In their next issue, Vanity Fair will publish their list of the top 40 movie soundtracks of all time. But we don’t need to wait to find out their top 10: Purple Rain, A Hard Day’s Night, The Harder They Come, Pulp Fiction, The Graduate, Superfly, Trainspotting, Saturday Night Fever, American Graffiti and The Big Chill.
I don’t know about you, but this is not exactly my top 10. I own and agree with a few — A Hard Day’s Night, The Graduate, American Graffiti and The Big Chill. And Purple Rain is tricky. I can understand why others would rank it as such, but I wouldn’t. Ranking soundtracks is complicated though, because there can be so many factors to consider. Do the songs tell the story of the movie? Do they evoke scenes from the movie? Are they just a collection of great songs? Ten people could probably come up with ten different criteria for what makes a great soundtrack.
Therefore, instead of analyzing Vanity Fair’s selections, I’m going to have more fun making my own list. Here are the parameters: It must be a movie soundtrack. I must own it. I must have listened to it in the past year. And I’ll give each pick a category for context. And I won’t pick all movie musicals (even though I could.)
1. The Sound of Music (Best movie musical soundtrack)
This one is a no-brainer. The Sound of Music is, without question, my pick for best movie musical ever, so it stands to reason that the soundtrack would be the best movie soundtrack.
2. Coal Miner’s Daughter (Best bio-pic soundtrack)
This album is perfect because it evokes the movie but doesn’t require the movie; it’s a great country album in its own right. Sissy Spacek is brilliant in her interpretation (as opposed to imitation) of Loretta Lynn. The only problem is that Beverly D’Angelo does not really evoke Patsy Cline.
3. 1969 (Best ’60s music soundtrack that nobody owns)
I’m not disrespecting The Big Chill. I own it. I love it. But the mediocre 1988 Robert Downey Jr., Keifer Sutherland and Winona Ryder movie has a kick-ass soundtrack. It opens with Jimi Hendrix’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower” and moves on to Cream’s “White Room” and The Animals’ “When I Was Young.” And that’s just the first three tracks. The remaining nine, including “Time of the Season,” “Wooden Ships” and “Windows of the World,” all rock.
4. Cabaret (Second best movie musical soundtrack)
I was going to limit this to only one musical, but I just couldn’t omit this. It’s Liza Minnelli at her best. (I may actually be a gay man.) And Joel Grey
at his best. Additionally, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is the most unexpectedly chilling representation of the rise of the Nazi regime I’ve ever heard. (It’s the most powerful scene in the movie and it retains its effect on the album.)
Take a look at the scene from the movie.
5. The Lost Boys (Best Soundtrack that reminds me of college)
For some reason, The Lost Boys was the tape (remember tapes?) I listened to when I was getting ready to go out in college. The music is a distinct brand of mid-1980s synth-rock: plenty of guitars, but some drum machines, too. “Cry Little Sister (Theme From the Lost Boys)” is kind of haunting. And it has surprising good covers of “People Are Strange” and “I Still Believe,” by Echo and the Bunnymen and Tim Cappello, respectively.
6. Streets of Fire (Best Bombastic ’80s Soundtrack)
Streets of Fire is neither a perfect movie nor a perfect soundtrack, but what’s good about it is so good that deserves special recognition. The movie opens with Deborah Van Valkenburgh (I used to love her) sort of mooning at Diane Lane as she lip-synchs to a bombastic, Bonnie Tyler-esque song, “Nowhere Fast.” And it closes with a similarly bombastic (Jim Steinman-produced) “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young.”
If you’ve never seen it (and don’t mind watching the end of the movie first), check out “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young” (with Spanish subtitles). There’s a little bit of talk and the end of Dan Hartman’s “I Can Dream About You” first.
Amazing, isn’t it? Unfortunately, the CD rearranges the songs so that “Tonight” is not the last song. That messes up the flow. But there’s a great Maria McKee
ballad, and some other gems as well.
7. Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Best Dolly Parton soundtrack)
Have I mentioned that I like Dolly Parton? Perhaps once or twice. This album not only contains the original version of “I Will Always Love You”, but also a Dolly duet with Burt Reynolds (“Sneaking Around With You”). And an intro by Jim Nabors. And a song “Texas Has a Whorehouse in It” sung by Dom DeLuise. It is wonderful. Wonderful, I tell you.
8. Swing Kids (Best period-piece soundtrack)
Swing Kids has some amazing big-band tracks — “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon.” Unfortunately, these songs are intercut with incredibly depressing mood music. But the good tracks make the album worthwhile.
It is, however, a wee bit disturbing to realize that this is the third Nazi-related soundtrack I’ve selected. Perhaps a little Wagner next.
9. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Best soundtrack about failed transgender surgery)
If you’ve never listened to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, you should; this is one of the great rock musicals. John Cameron
Mitchell has a Broadway-caliber voice that he uses to full effect on songs ranging from the rock ballad “Wicked Little Town” to the show-tune-y “Wig in a Box” to the punk-influenced “Angry Inch.” The song-writing is inspired and uncomfortable, and Stephen Trask’s collaboration makes for a lot of brilliant music.
10. A Mighty Wind (Best faux-folk soundtrack)
The music in Christopher Guest movies is good. The Spinal Tap music was good. And A Mighty Wind is good, too. While a few of the songs, e.g., “Start Me Up,” are cheap jokes, others such as “Old Joe’s Place,” “Blood On the Coal,” “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” and “A Mighty Wind” so perfectly evoke the hootenanny classics that they’re brilliant.
And there they are. Remember, these are just my top picks from my collection — and I had to leave out some of my favorites. Chime in with your picks.
