Most suprisingly good use of music in film

i.e. one that really sticks in the mind is "Brown Girl in the Ring" in Touching The Void - just comes out of nowhere, but it's perfect. One of the best I've seen / heard.

Then when "Paint It, Black" comes on at the very end it is fucking great too.

God are you right. That guy who sings Mad World just makes it so boring and forgettable.

absolutely. my favorite use of a song in film. i get goose bumps just thinking about that scene.

"An Ending (Ascent") in Traffic

"Inna Gadda da Vida" by Iron Butterfly for the climax of Manhunter

"The End" by the Doors opening Apocalypse Now.

"Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus opening The Hunger (with them depicted playing it, no less).

"Peaches" by the Stranglers opening Sexy Beast. PERFECTION!

When the family is driving to the summerhouse in their SUV jamming to some ZORN GRIND.

BOO-YA!

Wha??

"The End" in Apocalypse Now
Rear Window
The Big Sleep
Night of the Hunter
The TAMI Show
the James Bond theme in The Spy Who Loved Me (when his parachute opens)
Ragtime
The Wizard of Oz
"Fight the Power" in Do the Right Thing
The 400 Blows
"I'm All Right" in Caddyshack
"Stayin' Alive" in Saturday Night Fever
the Iggy Pop instrumental opener in Repo Man
"Grease is the Word" in Grease
the Plugz in "Repo Man"
The Godfather
The Harder They Come
"Wise Up" in Magnolia
Meet Me in St. Louis
"Crooklyn" in Crooklyn
"Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers" in Clockers
Singin' In the Rain
"Mystery Train" (short films at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
Purple Rain
"Somebody's Baby" in Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Star Wars
Jaws
the reggae during the sex scene in Something Wild
"Layla" in Goodfellas
"Surfin' Bird" in Full Metal Jacket
"Miss Misery" in Good Will Hunting
Superfly
"Bohemian Rhapsody" in Wayne's World
"Buffalo Gals" in It's a Wonderful Life
"Man of Constant Sorrow" in O Brother Where Art Thou?
"In Dreams" in Blue Velvet
"I Put a Spell on You" in Stranger Than Paradise
Rumblefish
"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" in In the Name of the Father
Missing
all of Do the Right Thing
Reservoir Dogs
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
"That Thing You Do!" in That Thing You Do!
Anatomy of a Murder
"In Your Eyes" in Say Anything
cockney version of "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" in The Snapper
Mo' Better Blues
"Hip Hug-Her" in Barfly
Stop Making Sense
"Baby It's You" in Baby It's You
X: The Unheard Music
Wagner in Apocalypse Now
Help!
A Hard Day's Night
the theme from Rocky
Annie Hall
"Rainbow Connection" in The Muppet Movie
Dirty Harry
"Cissy Strut" in Jackie Brown
Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
"Ode to Joy" in Die Hard
"Let it Snow" in Die Hard
The Thin Blue Line
"Blue Velvet" in Blue Velvet
"Brazil" in Brazil
The Last Temptation of Christ
"Bad Moon Rising" in An American Werewolf in London
Heat
Pulp Fiction
Run Lola Run
"Hair" in Hair
North By Northwest
Walkabout
Ocean's 11
"Me And You Vs The World" in Shooting Fish
"9 to 5" in 9 to 5
"Hello Vietnam" in Full Metal Jacket
Girl Fight
"I Love to Laugh" in Mary Poppins
"The Galaxy Song" in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
"Calling You" Bagdad Cafe
"As Time Goes By" in Casablanca
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" in Breaking the Waves
the Schoolly D song in Bad Lieutenant (taken out of video)
"Rock Around the Clock" in Blackboard Jungle
"Whip It" in Casino
"Kick out the Jams" (short film at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
"Runaway" in American Graffiti
Festival
"Take the Skinheads Bowling" in Bowling for Columbine
"What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding" in Lost in Translation
"Oh My God" in Kids
"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" in Kill Bill Vol. 1
"Be My Baby" in Mean Streets

'i used to LIFE those guys!'

The use of RAMMS+EIN's "Mein herz brennt" in Lilya 4-Ever is devastating. (And Anthony Lane used the fact as a framing device in his NYer revoew.)

Sisters of Mercy's "Vision Thing" in Showgirls is pretty fab too.

Yes! That was such a great scene.

the music in the original donnie darko (minus "mad world" which suxx enough to be aimee mann) is great, but the director's cut really really really really screwed it up. NOT looking forward to that guy's next film.
-- j blount

Oh man, I've been waiting to get the director's cut because I heard it was better. That sucks. I guess I'll just get the normal version then.

xposts x999

Oh God OTM. I opened this thread with the sole intention of typing this. For me, "surprisingly good" use of music occurs when you don't even particularly love the song.

I mentioned this on the other thread, but Rushmore really has some magical moments, especially Cat Stevens' Here Comes My Baby and A Quick One While He's Away.

What about the surprisingly good use of bad music?

Top prize must go to American Psycho, especially the horrifying Sussidio scene.

But the bit in Boogie Nights where the coked up porn stars pump their fists to You've Got The Touch (originally from Transformers:The Movie) is totally classic too.

Yes!

I didn't know that was "Signifying Rapper!" (Wasn't a fan at the time.)

i love "together" and am quite interested now based on these posts.

p.s. this thread is really hitting the spot. everything that popped into my head has been said. way to go guys. recognize!

OTM. I think that film rules this thread. Townes Van Zandt's incredible version of Dead Flowers is a beautiful choice for the closing scene. And how could we forget the Jesus Quintana's introduction, accompanied by the Gypsy King's version of Hotel California? Totally fuckin' classic.
The soundtrack CD is fantastic, with loads of stuff that's only used briefly in the movie. Meredith Monk's remarkable Walking Song (from the vaginal art scene), Moondog and Autobahn's Wie Glauben in full!

What's the Dylan song in The Big Lebowski?

Boyz in the Hood's use of the Five Stairsteps' "Ooh Child" when Ice Cube's childhood character character is getting arrested made me want to cry when I saw it.

And "Jump Into the Fire" and "What is Life" and "Sunshine of Your Love" and "Monkey" and "Mannish Boy" and ....

I also liked in Casino the way Scorsese used "Satisfaction" by Devo. The way the gangsters shot out the windows to the rhythm of those Baby-baby-baby-baby-baby-baby-baby lyrics.

First person to mention "Sister Christian" in Boogie Nights gets a sharp poke in the eye with the Marky Mark prosthetic cock.

"Best", however, is easy easy easy - the Flying Picketts' "Only You" in Fallen Angels. If that song wasn't one of the best things I've ever heard before, sweet motherless Christ, attaching it to that is just a direct expressway to my skull. Best ending to a movie ever.

(And the Yaz version of "Only You" seems to be following me around as well, since it's used to magnificent effect in both the Office Christmas special and the tremendous Can't Hardly Wait. I said it.)

I actually have Goodfellas on Laserdisc (yes, my family was the one). The scene that opens with Layla is actually the first thing on the second disc, so you actually have to pause to get up and switch the discs before settling back down into the movie. At this point, I actually prefer to watch the movie that way - it's like coming back from intermission and just getting thrown RIGHT back in the thick of things in the best way possible.

Also, I didn't know that was "Jump Into the Fire" until maybe two months ago. And I fucking LOVE Nilsson Schmilsson.

My stupid DVD has the "flip" between the Tommy/Spider scene and Karen banging on the apartment intercom. Kind of a dumb place to put it, but the last line from Pesci on Side 1 ("Whose bet was it?" or something like that) before the screen goes black is pretty funny.

(This movie seemed to have one of those licensing problems where songs where changed from the theatrical release to the home version, so the frantic song accompanying the first spin in the Ratmobile changed from "Shout" to "Surfing Bird" and "A Lover's Concerto" was changed to I don't know what, IIRC.

"Like A Prayer" by Madonna in Gummo

any deathmetal songs used in Gummo

no i really do love the entire soundtrack to Crooklyn - overall its my #1 pick.
california dreamin in wong kar wai's chungking express is really cute, but faye wong just rules anyway.
phorpa also has a really charming score.

"Can we still be friends" by Todd Rundgren in Vanilla Sky, in the scene where David smothers Sophia

2001:Space Odyssey, from start to finish.

"Alone Again Or" in Bottle Rocket as Luke Wilson is falling for Inez the maid is beautiful.

Matt Dillon, btw.

I'm also a big fan of Cheap Trick's "Surrender" as used in Over The Edge, a cheesy late 70's teen drama movie about a bunch of kids raising hell in some subdivision. For some reason that film was on HBO a lot one summer when I was a kid and I thought it was great and terrible. And it made me love Cheap Trick.

the scores for Way of the Gun, Owning Mahowney, Run Lola Run, original Donnie Darko, and Solaris are great. I'm also very partial to old 70s movies, like Dirty Harry, Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3, and the French Connection.

Garden State

and

Life Aquatic (wes anderson was previously the contemporary filmmaker with THE best soundtracks)

I remember cringing at how that Shins track was used when whatshisname first takes the motorcycle out. It seemed out of place and just kind of tossed in for the hell of it (and it fades out after like 8 seconds, no?).

Heh. While I kinda enjoy his version, it's nice to note that through AMG, the guy who sings that was once one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or at least performed as one.

(And I always thought Good Morning Vietnam did a decent job with the music. Decent job with Forrest Whitaker too).

"Don't Think Twice (It's All Right)" in Dogfight
"Dedicated To The One I Love" at the end of Morvern Callar
"As Tears Go By" in Made In The USA (the Godard film)
"Palisades Park" in Confessions of A Dangerous Mind
that Aznavour song during the cafe scene in A Woman Is A Woman
All the Tammy Wynette stuff in Five Easy Pieces
All the Chantal Goya stuff in masculin feminin

Which is actually the opening music from the Ironside tv show. Thanks Quincy Jones!

Yes, Jennifer 8.

i don't know that song by name; which scene was it used in? all the music was pretty great in that movie though.

velvets - "venus in furs" in last days
detuned piano in the three burials of melquiades estrada

here's another one: "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (the Dylan orginal, obviously), soundtracking the very magisterial death of Slim Pickens in Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid...

Also, "Everybody's Talking" during the opening scenes of Midnight Cowboy works amazingly well too

i'm more intrigued by instances in which songs i dislike are used so well that i don't dislike them in the context of the film. like devo's "satisfaction" in casino, and the whole playing-records-over-the-phone scene in the virgin suicides.

the use of "nuba one" by jimmy lyons/andrew cyrille in ghost dog: the way of the samurai wasn't inspired so much as shocking just for the choice of music.

1. Dueling "Fly Me To The Moon"s in DOWN WITH LOVE. Astrud Gilberto Versus Frank Sinatra - utter adoration versus complete narcissism!

2. Gassenhauer (Carl Orff) used in both BADLANDS and RATCATCHER
BADLANDS - Innocence creating havok over the American Landscape!
RATCATCHER - choreographing a wee mouse's fictional voyage to the moon.

I sorta have the opposite reaction to the phone scene in Virgin Suicides, BTW...love Todd Rundgren, thought the scene was a bit precious...

Stones - Wild Horses: works particularly well because the dusty, exhausted tone of the song perfectly compliments the mood of the scene, and because it's played so low in the mix.

Turtles - So Happy Together: perfect end-credits number. Also allowed me to finally disassociate this song from Ernest Goes To Camp.

found out it was full of some of the best music, and music moments, on film.

The movie opens with the Potter family moving into the building, and it's established that the dad, Harry Potter Sr. (a happy-go-lucky, former frat-guy, baby boomer type, played by Michael Moriarty) has many boxes of records to lug in from the car. In a key scene, he puts an LP on the turntable and cranks up the volume: it's Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues." He starts jumping around the living room and thrashing on an air guitar -- his eyes are closed, his face is scrunched up, and he's scream-mouthing along in dorky rock 'n' roll passion. At one point, his wife comes in to make him turn it down, but then walks away smiling at his goofy antics. When the song's finally over, he stops the turntable with a big grin and a satisfied shake of his head.

Not only did this remind me a lot of, uh, myself at home, but I think it's the only time I've seen this behavior in a movie, and for no apparent "reason" (his character is barely established otherwise) other than perhaps someone involved was also a dorky, jump-around record fiend, and they were able to pay for this one song and wanted to put it to great use.

I agree Wes Anderson's got a good ear.

I also really liked Bjork's Dancer in the Dark, both the film and the music.

That choreographed dance to "Kool Thing" in Hartley's Simple Men was pretty neat.

I love Hartley, but I don't remember that part. I'll have to rent it again sometime.

This must be one of the best. I never even noticed at the time!

I also like the use of music in Breaking the Waves -- some real '70s gems get used in the chapter title shots. Perfectly clever and oddly moving in a movie as real and unhip as it gets.

A few months ago--coinciding with the end of Mad Men--a friend and I started a page where we write about pop music in movies.

https://heardjustwhatiseen.wordpress.com/

We post...intermittently.

The recurring use of Windham Hill pianist Scott Cossu's "Shepherd's Song" in The Chocolate War (Keith Gordon, 1988) is stunning. The entire soundtrack, which features Kate Bush, Yazoo, Peter Gabriel and Joan Armatrading is remarkable

Floyd's "Us & Them" backing slo-mo pool skateboarding in Dogtown & Z-Boys ~ magical moment in that great film.

During the scene in Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus where the guys (all tripping balls) go swimming, you would think this slow motion sequence would be soundtracked by some electronica or a psychedelic masterpiece, but it's...the vocal version of Mancini's "(Theme from) Two for The Road"...AND IT WORKS. Easily the most inspired cue I've heard in a recent film.

Speaking of Gaby Hoffmann vehicles featuring copious recreational drug use, I know it's tv, but hearing "Glimpses" by The Yardbirds on "Transparent", when a very high Hoffmann tries to seduce her trainer and his roommate into a threesome, was fantastically inspired as well.

The "Sympathy for the Devil" suicide in Coming Home

The opening of Richard Stanley's HARDWARE (1990) brilliantly employs Public Image Ltd.'s "Order of Death" to introduce us to a dystopian world.

Love how Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime" accentuates a scene of two teen girls frolicking in New York in Allan Moyle's TIMES SQUARE (1980). His films PUMP UP THE VOLUME and EMPIRE RECORDS also have remarkable soundtracks.

I love the moment where General Public's "Tenderness" appears in Weird Science.

― cnwb (cnwb), Thursday, February 2, 2006 10:29 PM (9 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It blew my mind when I finally saw that film at a 35mm repertory screening and discovered that the
big party scene features Killing Joke's "Eighties"! It had never been on any DVD or VHS edition.

Try not to smile while listing to this song producer David Hentschel recorded for
EDUCATING RITA (1983). It's used to nice effect in a pub scene

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kIpO74dOccg

The operatic strains of Ortolani's "Oh My Love" over the revenge scene in Drive.

Also, the use of John Cooper Clarke's "Evidently Chickentown" to evoke menace during a key scene in a latter season episode of The Sopranos.

the strip club scenes in Outland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpop8_DZ5iw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBjbFtvQJ0U

that's a movie I haven't seen in a long time, it seemed quite ace in my childhood.

THE GUEST!!

That reminds me, "Everybody Knows" during the strip club scenes in Exotica.

i recall liking the use of elliott smith's cover of 'thirteen' in thumbsucker

The Cream version of "Crossroads" playing through during the car argument->accident->aftermath in Die My Love.