Investigation

Funk themes to Stones grooves, 1990s techno to a Queen classic... Film fanatic Steve Sutherland builds an eclectic playlist of music made memorable by Hollywood

In our last issue [HFN Feb ’26], Ken Kessler cast his eye over 20 recently released movie soundtrack albums on vinyl and SACD. Now, like any good blockbuster film franchise, comes the sequel – 20 memorable individual songs from the world of cinema, in honour of the approaching movie awards season.

As usual, this streaming-focused collection has been sourced, selected and researched by Hi-Fi Choice editor and ex-NME boss Steve Sutherland, and you can sample the list and play along as you read by checking out our playlist on Qobuz.

We’ve plumped for the best-quality version (ie, the 192kHz/24-bit streams of R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People) where available.

Move over Morricone

Our pick is not the usual celebration of such soundtrack pioneers as Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Hans Zimmer, etc. No, brilliant as they are, we’re acknowledging popular – and some more obscure – songs that were either judiciously picked by directors with exquisite taste to enhance their cinematic projects, or specifically commissioned for a movie soundtrack. We’ve also aimed for a good mix of genres, resulting in the likes of Isaac Hayes, the Bee Gees and Underworld rubbing shoulders with Simon & Garfunkel and Bob Dylan. As for the films themselves, they span science fiction, comedy, romance, crime, Westerns and more. Grab your popcorn and roll the credits…

Michael Andrews & Gary Jules
Mad World
(Donnie Darko OST, Everloving Records)

The original version of ‘Mad World’ was a jaunty 1982 electropop hit single from the debut album – The Hurting – of surly Brit duo Tears For Fears. Some 20 years later it was turned into a plaintive piano-led ballad by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack to Richard Kelly’s genius psych-out indie movie Donnie Darko. As surprising as it was to hear the song completely reworked, the real shock came when it was released by Sanctuary as a single in December of 2003, following Donnie Darko’s surge in popularity on DVD, and claimed the UK Christmas No 1 spot despite being in no way festive. A mad world indeed.

Cowboy Junkies
Sweet Jane
(The Trinity Session, RCA)

Originally featured on The Velvet Underground’s Loaded album of 1970, ‘Sweet Jane’ was later covered in 1988 by Toronto-based alt-country band Cowboy Junkies for The Trinity Session. It’s this slow and sultry version, more in line with an early live recording by the Velvet, that was included on the soundtrack to Natural Born Killers, its languid feel and reverbed production proving a perfect fit for Oliver Stone’s controversial, hallucinatory road trip movie. Although in this case it’s Nine Inch Nails’ frontman Trent Reznor, not Stone, who gets credit for picking it, as he served as the film’s soundtrack producer.

Aerosmith
Sweet Emotion
(Toys In The Attic, Sony)

Recorded for Aerosmith’s third LP, 1975’s Toys In The Attic, the riff-packed ‘Sweet Emotion’ was memorably used as the intro theme to Richard Linklater’s 1970s coming-of-age masterpiece movie Dazed And Confused in 1993. The director also had fun cherry-picking songs of the era for what became one of the all-time-great soundtracks, including ZZ Top’s ‘Tush’, Alice Cooper’s ‘School’s Out’, The Runaways’ ‘Cherry Bomb’ and Deep Purple’s ‘Highway Star’.

The Cowsills
The Rain, The Park & Other Things
(The Rain, The Park & Other Things, K-Tel)

This pseudo-psych flower-power pop confection, a US No 2 hit for this mom-and-the-kids Rhode Island family group in 1967, was instantly transformed into an irresistible kitsch classic when the Farrelly Brothers featured it in their hilarious 1994 comedy Dumb And Dumber. It plays behind the incredible Jim Carrey dream sequence – white doves, flaming farts, kung fu – that ends with him almost crashing his van head-on into a lorry.

Elton John
Tiny Dancer
(Madman Across The Water, EMI)

The semi-autobiographical Almost Famous, from 2000, honours director Cameron Crowe’s early career as a teen contributor to US rock music magazine Rolling Stone. Elton’s ballad crops up when fictitious group Stillwater (based on The Allman Brothers Band) are on the tour bus, all feeling wasted and jaded. Someone starts up ‘Tiny Dancer’ and before you know it they’re all singing along. It’s a ridiculously moving scene from the box office flop-turned-cult-classic.

Pixies
Where Is My Mind?
(Surfa Rosa, 4AD)

There aren’t that many messed-up movie endings to match the finale of Fight Club. Edward Norton, with a chunk of his face blown off, and Helena Bonham Carter, with half of her mind AWOL, join to witness the anarchist destruction of high rise after high rise. David Fincher’s acclaimed movie came out in 1999, three years after the Chuck Palahniuk novel that inspired it, and there could scarcely be a more apt song to accompany the ending than this slow-burning Pixies number.

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Red Right Hand
(Let Love In, Mute)

This ominous spooker is synonymous with the Scream horror franchise, cropping up in all of the films except Scream 4. Cave originally released it on Let Love In, his band’s eighth LP, in 1994. Cave got the title from the description of God’s vengeful hand in Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. The song also pops up in the TV series Peaky Blinders, and Cave’s well-regarded blog where he answers fans’ questions is called The Red Hand Files.

Bob Dylan
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
(Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, Columbia)

This one was specifically written by Bob Dylan for the soundtrack to Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 Western Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, starring Kris Kristofferson and James Coburn. Dylan had a part in the movie as a superfluous presence called Alias and provided the music, mostly acoustic instrumentals. This track, though, took on a life of its own and has now become a classic covered by seemingly zillions of other artists. Standouts are Guns N’ Roses’ version, included on their 1992 LP Use Your Illusion II, and Warren Zevon’s take on his final album, 2000’s The Wind, especially poignant as he recorded it while he was dying of lung cancer.

Queen
Bohemian Rhapsody
(A Night At The Opera, EMI)

Okay, it’s totally obvious but no playlist featuring popular songs in movie soundtracks could be complete without paying homage to the singalong car scene in Penelope Spheeris’ 1992 comedy classic Wayne’s World. Mike Myers, Dana Carvey and their goofy hair metal pals righteously and ritualistically headbang along to the operatic Queen epic, some 18 years after it topped the UK charts as a single from their fourth album, A Night At The Opera. Mamma mia!

Underworld
Born Slippy (Nuxx)
(Born Slippy (Nuxx), Smith Hyde Productions)

We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to Trainspotting, Danny Boyle’s 1996 Britpop-Scots junkie movie based on Irvine Welsh’s incendiary 1993 novel. Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust For Life’ and ‘Nightclubbing’, New Order’s ‘Temptation’, Blur’s ‘Sing’, Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ – all are worthy of acclaim. But in capturing the seedy edge the film so masterfully delivered, none was as fitting as ‘Born Slippy’, Underworld’s thunderous, alcohol-fuelled dance anthem.

Steppenwolf
Born To Be Wild
(Steppenwolf, Geffen)

This is pretty much where the whole idea of using contemporary rock and pop hits to enhance a movie began. The revolutionary 1969 hippie biker movie, starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper (who also directed), tapped into the counter-culture by featuring tracks from Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, The Band, Electric Prunes and, most famously of all, Steppenwolf. Sung with a ferocious growl and propelled by a superb guitar riff, ‘Born To Be Wild’ said it all.

Simon & Garfunkel
Mrs Robinson
(Bookends, Columbia)

It’s so synonymous with Mike Nichols’ 1967 movie The Graduate that many assume ‘Mrs Robinson’ was specifically written for the score. Not so – Simon and Garfunkel were working on it before being asked to contribute to the film, and later released it on their Bookends LP in 1968. That meant it was not eligible for an Oscar, leaving ‘Talk To The Animals’ from Doctor Dolittle to scoop the ‘Best Music (Song)’ award. Nichols did walk away with Best Director, though.

Stealers Wheel
Stuck In The Middle With You
(Stealers Wheel, Universal Music Catalogue)

This 1973 hit, written by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan for Scottish folk-rock band Stealers Wheel, was gloriously resurrected in 1992 by Quentin Tarantino for his feature-length debut Reservoir Dogs, where it plays in the scene where Michael Madsen’s Mr. Blonde dances about with a razor before slicing off a cop’s ear. Tarantino has continued to raid his pop music knowledge for his movies ever since.

Isaac Hayes
Theme From Shaft
(Shaft – Music From The Soundtrack, Stax)

Isaac Hayes, soul music maestro and ‘in-house’ songwriter for the Stax label, was a brilliant choice to pen the soundtrack for this Gordon Parks 1971 blaxploitation flick – and his ‘Theme From Shaft’ was so obviously awesome that it went on to lead a chart life of its own, taking the top spot in the US and peaking at No 4 in the UK. A wah-wah-driven funky mutha, which memorably lays down an instrumental groove for a minute-and-a-half before Hayes’ vocal kicks in, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The rest of the double album soundtrack is a treat too, particularly the 19-minute jam ‘Do Your Thing’.

The Rolling Stones
Gimme Shelter
(Let It Bleed, ABKCO)

Award-winning director Martin Scorsese is fond of a ‘needle drop’ in his movies, particularly his beloved Rolling Stones. However, he must really dig this opening track from the band’s 1969 album Let It Bleed, as he’s used it in three of his films (so far). The most memorable? The lengthy montage sequence from Goodfellas, where this bluesy groove from Mick, Keef, et al, is the background to Henry Hill’s evolution from conventional mob wiseguy to full blown drug dealer.

The Moldy Peaches
Anyone Else But You
(The Moldy Peaches, Average Cabbage Records)

The 2007 bittersweet teen pregnancy drama Juno, starring Elliot Page and Michael Cera, boasted a cute, clever and mostly indie soundtrack including Belle & Sebastian, Sonic Youth and The Kinks. But it was Kimya Dawson, the New York anti-folk singer-songwriter who stole the show, contributing seven tracks, the very best of which was ‘Anyone Else But You’, performed by Dawson and musical partner Adam Green under the moniker The Moldy Peaches.

The Bee Gees
Stayin’ Alive
(Saturday Night Fever OST, Bee Gees Catalogue)

Another track composed specifically for a movie, this daddy of all disco anthems was crafted by the helium-voiced Brothers Gibb for the 1977 John Travolta vehicle Saturday Night Fever. The film, depicting a dance addict getting his kicks in the nightclubs of a tough Noo Yawk neighbourhood, was a monster hit. Yet its soundtrack album, led by this swaggering theme, proved even more successful, becoming the best-selling LP of all time until Jacko’s Thriller.

Jackson C. Frank
Milk And Honey
(Jackson C. Frank, Transatlantic)

Jackson C. Frank was a troubled soul. In 1954, when he was 11, a school furnace blew up, killing 15 students including his childhood girlfriend. Frank suffered burns to over 50 per cent of his body, necessitating an eight-month stay in hospital where he also learned to play acoustic guitar. He lived the rest of his life in pain and only ever recorded one LP in 1965. Credit due to director Vincent Gallo for digging up the superb ‘Milk And Honey’ for his tragic 2003 drama The Brown Bunny.

R.E.M.
Man On The Moon
(Automatic For The People, Craft Recordings)

Andy Kaufman, the American performance artist and ‘anti-comedian’, was the subject of a 1999 biopic from Miloš Forman. Kaufman, known for his role as Latka Gravas in TV series Taxi, was about as off-beat an entertainer as it’s possible to get, obliterating the lines between acting and reality. He died aged 35 – or, just like his hero Elvis, maybe his death was a hoax? This is partly the gist of the 1992 R.E.M. song that helped inspire the movie.

The Doors
The End
(The Doors, Rhino/Elektra)

It’s pretty hard to argue against Francis Ford Coppola’s use of The Doors’ epic ‘The End’ being one of the best examples of a found track in a movie ever. Shimmering cymbals and Robby Krieger’s haunting guitar lines open the director’s equally epic Vietnam war flick Apocalypse Now, as US helicopters whirl across the jungle in slow motion, torching all below with napalm. It’s horrifically balletic, and later matched in the same film by the inspired use of Wagner’s ‘Ride Of The Valkyries’ to accompany a fleet of choppers attacking a village. The quizzical look from Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) says it all.