr. Blue Sky": Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
Maybe if it had been chosen as the theme song for The Office it might be that series that always comes to mind when we hear the catchy ELO song. Or maybe if the series that used it instead, LAX, had been any good and lasted more than one season, that would be where our minds went. But alas, no. For us, as for so many others, we hear "Mr. Blue Sky" and Groot starts dancing in our heads as he did in the opening scene of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2.
Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
"All Star": Shrek
"All Star" by Smash Mouth hits just as the door to the outhouse flings open and we get our first look at Shrek.
"Where Is My Mind": Fight Club
Having just rid himself of Tyler Durden, Edward Norton's The Narrator holds Marla's hand and they watch the city explode in front of them while the awesome Pixies track "Where Is My Mind" rocks over it all. "You met me at a very strange time in my life," he tells her.
Fox 2000 Pictures, Fight Club (1999)
"Sister Christian": Boogie Nights
Dirk, Reed, and their friend Todd Parker attempt to scam local dealer Rahad Jackson with baking soda in this tension-filled scene that builds slowly—just like Night Ranger's "Sister Christian".
New Line Cinema, Boogie Nights (1997)
"Can't Take My Eyes Off You": 10 Things I Hate About You
In classic rom-com fashion, Patrick wins Kat over by singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" to her from the bleachers—with accompaniment from the high school marching band.
Touchstone, 10 Things I Hate About You
"Layla": GoodFellas
Few directors use music as well in their movies as does Martin Scorsese, and the Layla scene in Goodfellas is just one example. Robert De Niro's Jimmy is tying up loose ends and the song plays as a montage of bodies is revealed.
Warner Bros., GoodFellas (1990)
"Fight The Power": Do The Right Thing
The tension-filled confrontation at the pizza shop between Sal and Radio Raheem is only made more powerful and more memorable by the use of Public Enemy's "Fight The Power".
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Do the Right Thing (1989)
"Stuck In The Middle With You": Reservoir Dogs
Not only can we not help but think of the cutting-off-the-ear scene, but whenever "Stuck in the Middle With You" comes on, we usually have to do that Michael Madsen strut as well. But speaking of iconic struts...
LIVE Entertainment, Reservoir Dogs (1992)
"Stayin' Alive": Saturday Night Fever
There is no strut more famous in the history of cinema than John Travolta's confident walk down the New York sidewalk in the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever. And what song is playing while he does it? "Stayin' Alive" of course.
Paramount, Saturday Night Fever (1977)
"You Never Can Tell": Pulp Fiction
Again, we visit a Tarantino film. This time it's Pulp Fiction and the Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace dance contest scene at Jack Rabbit Slim's.
"(I've Had) The Time of My Life": Dirty Dancing
Just talking about this one has us itching to lift someone over our heads.
Vestron Pictures, Dirty Dancing (1987)
"Tequila": Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Now, to be fair, we've never found ourselves in a biker bar with a biker gang threatening our lives because we knocked over their motorcycles. But if we ever do, you know exactly how we are going to win them over right? Do the dance to "Tequila" by The Champs, of course.
Warner Bros., Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
"Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)": Beetlejuice
From one Tim Burton-directed film to another. And from a biker bar dance to a ghost-controlled dance around the dinner table.
Geffen Film Company, BeetleJuice (1988)
"I Got You Babe": Groundhog Day
Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" doesn't just bring to mind one scene from Groundhog Day, but rather every scene in which Bill Murray wakes up to the song playing on the clock radio next to his bed for another same-as-yesterday day.
Columbia, Groundhog Day (1993)
"The Times They Are A-Changin'": Watchmen
While most of Zack Snyder's 2009 film Watchman is forgettable, the opening credits with its use of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'" are one of the greatest credit sequences of all time.
"You Make My Dreams": 500 Days Of Summer
Okay, so maybe hardcore Toronto Maple Leafs fans will associate this song with their team—as it was the Leafs' goal song for five seasons from 2018-2023. But for the rest of us, this joyous Hall & Oates track will forever bring to mind Joseph Gordon-Levitt's spontaneous flashmob of happiness in 500 Days of Summer.
Searchlight Pictures, 500 Days of Summer (2009)
"Lust For Life": Trainspotting
Can you hear Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" and not picture the opening chaotic chase through the streets of Edinburgh and Ewan McGregor's "choose life" monologue? We sure can't.
"You Can't Always Get What You Want": The Big Chill
The funeral procession for Alex Marshall that opens the classic 1983 film The Big Chill is memorable in film history for its use of The Rolling Stones' song "You Can't Always Get What You Want"—and for the fact that Marshall was played by a young Kevin Costner, but his scenes in the movie were all cut.
Columbia, The Big Chill (1983)
"My Sharona": Reality Bites
If you are ever in a Food Mart-esque establishment and "My Sharona" by The Knack starts playing, are you the jump-around-and-sing-Winona Ryder/Janeane Garofalo type, or the too-cool-for-school, embarrassed by the jumping and singing Ethan Hawke type?
Universal, Reality Bites (1994)
"Also Sprach Zarathustra": 2001: A Space Odyssey
The Richard Strauss piece was composed in 1896, but nothing that happened over the next 72 years was more impactful on the music's popularity or its complete burrowing into our pop culture minds than its use by Stanley Kubrick in the opening prehistoric segment of his masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.
MGM, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
"Goodbye Horses": The Silence Of The Lambs
The song that plays as Buffalo Bill pretties himself is now, for many of us, forever associated with the creepy scene.
Orion Pictures, The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
"These Days": The Royal Tenenbaums
Gwyneth Paltrow gets off the bus and for a moment everything goes quiet. Then she begins to walk in slow-motion as "These Days" by Nico plays—forever connecting the scene and the song in so many of our minds.
Touchstone, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
"In Your Eyes": Say Anything
The iconic boombox over the head scene in Say Anything was originally scored with the song "Question of Life" by Fishbone. It was only after seeing a cut of the scene with that song that Cameron Crowe decided it didn't work and went looking for another track. Speaking about the use of his song in the film, Peter Gabriel has said that he and John Cusak are "sort of trapped together in a minuscule moment of contemporary culture". To that we say...it certainly isn't minuscule to us.
