[Updated on August 27, 2006] Soundtracks have played a key role in my music education, such as it is. When I discover a new song or band, it comes one of three ways: I heard the song on the radio (this doesn't happen much anymore as I can rarely stand to listen to the available radio stations), someone turned me on to it, or I picked it up from a movie. I rarely buy soundtracks, and my honest opinion is that most of them are ... [+]

[Updated on August 27, 2006] Soundtracks have played a key role in my music education, such as it is. When I discover a new song or band, it comes one of three ways: I heard the song on the radio (this doesn't happen much anymore as I can rarely stand to listen to the available radio stations), someone turned me on to it, or I picked it up from a movie. I rarely buy soundtracks, and my honest opinion is that most of them are bunk, but that rare find winds up becoming a key part of my music collection.

I think the first soundtrack that excited me was "Amadeus: Original Soundtrack Recording". This was a two disc set that guaranteed I would never turn my nose at classical again. I no longer have this set - it was stolen almost ten years ago and I've never been able to bring myself to fork up full price and have yet to luck out finding it used - but the music is still in my head.

If the music stays with you that long, it's got to be worth something (of course, this argument would also work for Disneyland - I still can't get that blasted "It's a Small World" out of my head, and that was almost 15 years ago).

This list is not a best of by any means, but I think it represents some of the better stuff available. While the playlist will only include one track from each movie, the descriptions will try and call out some of the other worthwhile titles that didn't make the cut. Odds are, you could use the same list of movies and come up with something completely different - and that's one of the reasons why great soundtracks are so great.

The Lost Boys - Cry, Little Sister (Theme From The Lost Boys) - Gerard McMann
I was in Jr. High when The Lost Boys hit the theatres, which means it came before I could afford a true music habit. It was my older sister that bought this album, on vinyl, but that didn't stop me from playing it over and over and over again. Before this movie, I had never heard of Echo and the Bunnymen, but all of a sudden they were huge. They were the kind of band hip people who knew stuff about music listened to (or at least talked like they did). And while I knew who The Doors were, the Bunnymen's version of People are Strange bridged that generational gap to make listening to them acceptably cool.
The album also features INXS. I couldn't tell you which came first, the ground breaking album "Kick" or the movie, The Lost Boys, but as big a hit as the movie was with the late eighties teens I have to believe that having a solid hit on this soundtrack did wonders for their career. I'm sure I would have listened to them anyway, but Good Times is good times, if you know what I mean.
The title I chose for the playlist, the theme song from the movie, is the one that's stuck with me through time. "Haunting" is a description you see a lot in music reviews, but I don't think it's a sound many people pull off well without sounding corny. This song could be used as a template for haunting music. Gerard McMann (known these days as G Tom Mac) is one of those names in music that only producers and music geeks recognize. He's done a lot of work, but it's been mainly for movies or writing for other artists. Still, this one song is enough to guarantee his name will be forever rediscovered by those curious music afficcionados wondering who was responsible for this timeless nocturnal classic.

Pump Up The Volume - Me and the Devil Blues - Cowboy Junkies
This movie couldn't have been timed better to have me as its target audience. A sophomore in High School, I was all too eager to follow in the footsteps of Christian Slater - and here was that very hero from Heathers opening my ears to music not to be found on the radio. Like so many other frustrating soundtracks, this one is missing some key songs from the movie (Leonard Cohen probably stands out most prominant). But what's included is worth it. Concrete Blonde does a great job of covering Leonard Cohen with Everybody Knows, and the U.K. Surf mix of the Pixies is some of their best work. Titanium Expose by Sonic Youth is definately by Sonic Youth - what more can you say about that?
Before this movie, I had zero exposure to these bands. This is not stuff they played on mainstream radio (this was before I discovered any "Alternative" radio stations). So listening to stuff like the Pixies and Sonic Youth was just mind blowing. I didn't exactly walk away from the movie buying Pixies albums, but my ears were suddenly open for a whole new kind of sound. This is how pop sensitivities are formed.
The Cowboy Junkies is a band I didn't discover for myself until at least five years after this movie. I can't for the life of me remember how I finally found them. But now, after becoming immersed in their music, I look back at this soundtrack and find it amazing that one of their greatest songs blew right past me. I am not at all familiar with Robert Johnson, but he must be a genius for having written this song. This cover by the Cowboy Junkies - wow. I mean - wow. Listen to it. Seriously listen to it. It's just - wow.

Labyrinth - Within You - David Bowie
I didn't actually own this soundtrack until a couple of years ago. But I own the movie and it's gotten playtime on the level of some of my favorite albums. Besides memorizing all the clever lines, I am also frighteningly familiar with the music. And my favorites within that score have changes over time as I've grown. At first, predictably, my favorite hit was Magic Dance, primarily because of the clever rhyming exchange between Bowie and his Goblins. Later it became the Opening Titles with that chilling line I could never forget, "It's only forever, not long at all."
These days the favorite is the poetic Within You. This song takes place when the fantasy realm begins to collapse and the two main characters face off against each other. There's an exchange that happens there where Bowie says:
"Everything that you wanted I have done. You asked that child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me and I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down. AND I HAVE DONE IT ALL FOR YOU! I am exhausted from living up to your expectations."
Within You is the song playing during this exchange. It still has the power to give me chills.

Eyes Wide Shut - Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing - Chris Isaak
Ok, fine, I've never seen the movie (totally not my kind of flick), and I don't own the soundtrack. Heck, I can admit it, I've never even heard the soundtrack. But you've got to admit, this is a great song. I got it from Isaak's Forever Blue ablum, so I know it well. And even though I'll likely never watch this movie, I have to give kudos to the producers for including this song in the soundtrack. Great job guys - keep up the good work!

The Big Lebowski - Hotel California - The Gypsy Kings
I likely would never have seen this movie were it not for my wife's insisting how great it was. And she was right. Before my wife, I thought John Goodman's range was limited to roles like King Ralph and The Rosanne Barr Show, but then I saw movies like Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski. Goodman is a pretty cool dude. And Steve Buscemi is a genius, plain and simple. And then there's the music.
This album is quite an eclectic bundle. You've got a somewhat obscure Dylan track, a psychadelic cover by Kenny Rogers (trippy), a decent Elvis Costello number and even Henry Mancini. Heck, this albums even got Captain Beefheart. What more could you ask for in a collection?
I'll tell you what more. How about a cover that takes one of the most rediculously overplayed hits from the last 30 years and makes it fresh, makes it worth listening to again. The Gypsy Kings breathed live into a song I would have been happy to bury myself. If you haven't heard this version, and you find yourself mourning the passing of your ability to enjoy the Eagles, then go listen to this song! It may just save your life.

Chicago - Cell Block Tango - Catharine Zeta Jones / Renee Zellweger / Taye Diggs
I blame having seen this movie on my mother. Again, I had no intention of watching it - but she had the DVD and I had time to kill and one thing lead to another and ... well, it was fantastic. I don't usually care for musicals, but when Richard Gere started tap dancing in the court room (Razzle Dazzle) he won me forever. I hate Richard Gere - he does those anal straight lace roles like Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride - but he did a class act in this movie.
I also don't care for show tunes. I had a roommate back in college, a theatre major, who played nothing but whenever he got control of the stereo. It drove me nuts. And this album definately has a showtune feel to it. But then you have Danny Elfman doing some of his best work (After Midnight is ok, but Roxie's Suite is solid, hip - real jazzy stuff) and some decent upbeat R&B from Anastacia (Love Is a Crime).
But the song that stuck with me, the one I find myself playing over and over again, is Cell Block Tango - and it's got to be the version from the prison scene - it feels more raw, more real, than the later version by Queen Latifa, Lil' Kim and Macy Gray. It's definately a show tune, I can't argue that, but I find myself playing it none the less...

Forest Gump - Rainy Day Women 12 & 35 - Bob Dylan
I'm suspect I'm not the only guy my age who used this soundtrack as an easy way of collecting a bunch of classic hits. I found the movie stupid, and the acting typical of Tom Hanks (although I did enjoy Catch Me If You Can and The Ladykillers) - but in 1994 I had to make sure my collection could be validated with some time tested material or else my college cred wouldn't hold water.
That's where this soundtrack came in. I treated it like a textbook, and listening meant research. Unfortunately what I found out is that hollywood has a rather bland taste in music. It's all so ... nice - and white washed. Where're the Beatles? Little Richard? Chuck Berry? Jerry Lewis? Where's the edge? But, of course, that's what you get for expecting a soundtrack to be more edgy than the movie. And now I suspect radio stations also cheat and use this album to bolster their collections since just about every one of these songs has ridiculous play time.
But at least we have Dylan. This is one song I haven't managed to get sick of, and I've heard it plenty. As I stroll through my collection of soundtrack hits, this one manages to stand out on its own merit, despite the movie. And, besides, it works in the playlist.

Pulp Fiction - Flowers On the Wall - The Statler Brothers
The first time I saw Pulp Fiction I sat through the credits in stunned silence. Could they get away with that? Did it work? It took me at least a week to digest, but my ultimate conclusion was that, in fact, it did work. Tarantino may not be the first to do what this movie did, but he's the first to have such a unanimously positive response to it. Pulp Fiction made us think of movies differently - and the soundtrack lives up to this legacy.
The surf music (not my thing at all) is freakin cool. I actually play this stuff. Then they thought to include some of the best lines from the movie - fantastic idea as it gives the soundtrack a real Pulp Fiction flavor. As if that weren't enough, you have a couple of real classics that haven't become numb with radio exposure - like Chuck Berry's You Never Can Tell, Urge Overkill's Girl You'll Be a woman Soon and - my favorite - Flowers on the Wall by the Statler Brothers.
I don't include it here, but I do have to give mention to Maria McKey's If Love is a red Dress (Hang Me in Rags). McKey's bluesy crooning hits dead on with this song, and the result is pure meloncholic sweetness. Beautiful.

Lost Highway - I'm Deranged (edit) - David Bowie
Here, again, I have to come clean and admit I've never seen the movie. I probably should as I suspect I'd actually like this one, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Still, though, the soundtrack by itself is a work of art. Lou Reed, Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson and David Bowie all on the same project? And the result is not to be missed. Manson does a remake of CCR's "I Put a Spell on You", and it works. "Eye" is vintage Pumpkins, and Lou Reed is always worth listening to. I would argue that Trent is not at his best on this album, but what do I know? "Perfect Drug" was a major hit, after all.
The work by Barry Adamson and Angelo Badalament is quality work, and perfect for reading to. Rammstein is, well, Rammstein. YOu just have to be into that to appreciate it.
Bowie's "I'm Deranged" has become one of my favorite songs. It has a goth/industrial feel to it while still remaining mild enough to fit into a radio playlist. It's a little psychotic, which works well with Bowie's voice, and yet not so much that I fail to connect with it. It's the kind of song I think describes a really fucked up day the way few songs can - that point where you're beyond anger, beyond fighting. It is what it is, and it's fucked up. And it just doesn't matter anymore.

Run Lola Run - Supermarket - Johnny Klimek/Reinhold Heil/Tom Tykwer
Have you seen this movie? Fantastic! One key element that really gets me excited about a movie is when there's some element that strikes me as fresh, unique. I'm always on the prowell for radical departures from the norm. But they have to be executed successfully. That's the tricky part. It's easy to do something nobody else does, especially when there're damn good reasons why nobody else does them. Mixing animation and film, for example, has been done before - but rarely done well. Cool World could be called a fair example for a successful execution, while Who Framed Roger Rabbit showed Hollywood why this is typically a bad idea to begin with.
Run Lola Run does this, mixing animation with film, and throws in some amazing music to tie it together. The plot is rather simple - which is also tricky in a movie. The temptation is to throw in some extra tension - new characters or relationships or situations. But this one repeats the plot multiple times. When's the last time this was pulled off in such a way that you didn't regret being exposed to the expiriment?
I own this movie now, and love rewatching it. It's that good. But to make it that much better, it's got a soundtrack that can stand on its own. I don't even like club music - but this stuff rocks.

...To Be Continued [-]