Saturday, September 15, 2007

40 best songs from film soundtracks

Thursday's post on Listphile has got me itching to create a new list and with over three months to go until my end of year film and music rounds-ups I thought I'd tide myself over with a list of the 40 best songs from movie soundtracks. Obviously wholly subjective so don't go complaining that there's no Celine Dion or Bryan Adams...

The rules:
- No themes (hence no Star Wars, E.T, Raiders, Bond etc.)
- No musicals (although I've given The Blues Brothers a special dispensation)
- Nothing from before the Summer of Love
- Nothing from an irredeemably bad film

  1. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (The Edukators, 2004)
  2. Stand By Me - Ben E. King (Stand By Me, 1986)
  3. You Never Can Tell - Chuck Berry (Pulp Fiction, 1994)
  4. Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel (The Graduate, 1967)
  5. Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield (Pulp Fiction, 1994)
  6. Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys (The Big Chill, 1983)
  7. Things Have Changed - Bob Dylan (Wonder Boys, 2000)
  8. A Life Less Ordinary - Ash (A Life Less Ordinary, 1997)
  9. It Ain't Me Babe - Joaquin Phoenix & Resse Witherspoon (Walk The Line, 2005)
  10. Stuck In The Middle With You - Stealers Wheel (Reservoir Dogs, 1992)
  11. Sinnerman - Nina Simone - (The Thomas Crown Affair, 1999)
  12. Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In) - Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (The Big Lebowski, 1998)
  13. Dry The Rain - The Beta Band (High Fidelity, 2000)
  14. Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes (Grosse Pointe Blank, 1997)
  15. Where Is My Mind? - Pixies (Fight Club, 1999)
  16. Layla - Derek And The Dominos (Goodfellas, 1990)
  17. Tiny Dancer - Elton John (Almost Famous, 2000)
  18. Wise Up - Aimee Mann (Magnolia, 1999)
  19. Come What May - Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge!, 2001)
  20. You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones (The Big Chill, 1983)
  21. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You - Andy Williams (Bridget Jones's Diary, 2001)
  22. Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison (Born of the Fourth of July, 1989)
  23. Feeling Good - Nina Simone (The Assassin, 1993)
  24. The Power of Love - Huey Lewis & The News (Back to the Future, 1985)
  25. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow - The Soggy Bottom Boys (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000)
  26. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love - The Blues Brothers (The Blues Brothers, 1980)
  27. Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon - Urge Overkill (Pulp Fiction, 1994)
  28. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head - B.J. Thomas (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969)
  29. Everything In Its Right Place - Radiohead (Vanilla Sky, 2001)
  30. Playground Love - Air (The Virgin Suicides, 1999)
  31. Talk Show Host - Radiohead (Romeo + Juliet, 1996)
  32. Porcelain - Moby (The Beach, 2000)
  33. Born Slippy - Underworld (Trainspotting, 1996)
  34. Perfect Day - Lou Reed (Trainspotting, 1996)
  35. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen (Wayne's World, 1992)
  36. Mad World - Gary Jules and Michael Andrews (Donnie Darko, 2001)
  37. Lose Yourself - Eminem (8 Mile, 2002)
  38. I Want You To Want Me - Letters To Cleo (10 Things I Hate About You, 1999)
  39. Eye of the Tiger - Survivor (Rocky III, 1982)
  40. Live and Let Die - Wings (Live and Let Die, 1973)
Update: Added to Amazon UnSpun (thanks for the suggestion, Fraser)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nicely done - Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah is definitely my favourite of all of the various renditions.

It would be cool to import this into Amazon's Unspun service and see what happens. http://unspun.amazon.com/

Dan Taylor said...

Thanks for the tip, Fraser. Have done just that here

MKs said...

Very nice list. Lot of right stuff, but there are some tracks that I would definitely put on that list.
But still it's your favourites, not mine. ^_^

VIVIK said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
VIVIK said...

Your list is great, However I suggest the Verve's Bitter Sweet Shymphony, (Cruel Intentions). Also check Shindler's list, Blue velvet and City of Angel's soundtracks, they are amazing!!
Just in case you want to add more songs!!
peace