Have you ever been watching a movie and suddenly heard a song that made no sense whatsoever, and was obviously placed there just so it could be included in the soundtrack album? The practice seems to be getting more and more egregious as time goes on, but it's not new. Here are three of the most glaring examples:
Burt Bacharach -- "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" (in Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, 1969)
Leonard Cohen -- "Hallelujah" (performed by Rufus Wainwright in Shrek, 2001)
Beastie Boys -- "Sabotage" (in the new Star Trek, 2009)
I'd love to hear others' favorites.
3 comments:
Hate to nitpick , but the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" is in Star Trek, and there are those who really care a lot about getting that distinction correct.
As for favorite soundtrack issues, I recall in the Say Anything soundtrack CD, Shadoe Stevens did a commentary that was included in the jacket. He went out of his way to say what a great inclusion Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" was-especially because unlike with other movies, you could remember exaclty where the song came to play (perhaps the defining image of the movie with John Cuzak holding the boom box over his head). Only problem was that Stevens made such a big deal about framing that song, but none of the rest of the songs remotely follow suit.
After reading his comments, I watched the movie again, and still couldn't pick up a couple of the other 10 songs on the soundtrack.
Oops, sorry -- I meant to type Star Trek. I'll fix it... thanks for catching.
Mel here. I can't get this thing to post just my name.
Okay, I had to look this up because I remembered hearing the John Cale version of Hallelujah in Shrek. It was a defining moment in my life--the most furious I have ever been while watching a movie--so I was pretty sure about this. Well, according to Wikipedia, we're both right (and isn't that the beauty of Wikipedia? everyone can be right!). The John Cale version is in the movie itself, but the Wainwright is on the album. This used to be one of my favorite songs, but it's been wrecked. I was, however, happy to hear it during Watchmen; they used a Leonard Cohen version, which you rarely hear, and it fit the tone of the movie and the scene.
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