best use of a pop song in film/tv?

The first thing that comes to mind is the usage of Iron Butterfly's "Inna Gadda Da Vida" in the last third of "Manhunter" (the pre-cursor to "The Silence of the Lambs") when cop confronts serial killer in the killer's lair. Well done, I've always thought. Secondly, I'd nominate "Stroll On" by the Yardbirds in Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up."

Ooooh! and I have a soft spot, too, for the cafe scene in 'Seven' when, out of nowhere, Haircut One Hundred's 'Love Plus One' wells up. Dantean numerological significance, or did Fincher simply have a soft spot for bands who tucked their jumpers into their trousers?

I'm sure I'll think of more, but most recently: the last scene in 'Traffic', when Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)" starts playing..angelic and haunting...

scorsese's career is littered with great uses of pop in film. two that come readily to mind are:
- "be my baby" opening mean streets
- the "layla" coda magnifying henry's pensiveness in goodfellas

The Elvis Sun Session of "Blue Moon" being the link through all the stories in Jarmusch's "Mystery Train"... Delicious.

Harry Nillson's "Jump Into the Fire" at the copter-evading, coke- snorting, babysitter-berating, pasta-cookin' climax of "Goodfellas" (sadly omitted from the official soundtrack album) is a nice choice.

The entirety of Goodfellas is a monument in the flawless use of music in film. There is nothing better than those 3 hours in regards to this question, despite Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino trying to all their worth to trump it. Tarantino has a good moment, actually; I love the way the surf music opening credits suddenly scratch over like the sound of a radio dial turning and morphs into Jungle Boogie. I think that's top.

Speaking of Henry Hill, did anyone else see him on EXTRA? WTF?!? Does he NOT understand the purpose of the witness protection program? I mean, he was ON EXTRA. Being interviewed. And talking about his website. WTF?!

"where is my mind" at the end of fight club . . . *prepares to be bashed*

no, i don't think he understands the notion of witness protection. he frequently calls into howard stern, and whenever he does, about 50 mafiosa flood the lines and howard of course puts them on with henry and they all talk about how he's a dead man. he was in a spirited one this morning where he gave the guy his ADDRESS and told him to come get him. strangely, though, the mafiosa didn't seem interested.

That Fight Club scene damn near ruined the Pixies for me. Shit I hate that movie

Oh yes indeed! Mystery Train/ Blue Moon. Also that Roy Orbison thing.

Joseph --> "Domino". It's great. What a voice. Anyway, a really cool Sundance film, "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole", also uses the Pixies' "WIMM" as final credits tune. It's much more appropriate, though. Check the film out if you can, it has the Cole fella bicycle racing through his school's halls to the sound of "Blank Generation". Really tops.

One summer when I was in high school, I was flipping through daytime tv. I heard this song on a soap opera that did not fit at all, but tickled me to no end. Young & The Restless (I think): "I got something to say, I killed your baby today, doesn't matter much to me as long as it's dead" Metallica's cover of a Misfits song. It was very strange, since Metallica hadn't even made their first video yet and definitely was not that famous. Also, what an odd choice for midday housewives. I wish I could remember the circumstances, but I couldn't figure out the relevance of it myself. Just a random song on some guy's radio. Maybe some woman's rebel son?

The Fight Club is the shittiest movie ever made. For reasons I can't begin to fathom, I feel like answering either "Born to Be Wild" or "I Wasn't Born to Follow" in Easy Rider simply because for the longest time those would've been my stock answer to this question.

How can Fight Club be the shittiest movie ever made when Dying Young exists? Anyhow, Fight Club is cool til about halfway through. Then it goes cobblers. That ENDING. Argh.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts doing "Bad Reputiation" to open Freaks and Geeks, and "On The Street" for That 70s Show. Cleveland Rocks for the Drew Carey Show. Worst Use in TV -- Ode To Joy used for the Suddenly Susan credits. My So Called Life has a nice relationship to pop -- Danes bopping round to Blister In The Sun, and the nasty cover her boyfriend's band did of "Add It Up". Josie and the Pussycats is utterly brilliant. Unsatisfied by the 'mats used in Airheads. The Layla coda in Godfather, obviously. Scorsese would be a section to himself, as would the Goodfellas film itself -- but especially "My Way" by Lydon to close the film. We Got The Beat by tha Go Gos opening Fast Times... is awesome.

Minnie Riperton's "Loving You" in Jam. On radio, it'd be the Alessi Brothers' "Oh Lori" in Blue Jam.

Ooh! Ooh! "Five O'Clock World" in Drew Carey.

Fight Club is ace and so is the ending with 'Where's my Mind' although Fincher stole it from an even better movie, Zabriskie Point which not only has the most beautiful ending (bar maybe The Good, The Bad & the Ugly) in cinematic history but also makes perfect use of 'Careful with that Axe, Eugene' by Pink Floyd. Yep, Antonioni knew his space rock.

Talking about The Pixies though, there's a nice introspective slo-mo moment in erm...Pump Up The Volume which makes perfect use of the acoustic version of 'Wave of Mutilation'.

I love it when Stevie's mouth opens and closes and nothing comes out.

What about Inna Gadda Da Vita in the Simpsons episode where Bart replaces the regular Church hymns with the song?

A close second Simpsons ref. would be when they go to see Troy McLure's musical vers. of Planet of the Apes and the sing 'Help Me Dr. Zaius' to 'Rock Me Amadeus.'

TV theme songs in themselves become Pop... Magnum P.I., Hawaii 5-0, The Rockford Files AND The Dukes of Hazard all come to mind. Sing the G.I. Joe theme. I bet you can. Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood...

There are all the COMMERCIALS!!! The Pink Moon VW spot could be one of the most beautiful I've ever seen (along with 1984). The singing Gap ads and so on. There was a spot for MTV done a year or so ago called 'Vertabre' where this frail emo-kid with painted nails walks down the hall of his high school with all the jocks getting up in his grill and the girls ignoring him while T. Rex's '20th Century Boy' plays LOUD in the back. Something sexual and dangerous and elusive about him and the ad and the song all at once.

"The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" Was I the only person to read this as The Adventures of Sebastian Coe?

Stevie, I can remember you trying to compile a similar list on Greenwich Hill last summer - surely you're not still pondering... I think I suggested Slow Graffiti in The Acid House, which I still stand by and that's not just the B&S obsession talking. It made me come over all emotional.

As for TV, a couple of years ago, somebody kept picking Edwyn Collins' A Girl Like You on the coffee shop jukebox in Neighbours, when Helen Daniels was getting it on with a nice elderly gentleman in a cravat. If I remember rightly he turned out to be a bit of a cad, as men in cravats generally do.

The Singing Detective.

Simpsons #3 -- Guys & Dolls to the tune of "hollywood" and then "Luke be a Jedi Tonight". snicker.

I was going to start a thread, but I found this instead. I was watching a film yesterday when I noticed just how tolerant I am of music (it was a sentimental western 'translation' in a chinese film), that, stripped of the cinematic association, is pretty redundant. I can see how yesterday's bland pop can soak up a sub-text, gain more substance and currency, even a re-release. But there are degrees to the success with which the music is re-vitaized, and some combinations are more poignant than others depending on how they co- operate. So often, devices, like the use of specific songs, or voice over, are lazily applied to patch over the film's inconsistencies, undermining the intention. Tracks, in particular, are shoehorned in to add dymanics, but the without making comment on the image, or worse, skewing the effect with unrelated associations. Directors are increasingly scoring the films with their favourite tracks, and when they don't actually work with each other, it's crowding, the interference takes me out of the spell.

I'm speaking of Guy Richie, a man who's career is shamelessly pointing the UK film industry in the wrong direction (sure, let's ditch the literary dramas, but don't graft what we have onto US genres.) He undermines his convoluted plotting with Music Video interludes. They invoke a passivity I associate with TV; similar to the filters we unconsciously adopt at ad-breaks, that protect us from shit. Although I appreciate his taste in music, the effect is destructive; it's a well-known piece of cinema language, but, like so many, he's doesn't understand how to use it. You could argue that the blame should be laid at Tarantino's feet for introducing the O.S.T as record collection in the early 90's, but in Reservoir Dogs the music had a purpose, it showed solidarity, or common ground, between the characters despite their anonymous personas. Or Scorcese, with Meanstreets (Casino, Goodfellas), but these are all period pieces. The music acts as part of the mise-en-scene, the tracks are artifacts, referencing the period as accurately as the wallpaper or clothes. You don't hear any tracks in taxi driver cause it's not about being part of the mid-seventies.

So why do I enjoy 'music', not tracks, that can't support itself without the cinema. For me, it's about closure, hearing the music in the concentrated environment of the cinema. Dislocated from the 'real' world and all the relative forces that constrain my taste, I have the freedom to enjoy it.

probably........................elliott smith because in american beauty, a beautiful cover of a song.

eyes wide shut: soundtrack is better than the movie. but yeah, becuase in american beauty. almost made me cry ....

OK, which movie is it - if any - which kicks off its action or a big part of its action with "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen (official greatest single of the 1960s, or something)? Every time I play that song on a walkman I feel like I'm in some fantastically cool and deranged film and I'm sure I'm getting that from somewhere - Scorsese? (My brain is telling me too manic). Or did I dream it?

Full Metal Jacket - Kubrick. And it's almost all in one single tracking shot.

"Sweet Emotion" opening Dazed & Confused... a yellow Camaro prowling the high school parking lot... a passion barely contained, the bell about to ring, the rules of the classroom giving way to the willed chaos of a suburban weekend....

walk on by in dead presidents.......another example.

really easy question this: blue velvet & in dreams, hands down, you never hear those songs again without thinking of the film, and vice versa

doom patrol in best answer to thread shocker. well okay it's not shocking at all but yeah.