I couldn’t believe my ears over the weekend when a friend expressed to me that in their opinion Over the Rainbow by Harry Nilsson from the You’ve Got Mail soundtrack was one of the great songs from movie soundtracks they heard in recent times.
After finding my equilibrium, I cited any number of others which in my humble view would probably rate above it on a scale of 1-100 including songs from The Big Chill, American Graffiti and Saturday Night Fever not to mention standout classics such as Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and even A Hard Day’s Night or Purple Rain. But therein lies the beauty of the movie soundtrack.
We all have an opinion and within the subset of that opinion individual songs from soundtracks which strike a chord with us – be it Bill Conti’s Gonna Fly Now from Rocky or Mrs Robinson from The Graduate.
But what are the truly great songs or complete soundtracks from the great (or not so great) movies in your own mind.
Afterall, a film’s soundtrack is every bit as important as the actors, dialog and et al that go into making a movie. Imagine if, instead of “Stayin’ Alive,” John Travolta strutted through the opening sequence of Saturday Night Fever to the sounds of Walk Like A Man by the Four Seasons – it just simply wouldn’t work.
So folks – enter the movietone soundtrack confessional.
