Music Meme: Bonus Question

[cjlasky7]

I've had an aggravating morning, so I decided to distract myself on dreamwidth.

Today's question:

What is your favorite song written specifically for a movie?

TBH, this question overloads my brain. My first instinct is "Goldfinger" (Gooooold fin-gah!), but I feel there's a better answer out there...

Comments

[jesuswasbatman]

The one which has long outlasted the film it was written for: "Unchained Melody".

[cjlasky7]

This is tricky, because the version everybody knows--the one by the Righteous Brothers--isn't the one in the movie. The same goes for "Mona Lisa"--it won the Oscar in 1950, but the Nat King Cole version came later.

[beer_good_foamy]

This is really hard. There are so many. I'm going to skip musicals and rock operas because that feels like cheating, so let's go with... hmmm... OK, a top three right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWX_MFNOL_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmo3HFa2vjg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEdPe1SxitI

(Nobody ever said there was a correlation between "great song" and "great movie".)

[cjlasky7]

Yes on "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", especially if it's the Giorgio Moroder version, not the Nile Rogers version.

Mancini could be a top twenty all by himself.

How about everything in the first two Beatle movies? Is that cheating, somehow?

[beer_good_foamy]

Mancini could be a top twenty all by himself.

Oh yes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC_s4gyIqag

Is this the bit where I confess the only Beatles movie I've seen is Yellow Submarine? I obviously know the songs but I have trouble seeing them as movie material first and foremost...

[cjlasky7]

You do need to see A Hard Day's Night, at least. It's a fun, if incredibly slight plot, and their four-way chemistry is in full effect.

And every four minutes, they drop an all time classic song.

[shadowkat]

You've forgotten "Pink Panther" if you are doing Mancini.

https://youtu.be/NJjC7H7cN14

[shadowkat]

Big second on "Putting Out Fire With Gasoline" - David Bowie's theme song to Cat People.
That is an amazing song.

It's a horrible movie but who cares - the song is amazing.

[cactuswatcher]

Top Gun may be a glorified B movie but "Take My Breath Away" really struck a cord with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqYRgEfmxBg

[cjlasky7]

"'Take My Breath Away'?! Are you kidding me?! 'Danger Zone' is the only song in that movie!" -- Sterling Archer

[cactuswatcher]

Well, you know cartoon characters... Elmer Fudd probably liked that one, too. ;o)

[shadowkat]

I agree - I love Berlin. That was a great song. Although, cjl is right Highway to the Danger Zone is the theme song. But I like the Berlin song a lot better. And it was really fun B movie! Actually I'd say B+ or A-, for what it was trying to be? A. I mean it's an action movie.

[shadowkat]

This is easier than the one I just did...also a category on another song meme. (okay, for a movie that is NOT a musical. And it has to have lyrics.)

Suicide is Painless - the theme song to the Movie MASH. by Johnny Mandel. The instrumentation is amazing, and the lyrics are an excellent satiric take on WAR.

Runner's up?

* Live and Let Die - possibly the best James Bond film number ever by Paul McCartney, which was also used to great effect in the satire "Gross Point Blank"

* If You Want to Sing Out... by Cat Stevens for Harold and Maude.

[cjlasky7]

Great call on MASH. Most people forget the song even has lyrics.

50 bonus points for Cat Stevens. I forgot that song was from Harold and Maude!

[beer_good_foamy]

I love how the lyrics to MASH came about - Altman wanted lyrics that were sincere and hopelessly mawkish, so he hired his teenage song to write them.

The kid made, and is still making, more money from the song than Altman ever got for the movie.

[shadowkat]

Shows how differently we think. I can remember everything about Harold & Maud, and the song jumps out at me because of that film. And I saw Harold and Maude in the 1980s.

[atpo_onm]

Since you mentioned Bond... James Bond... I was always rather fond of this theme song, which happened to be from the very first Bond film I ever saw, at least in a theater. (Can't recall for sure on TV).

Stunning opening visual sequence, too, on that big, big screen, that you can get just a hint of on this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs8uYxTJ530

[cjlasky7]

Ah! I got it!

"Purple Rain" for the win.