10 Best Uses of Song in Movies

[dave]

I love the use of songs in movies and these are my top 10

1. Stuck in the Middle with You - Stealers Wheel - Reservoir Dogs - sort of overrated movie by Tarantino but the Michael Madsen torture scene of the LA Cop with this song on in the background is downright creepy and now I only think of this scene when I heart the song. This movie also used Blue Suede's Hooked on a Feeling nicely as they are about to peform the jewelry heist.


2. Backstabbers - O'Jays (Looking for Mr Goodbar) - one of my all time favorite movies. Diane Keaton possibly the best actress ever, this movie is haunting and the use of this song while the church girl gone bad sits at a bar with the book of the Godfather as she meets the horrible Richard Gere character is uncanny. Diana Ross's Love Hangover is done well in this one too.


3. Your's is No Disgrace - Yes - (Buffalo 66) - I found this Vincent Gallo movie to be a solid indy surprise, the big setup for the scene whereby his character confronts the placekicker that cost him to lose his bet and take a jeal sentence. The Yes song is playing with wild camera angles and the possibility that Gallo shoots the strip cub owner.


4. Just What I needed - The Cars (Boys Don't Cry) - actually shot during the introduction of this movie and done in such a way to set up the chaos of this amazing movie. I also love the karaoke version of Restless Heart's Bluest Eyes in Texas in this movie.


5. MOrning After - Maureen McGovern - (Poseidon Adventure) - makes you weepy at the conclusion of this finely produced disaster picture.


6. What the World Needs Now - Jacke Del Shannon - Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice - the infamous last song in this progressive movie with Natalie Wood, Robert Culp, Elliot Gould and Dyan Cannon all ending up in bed together for the inevitable swinging scene. Irony as this lovely song is playing.


7. Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice (Closer) - rather lousy film but this song was in the introduction of the movie showing Natalie Portman walking the streets of London and made you think this MIke Nichols movie would be deeper than it was.


8. Innocent Child - Big Audio Dynamite (Amongst Friends) - indie Long Island movie directed by Rob Weiss, whose dad went to jail for running a scam Atlantic City tour bus business to raise money to make this movie about Jewish suburbanites who identify with their crooked grandfathers more than their successful fathers. This song is used well in showing how far these group of guys decline while youth is around them. MIra Sorvino breaks out in this movie. Bettie Serveert's Kids Alright is used well in here to show the roguish ways of the downward mobile lads.

9. This Woman's Work - Kate Bush (She's Having a Baby) - underrated movie by John Hughes with Kevin Bacon, this movie saw Alec Baldwin breakout as a sleazy friend, but the use of this song at the end of the movie is just tearful

10. Get Down Tonight - KC and the Sunshine Band (Sid and Nancy) - great song at the end of this movie where Sid Vicious played by Gary Oldman sees a young black kid and dances with him to this song showing the sign of the times and where disco was coming on board and of course the last days of Sid's life

[Kathy ~]

LIKE THIS.. NEED SOME THOUGHT...

BUT I LIKE THE "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE" ONE......... THE MORNING AFTER.. IS THE SIGNATURE OF THAT MOVIE...

GOOD ONES DAVE

OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, "CAN'T YOU HEAR ME KNOCKIN.. IN GOODFELLAS AS RAY IS SCRAMLED AND READY TO BE TAKEN OUT .. AND I BELIEVE IN "BLOW".. UNSURE OF SCENE..

[dave]

Goodfellas used so many songs to perfection. That whole montage of Layla, Monkey Man, Can't Your Hear me Knocking d**n.....

The use of the girl groups in the earlier segements of that movie were great.


Blow is underrated, Ray Liotta was a putz in that movie LOL.

[robertaxel]

My favorite is easily 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' with songs from Leonard Cohen on the soundtrack.. it almost seems as if the movie was written to illustrate the songs. From the beginning where McCabe rides into town with the 'Stranger Song' to show his isolation, to the prostitutes appearing to 'Sisters of Mercy' and the final scene where Mrs. Miller sits alone in an opium den to the strains of 'Winter Lady' an unforgettable and poetic experience!

Robert

[Kathy ~]

dave said:

Goodfellas used so many songs to perfection. That whole montage of Layla, Monkey Man, Can't Your Hear me Knocking d**n.....

The use of the girl groups in the earlier segements of that movie were great.


Blow is underrated, Ray Liotta was a putz in that movie LOL.

I THINK RAY DID GREAT FOR THE TYPE OF CHARACTER THEY WANTED.. NOT A "DENIRO".. I DON'T THINK HE WAS TO FIT IN.. THE CHARACTER THAT IS..

THE MUSIC MAKES A MOVIE AT TIMES FOR ME... WHEN THEY GO IN CHRONICALLOGICAL ORDER.. SUCH AS CASINO AND FORREST GUMP TO NAME TWO. ALMOST FAMOUS -NAILED THE 70'S.. I NEED TO LOOK UP THE "BLOW" SOUNDTRACK AS WELL...OH, & DAZED & CONFUSED .. ANOTHER FAV THAT LOCKED IN 70'S CLASSICS

. BLOW.. JD AT HIS BEST IMO.. PLAYED THE DEALER TO THE TEE.. THESE CHOCOLATE AND PIRATE MOVIES FROM HIM ARE GRINDING MY NERVES..

[dave]

Johnny Depp is very annoying in the Pirate movies, I have no tolerance for that crap.

Dazed and Confused used Lynyrd Skynyrd's Tuesday's Gone very nicely.

[erik]

For the moment, I will name one great instance of a song used to great effectiveness in a movie

"We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn--a song from the World War II era that was used by director Stanley Kubrick at the end of his classic 1964 political black comedy DR. STRANGE LOVE, where we see Doomsday nuclear devices being touched off by an unprovoked U.S. attack against the Soviets. It is used so sardonically as we see the human race come to an atomic end with all those mushroom clouds. A priceless way to end a priceless film, the first one that dared to attack the military/industrial mindset that has gripped America since the end of WW II.

[arjan]

I agree on Vera Lynn in Dr Strangelove.

Also The End by the Doors in Apocalyps Now, a great way to start (!) a movie, immediately setting the tone that there's no hope and no escape.

On another note, how about Bohemian Rhapsody in Wayne's World? And of course that scene plus music is spoofed too, in Loaded Weapon 1.

Have to think of more...

[dave]

I think Wayne's World killed Bohemian Rhapsody for most people, well I might agree that it was used well in the movie though, just that it came back to life and was overplayed.

Best use of a song in a Kubrick movie still has to be Singing in the Rain but it was sung by Malcolm McDowell not Gene Kelly in Clockwork Orange.

[erik]

Quote by Dave:

Best use of a song in a Kubrick movie still has to be Singing in the Rain but it was sung by Malcolm McDowell not Gene Kelly in Clockwork Orange.

And, we might add, the first time he sings it, he is in the process of beating an elderly writer (of subversive literature) senseless, and his droogs are giving the writer's wife "the old in-out, in-out." Very perverse--but also very typical of Kubrick's dark and sardonic worldview.

[dave]

Yeah that scene is quite bizarre, I actually saw that movie at 9 years old and probably disjointed my views of the world, but the use of Singing in the Rain added humor to the whole thing.

I have to believe that is where Tarantino got the idea for his ear slashing scene and the use of Stealer's Wheel.

[walt]

i mostly hate cutting songs into movies, unless they play the entire song. i'm always waiting for the splice edit, rather than listening to the music

also 9 times out of 10 it seems forced

that said, my faves are nillson's "jump into the fire" from goodfellows (in the middle of the coke raged helicopter chase), lesley gore's "i dont wanna be a loser" (in that hot summer suburban backyard scene) in "the pawnbroker," and john strumming the opening chord's for "if i fell" to a a cranky ringo in "a hard days' night.

i loved when nicolle kidman heard "dirty laundry" on the car radio, screamed "i love this song!" jumped out of the car and danced around in the night air in "to die for." saw that in the theater. imagine my disapointment when i bought it on vhs, and instead the song was changed to that leonard skynnard tepid overplayed hit, "sweet home alabama"

blech. entirely a different, blander mood. there was something psychotic and perfect about "dirty laundry" in that scene. (the eerie organ i think.)

they do this quite often. when i saw "a clockwork orange" in the theater there was a chrming little number called "i wanna marry a lighthouse keeper." if you buy or rent it today, that song is long gone.

[jhar26]

Wagner's "Ride Of The Valkyries" in that helicopter scene from "Apocalypse Now" is an obvious one.

In the Kurt Russell movie"Crimes Of Passion" there's a hilarious moment for those of us with a sick sense of humor. Fruitcake Anthony Perkins has tied up a Kathleen Turner who's in fear for her life when Perkins all off a sudden sits down at a piano in the room and begins to sing a very enthusiastic version of Judy Garland's "Forget your troubles, come on get happy! You better chase all your cares away! Shout hallelujah, come on get happy! Get ready for the judgement day!"

Gaston

[Kathy ~]

YOU'RE GOING TO HATE THIS ONE ( AS I WOULD LOVE TO REVIEW THE MUSIC IN ALL THE PLATOON'S ETC)

LOVE THE BUS SCENE IN "ALMOST FAMOUS" WHEN "TINY DANCER" COMES ON.. TOTALLY NOT THE SOUND OF THE MOVIE, YET BROUGHT THE NON ROCK SONG BACK AGAIN .. FOR ME. & A GOOD SCENE, BROUGHT THEM ALL TOGETHER SINGING A BALLAD !! ;D

[erik]

Quote by Amadeus Springstadt:

Wagner's "Ride Of The Valkyries" in that helicopter scene from "Apocalypse Now" is an obvious one.

Yes (and it makes one think of Robert Duvall's much-quoted line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" too). And at that, you can include classical music works used in movies. Probably the best example of this, at least for me, is the opening section of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" that were so cagily used by Kubrick in his 1968 sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

[dave]

Forgot the use of Dirty Laundry in To Die for. make me think also of the Albert Molina scene in Boogie Nights while he dances in his underwear to both Jessie's Girl (Rick Springfield) and Sister Christian (Night Ranger).

Magic Man in Swingers was used effectively to show the chaos in the trailer when Favreau and vince pick up the Vegas girls.

I Believe by Stevie Wonder closes High Fidelity out nicely

Tiny Dancer was used nicely in that bizarre 70's movie Aloha Bobby and Rose with Paul Lemat

And there is that Cowsills song Happy that was used brilliantly in Dumb and Dumber of all movies

[robertaxel]

This is obvious, but I have to name the movie that in a sense, started it all.. American Graffiti..
the soundtrack became a character in the movie... legendary DJ Wolfman Jack's commentary was essential as well...

R

[walt]

also that movie is responsible for taking a non single beach boys track and making it very popular.

one of their very best too
"all summer long" playing at the end over the credits

[robertaxel]

All summer long was PERFECT for the ending.. cannot imagine a better fit

[erik]

On a somewhat more controversial note (said with tongue firmly in cheek), REM's "Shiny Happy People" is used with unconscious irony in a little montage in FAHRENHEIT 9/11 showing Bush Sr. and his junta consorting with the Saudis.

After all, as Michael Moore says: Who you gonna like? Who's your daddy?