Inspired by (and definitely not hating on) The Onion AV Club's Inventory: 15 Pop Songs Owned By Movie Scenes, the management has decided to compile an expanded list of movie scenes that have utilized pop songs so effectively as to force that scene into your head every time you hear the song. However, unlike the usual bitch-and-moan fest decrying the source's "painful" or "criminal" omissions, this is more of a lark... an homage, even. Basically, it just seemed like a fun list to continue.
Like all lists, this one has certain rules and criteria. No songs created specifically for or first appearing in the film in question are included. So, for example, Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'" (from Midnight Cowboy) and Jackson Browne's "Sombody's Baby" (from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) didn't make the cut. Also, no John Hughes. John Hughes is a list unto himself. I thought about barring Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino for the same reason, but decided to include one slightly obscure pick from each instead. Also, period films that blatantly use on-the-nose period music to "capture the era" (like Stand by Me and, for the love of all that's holy, Forrest Fucking Gump) are pretty much ignored as well.
Now some of these are great songs that have, mostly for the worse, appeared in bad movies. That's one of the dangers of making even the most beloved tunes available to anyone who can swing a licensing fee. In fact, that's why most of the time, it's the bad movies that hog all the good music. Just look what happened to "I Say a Little Prayer for You."
Anyway, this list is intentionally number-free and just begging for additions...so have at it.
Peter Gabriel, "In Your Eyes," Say Anything
Well duh.
The Rolling Stones, "You Can't Always Get What You Want," The Big Chill
I know what I said about the overuse of period music, and this song certainly stands on its own, but the funeral scene in The Big Chill has forever stolen this one from me. Hey, I never said I was happy about all of these. I just see Jobeth Williams playing the organ and a long funeral procession whenever this tune starts.
Nico, "These Days"/Elliot Smith, "Needle in the Hay"/The Ramones, "Judy Is a Punk," The Royal Tenenbaums
Most people prefer the montage-o-rama approach of Rushmore, but this will always be my number one Wes Anderson film. If I had to choose one from this film, I would go with Gwinnie Paltrow getting off the bus in slow motion to the Nico track, but Richie's suicide attempt is also pitch-perfect thanks to "Needle in the Hay." (Tragically, at the time no one could have imagined just how perfect.) And the conversion of a private investigator's file into a raucous, Ramones-themed snog-fest is perhaps the film's funniest moment.
Lou Reed, "Perfect Day," Trainspotting
Mark Renton's descent into the cozy embrace of a near-overdose is brilliantly rendered when the floor litterally swallows him up, and Lou Reed's bittersweet ballad is the perfect soundtrack -- an irony-free ode to the brown lady herself.
Simon and Garfunkel, "The Only Living Boy in New York," Garden State
Say what you will about the film's meticulously angsty soundtrack, this unexpected selection from the Bridge Over Troubled Water album channels the astounding beauty and staggering lonliness of being young... as three beautiful, lonely people literally scream into the abyss.
Metallica, "Master of Puppets," Old School
A menacing black van tearing through parking lots on a kidnapping rampage is 100% funnier thanks to this ultra-fast 'Tally classic. Honorable mention to Frank the Tank blasting Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" while working on his non-street-legal Chevy.
The Comsat Angels, "I'm Falling," Real Genius
It could be argued that no one has ever heard this song without watching Real Genius, but that's only true here in the States. Of the innumerable studying/training/falling in love/rebuilding a car montages of the 1980s, this is the tops, thanks mainly to this surprisingly decent MOR new wave tune.
Van Halen, "Everybody Wants Some," Better Off Dead
Two words: claymation cheeseburger!
The Cars, "Moving in Stereo," Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Three words: Phoebe Cates's breasts!
Roy Orbison, "In Dreams," Blue Velvet
Dean Stockwell's ultra-bizarre lip-synch to this "dreamy" Orbison tune is nothing short of disturbing. And, as Frank Booth puts it in the film, it's "so fucking suave!"
Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Bad Moon Rising," An American Werewolf in London
All of the clever "moon" songs on the soundtrack ("Blue Moon," "Moondance," etc.) are worth a mention, but the very disconnect at the heart of this film, the friction between abject horror and winking humor, is perfectly captured by the Creedence classic. Upbeat as hell, the happy jangle is belied by the fearfully foreboding lyrics... adding the perfect frisson to Rick Baker's insanely inventive werewolf transformation scene.
Yes, "Heart of the Sunrise," Buffalo '66
Chris Squire's bass acrobatics lend just the right dizzying energy to the most jarring scene in the film: Vincent Gallo going batshit crazy with a revolver in a strip club.
The Church, "Under the Milky Way," Donnie Darko
This is the most subjective pick on the list, primarily because "The Killing Moon" and Tears for Fears's "Head Over Heels," which both feature in more memorable scenes, were already otherwise connected in my memory by the time I saw this film. More interesting, the scene associated with this song upon the film's initial release uses a different song ("Love Will Tear Us Apart") in the director's cut. Still, "Under the Milky Way," with its lack of vaunted cult status, is more effective at capturing that specific era.
Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows," Pump Up the Volume
This one can't really be tacked to any particular scene, as it was played at the beginning of each Hard Harry Hard-On pirate broadcast. Nonetheless, I'll never hear this song without imagining Christian Slater fiddling with his knobs and grabbing his microphone. Oh that's just so wrong.
The Revels, "Comanche," Pulp Fiction
Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, "Comanche" has supplanted "Duelling Banjos" as the soundtrack to hillbilly anal rape.
The Clash, "Janie Jones," Bringing Out the Dead
Martin Scorsese's uneven but unfairly maligned EMT movie plays out as a fever dream in Nicholas Gage's characteristically addled mind. This Clash barn-burner is the ideal accompaniment to a montage of speeding traffic and a general loss of mental control.
First Edition, "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)," The Big Lebowski
Arguably the funniest dream sequence in film history.
Queen, "Don't Stop Me Now," Shaun of the Dead
The official zombie-slaying music of World War Z. A bunch of people running around a pub, smacking zombies with pool cues and desperately trying to turn off the jukebox... all to the giddy triumphalism of mid-period Freddie Mercury.
T.Rex, "Cosmic Dancer," Billy Elliot
I'm not happy about it, but this song will forever conjure up some British kid jumping on the bed in slow motion.
The Righteous Brothers, "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," Top Gun/"Unchained Melody," Ghost
These are both unfortunate and self-explanatory. A possible explanation for Phil Spector's transition from eccentric to total meltdown.
Heart, "Magic Man," The Virgin Suicides
A one-note joke, perhaps, but "Magic Man" lends Josh Hartnett's strut down the school hallway an ideal combination of nostalgia, sleeze, and adolescent female lust.
Again, this list is by no means meant to be exhaustive. Please add some of your own.
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