FM soundtrack poll (1978)

Boz

Boz Vs Boston

I have the Arrow BluRay of this, and can confirm the movie is kinda thin and lame. The best parts are the artist cameos (Tom Petty!) and concert bits (some filmed at the Summit in Houston btw). It's perhaps fitting that those parts (including a plot line about running a pirate simulcast of a Linda Ronstadt show) come off like a decent episode of the superior WKRP In Cincinnati.

There's even a special feature with Glenn Kenny where he goes over the soundtrack, he kicks off by acknowledging that yes, this was the music of his youth, he himself quickly grew out of it once Punk came along in '77-8.

lots of good stuff but I gotta go with Boston

S.Dan theme song

he himself quickly grew out of it once Punk came along in '77-8

Glenn Kenny very much not OTM. I like plenty of first-wave punk, but I would nonetheless take "Lido Shuffle" over almost any of it.

FWIW, Glenn Kenny didn't leave all this behind. He's active online and it's very clear he still very much loves and listens to much of this music, particularly Steely Dan and even the Doobie Brothers. (I have no love for the Doobies aside from one single. I do love Steely Dan.) But punk and new wave did supplant them as the music that means the most to him. I didn't grow up with any of this but I'm in the same boat in terms of taste. That's not to be uncharitable to the music here, some I intensely dislike but I actually love most of it.

And I'm going with Dan by default - they didn't just license a song, they made a new one, a GOOD one, for the movie.

Steely Dan would have been my second choice here, yes.

same!

Steely Dan is my choice, FM is just a sterling example of an artist at the top of their game churning out a masterpiece for a soundtrack, and I don’t even think it’s in the top half of their released tracks from the ‘72-‘80 run.

But there are a lot of contenders here

Linda Ronstandt has fun with her Stones cover!

feels wrong to vote for anything but the title track tbh, tho i prob like “do it again” more

The live performances:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPoAY8B-gG8

It's funny that Jimmy Buffett appears on screen in two different obscure '70s movies performing "Livingston Saturday Night" (the other being Rancho Deluxe).

feels wrong to vote for anything but the title track tbh, tho i prob like “do it again” more

― harper valley paul thomas anderson (voodoo chili), Saturday, March 14, 2026 2:30 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

^pretty much my feelings. otoh, "no static at all" always gives me straight shivers.

i can't think of any other dan songs with string sections like in "fm".

I'll vote for "Life's Been Good"--so funny--but my two favourite Ronco (known as "yacht rock" by the rest of the world) songs from that moment are both missing: "Magnet and Steel" and "Kiss You All Over."

I've never seen the movie.

"FM" is a total throwaway in the best song: Becker and Fagen played all their home instruments for one of the last times. That '90s comp I bought on Columbia House led with it, what an introduction.

*in the best sense

any other dan songs with string sections

"Through With Buzz"

"FM" is the first Steely Dan song I remember hearing on the radio (WHYI, "Y-100" out of Miami). Spring of '78 when I was nine. At the same time the station was playing "Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk and there was something about the unexpected sonic fidelity of those two records that has always linked them in my mind.

holy fuck -- Y100 in 1978 played Kraftwerk?!

You better believe it. Y-100 considered itself - and was - the leading disco station in South Florida and that Kraftwerk song was a disco hit at the time.

Tom Petty cameo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dQfFq4vUGM

Voted Billy Joel cos someone had to

Is the title track the only one recorded specifically for the film?

I've never heard the soundtrack nor seen the film, but always assumed the soundtrack was built around Steely Dan songs including the title track that got some airplay. Had no idea that (and a common previously-issued track) was the only Dan song on the double album.

If you put Lido Shuffle in a list I’m gonna vote for it*. Sorry.

* unless it’s up against Lowdown

good looking soundtrack. Milwaukee was huge classic rock town growing up. One of these I think:

"Night Moves"
"Fly Like an Eagle"
"Do It Again"
"Lido Shuffle"
"More Than a Feeling"
Linda Ronstadt

I decided on "Fly Like an Eagle".

Is the title track the only one recorded specifically for the film?

I imagine the Ronstadt live tracks were new, since she appears in concert in the film. Otherwise, only the Randy Meisner song hadn't been previously released, but it was on his first solo album which came out two months after the soundtrack.

"FM (No Static at All)" because it’s an original for this film.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

nine of these 19 songs finished in the top 500 on our classic rock poll, in this order:

more than a feeling #4
night moves #16
lido shuffle #34
breakdown #78
fly like an eagle #86
life's been good #110
do it again #239
life in the fast lane #260
we will rock you #392

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQArYV5mUL8

voting for the so funny, as noted by clemenza, but also majestic, and static-free for a full eight minutes, "life's been good"

wow thanks for that video, BIP!

all i care about anymore is listing the reprehensible ones

night moves #16
breakdown #78
fly like an eagle

As an example of how different UK and US radio and charts used(?) to be, I'd never heard any of these songs until today.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.