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 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.