Dan's Top Movie Music

I’d like to start off by saying that there were tons of picks that I had to push aside in order to make this list. I immediately came up with almost twenty choices which were difficult to pare down. I did not even manage to get into any television picks.

10. The Aviator: Toccata in Fugue in D Minor, J.S. Bach
Martin Scorcese has impeccable taste when it comes to choosing songs for his films. The scene in all of his films that has the most resonance with me is when Bach’s “Toccata in Fugue” is playing while Howard Hughes films Hell’s Angels. To think that Hughes actually got this many planes flying around him at once is amazing. Go to 5:14 in this clip to check out the scene.



9. There Will Be Blood: “Convergence,” by Jonny Greenwood
Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead fame composed one of the most original motion picture scores in years with his haunting soundtrack to There Will Be Blood. This song originally appeared in the 2003 documentary Bodysong, but Greenwood is able to adapt it perfectly to fit this scene and the rest of the movie’s score. His addition of violins to the original percussion ties it perfectly to the rest of the string-heavy soundtrack. The throbbing beats remind me of a heart, fitting for the explosion of black blood in this scene. The film also makes interesting use of Brahm’s “Violin Concerto in D Minor.”



Here's the original version of the song:



8. Rocky: “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky),” Composed by Bill Conti, lyrics by Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins, performed by DeEtta Little and Nelson Pigford
This is perhaps the most imitated montage sequence in cinema. Rocky running up the steps is so iconic they built a statue of it…of course it was technically built for Rocky III. Regardless, no visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art is complete without running up those steps hearing this theme in your head.



7. (tie) The Jungle Book: “I Wanna Be Like You,” written by Richard M. Sherman and performed by Louis Prima
The Nightmare Before Christmas: “What’s This?” written and performed by Danny Elfman
I could not make this list without including a Disney song, and my favorites come from The Jungle Book and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Hearkening back to the story of Prometheus, “I Wanna Be Like You,” is about an animal’s desire to learn how to create fire in order to become human. Complaints have been made about racism in this song. I won’t argue that racist undertones can be seen, however I will offer a link to a video that shows the mannerisms of the orangutans based on singer Louis Prima and his band. The Nightmare Before Christmas has too many good songs to not be included on this list. “What’s This?” is my favorite of the lot. The song is catchy and his discovery of Christmas Town is fun.


Click Here for the footage of Louis Prima and his Band




6. Lawrence of Arabia, Original Music by Maurice Jarre
The soundtrack for this movie is one of the most influential in film history. Nowadays you can’t see an expansive shot of the desert without a knockoff of this score playing in the background. Epic.





5. Reservoir Dogs: “Stuck in the Middle With You,” Stealer’s Wheel
Quentin Tarantino has a knack for taking moderately obscure songs and placing them in a scene that makes them iconic (Come to think of it he has a tendency to do that with actors too). The lighthearted, poppy song makes a scene where a man gets his ear cut off seem even crazier and twisted then it already was.



4. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: “The Asteroid Field,” John Williams
I had some difficulty picking one song from the Star Wars films to make my list. Over the course of six movies there has been a lot of great music. “The Asteroid Field” starts out with a powerful arrangement of the “Imperial March,” which is fun. It then becomes more frenetic as the Millennium Falcon enters the asteroid field. I found a version of this scene using only the music track. It’s kind of like watching a silent film!



Also for your viewing pleasure is “Yub Nub!”



3. Apocalypse Now: “The Ride of the Valkyries,” Richard Wagner
In this scene, Coppola shows the madness of war by having the characters treat Vietnam as if they were in a movie. Colonel Kilgore realizes the psychological impact this song will have on the villages’ inhabitants and he uses it to scare the shit out of them. Coppola amplifies the absurdity of the Vietnam war by infusing Kilgore with a completely mad John Wayne-style bravado.



2. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: “The Trio” composed by Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone defined modern Western music, with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly his masterpiece. The score, along with fast-paced shots, make the tension in this scene palpable.



1. 2001: A Space Odyssey: “The Blue Danube,” Johann Strauss.
Although all of the space sequences in 2001 are good, and most set to Strauss, I chose the initial one because it has one of the greatest moments in cinema history. Inspired by the presence of a gigantic black monolith, primitive man picks up a bone and uses it as the first ever weapon. After using it to kill a rival caveman, he tosses the murder weapon into the air and the shot switches to that of a satellite in the year 2001. All of man’s technological progress summed up in two shots. Note: this video is several scenes combined, the one I’m highlighting only goes up to 4:04.



Runners-up to this list include the theme to Superman, “Man of Constant Sorrow,” from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the opening narration to The Royal Tenenbaums set to an instrumental “Hey Jude,” the ending dance in Rushmore with “Ooh La La,” by the Faces playing., and the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence from Fantasia.