Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Seola's 10 Best Soundtracks

Yeah yeah, Saturday Night Fever was sooooo epic.  No.  Remixing a standard disco groove over a master's work is not epic.  Grease, while catchy to sing along was so cheesy, I had to drink a desert wine with it.  Too many people also pick "best" based on a single song being awesome on the soundtrack.  Somewhere Over the Rainbow does not a soundtrack make.  Now, onto my picks for best soundtracks ever.

List after jump, click on headline.




10.  Dirty Dancing - This would be higher if half the songs were past 3 minutes in length.  Fact is - outside of the two songs written for the film (Time of My Life and She's Like the Wind.. a love song that almost completely vaults this up and really the reason for the inclusion), the other songs are just... okay.  The songs they generally picked were over repetitive.
9.  Moulin Rouge - Baz Luhrman's touch to change up extremely popular songs exposed many of them to a whole new generation.  The generation that remembered them caught the fever too as a new way to hear some favorites such as Lady Marmalade.
8.  Pirates of the Caribbean (any of the 3) - almost entirely instrumental, but I love the use of electric guitars and the moments portrayed in the movie, the theme alone is catchy.
7.  Mary Poppins - Feed the Birds is my favorite, but we've all sang Spoonful of Sugar and Supercali.. supercali... what is that nonsense word?  And we've done it for almost 50 years, my kids know the songs!
6.  Rocky Horror Picture Show - Just sexy enough to avert the cheesy campy...
5.  Dumb and Dumber - Hidden gems from Crash Test Dummies (The Mmm Mmm Mmm guys) doing Peter Pumpkinhead, Mary Moon by Dead Eye Dick, Crash by Primitives Willi One Blood, ... this was the first tape I played in my CD player to cassette tape jack when I got my license.
4.  Cruel Intentions (The Original) - From This Love to Counting Crows Colorblind to Bittersweet Symphony, every song was a great place in the film and weren't exactly chart toppers when the movie came out.
3.  Marley and Me - the instrumental theme plays throughout with different instruments and at different speeds.  The final scene (yeah, you know what it is) is a slowed down version with what I think is a trumpet and electric piano backing.  It plays a couple other times in the movie with strings, real piano and such.  What makes this soundtrack for me is Lucky Man by The Verve.  It's swingy, it's upbeat, it's catchy and it's in the best spot in the movie.  The Blues version of Teen Spirit (originally Nirvana) is a nice touch.
2.  Empire Records - Another of those "not so mainstream songs" soundtracks from Dire Straits remake of Romeo and Juliet, Sugar High, Cranberries, Gin Blossoms and yes... Say No More, Mon Amor, admit it, you've sang it.  It was a great compilation of 90's gems.
1.  Forrest Gump - Was there any doubt?  Two chock full discs with Elvis, Beach Boys, Skynard, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and on and on.  The secret is to get the "full" soundtrack.  The original CD release doesn't have the Hendrix songs, most of the Doors songs and Free Bird.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Totally agree with you with Moulin Rouge. Ewan McGregor as eye candy didn't hurt one bit either.

Cruel Intentions had a redux? When was this? You forgot Every Me and Every You by Placebo! Regardless, good tunes in that soundtrack.

Seola said...

Meant the original movie, Cruel Intentions has been "remade" so to speak and had 2 or 3 sequels... and none of them even pass B rate! And yes - how did I forget!! Every Me and Every You was a damn fine song!