This seems like a pretty standard top 5 list, but I haven't taken a stab at it on the blog, so I thought I would give it a try. It combines a couple of passions of mine, watching movies and listening to music. The right music used at the right moment in a movie can make a poor movie memorable and a mediocre movie great. I tried to pick soundtracks that had songs that became iconic moments because that's what truly makes a soundtrack special. Also, I stayed away from movie musicals, it didn't seem fair since the songs were written specifically to create moments, plus top 5 movie musicals could be a whole other list. So, here are my Top 5 Favorite Movie Soundtracks...
5) Dirty Dancing
Yes, you read that right, I love the Dirty Dancing soundtrack (and yes, it took me a while to write that sentence because it's so damn embarrassing). Or to be more accurate, I loved the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. I haven't listened to it in years but when I was 12 I wore my tape out. It's a great mix of old classics (Be My Baby, Stay, In The Still Of The Night) and new hits written specifically for the movie (Hungry Eyes, She's Like The Wind). This soundtrack had two iconic song moments. The first was Jen Grey and Patrick Swayze lip-syncing to "Love Is Strange" as they crawl across the dance studio floor. The second being the huge closing number when Swayze pulls off the lift of Grey during "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life." As embarrassing as it may to be to admit, this soundtrack holds up to most soundtracks out there.
4) Saturday Night Fever
This goes pretty much without explanation. I was going to keep it off the list because I'm not really a fan of the music, but I'm not sure there are more iconic movie song moments then in this movie, so I split the difference and put it near the middle of my list. The Bee Gees pretty much defined a moment in American history with this soundtrack. The opening of the movie, John Travolta walking down the street carrying a bucket of paint to "Staying Alive," is easily one of the coolest scenes in movie history (another top 5 list?). The other iconic moment is usually forgotten wrong. When most people dance to "Staying Alive" they recreate the famous Travolta dance move of pointing to the sky and thrusting out one's hip, but that famous dance was done to "Night Fever" in the movie. The lining dancing scene done to "Night Fever" is probably one of the most spoofed scenes of all time. There is no doubt that this is one of the best and important soundtracks ever made.
3) Singles
This is the only movie that I can't pick out an iconic music moment for. The movie itself was extremely forgettable, but it did help capture a musical scene that defined a generation. Singles was set right in the middle of the Seattle grunge explosion and while it wasn't about the music or the bands that made up the scene, the music and the bands set the tone of the movie and helped make the movie as much about setting as it was the characters. The soundtrack was a who's who of Seattle grunge, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, with many tracks that you could only get on this album. It was one of the first soundtracks that used the idea of putting new tracks by current artists on the cd to help sell it. Cameron Crowe has always used great music in his movies, but this soundtrack went beyond creating great movie moments and helped define a music genre.
2) Swingers
This soundtrack had both iconic movie music moments and helped create a national music movement. Swingers took a local Los Angeles retro music scene and made it a national craze as all of a sudden swing music became all the rage once again. It introduced us to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and opened the door for other swing bands like Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Squirrel Nut Zippers to be national relevant music acts. Swingers was all about the illusion of cool and nothing helped set that tone more then the amazingly cool songs listed on the soundtrack, "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You", "King Of The Road", "Groove Me", "Pick Up The Pieces", "Knock Me A Kiss." The two moments I would list as iconic would be using "Pick Up The Pieces" in a slow-mo group walk scene and John Favreau and Heather Graham swing dancing to "Go Daddy-O." The "Pick Up The Pieces" scene was a take (or rip off) on a classic scene from my number one soundtrack that made fun of a more iconic moment and yet made it it's own. The swing scene was the breaking point of the movie as we finally see Favreau's character break threw his issues, yet perfectly encapsulated the new-swing movement at the same time.
1) Reservoir Dogs
I know some people would list Pulp Fiction as both Quentin Tarantino's best movie and his best soundtrack, but for my money nothing will ever beat Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction just built off everything Reservoir Dogs had already established. This soundtrack was filled with iconic moments and was one of the first soundtracks to include dialogue from the movie. Nothing could have been greater to 16 year-old me then having the Madonna speech on a cd for me to que up at any moment. No current movie maker is better at using music in his movies then Tarantino. He knows exactly the right song to use to lift any given scene in his movies and this soundtrack is the perfect example. The opening credit scene, the slow-mo group walk scene that Swingers stole with "Little Green Bag" playing over it is hands down the coolest scene in movie history. It just oozes cool out of every pore. The use of "Stuck In The Middle With You" during the cop torture scene seemed to add to the horror of the moment. I've never been able to listen to that song since without thinking of Michael Madsen talking into a severed ear. "Hooked On A Feeling", "I Gotcha", "Magic Carpet Ride", and "Coconut" are all great 70's songs that perfectly set the tone of the film. For me, this is the soundtrack that all others should be compared to. It set the standard for everything a soundtrack should be.
Honorable Mentions: Clerks, Dazed and Confused, Forrest Gump, Last Action Hero
No comments:
Post a Comment