Staff Picks: 7 Soundtracks That Steal the Scene

No matter how great a plot or script, music is what sets the tone and creates an ambiance for a movie. Even in the silent film era, pianos and organs were used to communicate feelings and develop the mood of a story. It’s no wonder that the Oscars shower awards on not only actors, but also composers and even pop artists. Here are seven of our favorite movie soundtracks, without which their accompanying films would be pretty lifeless indeed.

1) Mermaids (1990)

Picked by: Gretchen

Originally, I was going to do The Boat that Rocked, aka Pirate Radio, which has one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. But instead, I decided to share a soundtrack that people are less likely to have listened to or thought much about, even if they’ve seen the movie. Mermaids is a lovely little coming-of-age film, starring Cher, who plays mother to teenage Winona Ryder and a very young Christina Ricci. It takes place circa 1963, which means not only do we get to see Cher rocking the bump, but we get to hear a great soundtrack comprised of girl groups, R&B, and even a few songs by the likes of Eydie Gorme and Rosemary Clooney that would have appealed to the older set during that era. The music is used very well within the context of the film, as in the sweet and slightly humorous scene where Ryder’s character meets her love interest to the opening lines of “Johnny Angel.” And moreover, every single song is a classic. Together, these tunes make an awesome playlist that you could easily imagine hearing on your transistor radio back in the early ’60s. I’d highly recommend both the movie and the soundtrack if you’re looking for something to put you in a nostalgic, feel-good mood.

2) The Big Chill (1983)

Picked by: Rick

I don’t know of any movie that integrates music in a non-arbitrary way better than The Big Chill. For example, I think American Graffiti is one of the greatest soundtracks ever, but it’s really just period-music used to set the tone for the time in which the movie is set — it doesn’t have anything to do with the action on the screen. Not so with The Big Chill; it seems that every song directly relates to the plot in some way. From the opening when we hear “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” as the characters hear about the suicide, every song seems relatable to the action on the screen. Add to that that the songs in the movie are by the Rolling Stones, the Rascals, the Temptations, the Band, Procol Harum, Aretha Franklin and so on, it’s a first-rate musical experience. Note, however, that if you’re looking for a copy of the soundtrack on CD, there are many different versions with different selections. It’s all good, but some compilations have more tunes than others.

3) The Graduate  (1967)

Picked by: Emma

While the works of Wes Anderson also tempted me, The Graduate is the grandfather of the hip soundtrack. Director Mike Nichols and editor Sam O’Steen originally used Simon and Garfunkel tracks to pace the edits, but Nichols decided that substituting original music as was planned simply wouldn’t work, and kept the Simon and Garfunkel works. Such a move was pretty uncommon at the time, but Midnight Cowboy (1969) has a similar story. So, Paul Simon was asked to write new songs for the movie, giving us “Mrs. Robinson” (originally titled “Mrs. Roosevelt”). Nichols was a master of using pop music to create a mood and move the story along. Simon and Garfunkel were a perfect fit for the film, and the soundtrack itself was so popular, it knocked White Album out of its way as it climbed the charts. The Graduate, both the film and soundtrack, are definitely worth checking out.

4) Help!  (1965)

Picked by: Pam

While a fun movie in its own right, let’s face it — the Beatles’ Help! can’t compare to their shining glory, A Hard Day’s Night. When comparing the soundtracks to these two films, however, I’d give the edge to Help! for its underrated gems, such as Paul McCartney’s “The Night Before” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face” as well as George Harrison’s “I Need You” and “You Like Me Too Much.” It also contains John Lennon’s superb and melancholy ode to Bob Dylan, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” and the McCartney classic “Yesterday.” The Beatles released the album Rubber Soul during December of this same year, and their sound was starting to bend ever so slightly towards the experimental. Like most of the Fabs’ albums, it’s one you can listen to straight through without a single bad track to be found.

5) Tommy (1975)

Picked by: Erika

Tommy rocks in all its forms (concept album, concert performance, film, and Broadway musical), but the movie soundtrack is by far the craziest. The Who’s 1969 concept album was the first rock opera to to have such a linear narrative through-line. But the story was still pretty loose, so when it was converted to film in 1975, lots of songs were changed or moved, and characters and their relationships became more clearly defined. Unlike the original, where Roger Daltrey sang all the parts, the film boasted a star cast led by Daltrey in the title role, with Ann-Margaret, Jack Nicolson, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, Elton John (singing the hit single “Pinball Wizard”), and Tina Turner as the unforgettably terrifying Acid Queen. The movie is a total acid trip and includes awesome/horrifying scenes like Tina Tuner tripping with an Iron Maiden, Ann-Margaret writhing around in soap, chocolate, and baked beans, and Elton John singing the title song in his humungous psychedelic boots and glasses.

6) That Thing You Do! (1996)

Picked by: Allison

Unlike many of the movies that took the nostalgia train in the ’90s, the That Thing You Do! soundtrack is comprised of completely original music, including the titular track, that hearkens back to the 1960s sound without being hokey, dated, or just plain bad. In fact, there are enough tracks credited to the Wonders to have become a proper LP (on Play-Tone Records, of course). Though Jimmy Mattingly II, is the lead singer of the one-hit Wonders, Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers recorded the vocals that gave the band’s songs their signature sound. The non-Wonders tracks on the album are also indicative of not only key points of the movie, but also help to transition through the times. “Lovin’ You Lots and Lots,” the opener for both the album and film, was written by Tom Hanks and sets the easy-listening, old-fashioned scene, which is obviously threatened by the advent of rock, while the film’s closer “I Need You (That Thing You Do)” is the perfect denouement (and is interestingly credited to “The Heardsmen,” Jimmy’s post-Wonders venture). The entire package is just so good, so tight, that this could easily have been a Play-Tone compilation in 1965; it’s so good, in fact, that when I met Bryan Cranston last year (humble brag) I, of course, asked him about his two-second appearance as Gus Grissom and told him he needs to listen to the soundtrack. Everyone does.

7) Now and Then (1995)

Picked by: Lindsay

For my pick this week, I also selected a coming-of-age film starring Christina Ricci. (Coincidence? Totally) This fluffy little film — panned by critics but seemingly adored by the public — chronicles the summer of 1970 in the lives of four best friends from a small town in Indiana, and the 25-years-later regrouping they undertake when one of the four is expecting a baby. There’s a lot of the requisite, “Is my life going the way I expected?” existential angst, but with enough of a splash of mystery and cute boys (hellooooo Devon Sawa!) to help pinpoint that summer as rose-tinted and idyllic and pivotal in the lives of these girls, regardless of where they ended up as adults. The music helps with this as well. Despite being set in 1970, there’s none of the heavy anti-war songs that we’ve come to expect from films in this era; these were Midwestern junior high schoolers, after all. Instead we get a nice sunshine-y dose of ’70s AM pop and R&B, courtesy of Diana Ross and the Supremes, Freda Payne, Stevie Wonder, and a couple entries from the Jackson 5, as well as the Monkees, the Archies, and Nancy Sinatra (and one song by Badfinger). But what that does is generate a feeling of innocence and heighten the nostalgia as these girls look back on that last summer before they all started to become the people they would become, and who among us hasn’t looked back on our youth in the same way? It’s a nice merger of songs and sentiment, not terribly unlike The Wonder Years, and because the feeling is universal, it’s one reason this is a film and soundtrack rec that’s fairly easy for me to make.

What’s your favorite soundtrack? Let us know in the comments!