Music From the Movie
The 50 best uses of songs in movies
Time Out New York ranks the coolest soundtrack moments of all time
Colloquially, information technology used to be called the "needle drop"—when a Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino picked a piece of preexisting music and laid information technology down under a dramatic scene, with seismic results. We've thumbed through our stacks of wax (i.e., Blu-ray collections) to collect movie theatre's most stiff examples, allowing for iconic uses of classical music and jazz along with the expected popular hits. One parameter, though: no songs composed for the movie itself. (Sorry, Simple Minds.) The result is our about toe-borer list to date. But do allow us know if we've left out your favorite jam.
50. "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)," Enya, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
In David Fincher's latest antiseptic thriller, the murderer has all the usual instruments of torture: poison gas, sharp scalpels, immobilizing slings. Just most harrowing of all? A gustatory modality for blasting Enya'south cloying hit song at eye-glazing book. (We don't have the prune—and wouldn't want to ruin the killer'due south identity for yous anyhow—but here'due south that absurd trailer again.)—Keith Uhlich
Buy, hire or watchThe Daughter With the Dragon Tattoo
Download "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Orinoco Catamenia (Sail Abroad)" by Enya
49. "Hip to Exist Square," Huey Lewis and the News, American Psycho (2000)
Truthful to the spirit of the novel, this adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's serial-killer satire uses Huey's catchy hit unmarried to score the cutthroat dispatching of a Wall Street rival. Christian Bale alternates gleeful critical assessments with grisly ax thwacks, making this superficially slick '80s melody allegorical of the ultimate Reagan-era hollow man.—David Fear
Purchase, hire or sentry American Psycho
Download "Hip to Exist Square" on Amazon
Spotter the video for "Hip to Be Square" by Huey Lewis and the News
48. "You Never Tin can Tell," Chuck Drupe, Pulp Fiction (1994)
Of the many peppy, pop-civilisation-charged scenes in Quentin Tarantino's landmark crime comedy, few pack the featherbrained punch of this Jack Rabbit Slim's musical number, gear up to a Chuck Berry jaunt. Uma Thurman slinks with feline grace, and John Travolta proves he'southward still got the Tony Manero moves.—Keith Uhlich
Buy, rent or watch Pulp Fiction
Download "You Tin can Never Tell" on Amazon
Lookout man the video for "You lot Never Can Tell" past Chuck Berry
47. "He Needs Me," Shelley Duvall, Dial-Drunk Beloved (2002)
The lilting love anthem from Robert Altman's 1980 Popaeye was brilliantly repurposed past Paul Thomas Anderson for his quirky romance: Adam Sandler races to join inamorata Emily Watson in Hawaii. When they finally encompass, the music flourishes and the rush is palpable.—Keith Uhlich
Buy, rent or watch Punch-Drunk Love
Download "He Needs Me" on Amazon
Sentry the video for "He Needs Me" by Shelley Duvall
46. "Some Velvet Morning time," Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, Morvern Callar (2002)
A psychedelic groove of soap-opera strings and lyrical menace accompanies Samantha Morton, lost in her headphone cloud, as she cruises to her McJob at the supermarket. Information technology's a perfectly rendered Gen-Whatsoever moment, an interior mood that few filmmakers have nailed equally expertly as Scotland's Lynne Ramsay.—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, rent or watch Morvern Callar
Download "Some Velvet Morning time" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Some Velvet Morning" by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra
45. "The Times They Are a-Changin'," Bob Dylan, Watchmen (2009)
Zack Snyder's faithful-to-a-fault adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons'south influential graphic novel is a dud, save its mesmerizing, Bob Dylan–scored opening-credits sequence. Dylan's folk prophecy poetically complements the history of the story's superhero protagonists, from their WWII heyday to a Vietnam-era autumn from grace.—Keith Uhlich
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Download "The Times They Area a-Changin'" on Amazon
Sentinel the video for "The Times They Are a-Changin'" by Bob Dylan
44. "Natural's Not in It," Gang of Four, Marie Antoinette (2006)
Sofia Coppola's threading of anachronistic postpunk into her portrait of the 18th-century queen prompts head-scratching amidst historical purists. But kick things off with Gang of 4'southward Marxist critique is inspired: The song immediately puts displays of conspicuous consumption within contextual air quotes. (Here'southward the trailer, with a taste of Gang of Four at the 0:30 mark, along with other artists.)—David Fear
Buy, rent or watch Marie Antoinette
Watch the video for "Natural'southward Not in It" by Gang of 4
43. "Danny Boy," Frank Patterson, Miller's Crossing (1990)
It's ironic enough for an Irish crime boss to exist assassinated in his bedroom while listening to this ballad. Even so the Coen brothers rev up the humor massively by having the contemplative gent (the mighty Albert Finney) actually survive the hit, returning a hail of submachine-gun fire while his favorite song calmly concludes.—Joshua Rothkopf
Purchase, rent or spotter Miller'southward Crossing
Download "Danny Male child" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Danny Boy" past Frank Patterson
42. "These Days," Nico, The Imperial Tenenbaums (2001)
Gwyneth Paltrow is immortalized equally the attracting, raccoon-eyed Margot Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson's slo-mo tracking shot, which captures a sweet reunion, a hint of nostalgia and the filmmaker's signature coziness, all wrapped upwardly in the Teutonic loveliness of Nico's serenity phonation. If Anderson'south choices were ever this restrained, he'd be a giant.—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, hire or watch The Majestic Tenenbaums
Download "These Days" on Amazon
Watch the video for "These Days" by Nico
41. "Imagine," John Lennon, The Killing Fields (1984)
This Oscar-winning drama virtually an American announcer and his captured Cambodian translator uses John Lennon'southward hit to stop on a loftier note. The former Beatle's wish-list lyrics and the moment's emotional uplift—a bawling reunion—make such utopian fantasies seem both noble and absolutely necessary.—David Fear
Purchase, rent or watch The Killing Fields
Download "Imagine" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Imagine" by John Lennon
xl. "Making Time," the Cosmos, Rushmore (1998)
Hither's the moment when Wes Anderson truly arrives, forever to live in the hearts of geeky obsessives with this montage of Max Fischer'due south extracurriculars, ranging from "bombardment social club founder" to the director of the Max Fischer Players. The forgotten ring that penned the tune, a lesser Who, supplies the attitude.—Joshua Rothkopf
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Download "Making Fourth dimension" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Making Time" by the Creation
39. "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)," the First Edition, The Big Lebowski (1998)
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski knows his fashion around narcotics, but he's surely never had a trip quite like the bowling-alley dream sequence in the Coens' profanely funny one-act. Wagneresque chorines, scissor-wielding nihilists and a Kenny Rogers ditty combine for maximum, mind-altering surreality.—Keith Uhlich
Buy, rent or watch The Big Lebowski
Download "Simply Dropped In (To Come across What Condition My Status Was In)" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" by the Beginning Edition
38. "Unchained Melody," the Righteous Brothers, Ghost (1990)
How many viewers wanted to accept up pottery later on watching this famous lovemaking sequence—scored to a sublime, Phil Spector–produced serenade? The romance is as shamelessly gloopy as Demi Moore's moist molding clay, but male child, does it brand us swoon.—Keith Uhlich
Buy, hire or sentry Ghost
Download "Unchained Melody" on Amazon
Sentry the video for "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers
37. "Patricia," Perez Prado Orchestra, La Dolce Vita (1960)
If the films of Federico Fellini can be likened to one glamorous belatedly-night party, unbound and spinning out of control, then hither'south the organ-drenched soundtrack, equal parts prim and perverse. A drunk political party girl sheds her dress (and shame) in this, the most notorious scene of the director's career.—Joshua Rothkopf
Purchase, rent or watch La Dolce Vita
Download "Patricia" on Amazon
Lookout man the video for "Patricia" by Perez Prado Orchestra
36. "Head Over Heels," Tears for Fears, Donnie Darko (2001)
In a terrific early scene from Richard Kelly's cult debut, Jake Gyllenhaal's depressive, fourth dimension-traveling outcast takes a long walk downwards his high-schoolhouse hallway. Assembled into a unmarried, unbroken take, it's as if we're gliding through ane morning in our own malaise-ridden teen existence—only with a amend soundtrack.—Keith Uhlich
Purchase, hire or picket Donnie Darko
Download "Head Over Heels" on Amazon
Sentry the video for "Caput Over Heels" past Tears for Fears
35. "You Tin't E'er Become What You lot Want," the Rolling Stones, The Big Chill (1983)
Effortlessly evoking the disappointments of the boomer era, Mick Jagger'south profound lyric lends weight to this movie's early knockout scene, a funeral procession for a suicide. As we get to know these reuniting friends, we only hope they'll get what they need. (This clip isn't the full sequence, simply y'all go the vibe.)—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, rent or watch The Big Chill
Download "You Tin can't Always Become What Y'all Want" on Amazon
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34. "California Dreamin'," the Mamas & the Papas, Chungking Limited (1994)
The beaches of Malibu are a globe manner from the crowded noodle stalls of Hong Kong, but damned if director Wong Kar-wai doesn't make it work. His missed-connection romance, between a earth-weary cop and a pixieish immature woman, gets a dreamy injection of urban ennui via John Phillips & Co.'due south '60s popular striking.—David Fear
Buy, hire or sentry Chunking Express
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33. "I Got You Baby," Sonny & Cher, Groundhog Day (1993)
"And then put your petty hand in mine," yowls Sonny Bono on the radio promptly at 6am, solar day after 24-hour interval later on day, to the blinking frustration of cosmically trapped weatherman Neb Murray. Even equally nosotros express mirth, the vocal's chorus takes on dark overtones—someone's "gotten" indeed. No other tune would have been as maddening.—Joshua Rothkopf
Purchase, hire or watch Groundhog Day
Download "I Got You Babe" on Amazon
Watch the video for "I Got You Infant" by Sonny & Cher
32. "My Sharona," the Knack, Reality Bites (1994)
The quintessential scene from Ben Stiller's Gen-X-catering romance takes identify in a Food Mart every bit Winona Ryder and up-and-comers Steve Zahn and Janeane Garofalo "ironically" go downwardly to this exuberant new-wave track. An embarrassed Ethan Hawke cringes on behalf of all involved.—Keith Uhlich
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Watch the video for "My Sharona" by the Knack
31. A Love Supreme, John Coltrane, Mo' Amend Blues (1990)
Spike Lee originally named his jazz picture show after John Coltrane'south epic four-part suite, before the musician's widow asked him to change the title. Thankfully, she let Lee borrow part of the vocal to add resonance to the picture's climax, in which Denzel Washington's troubled trumpeter starts a family and finally finds inner peace.—David Fear
Buy, rent or picket now Mo' Better Blues
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30. "Bohemian Rhapsody," Queen, Wayne's World (1992)
Who can forget Wayne and Garth'southward headbanging downtown drive to this operatic power ballad? Director Penelope Spheeris was hesitant to use the song, but costar Mike Myers insisted, and its pop-cultural status soared. If a contempo Muppets encompass is any indication, this is the hit that keeps on giving.—Keith Uhlich
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Watch the video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
29. "Perfect Day," Lou Reed, Trainspotting (1996)
Whether Reed's tune is a straight reference to heroin has been long debated, just what isn't arguable is how effectively Danny Boyle employs it—as an overdosing Ewan McGregor imagines he'southward in a shag-carpeted coffin. The vocal'due south beatific lyrics brand this junkie nightmare even more than disturbing; information technology's the "perfect" example of needle-driblet irony.—David Fear
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Watch the video for "Perfect Twenty-four hour period" by Lou Reed
28. "Old Fourth dimension Stone and Gyre," Bob Seger and the Argent Bullet Band, Risky Business (1983)
From 1983—a fourth dimension when the whole globe could beloved Tom Cruise unreservedly—comes this euphoric scene of geeked-out underwear dancing, set to the scratchy bar-band stylings of Bob Seger. Cruise fifty-fifty jumps on a couch and it'southward okay.—Joshua Rothkopf
Purchase, rent or watch Risky Business
Download "Old Time Stone and Whorl" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
27. "Oh Yeah," Yello, Ferris Bueller's 24-hour interval Off (1986)
John Hughes, that poet of teen-pop malaise, was bound to appear on this list somewhere. Not and so surprisingly, it's via this Swiss-recorded dance beat, a perfect complement to the Ferrari-stealing antics of the title grapheme. Just try not smiling (devilishly) when you hear it.—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, hire or watch Ferris Bueller'south Solar day Off
Download "Oh Aye" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Oh Yep" past Yello
26. "Blue Moon," Sam Cooke, An American Werewolf in London (1981)
David Naughton's lupine transformation is set to Cooke's crooning encompass of the Rodgers and Hart standard, making it the well-nigh memorable (and jarring) of John Landis'due south wink-nudge musical choices. Rick Baker's groundbreaking makeup work may bring on the howling, just this lunar ballad adds a dark dose of levity.—David Fear
Buy, rent or watch An American Werewolf in London
Download "Bluish Moon" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Bluish Moon" past Sam Cooke
25. "Tiny Dancer," Elton John, Near Famous (2000)
Never underestimate the healing power of Elton John: As the '70s rock band of Cameron Crowe'south autobiographical drama piles into its bout bus, everyone's in a funk. And so this uplifting 1971 tribute to an L.A. lady comes on, and soon, everybody is singing forth—including you.—David Fearfulness
Buy, rent or watch Virtually Famous
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24. "Rock Around the Clock," Bill Haley and the Comets, Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Rock & coil was the soundtrack to juvenile delinquency, so how better to kick off a film about high-schoolhouse hoodlums than with a real poodle-skirt scorcher? Neb Haley'south 1954 B-side turned on tons of teens to this raucous new audio—the showtime use of rock music in a pic, only far from the last, Daddy-o.—David Fear
Buy, hire or lookout man Blackboard Jungle
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Watch the video for "Rock Around the Clock" past Bill Haley and the Comets
23. "Didn't I (Blow Your Heed This Time)," the Delfonics, Jackie Brownish (1997)
This impassioned 1970s unmarried is the soul of Quentin Tarantino's most romantic movie: Robert Forster'due south grizzled bail-bondservant hears the tune in the living room of beleaguered, beautiful client Pam Grier. Information technology sends him from overjoyed to infatuated—and straight to the record store.—Keith Uhlich
Buy, rent or picket Jackie Brown
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Watch the video for "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Fourth dimension)" by the Delfonics
22. "Hurdy Gurdy Homo," Donovan, Zodiac (2007)
This near-primal scene starts with ii young adults flirting in a Corvair at a lovers' lane, until the headlights of a mysterious car pull up behind them. Suddenly, the vocal on the radio can merely signify evil. Past the time David Fincher returns to Donovan's sinuous groove in his closing credits, the tune has been transformed. (A clearer clip of the scene is hither.)—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, rent or spotter Zodiac
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Watch the video for "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan
21. "The Sound of Silence," Simon and Garfunkel, The Graduate (1967)
How-do-you-do darkness, my onetime friend: The signature rail off the duo'due south 1966 album perfectly underscores Dustin Hoffman's descent into suburban bummersville, every bit the song's melody casts a melancholic pallor over his interchangeable lazy afternoons and numbing sexual trysts.—David Fear
Buy, rent or sentry The Graduate
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20. "Adieu Horses," Q Lazzarus, The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
When cross-dressing serial killer Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb primps and sashays in a strange interlude from Jonathan Demme's suspense archetype, he's listening to this enrapturing pop song. The queasy scene became a pop-cultural touchstone, parodied by everyone from Kevin Smith to Family Guy.—Keith Uhlich
Buy, rent or lookout The Silence of the Lambs
Download "Goodbye Horses" on Amazon
Sentinel the video for "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus
nineteen. "Exist My Baby," the Ronettes, Mean Streets (1973)
From the moment the wall-of-sound drums kick in to Harvey Keitel's head striking his pillow, Martin Scorsese'southward 'hood opera takes personalized-jukebox movie theater to a new level. When the song's harmonies sync up with the Super-eight credits, it'due south like Scorsese'southward career in miniature: movies and mobsters, street civilization and popular civilisation.—David Fear
Buy, hire or scout Hateful Streets
Download "Be My Baby" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Exist My Baby" by the Ronettes
xviii. "Where Is My Mind?," Pixies, Fight Club (1999)
"Trust me, everything's going to be fine," says Edward Norton in the last seconds of David Fincher's unclassifiable thriller, equally the skyline explodes outside the window. Buildings fall, two easily clasp tenderly, and the future is uncertain. The keening voices of Frank Black and Kim Deal seal the mood.—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, rent or picket Fight Social club
Download "Where Is My Mind?" on Amazon
Sentry the video for "Where Is My Mind?" by Pixies
17. "Bela Lugosi's Dead," Bauhaus, The Hunger (1983)
The classic opening of Tony Scott's horror moving-picture show forever linked goth rock, smoky NYC clubs and vampires. Dancing behind a grate, Peter Murphy lip-synchs to his band'southward ominous single as bloodsuckers David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve scope out the gyrating bodies for the night's prey.—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, rent or watch The Hunger
Download "Bela Lugosi's Dead" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Bela Lugosi's Expressionless" by Bauhaus
16. "Tequila," the Champs, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
What'due south a manchild like Pee-wee Herman to exercise when he knocks over a group of hulking bikers' motorcycles? Lace upward a pair of platform shoes, hop atop the bar and get down to the horn-bleating cocktail-lounge staple, of form.—Keith Uhlich
Buy, rent or spotter Pee-wee's Large Run a risk
Download "Tequila" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Tequila" past the Champs
15. "Ride of the Valkyries," Richard Wagner, Apocalypse Now (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola's hijacking of this operatic leitmotif to score a chopper attack is a stroke of demented genius: Wagner's German Romantic bombast mocks the notion of American militarism in Vietnam, fifty-fifty as it makes Col. Kilgore's air-calvary strike sound like a blow from the hammer of the gods. (The specific scene isn't available online, but this trailer has a large clamper of it starting at 1:30.)—David Fearfulness
Buy, rent or lookout man Apocalypse Now
Download "Ride of the Valkyries" on Amazon
Sentinel the video for "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner
fourteen. "Gassenhauer," Carl Orff, Badlands (1973)
For a story about criminal lovers on the run, Terrence Malick's 1973 debut achieves a rare caste of innocence, largely due to this High german composer'southward shimmering, percussive masterwork (also used in True Romance). Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen create an Edenic paradise in the forest; you hope it lasts forever.—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, hire or watch Badlands
Download "Gassenhauer" on Amazon
Scout the video for "Gassenhauer" by Carl Orff
13. "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)," Harry Belafonte, Beetlejuice (1988)
Most onscreen possessions lead to screaming. But singing? In this hilarious sequence from Tim Burton's inventive horror-one-act, an uptight dinner becomes an exhilarating musical number set to Harry Belafonte'southward calypso standard. All meals should be like this, jumbo-shrimp bogeymen and all.—Keith Uhlich
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12. "The Rhythm of the Night," Corona, Beau Travail (1999)
A black-clad Denis Lavant bursts into ecstatic trip the light fantastic toe with this 1994 society hit—and in one barbarous swoop, Claire Denis nudges her mod Baton Budd accommodation into the sublimely surreal, turning a cheesy Italian techno-disco vocal into an expression of repressed gay desire finally finding its form. (The song kicks in at the 0:50-second marking.)—David Fear
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11. "Born to Exist Wild," Steppenwolf, Easy Rider (1969)
Steppenwolf's classic-rock staple became a hippie canticle once Dennis Hopper included it his tale of two dudes hitting the open route. Blasting over Hopper and Peter Fonda tooling downward the highway on their Harleys, the song set off an explosion of soundtracks featuring the music of the '60s counterculture.—David Fear
Buy, rent or watch Easy Rider
Download "Born to Be Wild" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Built-in to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf
ten. "Sister Christian," Dark Ranger/"Jessie'south Girl," Rick Springfield, Boogie Nights (1997)
The distressing rise and fall of porn star Dirk Diggler reaches its catharsis in this legendary sequence, a drug deal gone awry. First, we're introduced to the den of berobed crackhead Alfred Molina, jamming to his "crawly" mixtape and the aggressive triumphalism of Nighttime Ranger's pilus-metal anthem. And then (after an unexpected cassette flip) the music shifts to Rick Springfield's puppy-eyed rocker, as our hero slips into a dangerous situation beyond his control. Sentry Mark Wahlberg's circuitous close-up equally the chorus builds: He's half in awe of the song—perhaps it's the kind of music Dirk wishes he himself could record—and one-half cognizant of his own ruination. For all of his subsequent genius, managing director Paul Thomas Anderson has never eclipsed this scene.—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, hire or scout Boogie Nights
Download "Sister Christian" on Amazon
Download "Jessie's Daughter" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger and "Jessie'due south Girl" by Rick Springfield
9. "Layla," Derek and the Dominoes, Goodfellas (1990)
I could cull a top-ten-song listing simply from Martin Scorsese's landmark crime ballsy, the most influential movie of the 1990s. The director was yoking pop music and images with a deftness no one could touch on; for the sake of our listing, nosotros'll go with this montage of whacked comrades, ready to the forlorn piano outro of Eric Clapton's early-'70s radio staple. The party is over as goons run into their long-telegraphed ends: slain in a pink Caddy, hanging in a meat truck and gunned down in the individual living room of a "made guy," where a promotion takes a shocking plow. Even equally you watched the sequence for the beginning time, information technology felt like a classic—and still does. (We can't embed the specific part, simply here's a link to information technology.)—Joshua Rothkopf
Buy, rent or spotter Goodfellas
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eight. Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield, The Exorcist (1973)
The most signature slice of music to ever grace a horror movie (and now an instant evocation of creeping doom), Mike Oldfield's prog-rock composition was selected for this 1973 blockbuster's opening theme after an entire original score was rejected by director William Friedkin. In the piece's tinkling piano and synths, you lot tin can hear a premonition of the iconic soundtracks of John Carpenter to come. Early in the movie itself, y'all seen Ellen Burstyn strolling downward a leaf-strewn Georgetown street. Children cavort in costumeâ€"information technology's Halloween. Nuns pass, their robes billowing in ghostly waves. Suddenly Burstyn stops, noticing ii priests having a eye-to-centre conversation. "At that place'southward non a twenty-four hour period in my life that I don't experience like a fraud," i of them says, anguished. Everyone's faith is most to exist tested. (Higher up is the trailer—brace yourself—and hither's a link to the scene.)—Joshua Rothkopf
Purchase, rent or watch The Exorcist
Download Tubular Bellson Amazon
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7. Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin, Manhattan (1979)
Gershwin wrote his groundbreaking high-art-meets-lowbrow work in 1924 as a "musical kaleidoscope of America." Simply after fellow Brooklynite Woody Allen set his motion picture's opening montage of local landmarks and crowded avenues to the composer'southward signature tune, you tin't aid simply think of one specific city whenever you hear those joyously jazz-inflected fanfares. Cinematographer Gordon Willis's peerless black-and-white Gotham bout combined with Gershwin'south vintage ode fully captures the poesy and sound of the streets. This is late-'70s NYC recast as an one-time-fashioned urban wonderland, a version of past and nowadays Manhattans linked together with every skyscraper shot and slinky piano run.—David Fear
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Watch the video for Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin
6. "Stuck in the Centre with You," Stealers Wheel, Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Tarantino has already made several appearances on our list, yet hither is the sequence that stands higher up all his others. QT places Stealers Wheel's benign folk-pop tune over an unlikely scene in which a cop is tortured at great length by the psychotic, razor-wielding Michael Madsen. What starts as a playfully meta moment with "Mr. Blonde" doing some swaggering trip the light fantastic moves turns deadly serious by the time of the infamous ear slicing, when the song's playful cries of "Pl-ee-ee-ease!" might double as unanswered cries for mercy. Forth with Tarantino'southward impeccable musical sense of taste, it makes for an instantly memorable set pieceâ€"the first of many in the filmmaker's oeuvre.—Keith Uhlich
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Download "Stuck in the Center with You" on Amazon
Watch the video for "Stuck in the Centre with Y'all" by Stealers Wheel
5. "In Your Eyes," Peter Gabriel, Say Anything... (1989)
Permit'southward say your true honey has broken upward with you, and you're going to boom something on a smash box outside their window to win them back. Most people would probably option i of the era's soft-rock hits or power ballads; then once again, nearly people aren't Lloyd Dobler. Kudos to Cameron Crowe for picking Peter Gabriel's sincere confessional every bit the perfect offbeat selection for John Cusack'due south heart-on-his-sleeve hero to serenade dream girl Ione Skye. Thanks to the philharmonic of the song's testimony to soulmate salvation and Cusack's misfit sensitivity, the scene has become an iconic moment of hopeless romanticism, parodied a meg times over however still able to bring tears to our eyes.—David Fear
Buy, hire or watch Say Anything...
Download "In Your Eyes" on Amazon
Watch the video for "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel
four. "We'll Meet Again," Vera Lynn, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Terminate Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Vera Lynn's sentimental 1939 tune became a WWII anthem for the British, a heartfelt promise that England'due south sons and daughters would be reunited come what may and normal beingness would resume. Stanley Kubrick's repurposing of Vera Lynn's keep-your-chin-upward ditty for his satirical cipher-sum game, however, put a stake through whatever prevailing notions of optimism; life later on wartime was a now thing of the past. In an era when sick sense of humour was the only sane reaction to notions of nuclear Armageddon, Kubrick's keenly realized callback to this quondam favorite, playing over a parade of mushroom clouds, goes way beyond irony. It's a punch line to the blackest joke imaginable. (Our prune includes the scene beforehand.)—David Fear
Buy, hire or lookout man Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Dearest the Flop
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Lookout man the video for "We'll Meet Once again" by Vera Lynn
iii. "The End," the Doors, Apocalypse Now (1979)
Jim Morrison's spellbinding 12-minute chant was originally intended as a breakdown song, simply with its explicit evocations of patricide and incest (every bit well every bit the lead singer's animalistic vocalizations), the tune evolved into something more than allegorical, a larger consideration of the violent beast inside us all. The mythic stature of this pop magnum opus only increased when Francis Ford Coppola placed information technology over the trancelike prologue of his 1979 Vietnam state of war epic. Helicopters slide cagily through the frame, a forest is devastated in a slo-mo napalm bombing, and Martin Sheen'southward somnolent visage—caught somewhere between dream and reality—floats over it all. Morrison and the band's apocalyptic lament evokes the horrors of a war as vividly and aptly every bit do the images.—Keith Uhlich
Buy, hire or watch at present Apocalypse Now
Download "The Stop" on Amazon
Lookout man the video for "The Cease" by the Doors
2. "In Dreams," Roy Orbison, Blue Velvet (1986)
"Candy-colored clown...," requests the deranged Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) to his dandyish friend Ben (Dean Stockwell) in a womblike parlor. What has curious collegian Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) gotten himself into? David Lynch's epochal 1986 freak-out doesn't lack outr sequences, simply there's something especially unnerving about this prolonged detour behind suburban closed doors (freaky ladies sitting around listlessly, Hopper's terrifyingly problems-eyed countenance). It famously climaxes with Ben lip-synching to Roy Orbison'south soaring lost-honey ballad using a work lite as a microphone. It'due south a nightmare yous never desire to wake upward from.—Keith Uhlich
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1. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Richard Strauss, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
It builds, softly, with three ascending notes...and so an eruption of strings and woodwinds, punctuated by jumbo timpani hits. That's when the low-cal crests over a gigantic planet—the view of a sunrise as seen from an orbiting space station, or witnessed by God Himself. Stanley Kubrick wanted to employ classical compositions instead of the commissioned (and discarded) Alex N score to attain an accordingly massive soundtrack to his cerebral sci-fi masterpiece, and Richard Strauss'due south tone poem supplies the film's opening moments with an immediate sense of telescopic and grandeur: This is what the majesty of the universe sounds like. Anybody from Elvis Presley to the makers of cat-food commercials has since hijacked this Nietzsche-inspired piece of work for their g entrances, but Kubrick got at that place beginning; past the time 2001'south title credit shows up nether that sustained musical outburst, the combination of sound and paradigm has already transported you lot to infinity and beyond.—David Fear
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Source: https://www.timeout.com/film/the-50-best-uses-of-songs-in-movies
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