songs/music i.g. whose perception has been changed through use in film/s

Chungking Express changed my perception of
Mamas & The Papas - california dreamin

couple of great tunes in that movie anyway (Dennis Brown)
i think it's my favourige Wong Kar-Wai.

also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Dreamin%27_(film)
interesting Romanian movie.

i can't think of an example for the thread though.

I can't hear Everything In Its Right Place without thinking of the opening of Vanilla Sky.

And Where Is My Mind?, of course.

Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" - forever associated with this:

Stuck in the Middle with You, obv.

All songs from Children of Men STK

I mean when I saw it I imagined what I would feel about that song in 20 yrs

King Crimson and Guernica as the work of creative geniuses?

Not from a film, but Bob Seger's "Like A Rock" song used in the Chevy truck commercials years ago. Every single time I hear that song, I think of those tv commercials.

'Sussudio', probably.

Hell, this ruined 'Hip to be Square' for me too.

^^This is the most positive experience I've had listening to Sussudio.

TV, not Film, but I do think "Don't Stop Believin'" on the Sopranos, especially as it seems to have happened on such a large scale.

Hang on Sloopy always makes me think of strippers after seeing People vs. Larry Flynt

Sister Christian in Boogie Nights. the firecrackers.

Sister Christian in Boogie Nights. the firecrackers.

oh yes. and the second song when the trouble starts, jessies girl - Rick Springfield

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rEgPZZmjwg4/R0tEESIu4fI/AAAAAAAAAno/BjM1x79dunY/s320/alfred+molina.jpg

Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" - forever associated with this

a lot favorites here.

i can't hear Kenny Rogers & The First Edition's "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" without thinking of "Gutterballs"

John Phillips' "Malibu People" & The Byrds' "Citizen Kane" = Ciao! Manhattan

Casino
The Animals - house of the rising sun

especially the part with Ginger McKenna aka Sharon Stone @3:02

I love this thread. Music can add (or detract) so much to a film, and films can completely change the meaning of a song forever. One that comes immediately to mind is "Mad World" from Donnie Darko. I don't know how to post the youtube video (can anyone tell me?), but the link is

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it...

Fantastic obviously but...brr.

This scene made me forget all about ever hearing the Blues Bros version:

(And yeah, GoodFellas/Layla coda.)

It's impossible for me to separate these, too:

^ also Wagner's "Ride Of The Valkyries"

I now associate stomping people in the face with Atlantis, and vice versa.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/images/pics/cusack2.jpg

Yeah, hearing "Hurdy Gurdy Man" in Zodiac completely changed my opinion of it from the sweet unsinister bubblegum whimsy that the Butthole Surfers did such a twee cover of.

Completely OTM about 'Hurdy Gurdy Man'. These two have never been the same for me:

Come to think of it, I saw the movie young enough that it was probably the first time I'd heard either.

http://www.kissatlanta.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/_gallery-blog_image_Head-In-Hands-3.jpg

Yeah, horrible example because it doesn't really subvert or challenge either of them.

"Lust For Life"

Good one, yes. Trainspotting ended up associating that song with heroin, didn't it?

Labyrinth completely altered my perception of "Cracked Actor".

sister ray from Brick (though it more transformed my perception of the movie I had just watched)

"Hurricane" in Dazed and Confused, for me at least.

I'm still not happy that God Only Knows is used at the end of Love Actually.

You should write a strongly-worded letter to the Daily Telegraph.

That said, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" in Roger & Me.

in bull durham, tim robbins singing "try a little tenderness" as "women get woolly, yes they get woolly ..." -- makes it hard for me to hear the original with a straight face.

Yeah, hearing "Hurdy Gurdy Man" in Zodiac completely changed my opinion of it from the sweet unsinister bubblegum whimsy that the Butthole Surfers did such a twee cover of.

haha. a friend's facebook status update not long ago was, "was hurdy gurdy man always creepy or did zodiac make it seem that way?" i cited the b.s. cover as evidence of latent always-creepiness.

Donovan's stoner voice is so thick and he delivers the song so sluggishly and joylessly it's never been anything but some kind of drug nightmare.

a lot of Donovan's music has a slightly creepy quality. I think part of the reason is his voice.

yeah Donovan might be the king of this thread...I'm pretty sure if I had heard "Atlantis" before seeing Goodfellas it would have drastically changed my impression of that song.

it = that movie

"Hurricane" in Dazed and Confused, for me at least.

Came here to post that. Best "walking into a bar" music ever.

oh yes. and the second song when the trouble starts, jessies girl - Rick Springfield

My first thought when I opened the thread.

The strange thing is that I don't even like PT Anderson's films, and this particular scene was just ridiculously long and boring. Except that I couldn't forget the music that was playing, which probably means that the scene had the intended effect on me and I shouldn't be complaining, I don't know.

Ravel's Bolero in Ten
Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra in 2001: A Space Odyssey

My Best Friend's Wedding has spoiled 'I Say a Little Prayer' forever.

probably the classic example would be "Singin' in the Rain" in Clockwork Orange.

[High Fidelity]
― paper plans (tipsy mothra),

music in general?

Ah, Wikipedia never fails:

"What a Wonderful World" was used ironically in 1978 radio broadcast of the last episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (first series). The song replaced the usual end credits as the two main characters, stranded on pre-history Earth, lament its destruction witnessed in the first episode. The song was later used for the closing titles of the corresponding television episode, and in the first teaser for the Hitchhiker's film, lasting only one stanza before the Earth explodes.

A part of the song was used in The Runner (Davandeh), a famous Iranian movie. It was included in the soundtrack for the film Good Morning, Vietnam in 1987, and, thanks to its newfound exposure in the film, it landed at #1 in Australia, becoming Armstrong's biggest hit there. In the film, the song plays over a montage of bombings and other violence (similar to the use of the song "We'll Meet Again" in the film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). This use of the song in an ironic way has since become something of a cliché in film and television. Its use in Good Morning, Vietnam led to its eventual use in yet another Vietnam War themed fiction, Tour of Duty.

Not a film but "Wash Away" by Joe Purdy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkYpeN-9I-0

"Nowhere to Run" at the 3:33 mark (number of the half-beast)--still remember how thrilling this was when I first saw it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3xTKRIj-xQ&feature=related

Already mentioned but "Singin in the Rain" and "Stuck in the Middle With You" pretty much changed forever with Clockwork Orange and Reservoir Dogs...

Also; "Born Slippy .NUXX" will always be associated with Trainspotting...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziwr4f5eR0M

This doesn't strictly fit the thread--as my introduction to the song, it established my perception, not changed it--but it is an inspired juxtaposition. And, along with a couple of other possibilities, my nomination for the three greatest filmed minutes of pop music ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVIA1vqQfb8

Also; "Born Slippy .NUXX" will always be associated with Trainspotting...

I know it came out in 1995 (that's when I first heard it), but I assume most people didn't hear it until it was featured in Trainspotting, so its perception didn't really "change" with the film. Or did it get a lot of airplay in the UK before Trainspotting? It certainly didn't here. IIRC it wasn't even included on the first printing of Second Toughest in the Infants, only after it became a hit due to the film did they add an extra disc to the album with "Born Slippy" and "Rez" on it.

Had a radio encounter yesterday that made me realize I've almost done a 180 on a song thanks to a film. I wouldn't say I used to hate Three Dog Night's "One," but it always seemed draggy and heavy-handed; it was a song I'd automatically switch off. When in came on yesterday, I immediately thought of the opening panorama from Zodiac, with all the 4th of July festivities lighting up the sky, a kind of slow-motion dreaminess (but scary, too--the first killing has already taken place) that is now inseparable for me from "One."

I hate to break it to you but that song isn't in Zodiac

you are thinking of "Easy to be Hard"

Aargh! Thanks--that's what I heard yesterday. Everything I wrote above applies, just had the title wrong. (May have had Magnolia on the brain, which I watched again recently.)

lol no worries - for a second I was totally confused as to why I had never noticed "One" (which I know from the Nilsson version) in the opening before

My perception of Donovan has been changed via a whole bunch of films: "Atlantis" in Goodfellas, "Colours" in The Limey, "Jennifer Juniper" in Election, "Season of the Witch" in To Die For, "Jersey Thursday" in Rushmore, and "Hurdy Gurdy Man" in Zodiac. I used to think he was a good pop-folkie who was primarily worth remembering for "Mellow Yellow" and "Sunshine Superman." Now I think he's godlike.

thank you for bringing all those together into one post!

needs "Three King Fishers" imo

^?

worst thing about The Girl Next Door = the director baldly willing to steal "Atlantis" and "Jump Into the Night" from Goodfellas.

"Jump Into the NightFire"

^ was gonna say

there is a song that i initially loved, then liked, then got tired of, but still retained some affection for. a few years down the road, they put it in that watchmen movie and it suddenly became the most awful, horrible, cringe-inducing thing in the world. i don't know that i'll ever be able to listen to it again. the power of film.

Gawd I hated that Watchmen movie, but I still love the comic...it's weird how they can get everything so precisely and still flub tone SO badly!

I HATED "Don't Stop Believing" until I finished the Sopranos and now every time I hear it I get a little anxious and my heart rate speeds up and I get this sensation of "Oh my god, something is about to end"

a few years down the road, they put it in that watchmen movie

lol don't remember them doing this so glad I never saw this abortion of an idea for a movie

^right, my point was that the movie was so bad I was lucky it didn't ruin the comic for me...

Gawd I hated that Watchmen movie, but I still love the comic...it's weird how they can get everything so precisely and still flub tone SO badly!

― scaruffi kaleidoscope (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, October 27, 2010 3:51 PM (4 hours ago)

otm. for clarity's sake, the song i mentioned isn't nilsson's "jump into the fire" (which i loved at first and will love forever, no matter what, and isn't in watchmen anyway), but leonard cohen's "hallelujah". zack fucking snyder ruined it for me, finishing the job that jeff buckley started years before.

but leonard cohen's "hallelujah". zack fucking snyder ruined it for me, finishing the job that jeff buckley started years before.

― naked human hands and a foam rubber head (contenderizer), Wednesday, October 27, 2010 8:13 PM (1 hour ago)

haha was just going to post this exact same thing!!

The use of "Magic Bus" in Goodfellas didn't change my perception of the song so much as it was the perfect illustration of the greatness of the Who's sound (particularly live):

They always sound like they're about to get into a huge accident, but they always avoid it in a heart-stoppingly dramatic fashion.

Similar to previous post: not transformation, but a rescue mission for something I'd heard a million times and had confined to classic-rock purgatory--such a perfect illustration of the song, it may as well have been specifically commissioned for the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrxQvni2xXM

^ totally agree with this. one of the most perfect fusions of pop and image in recent film. gave the song back its glamour (for me, anyway).

Also brilliant:

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

probably the classic example would be "Singin' in the Rain" in Clockwork Orange.

― what happened? I'm confused. (sarahel), Sunday, March 15, 2009 4:56 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I really agree with this post. Clockwork Orange is what i think of when I hear this song.

not quite the same thing, but any time I think of Rushmore, I always think of The Who's "A Quick One" (also see: Bottle Rocket + Seven and Seven Is)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRoRo5mUV5o

Music in movies is basically the worst thing ever. I used to like a lot of these songs until I saw the movies and now they're all completely fucking ruined. Same with using music in commercials too. Who can listen to all those classic Motown songs anymore without thinking of the California Raisins? Who can listen to "Stuck in the Middle with You" without thinking of that torture scene in Reservoir Dogs? If I was a millionaire songwriter and Quentin Tarantino came up to me said, "I'll give you a shitload of money to use your song in my next movie, but from here on out, nobody will ever be able to treat your song seriously ever again." I'd tell him to fuck off.

I never think about the California Raisins tbqh

Motown is more likely to remind me of the Big Chill lol. or maybe the Commitments

also lol at idea that DEEP THINKING PIECE OF ART "Stuck in the Middle With You" was ever intended to be taken "seriously". if anything the song has MORE nuance/meaning to me now because of it's filmic association.

As Pete Townshend said, "Is your perception of 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' so shallow that it's violated by dancing raisins?"

(Granted, he was trying to justify his own selloutery, but he's got a point)

Yes!!

I thought that asking artist's permission was a kind of courtesy, that if they were willing to pay whatever performance/mechanical licenses, they could do whatever they want with your song, at least in US? I can't imagine the conversation between Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze, and The Minutemen.

I can't imagine the conversation between Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze, and The Minutemen.

I dunno why not it's not that hard to imagine - skaters have a long and storied history with LA punk that dates back to at least the late 70s, it's a pretty no-brainer connection. I think it's awesome that they basically funnelled a bunch of money to Mike Watt.

i mean i can't imagine the actual conversation. like:
spike: '....'
mike watt: 'hello?'
spike: '....'

also having trouble imagining chris eliot on the phone with REM

chris: 'so uh... the show is about a newspaper boy.'
stipe: '...'
chris: 'have you seen me on letterman?'

Mike Watt's a pretty friendly guy

he was actually in a really funny video/skit with artist Mike Kelley, the name of which I forget, but has a really great line, "I don't know what's wrong with my guitar man, everything i play comes out sounding hippie"

yes Watt is super-friendly, he will talk to pretty much anybody

i remember reading somewhere they had let a song be used in a commercial to pay for an expensive medical operation but i bet jackass money isn't part of that, due to mtv's notorious cheapness.

mtv jams even more econo than Watt?

violated by dancing raisins

"Stuck in the Middle With You"...has MORE nuance/meaning to me now because of it's filmic association.

1000%, a thousand times over. I liked it on the radio as a kid, but Tarantino uncovered something in that song I couldn't even have conceived of. (And did almost as well with George Baker and Blue Swede.)

I really agree with this post. Clockwork Orange is what i think of when I hear this song [re: singin' in the rain].

that sucks. i think of gene kelly.

What was the first movie to use "Carmina Burana"? It's pretty hard to listen to it now without thinking of its overuse in various climactic movie scenes.

always associate it with conan the barbarian

More faulty memory: "Easy to Be Hard" is used at the very beginning of Zodiac, not after the first murder as I wrote above. I guess the spookiness comes from the fact that you know someone is about to be killed.