Super Soundtracks

The Soundtrack - boyoboy, how many movies have been saved by super duper music? Jaws, Star Wars, and Raiders would be verrry different without John Williams. Imagine Halloween with a different score...
I dare say Verna Fields and John Williams are the other two equal thirds of Jaws.

My
Top
14
goes
a little
like this:
..in no order..

The Straight Story - Angelo Badalamenti - So much emotion locked into this music - from one of the most beautiful films ever made.
Tron Legacy - Daft Punk - Film good. Soundtrack brilliant.
Superman - John Williams
Zodiac - Various/David Shire - As if Rod Stewart's "(I know)I'm losing you" in that trailer isn't enough, the whole soundtrack rocks but Donovan's "Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang. Here comes the roly poly man and he's singing songs of love.." - I have the chills...
9 ½ Weeks - Various - It still works, and you know what I mean...
Brimstone and Treacle - The Police/Various - it's excellent - Listen to the whole thing...
& "I Burn for You" rocks!! ...kinda sexy creepy - Very cool song.
The Terminator - Brad Fiedel - That main theme is perfect.
Batman - Danny Elfman - "Memories, from the corner of my mind..."
Austin Powers - Various - Fun.
Psycho - Bernard Hermann
The Crow - Various
Pulp Fiction - Various ...I know it got played too much...
Highlander - Queen
...and at #14 is my favorite 80's theme... "Blade Runner Blues" from THE #1 ...Blade Runner by Vangelis


A soundtrack is a powerful thing ...it can "raise up" or "truly undermine" a film...
On True Romance and To Live and Die in LA...
If Tarantino did the soundtrack for TR it'd be a bigger cult film - fact. Okay, "You're So Cool" is an incredibly nice little piece of music, and the signature tune of the movie for me, but the fact that "Take me to the Other Side" by Aerosmith isn't on it means the album has one only one really good track. Not enough.
If To Live and Die in LA didn't have a painfully lame score it'd be far better remembered. The film itself is fantastic, and the title track is the best song Wang Chung ever did ...but again, this is not a particularly high bar. To quote another LA-featured film "In this town I'm the leper with the most fingers."
One hit soundtracks are often the ones we remember.

...and Tubular Bells still scares me...

Then there's the X-Files first movie soundtrack - none of the tunes are in the film. Strange.
I don't really like soundtracks "inspired by"... Gimme a break.

But # 1 was Star Wars way way back ...I called my friend, Jim and played the whole album. It remains my longest telephone call ever.
Okay, longest call with a guy friend..

Music puts you in the moment again like a smell in the fall - it's magic.

"It's a Kind of Magic" anyway...
..ha haa..

A.