When I was told I would be able to write a film column, I knew exactly what to write about—the soundtrack.
While plenty of movies have tremendous scores, that’s for another day. For this, I will examine the best in cinema soundtracks—from “Almost Famous” to “Walk the Line,” the latter of which had an inherent advantage.
To begin on a slightly bittersweet note, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s take on Lester Bangs in “Almost Famous” is one of the best minor roles in cinematic history. With personal prejudices and the reflexive canonization of actors who are recently deceased left aside, this is truly one of the great roles in his illustrious career.
But the soundtrack itself, which won Best Soundtrack at the Grammys in 2001, featured a veritable greatest hits album of the '70s. Most notably, this album features “Tiny Dancer,” a song featured in one of the best scenes in movie history—though I should probably stop bandying about these “best ever” phrases, lest they cheapen its meaning—where the whole band, the “Band-Aids” and William come together on the tour bus to sing the Elton John classic.
Though they could have used any music for that scene, between the lyrical content of the song and its great falsetto, director and co-producer of the album Cameron Crowe, for whom the movie is based off and written by, really nailed it with all of his song choices throughout the film. That Crowe would have phenomenal taste in music should not come as much of a surprise as he wrote for Rolling Stone and followed the Allman Brothers Band on tour, the impetus for the film.
Sometimes, great soundtracks come from places you would never expect. In 1972, Jimmy Cliff starred in “The Harder They Come,” a Jamaican crime film. While the film itself is great, I personally watched the movie for its absolutely immaculate soundtrack. If you need a primer in non-Bob Marley reggae, look no farther than this soundtrack as from track one to 30 on the remaster are bonafide hits, featuring Toots & The Maytals and Cliff himself.
Another movie that excellently uses reggae music is 2006’s “This Is England,” the story of Shaun, a young kid who starts hanging out with a group of skinheads. It’s available on Netflix and definitely worth watching, if not for the excellent story, but for the soundtrack. It features a fantastic combo of reggae, ska and brit pop to show the conflicting worlds Shaun is being thrown between.
While many of the movies that came out of the “Blaxploitation” genre are unequivocally bad, the soundtracks that came from a number of the movies in this genre are fantastic. A handful of highlights include Bobby Womack’s work on “Across 110th Street,” Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly” and Isaac Hayes’ “Shaft.”
For some quick hits, The Beatles released five movies, all of which had better soundtracks than movies. That is not to take anything away from four of the five movies—sorry “Magical Mystery Tour,” you’re terrible—but the music of the band is better than cartoon versions of Paul, John, George and Ringo.
Though I never saw the movie, I have definitely heard the soundtrack to “Saturday Night Fever,” and for those who thought Daft Punk was breaking new ground on Random Access Memories, listen to this album featuring the Bee Gees, Kool & The Gang and KC and the Sunshine Band and you’ll see the roots of “Get Lucky.”
Alas, for every “Tarzan” soundtrack and for every time an R. Kelly song is used properly—namely in “Space Jam”—there are some bad missteps.
Limp Bizkit did the soundtrack, or enough of the soundtrack including the main theme, to “Mission: Impossible II” to make the whole soundtrack go straight to the 99-cent bin, though somehow it went Gold in Japan.
As much as I love Robert, his contribution to the “Batman & Robin” soundtrack, “Gotham City,” is pretty bad, but sounds like “I Believe I Can Fly” compared to the rest of this soundtrack which features everyone from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to the Smashing Pumpkins. You can guess how that turns out, because you definitely don’t want to listen to the soundtrack.
Last but not least, while all the other soundtracks listed are great, they all pale in comparison to The Purple One. “Purple Rain” is both a perfect movie and, as has been discussed at length in my '80s music column, the perfect soundtrack.
Overall, I definitely missed a hundred great soundtracks—including “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas”— but this is a good collection of places to start in terms of full soundtracks. Though there are thousands of words to be written about some great original songs that came from the world of cinema, that’s for another day.
Think Brian left out some timeless movie soundtracks? Let him know at weidy@wisc.edu.
