Movie Music Memories

Originally Posted: Apr. 25, 2004

Before a recent trip to Colorado, I made a couple of CDs filled with my favorite movie-related songs to keep me from falling asleep on the long drive through western Kansas. With such memorable hits as "Footloose," "Back in Time," and "Don't You (Forget About Me)" the CDs returned me to movie memories of days gone by.

The more I listened to the collection, however, I started thinking about the different types of movie music and how we seem to have lost a very memorable type of film tribute that was very prevelent during the 1980s. I am, of course, talking about the movie title song. Sure, there are still pop idols doing songs for films now, but how many have the nerve to actually stick the title (or references to the film) in the lyrics?

Back in the 1980s, as MTV brought music and video together in a groundbreaking way, the line between film and music began to blur, too. Suddenly "Ghostbusters" was heating up the charts. Tina Turner belted out "We Don't Need Another Hero" for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (the song even includes the words "Beyond Thunderdome" which speaks well for Turner's ability to sell a song). Huey Lewis and the News gave us "Back in Time" and "The Power of Love" from Back to the Future. Some songs became so tied to movies that people can't hear OMD's "If You Leave" without thinking of Pretty in Pink.

This lead me to categorize movie music into three categories:

Title Track: Music that actually incorporates the title of the film or the storyline into the song. Obviously written for the film as part of the marketing ploy to sell tickets. Think of "Weird Science," "Ghostbusters," and any theme song to a James Bond film.
Original Songs: Written for a film, but more for ambience than for selling the movie. Academy Award nominees fall into this area. Think "Take My Breath Away" (Top Gun), "Shakedown" (Beverly Hills Cop II), and "Glory of Love" (Karate Kid II).
Non-Original Music : These are the songs that may have had a life before they were used in a film soundtrack but have since become identified with the movie. Think "Oh Yeah" (Ferris Bueller's Day Off ) or "In Your Eyes" (Say Anything...)

My research into this phenomenon has led to the inevitable conclusion that title tracks are almost non-existent now. Sure, we've heard Will Smith sing about Men in Black and Wild, Wild West, but what about the upcoming I, Robot? I want to hear what he can do with it. Counting Crows did give us "Goin' Down to New York Town" for the Mr. Deeds film. The lyrics recap the events of the film pretty well:

Well I feel just like a freight train, baby
running out of steam,
I wanna go on down to New York town,
but I'm stuck in between.
And I could stay on here at home alone
and have myself to thank,
But I just made a billion dollars
and I don't wanna put it in the bank,
So if you'd call...
we could go to town.

Still, it's not technically a title track. Couldn't they at least try to incorporate the words "Mr. Deeds" into it somewhere? How hard could it have been?

Sadly, the trend seems to point to a rise in the "non-original music" category. Too many "soundtracks" are not at all reminiscient of the film. Instead, they sound like a collections of music that the directors or film editors were listening to during post-production. The songs are merely pop songs thrown into the film to give it noise. Even though I may have loved the movie, these soundtracks leave me cold.

Occassionally, I still see albums that bear the words "Songs written for or inspired by the film..." and I usually love these albums. They capture the ambiance of the movie and I can almost see the film playing over in my mind as I listen to the soundtrack. Nowadays, however, these are rare. The last one that really made me sit up and take notice was the soundtrack to Spider-Man. Not only did it include Aerosmith's rendition of the original Spider-Man cartoon theme song, it also included "Hero" by Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott (a perfect song for the film) and some bits of Danny Elfman's score.

This leads me to another point. The score of a film is quite different than the songs from the film. A score is instrumental and affects the mood of a scene. It can be a sweeping crescendo of emotion or the subtle strains of quiet reflection. In this arena, composers like John Williams, Howard Shore, and Danny Elfman are masters.

It is the songs, however, that make (or break) my favorite soundtracks. Case in point, the soundtrack to What Women Want with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. As a soundtrack goes, it's almost perfect. It begins with Sammy Davis, Jr. and segues into Frank Sinatra, setting the tone for a "classic pop" soundtrack. This is my kind of music! Suddenly in track 5, the tone changes with the introduction of Meredith Brooks' "Bitch." While the song was in the film the song didn't belong on this soundtrack. Track 6 gets better with Tony Bennett followed by Bobby Darin, but by track 10 we are thrown for a loop by the inclusion of Christina Aguilera's "What a Girl Wants." Egad! Who made this decision? I suppose somebody thought it was cute because it was reminiscient of the title of the film. In truth, it makes the soundtrack unbearable. However, thanks to the digital nature of CDs I can always skip these tracks (or -- thanks to MP3 and CD/RW -- create my own CD with the offending tracks removed).

Still, I am waiting for the return of the movie title track. With the exception of the James Bond franchise, we just don't hear them anymore. I think it would be interesting to hear Matchbox Twenty singing the title song to The Day After Tomorrow or hear the refrain "She's a Catwoman!" from the likes of Liz Phair. I think that would definitely be a soundtrack I would buy.