What are your 4 favorite film soundtracks?

I’m liking the idea of different lists.

Soundtrack:
Fast Times at Ridgmont High
FM
Times Square
Grease

Orchestral:
Basic Instinct
Star Wars
Superman
Summer of ‘42

Honorable mention (animated): Anastasia

 

Little Miss Sunshine - The DeVotchKa music is the absolute perfect backdrop for the movie, and really great to listen to. The two Sufjan Stevens songs, particularly Chicago, fit perfectly with DeVotchKa's music. I revisit this soundtrack even more often than the movie, which I also love.

Mean Streets - Kind of a genre defining soundtrack that laid the groundwork for popular music in film, IMO. So outstanding that I wrote my senior thesis on it. The juxtaposition of the Italian opera, doo wop and early classic rock against the gangster film was like a full-length version of Scorpio Rising.

The Graduate - Probably because I first really watched the movie and heard the soundtrack at the perfect time in my life for it, but it's just an amazing collection of songs.

Juno - This came right on the heels of Little Miss Sunshine, but I really enjoyed it for its quirky, folk/indie but pop sensibility. The Kimya Dawson songs are the personality of the movie, and Buddy Holly, the Kinks, and Mott the Hoople aren't just great, but also set the attitude of the film and titular character.

 

For pure Soundtrack Incidental Music:


"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"

"The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"



I also much like the instrumental versions of the Fabs' tracks on the U.S. pressings of "A Hard Day's Night!" and "Help!"

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Highlander

Rocky IV

Cocktail

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

 

Too tough to choose: love Purple Rain, Superfly, Saturday Night Fever etc, as well as soundtracks like Bladerunner by "rock musicians". But I also love "classical" soundtracks like Dr Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia, as well as more recent works like the previous Star Wars movie and the last Tarantino western.

I would be hard pressed to ignore Earth Wind and Fire's best album, That's The Way of the World, ostensibly a movie soundtrack, and several of the Scorcese movies replete with the Stones and van Morrison. Does he pur together soundtracks better than any other Director ?

 

American Graffiti
Blues Brothers
Singles
Saturday Night Fever

 

I already posted my four favorites, but here are four more that I thought were pretty good

Easy Rider

Harold And Maude

Valley Girl (like... oh my God!)

Pulp Fiction

 

I also like the idea of listing soundtracks separately from film scores, it makes more sense to me to distinguish one artist's collection of musical compositions specifically written for a film separately from a collection of songs by different artists used in the film.

In no order...

Scores
Tron: Legacy - Daft Punk
Shaft - Isaac Hayes
Apollo - Brian Eno
Trois Couleurs: Bleu - Zbigniew Preisner

Soundtracks
Pulp Fiction
The Virgin Suicides
Drive
Cool World

 

2001
Slaughterhouse 5
A Clockwork Orange
Amadeus

 

Here are (15) with (4) singled out.

Anton Karas - Third Man Soundtrack (1949)
Harry James - Young Man with a Horn (1950)
Frank Sinatra - Pal Joey Soundtrack (1957)
Henry Mancini - Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The Graduate (1967)
The Monkees – Head (1968)
Harold & Maude (1971)
Ennio Morricone – A Man To Respect (1972)
Bob Dylan - Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (1973)
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Angelo Badalamenti – Wild at Heart (1990)
Singles (1993)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood (2008)

 

Himalaya-L'Enfance d'un Chef
The Island
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Legends Of The Fall

 

Good The bad and the Ugly
West Side Story
Predator
Kill Bill

 

Too many brilliant ones—Couldn't limit to four!

Original Music:

Georges Delerue—Day for Night
Bernard Herrmann—Vertigo
Bill Lee, et al.—Do the Right Thing
Prince and the Revolution—Purple Rain
Nino Rota with Carmine Coppola—The Godfather
John Williams—The Empire Strikes Back

Adapted Music:

Jimmy Cliff, et al.—The Harder They Come
Various Artists—American Graffiti
Various Artists—Dazed and Confused
Various Artists—Mean Streets
Various Artists—Inglourious Basterds
Various Artists—2001: A Space Odyssey

And a particular shout-out to American Graffiti for perfecting the use of the soundtrack as a part the movie as opposed to simply overlaying as the score.

 

Drowning by Numbers
The Draughtsman's Contract
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
A Zed and Two Naughts

 

Once Upon A Time In The West
Good Bad And The Ugly
Lord Of The Rings
A Clockwork Orange

 

Peter Gabriel - Birdy
The Chemical Brothers - Hannah
Marvin Gaye - Trouble Man
John Carpenter - The Fog

 

I liked the 45 version of that movie. I haven't listened to tubular bells in a long time but I did just research the movie

 

Two john Barry and no bond . Peggy sue theme is beautifully as midnight cowboy.I never thought the soundtracks make my top john Barry. Dances with wolves had some nice moments . From goldfinger to ohmss werethe favorites

 

Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Welcome to LA
The Deer Hunter
Superfly

 

butch Cassidy was an awesome soundtrack . That movie was like a long music video in parts.

 

Hard Day's Night
High Society
Singin' in the Rain
To Kill a Mockingbird

Alternates:
Awakenings
Cinema Paradiso
When Harry Met Sally
Wizard of Oz

 

Lots of these soundtracks I liked a couple of songs. Very few soundtracks can I sit and listen to all the way through.
Midnight cowboy the graduate seemed to have like 10 minutes of music I liked. I read every thread .all these morricone fans and no love for fistful of dollars suite.

Not one person mentioned the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert ford. I really enjoyed that soundtrack

American grafitti is a great soundtrack but I need the movie in front of me to enjoy it. Like I do for many of the soundtracks listed.

 

The Exorcist/ Orig warner LP WLP
The Virgin Suicides/Air CD
Clockwork Orange/ Warner LP
The River's Edge/ LP

 

Flash (Queen)
Head (The Monkees)
Saturday Night Fever

Too many Bollywood soundtracks to list