Music Monday: My Favorite Movie Music

Blogging, lessons learned, music, rankings, United States 2 Minutes

This idea came to me the other day while I was out driving and I had my radio on the local sports talk channel. Many of the radio hosts like to add something fun to their show, in addition to all the talk of sport.

So for this particular segment, each caller, when they had finished with the purpose of their call, was asked to name their favorite movie song.

Many great songs were mentioned, so it got me thinking about what some of my favorite songs are from a movie. Here are some of them, with a little prompting from a list at Stacker.

Stacker took a look at Billboard data and listed the 50 songs from movies that have performed the best on the Hot 100 charts. To qualify, the song had to peak at #1 or #2 on the Hot 100. Stacker supplemented the most recent Billboard data with data over the seven years since its release. In order to qualify, the song also had to be explicitly made for the movie. Songs that were in movies but not made for them were not included.
  • St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion)
  • (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life
  • To Sir, with Love
  • Footloose
  • Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head
  • Stayin’ Alive
  • 9 To 5
  • The Best That You Can Do (“Arthur’s Theme”)
  • Eye Of The Tiger
  • I Just Called To Say I Love You
  • The Power Of Love
  • Shakedown
  • I Will Always Love You
  • Shallow

A couple of other songs come to mind that I guess did not meet Stacker’s criteria, but which I found at Good Housekeeping:

  • Moon River
  • As Time Goes By
  • Over the Rainbow
  • Mrs. Robinson
  • Greased Lightning
  • Every song from Sound of Music
  • White Christmas

I purposely left off Disney films; I did a post about these songs a few years ago.

But somehow my favorite song did not make either list, so I had to find out why. At first I thought maybe it wasn’t written specifically for a movie, but it was. In fact, the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and four Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television.

So what’s the problem? The song only reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., and so did not meet Stacker’s criteria of being number one or two. However, it did reach number one in Germany, France, and Austria. It peaked at number two in the United Kingdom and number four in Australia.

The song is also listed among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

I really don’t know why it wasn’t on the Good Housekeeping list; perhaps it’s the depressing nature of the song.

Wondering what the song might be?

Well if you are aware of my taste in music, i tmay come as no surprise that it is a Bruce Springsteen song, Streets of Philadelphia, a song Springsteen wrote and performed for the movie Philadelphia.

“Streets of Philadelphia” was released on February 2, 1994, as the first single from the film’s original soundtrack, with Springsteen singing and playing all the instruments.

One critic wrote: “Springsteen sings in a voice that expresses the helplessness and heartache of someone dying of AIDS as convincingly as Springsteen once conveyed the dreams and aspirations of youth.” (Wikipedia)

Here is the official video:

 

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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83 thoughts on “Music Monday: My Favorite Movie Music”

  1. I have to say that I agree with a lot of your songs. 🙂
    The Time of my Life, (oh yeah!)
    Footloose (definitely!)
    Eye of the Tiger, (Yes!!)
    Over the Rainbow, (such a pleasant dreamy song.)
    But you missed some very important ones. Like ABBA songs from Mama Mia! I sure it was just an oversight. 🙂

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  4. Such a sad song, Philadelphia. Did you know WC Fields was from Philadelphia? He had a lot of unkind jokes about the city. But it figures someone with an obnoxious sense of humor would come from that town.

    I think my favorite song from any movie is Moon River. What a classic tune, in my view.

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      2. LOL! The truth comes out. Well its not just the Mama Mia song that is good, its all the songs from that movie, Smartass!
        Have you heard ABBA’s new album? Brad and I are both curious as to whether they still sound good.

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    2. yes, I am aware of what WC Fields had to say. I just tell myself he was trying to be funny. I like the guy because he was such a great juggler 🙂

      Moon River is a classic… I know it was one of my dad’s favorites…

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  8. I’m going to veer off and say I sometimes love entire soundtracks for films, though often not created for the film itself, some of my fav soundtracks: “the graduate,”, “grosse pointe blank,”rent”(written for the stage,) “better off dead”, “nightmare before Christmas”- (songs written for the film), and I was obsessed with the title track from “love story” when I would listen and make myself dramatically cry every time.

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  9. Definitely all great songs. Although they may not reach number one on the billboard charts or anywhere close, there are some great music scores out there as well. Raiders of the Lost Ark and Chariots of Fire come to mind.

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  11. This was a great collection! I think Moon River and 9 to 5 jump out at me the most. I have to say that you can’t include all the wonderful songs from The Sound of Music, because they were written for the play. The movie came later. Best to you, Jim.

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