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Discussion
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Autumn is here and for some of us winter has already begun and this is actually always the time of the big blockbusters in the cinema. But what would all these cinematic hits be without catchy soundtracks? What are your favorite soundtracks and what beautiful, perhaps exciting or funny memories do you associate with them?
„Dream Away“ was a song written by George Harrison for the movie „Time Bandits“. It was a first commercial success for “Hande made Films”, a film production company founded by George Harrison and Denis O’Brien in 1979. The movie’s quirky humor reflected George Harrison’s enthusiasm for the works of Monty Python, with whom he had previously worked. It was also George who wrote the song for the end credits.
I remember the song was the real highlight of the movie for me at the time. 😀
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Fun Fact: George Harrison and Denis O’Brien produced the thriller “Mona Lisa” in 1986. Here’s the film’s theme music (not quite as upbeat and light-hearted as our favorite twins):
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But now something happy and carefree: I don’t think I have to say much about the clumsy Inspector Clouseau. Peter Sellers in best form and the composer Henry Mancini has left us some unforgettable movie melodies:
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Jurgen
The Pink Panther movies with Inspector Clouseau is probably my favourite comedy movie series of all time. I like this Pink Panther theme tune also.
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Jung,
I like this a lot too! Thanks for including this, among the many other contributions that MLT members have posted here! I had an arrangement of this for Middle School Band that we played in the ’90’s & early 2000’s. Besides doing typical Band & Orchestra arrangements, I liked to pick music from popular movies, TV shows, Pop, Rock, Classical, Latin & Jazz hits. My students loved the variety, & we performed them at school concerts, & out of town trips, such as to Canada! I had medleys of the Beatles, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the Grease soundtrack, “A Merry Mozart Christmas,” and many others. And if you’re part of an Orchestra or Band these days, you’ll be playing a variety of Music like this, so this was good training for my students! — Bud
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If you’re a big fan of the early days of rock and roll, you probably won’t do better than the soundtrack of American Graffiti.
Here’s a song that became a hit for Ringo years later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frVy-uLz1XY&list=PLCubXHRlW2x4pu3OL7dMX-6T22X0l1qyz
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Jurgen and David, I n my profile I listed American Graffiti as my favorite movie and mainly because of the soundtrack. The movie was about recently graduated teenagers enjoying their last summer days together and contemplating their futures apart from each other. Basically facing the bridge between youth and adulthood. Ronnie Howard, Richard Dreyfus and Cindy Williams were the known stars with pre stardom roles for Harrison Ford, Suzanne Somers and McKenzie Phillips.
It was made by George Lucas and was his successful attempt at making enough money to work on his dream project of making Star Wars. I loved all the music and especially like how it was formatted to the movie. All the kids that were cruising the streets and hanging out at the local drive in restaraunt were listening to the same radio program hosted by the legendary Wolfman Jack who also appears in the movie when Dreyfus attempts to get a note read on the airwaves to the blonde in the white T-Bird (Suzanne Somers).
Anyway, it’s my favorite movie and favorite soundtrack and hears a video and tune I found that really gives the feel of the movie. Funny, it’s even an MLT cover, those girls know what’s good.
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One of the most successful cinema productions was and is probably James Bond. No one else has sent so many movie villains into the afterlife with a martini in his hand (shaken – not stirred). And probably no other film character has ever managed to gather so many first-class film songs around him. The first James Bond film I saw in the cinema was Moonraker. I was maybe twelve or thirteen (I don’t know what age rating the film even had at the time). A school friend invited me and other classmates to his birthday party. As a surprise for the guests, his father drove us to the cinema and we watched the James Bond movie together. Probably not the best Bond film, but we all really loved it. The mix of science fiction and secret agent film was new at the time (at least for me). For my next birthday I wanted a model of the space shuttle from the movie and I really got it.
I hadn’t held the space shuttle model in my hand for many years, but after my mother death I found it in a closet in her basement. She had saved it for me along with other things from my childhood. Wrapped in the cloak of oblivion it traveled there through the time to land back in my consciousness around 40 years later. Along with all the memories it had on board.
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Jurgen, My introduction to James Bond was Live and Let Die. I remember seeing it at our local drive in movie theatre which was only about one half mile away from our house if you took the trail through the woods and around the swamp. I’ve like the Bond movies ever since. It was a great movie with a great soundtrack and of course the title track written and performed by Paul McCartney.
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Have to agree with you on that one, Jürgen. I enjoyed the film the first time I saw it but it was that song in particular that smacked me in the face and made me want to see it again! (At the time you couldn’t just stream the movie or the song; the only way to hear it again was to go see the movie again!). Now it’s one of my favorite movies and was thrilled to see it make the leap to Blu-ray.
However, when it comes to soundtracks overall, some really stand head and shoulders above others. Most of them, for me, aren’t the popular ones, (Dirty Dancing, the Bodyguard, et. al.). It’s also not fair to discuss a “regular” (compilation) soundtrack alongside those that are from a move specifically about music (Once, Almost Famous, et. al.) or biopics (Walk the Line, Bohemian Rhapsody, et. al.). And then there are those made in reverse; instead of finding great music to go with the film, they write a film to go with the music (Mama Mia, numerous Beatles and Elvis films). Then there is also the niche of films along the same lines but based on a specific album (The Wall, Tommy, etc.). And of course, films made from stage musicals (Les Mis, Phantom, hundreds of others including, again, Mama Mia) don’t even count.
And of course, a soundtrack is a completely different thing than a score, which opens up a whole other world of great music and artists/composers.
Having said all that, I think one of my favorite compilation soundtracks is Garden State. In fact, Zack Braff won a Grammy for it.
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This one has to be on the Wien greatest hits list. Johann Strauss.
An der schönen blauen Donau.
The Blue Danube waltz.
On YT, you can either see part of the video from 2001, which is what’s below, or you can hear the whole tune without the video. I think they want to sell you the movie. I wanted to see the whole scene, with the music, but they said “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”.
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Hi Chris,
a truly impressive movie. I saw it for the first and only time in the cinema. Not at the premiere in 1968. I was still wearing diapers then, but a few years later when I was finally able to walk and made it to the cinema without anyone’s help. Up until that point I only knew science fiction films like Star Wars or Star Trek. 2001 was completely different. Also in terms of style: long, quiet shots, quiet camera movements, few film cuts and this bombastic music. I had to digest that first. And then afterwards the obligatory question appeared: What message did Stanley Kubrick actually want to convey with this film?
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Hi Roger,
yeah “Moonraker” is a wonderful song (I hope I understood correctly: You are referring to “Moonraker” and not to “Live and Let die”). Some James Bond songs can be heard exactly in which decade they were produced. That’s not the case with this song. It sounds timeless. If I remember correctly, Shirley Bassey provided musical introductions to two other Bond movies. “Goldfinger” and “Diamonds Are Forever.” I really like Moonraker’s title song the best, although Goldfinger is certainly one of the most typical Bond titles, perhaps because of the aggressive brass arrangement.
You’re certainly right about the film music. This can also be divided into different categories. „The“ film music itself does not exist in this way. Paul McCartney’s music cannot necessarily be compared to the work of Hans Zimmer. And their work is different than the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. But I see it this way: good films or movies usually leave musical traces in my memory. Either it was the title song that impressed me, sometimes it was the song from the end credits, like “Time Bandits”. And often it’s just the accompanying musical sounds that make a film something special. Yes, apples and oranges. But luckily I like both and so an overall musical impression remains with me, which for me will forever be united with what I saw. The exception here are really musicals or „pure“ music films. They don’t have a theme song or theme as such. A musical is the film music itself. There’s no need for a special title. However, even in a musical, some titles are so impressive or expressive that they become associated with the entire musical. For me, for example, the musically recognizable titles for “The Rocky Horrorshow” are “The Time Warp” and “Dammit Janet”. No theme songs and not the namesakes but apparently I particularly liked them and are my personal ticket to this musical.
PS: we have no linguistic distinction between film and movie, that’s why I mostly write film. The terms blockbuster or soundtrack were also adopted into common usage. Blockbuster cannot be translated meaningfully and the German equivalent for soundtrack does not mean film music. That’s why I sometimes have problems expressing myself precisely in English. Sorry for that.
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Roger, the „language thing“ is really very interesting. In most non-English speaking countries, films with English language usually have subtitles, as you know. Sometimes very well translated and sometimes only very briefly and imprecisely. Very few countries bother to dub the films (do you say dub or synchronize?). The whole thing is quite complicated. The voice actors have to feel and think just like the actors do. They have to live the dialogues, not just speak them. They are often actors themselves. The lip movements have to be syncronized. At least as far as the beginning, the end and the pauses in the dialog are concerned. So the translation must be the same length as the original text and also reflect the content correctly. And the emotions have to be worked out. Truly an art. Due to the different language, the lip movements will of course never be 100% syncronous, but as a viewer you usually don’t notice this. The illusion is usually perfect. Netflix and the like are a great thing, but here in Europe, there has always been an exchange of movies, films and documentaries long before netflix and prime. We also show a lot of British and French films (British and especially French films have a quirky and endearing sense of humor or are sometimes a little bizarre. I like that). As well as productions from all other European and non Eurpopean countries. Netflix and prime can’t offer this diversity. The streaming services are very much geared towards the US audience. I love watching US-American movies and series, but there is much more than that and it just doesn’t make sense to mention these movies as most active members here in the forum won’t know them. And the members I could talk to about these movies (and also music) are usually not active here in the discussion forum. That’s why I sometimes try to present music and topics that don’t correspond to the mainstream. Hollywood has become very powerful. For me that’s not a problem. I love many of these productions. But there are people here and in other countries who reject these productions, because they are too one-sided and the messages they send are sometimes unsatisfactory. We have small cinemas that specialize in showing small arts films from all over the world. No mainstream. This can be very interesting. The films are structured completely differently than typical Hollywood productions. Different camera movements, different settings and a completely different way of cutting and editing films and adding music to them.
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Well.. there are too many for me to mention that I consider in my own preference of opinion to be tge Greatest but off hand, I’ll state 10 of my Own Preferences I consider the Greatest …
Grease/American Graffiti 1 & 2/Dirty Dancing/Mamna Mia 1 & 2 / Back To The Future Triology/James Bond -Duran Duran – A View To A Kill and Sheena Easton – For Your Eyes Only for James Bond movies/ Forrest Gump/Star Wars & Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi/Yesterday/Wayne’s World 1 & 2… and as I said, many more I’ve enjoyed in movies I’ve seen and own VHS/DVDs of ….🎼🎵🎶🎬📽
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Hi Jacki,
you’re right: Film music is a dime a dozen and it’s really difficult to say which title you like best. The personal taste in music changes over time. One time you like this special kind of music more and another time you like something completely different. But since we are talking about James Bond movies, how about this one? My personal favorite song from one of your personal favorite bands.
(But now enough James Bond for today…)
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This is REALLY low-hanging fruit, especially for this group, but…
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Hi Dan,
the choice of songs in this film is really impressive. Even if you don’t like the film, you just have to love the songs. It’s only topped by the following one:
PS: For a long time „Help“ was one of my favorite Beatles songs. I didn’t see the film on television until a few years later. Weird, bizarre and hilarious.
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All star backup band, and serious blues tunes. This movie gave a boost to careers of some great musicians.
Belushi and Akroyd are the amateur musicians, they’re comedians. A lot of the other actors are HOF level musicians, including James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, Matt Guitar Murphy, Steve Cropper, Cab Calloway, Chaka Khan, Pinetop Perkins, Luther “Guitar Jr.” Johnson, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Lou Marini, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, Steve Lawrence – who I don’t think sang anything, and I don’t think Joe Walsh did either. Who am I forgetting? And lots of cameos by other famous non musicians too.
https://youtu.be/o5xexv-dMrM?list=PL4sfVCWR8nGJ0iZTaheuqSoZ2JC16JEBp
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Man I love this bluesy stuff, John Belushi sure was a talented guy. I like the scene where they played the gig at the country bar and played Stand By Your Man and the Rawhide theme, Lol. This one reminded me of another good movie with a great sound track that really launched the career of Jeff Healey, another great one gone to soon.
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Hi Chris and Tim,
Blues Brothers is an absolute cult here too. When I saw the movie for the first time, I only knew the title and had no idea what to expect. I didn’t expect what was expecting me. 😀 Cool stuff.
„Rawhide“ is also one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
„Uh, what kind of music do you usally have here?“
„Oh, we got both kinds, we got country and western“ -
Jürgen,
While that movie is a caricature, of course, I’ve been in places in the middle of nowhere that look like Bob’s Country Bunker, minus the chicken wire and most, but not all, of the beer bottles flying through the air. I live on the blues trail, so I see guys like Matt “Guitar” Murphy, who was in the movie, play where I live. For me, that makes the movie even better.
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Chris, I used to roadie for my brother’s band quite a bit and they played in a lot clubs and bars like that around Wisconsin. I got a lot of stories I could tell. A lot of country western bars and biker bars too. There was a bar in Wyeville WI that was notorious for the barfights, usually women fighting. My brother Denny would stop playing and act as play by play commentator, Lol.
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A great movie sound track that comes to mind is this one. There were a couple chart toppers from this sound track.
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Hi Jung,
the constantly chattering Axel Foley and his somewhat unorthodox style of police work. Always great. And the soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer. Unsurpassed.
Purely instrumental musical film themes often lead a shadowy existence compared to their sung pedants. And yet it is precisely in this type of music that true gems can often be found. Like, for example, the film music by the Greek keyboardist Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, better known as Vangelis. Here are some of his compositional highlights.
Chariots of fire. An Oscar-winning film by director Hugh Hudson that tells the story of British sprinter and marathon runner Harold Abraham, who won the gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics. His path there was paved with prejudices and difficulties because he was of Jewish descent. Believing in himself ultimately helped him succeed.
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This piece of music was the main theme for Ridley Scott’s historical movie “1492 – The Conquest of Paradise”. The movie flopped at the box office, but the music became a great success for Vangelis.
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And of course the Bladerunner theme song. I won’t write much about that now: a milestone in the science fiction genre by Ridley Scott.
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Hi Jurgen
Vangelis is very well known, and his music is so uplifting. Great sound track for Chariots of Fire and 1492 Conquest of Paradise. I saw Chariots Of Fire when it was in the theatres way back when, and remember that theme song was playing on all the radio stations. The video of 1492 Conquest of Paradise with the music is captivating, with those big old sailing ships.
Vangelis also reminds me of Zamfir flute music. It’s interesting how they used such beautiful music of Zamfir’s Lonely Shepard in the movie Kill Bill. The irony between the beautiful and graceful music and the action and violence of Kill Bill is quite brilliant.
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Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but this one is hard to forget:
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I was fascinated by this sound track to the movie “Inside Man”
https://youtu.be/RWRFWWo3_UI?si=WDnp9kFb-aulUwyM
“Chaiyya Chaiyya” was a critical and commercial success, selling over six million units in India[2] and earning a cult following internationally, and is often cited as an influential track in Hindi cinema. In 2002, the BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose the ten most popular songs of all time: “Chaiyya Chaiyya” finished ninth. – Wikpedia
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Hi Jung,
thanks, I don’t know the movie, but the introducing song sounds great. Exotic, refreshing, a stirring rhythm and a catchy melody. A good transition to „Bollywood“ movies. At least that’s what we call those films from the Indian film industry, which is based in today’s Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The term is a cross between Hollywood and Bombay. One of the big stars of this scene is Shah Rukh Khan (Khaaaan with a long a David 😀). Here in his newest movie “Jawan”. An action thriller. The hindi word jawan can be translated as young. And young translated into German means jung. The circle closes, Jung. Dirty dancing the Hindi way. Let’s go.
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Hi Jurgen
Yeah nice video! Even without understanding the words sung, the melody, beat and feel of the song expresses the romance. Music is so universal able to break down barriers like language that separate peoples. I didn’t know know my name Jung means “young” in German! Like it.
Bollywood is huge, and great world of cinema to uncover, lots of gems there.
Here is a proper video for Chaiya Chaiya, and in the same way, even if you can’t understand what is said, the energy, rhythm, beat expresses everything. A glimpse into the pop culture of another world and some beautiful scenery too. The MLT Club is rich and diverse isn’t it, we touch upon almost every genre of music. Quoting what someone said here, there is only 2 kinds of music, good music and bad music, and I like the good music kind.
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Hi Jung,
yes rich and diverse, that’s one of the things I like most about the MLT Club. My musical univers is constantly expanding (like the real universe 😀). That’s great, thank you all.
Also thanks for posting the music clip. I’m certainly not an expert on Bollywood films, but the dance scenes combined with the rhythmic music are always a real feast for the eyes.
The meeting of different cultures often creates a feeling of uncertainty and many things seem strange and peculiar. But if you embark on this adventure, your horizons expand and your perspective on the world changes for the better. Afterwards you are enriched by so many experiences and impressions that you no longer want to miss. If people did this much more often, who knows, maybe there would be less prejudice, violence and wars.
A movie about the clash of different cultures is “Lost in Translation”. The director Sofia Coppola herself lived in Tokyo for many years. Maybe you know this one: Bill Murray plays the aged, alienated and lethargic film star Bob Harris, who has traveled to Tokyo for a whiskey commercial, where he meets the young Charlotte played by Scarlett Johansson, who seems to be just as lost as he is. Both are connected by their insomnia in a foreign city, which, despite the age difference, develops into an unusual friendship and ultimately love. The beautiful film song was written by Roxy Music.
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Hi Jung,
thanks for Saturday Night Fever. The last time you posted the song even at the risk of getting booted out of the Club by fellow members. Out of solidarity, I sent the following song back then. That was around two years ago. And what shall I say: we are both still here. So play it again 😀
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Which gives me a nice transition to the following movie. Ingrid Bergman has never been more beautiful and Humphrey Boggart has never been cooler: Casablanca
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Not to be confused with this movie 😀: A night at Casablanca
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Hi Chris,
the film music was written by the Austrian composer Max Steiner, who is also often seen as the father of film music (you probably know that). The song “As time goes by”, on the other hand, was written by the composer Herman Hupfeld. He originally composed this song for “Everybody Comes To Rick’s”, an unproduced stage play. Warner Brothers acquired the rights to “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” and produced the movie Cacablanca. “As time goes by” was adopted. Max Steiner didn’t like the song, he found it too primitive for a love song, but he could no longer replace this song with his own composition because the film had already been shot and Ingrid Bergman had changed her appearance in the meantime (at least that’s what Wikipedia says). Long story short Tim: We don’t know why Ilsa appears in this gin joint and Max Steiner didn’t manage to place his own song. But it’s a good thing that it happened this way, otherwise this wonderful film song would never have been created.
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Jürgen,
It sounds like you know quite a bit about it. I did know that Hupfeld wrote it, since it’s on my jazz playlist. On that list I wrote that it was written in 1931, 11 years before the movie was released.
I can sympathize with Max Steiner; he wrote the whole rest of the score, and the only song most people remember is one done by someone else.
But as you said, it is a wonderful, timeless song indeed.
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I looked for Movie songs that were from around the same time, like Casablanca and “Play it again Sam.” The following two songs came to mind. They are also songs about the topic Love. I don’t know how widely they are known outside of Germany. The first one is performed by Zarah Leander. A Swedish actress and singer. The song is controversial discussed because of the time in which it was produced, even though the songwriter himself was a victim of that time. Maybe that’s what gives the song a deeper meaning: hope. And this is also the danger that art is always exposed to: Its beauty is used to flatter people’s hearts and then to abuse them. That should be a warning.
If I had to live without hope
If I had to believe that no one loves me
That there will never be happiness for me again
Oh, that would be difficult
If I didn't know in my heart
That you once said to me: "I love you"
Life would be without meaning for me. But I know more.
I know a miracle will happen one day
And then a thousand fairy tales come true
I know love can't pass that quickly
Which is so big and so wonderful
We both have the same star
And your fate is mine too
You are far from me and yet not far away
Because our souls are one
And that's why a miracle will happen one day
And I know we'll see each other again -
The second song dates from 1929/1930 and is an adaptation of the novel “Professor Unrat” by Heinrich Mann. It is one of the earliest German sound movies. The song was performed by Marlene Dietrich.
A mysterious shimmer,
A "je ne sais-pas-quoi"
Always is in the eyes
of a beautiful woman.
But when my eyes
At a vis-à-vis
Suck deep into his
Then what do they say?:
Refrain:
I'm from head to toe
Attuned to love,
Because this is my world.
And nothing else.
That's what should I do,
my nature,
I can only love
And nothing else.
Men buzz around me,
Like moths to the light.
And if they burn,
Yes, I can't do anything about that.
Refrain
What quivers in my hands
In their hot pressure?
They want to waste themselves
They never have enough.
You will forgive me,
You just have to understand it,
It always tempts me again.
I think it's so beautiful!
Refrain
That's what should I do,
my nature,
I can only love
And nothing else.
Men buzz around me,
Like moths to the light.
And if they burn,
Yes, I can't do anything about that.
Refrain
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I think the film with the best soundtrack was the 1986 ‘Highlander’ film with music by Queen. While no official soundtrack was released by Queen, they released ‘A Kind of Magic’ album that contained most of their music from the film. All the songs are great but my favorite has to be the hauntingly beautiful ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’.
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Hi Dana,
yes Highlander is a great, exceptional movie. The lyrics of “Who wants to live forever” are beautiful, tragic and sad at the same time. To see how lovingly and self-sacrificingly Connor MacLeod cares for his true love and has to watch helplessly as her life withers like a beautiful flower is very touching. And without knowing it, Freddy Mercury was actually singing his own fate.
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<div>Most of you will remember Malcolm McDowell, and his part in A Clockwork Orange (1971) directed by Stanley Kubrick. Two years later, McDowell appeared in the Lindsay Anderson film O Lucky Man, quite an obscure film, especially in North America. Also not much remembered is Alan Price, original keyboardist in The Animals. O Lucky Man is one of my very favourite movies, not only for the soundtrack, but for the movie overall. At around three hours, the movie follows erstwhile coffee salesman Travis (Malcolm McDowell) through many adventures and mis adventures through northeast England. Well worth watching, it is available on YouTube for your watching and listening pleasure.</div><div>
</div>Alan Price – O Lucky Man! – YouTube-
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Another great Malcolm McDowell movie is Time After Time. He plays H.G. Wells, who invents a working time machine and ends up having to use it to — without giving too much away — save the world. Great supporting cast (Mary Steenburgen, David Warner), and directed by Nicholas Meyer, who went on to direct two of the even-numbered (i.e. good) Star Trek movies.
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I saw A Clockwork Orange once, at university, so I don’t remember him from that; it would have been mid-70s.
But I just looked him up and saw his picture. I remember him for a tv series for a number of episodes called The Mentalist, which was a cop show. He was one of the bad guys. That was around a dozen years ago.
His entry on imdb.com shows a lot of things he was on. Born in Leeds.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000532/
imdb.com
Malcolm McDowell | Actor, Producer, Writer
Known for: Clockwork Orange - Kellopeliappelsiini, Star Trek: Sukupolvet, Aikakone eli mitä Jack Viiltäjälle kuuluu tänään
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