songs whose fame has long since eclipsed that of the movie they originally appeared in

1-2-3-go!

'Up Where We Belong' from An Officer and a Gentleman

White Christmas, "Holiday Inn"
We're in the Money, "Gold Diggers of 1933"
etc

'Invincible' from The Legend of Billie Jean

"Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

You'll Never Walk Alone, "Carousel"

'Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)' from the Man Who Knew Too Much

"Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Saturday, July 16, 2011 5:41 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

you think? the movie is pretty well-loved today.

'When I'm Cleaning Windows' from Keep Your Seats Please

Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" -- originally single before Batman Forever but that's when it became big

"Ben" from Ben
"Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky III
"Say You Say Me" from White Nights

you think? the movie is pretty well-loved today

true, that one might be arguable but I would still contend the song is more famous than the film

'I Believe I Can Fly' from Space Jam

Every single song on Purple Rain

haha Parade too!

you think? the movie is pretty well-loved today.

Oh yeah, I feel like a lot more people would recognize that song before they would the movie.

bernard hermann whistle song orig from twisted nerve comes 2 mind

"Blues Theme" from The Wild Angels
"You Light Up My Life" from film of same title
"Theme from Valley of The Dolls"
"Theme from A Summer Place"
All the Magical Mystery Tour songs
"Knocking on Heaven's Door" from Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid
"Late In The Evening" from One-Trick Pony

Car Wash by Rose Royce. I've rarely seen the film mentioned.

"Chariots of Fire" - swear this played on repeat for 30 mins at Kroger today.

"The Morning After" from the Poseidon Adventure.

"FM" by Steely Dan

"My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" from The Electric Horseman

Wasn't "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies..." a film theme?

"Tears In Heaven" from Rush

Endless Love - Lionel Richie / Diana Ross. Song was the biggest of Ross' career, nobody has bothered to release the film on DVD yet.

There are probably quite a few from the forties / fifties musical canon that have endured after the films have fallen out of favour. Tammy by Debbie Reynolds and It's Foolish But It's Fun by Deanna Durbin come to mind.

'dueling banjos' likely

'Together in Electric Dreams' from, uh, Electric Dreams.

"Georgy Girl" by the Seekers. I don't think anybody still cares about the film; I still love the song, so the song wins 1-0.

We're in the Money, "Gold Diggers of 1933"

Gold Diggers of 1933 has been a film school staple for decades, esp. for the climactic "Forgotten Man" number.

"The Theme from A Man and A Woman"

Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?" from the Dr. Doolittle soundtrack

"Something He Can Feel" from Sparkle.
"Trouble Man" from film of same name.
"I Just Called To Say I Love You" from The Woman In Red.

'dueling banjos' likely

― bear, bear, bear

disagree with this. though it precedes the movie by almost 20 years, it is forever linked to the film (even if most of the Michael Scott types who still find the joke funny haven't actually seen it)

yeah, missed the "originally" in the thread title so my bad there

Will Smith's "Wild Wild West"

"Going Back To Cali" from Less Than Zero

"Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile?

A bunch of Elvis songs, not just themes but also stuff like "Return To Sender" & "Wooden Heart".

was gonna suggest beyonce's 'check on it' from that pink panther thing but i guess it didn't end up on the soundtrack? didnt see the movie but the video had hella steve martin fr sure

"We Have All the Time in the World" from On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The song was not registered in the music rating charts in the UK when first released, only becoming well known 25 years later, as part of a Guinness beer commercial after My Bloody Valentine chose to cover it for charity.

cannot parse leap from guinness to mbv

Maria McKee, "Show Me Heaven" - Days of Thunder, right?

Think "Unchained Melody" wins this.

Think "Unchained Melody" wins this.

― Stevie T, Sunday, July 17, 2011 10:45 AM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark

There are songs like I Only Have Eyes For you that I think began in 1920s or 30s films or stageshows that are much better known in later versions. There's a history of stageshow songs becoming adopted into the folk canon too. think that broadens the remit of the question though.

& yeah, think Unchained Melody dates back quite a way to early film musicals or beyond doesn't it?

Do You Know Where You're Going To? - Theme from Mahogany

Rock Me Amadeus

B-Real, Coolio, Method Man, LL Cool J And Busta Rhymes - Hit Em High (from Space Jam)

'Together in Electric Dreams' from, uh, Electric Dreams.

Came here to post this. I didn't even know it was from a movie until a couple of weeks ago when I was playing it doing the washing up and my wife came out and was like "why are you playing the theme song from Electric Dreams?"

Ha! I always knew it was from a film, but had to go look up what that film was called, despite it actually being in the name of the song.

Gold Diggers of 1933 has been a film school staple for decades, esp. for the climactic "Forgotten Man" number.

While I do agree that Gold Diggers of 1933 remains a famous film, particularly for people who attend 'film school', I think that there needs to be a bit of an ironing out of the thread concept before dismissing this suggestion. Because as I read it, there is no question that the song 'We're in the Money' is about 1000x as famous as the film, and thus is perfectly valid. However, if you want to go for "songs that are still famous even though nobody remembers the film", that is a different matter.

Hmm, does Morricone's main theme from "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" count? Obv. linked to the film, but seems to get used in adverts / comedy sketches etc as a signifier of westerns / shootouts etc. Everyone knows the music, but does everyone know the film? (talking about normal people here, not ilxors)

Sixpence None the Richer - Kiss Me
from "She's All That".

Though whenever I hear the line "Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance" I keep envisioning Usher dancing with that silly grin on his face.

"She's All That" is a timeless classic for some of us

I'm not really sure all of these songs are FROM the films they're attached to, so much as slapped on (esp in the last 30 years).

I like that John Ford nixed having the song "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" heard in the film, cuz well, it would have ruined it.

I'm not really sure all of these songs are FROM the films they're attached to, so much as slapped on (esp in the last 30 years).

yes

xpost

My fave example of a wisely discarded theme song is Billy Eckstine's "Vertigo" which you can hear here.

Yeah, like the Sixpence song appeared on one of their albums a full year before it was in "She's All That." That's a far cry from "originally."

Phil Collins, Against All Odds.

the most duh answer is somehow not on here, which is Houston's version of I Will Always Love You. i have never seen The Bodyguard, nor do i understand what it's supposed to be about, nor do i think i'll ever care.

A whole lot of Pink Floyd songs...

Bobby Brown's "On Our Own"

Dusty Springfield "The Look Of Love"

(originally written for the Casino Royale spoof)

― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet

Yeah, "The look of love"..

Also, "Happy"from DesMe2, yep that's a big film but "Happy" got way bigger.

"I Want Your Sex" was apparently the 3rd hit from the Beverly Hills Cop II soundtrack, before being the first single from Faith. I would say it has eclipsed that movie and those first two hits ("Cross My Broken Heart" by The Jets and "Shakedown" by Bob Seger).

Can't believe no one has said 'Fame' yet. It's right in the title!

Too many of these have fuckall to do with the movie itself. They're just kinda thrown on to the soundtrack to sell more records. Was "Cross My Broken Heart" even in the film Beverly Hills Cop II?

"The Shadow of Your Smile" from The Sandpiper seems like one of these, although some people still enjoy The Sandpiper

"To Sir With Love"

"Don't Let Go (Love)" - En Vogue. Recorded for the Set It Off soundtrack.

"i have never seen The Bodyguard, nor do i understand what it's supposed to be about"

I believe it's about a Bodyguard.

Well, it's about a Body. And a Guard. Two very different and conflicting personalities who are forced to work together to solve a crime and/or defeat criminals, learning from each other in the process.

That's What Friends Are For (from Night Shift)
The Girl Can't Help It
Across 110th Street

'Turtle Power' by Partners in Kryme

Got a perfect candidate -- the jazz standard "Stella by Starlight." Originally introduced as an instrumental piece in the (truly great, still underrated) Ray Milland supernatural thriller The Uninvited. The title is what it is due to a character being called Stella, Milland's character writes the piece with reference to her, etc. etc. A modified still from the scene in question:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7DInmoJ5JDE/hqdefault.jpg

"the end is the beginning is the end" by the smashing pumpkins from Batman & Robin

maybe even "eye" from Lost Highway?

"drown" from Singles, surely?

Everybody's Talkin' from Midnight Cowboy?

Pharrell - Happy from Despicable Me

Two.

happy otm

"The Way You Look Tonight," from Swing Time. Famous movie, but the song is way more famous

not sure despicable me has receded in collective memory any more than "happy" has tbh

Justin Timberlake Can't Stop The Feeling is destined for this.

this probably says more about my ignorance than the extent to which top hat has (or hasn't) faded from public consciousness but i didn't know that "cheek to cheek" was introduced in a film lol

"My Funny Valentine" from Babes in Arms

thanks to Nina Simone and Buble's wannabe Simone rendition..."Feeling Good" from The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd (ok ok not a movie, a play, sorry)

"Puttin on the Ritz" from...Puttin on the Ritz

"I Can Dream About You" from <i>Streets of Fire</i>

Sorry, wrong brackets.

"I can Dream About You" from Streets of Fire

"Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" from At the Circus

Dylan's "Things Have Changed" from Wonder Boys

Roger Daltrey: Quicksilver Lightning

I'm kidding about Roger Daltrey song, but not about this:

Lisa Loeb: Stay

"All Star" from Shrek and Mystery Men ?????

So I guess this is going to be another thread where 90% of the answers range between unconvincing and wrong? Lots of these songs were released before the movie mentioned, and lots of other are inextricably linked to the movie.

You know on Amazon where people answer questions about a product ("Does it support bluetooth?") with things like "Sorry, I haven't received mine yet, so I don't know". Whelp, if you don't have an answer, you don't have to enter one.

I think Que Sera, Sera has been the best answer so far, that scene actually felt really incongruous when I eventually saw The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Lots of these songs were released before the movie mentioned, and lots of other are inextricably linked to the movie.

was gonna say. and to note that a famous film song is no longer so linked does not prove that it has "eclipsed" the movie's fame.

I feel like All Star's connection to Mystery Men is often forgotten, but it's connection to Shrek is very strong in its meme-ification.

Yeah imo there's a lot of rong here mostly in the category of claiming films are forgotten when they're wildly popular, but maybe the other problem is ppl interpreting it as 'songs where the public has forgotten the song and movie were linked,' which might be where we're getting all the arbitrarily-tacked-on hits that aren't in any sense the film theme or whatever. In practice most folks rarely know that a song comes from a particular film in the first place unless it's super obvious like Men in Black or the video makes a big big deal out of it. Thread is most interesting when it's films that have completely vanished from people's miinds, and songs that have never fallen out of favor, imo.

can't imagine anyone anywhere has rescreened buddy's song any time in the last decade or so but chesney hawkes' 'one and only' still haunts the airwaves of uk commercial radio

I feel like All Star's connection to Mystery Men is often forgotten, but it's connection to Shrek is very strong in its meme-ification.

yea probably should've mentioned, Mystery Men is what I think fits the thread

people don't really remember this but the video was a tie-in to the movie, hell Ben Stiller is front and center in the first scene, and it's not just clips from the film either. then it got picked up in another, much more popular film, and seems to have even outlived that

David Essex, "Silver Dream Machine"