Absolutely perfect use of music in movie scenes

Sofia Coppola excels at this. “Just Like Honey” was spot on for the ending of Lost In Translation as well.

I don't care much for the overall movie, but this was a bright shining spot in it.

Hong Kong Gardens sounds similar to California, Here I Come! Right Back Where I Started From!

Sophia is cloyingly hip tweeness

Wes Anderson movies are known for this. Take Rushmore...

Neil Young's Philadelphia at the end of the movie.

Cheesy but love it.

Moroder. Can't find a clip of the actual scene though

R5, I’m posting a Wes Anderson, too, dangit.

Another Siouxsie & The Banshees song. This time from Batman Returns. The song is called "Face To Face".

R4, maybe so, but I love her use of music. *shrugs*

“Relax” in Body Double

R9 I love that one, and also Nico’s “These Days” from the same film.

R12, good one!

John Hughes was another. From “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. I know it’s sappy, but I really felt something.

Black Betty in Blow

Grace Jones' Seduction Surrender from the movie Vamps.

Good G-d Almighty I hate Sophia Coppola and Wes Anderson. And now they’re finally together under one thread.

How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?

EYES WIDE SHUT trailer-------its 90 seconds long and switches from classical to "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" at the 40 second mark. ----even the TITLE is cool......sung by Chris Issac

Bobby Womack’s 110th Street at the close of Jackie Brown.

Let's have some nice good ol' Halloween spirit! I Put A Spell on You from Hocus Pocus.

Sia's My Love in Twilight: Eclipse.

Aimee Mann’s Wise Up in Magnolia - with the striking singalong from characters at their lowest ebb.

Remember: Don't Drink & Peddle!

Frank Sinatra - It Had To Be You from When Harry Met Sally

Yes R20 and [html removed][html removed]

"Never Say Never" - Romeo Void (Reckless) 1984

R29 beat me to it.

Cat People - David Bowie

OMD's "If You Leave" from PRETTY IN PINK

Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me) from Breakfast Club

Thompson Twins - If You Were Here from Sixteen Candles

Tiny Dancer

This is a really good list so far.

Clearly John Hughes, Sofia Coppola, and Wes Anderson are continual favorites and excel at this.

The 1963 WWII film "The Victors": a young American soldier is executed by firing squad for cowardice and desertion, to the strains of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". This is based on the execution of Pvt Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier shot for desertion in WWII. His execution was also in the wintertime, just a month after Christmas.

Also, the song in the film is sung by Frank Sinatra, who wanted to produce a movie about Slovik in 1960 but was discouraged by JFK, for whom he was campaigning at the time.

Op, I love that scene too.

Cheating because it's a musical and the song is a performance, but here it is

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes from Say Anything

The end of Working Girl.

Not a movie, but Crystal Blue Persuasion, Breaking Bad-season 5

So cheesy, but the "You're the Best Around" montage in The Karate Kid.

"Midnight the Stars and You" by Ray Noble and His Orchestra at the end of The Shining.

Of course:

“Hurricane” in Dazed & Confused.

R36, I'd add Quentin Tarantino to the list. He's great at using music. A couple of my favorite examples are the brief instrumental of Santa Esmeralda's version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and "Jungle Boogie" in Pulp Fiction to introduce Jules and Vincent.

"In the Air Tonight" in Risky Business for the train sex scene.

Definitely Tarantino. Hard to pick, but I’m gonna go with “Son of a Preacher Man” in Pulp Fiction.

Hard to beat Ride of the Valkyries

R36 R46 I agree, Tarantino knows how to use music better than most directors.

All the music in "American Graffiti."

Donnie Darko. Mas World.

/Mad World. (Damn)

No Need To Argue at the end of Butterfly Kiss

I am still on the DL? I was shocked to post on the Twilight series r22.

I'll use a more DL-esque teen movie and say "Bitter Sweet Symphony" Cruel Intentions.

Chariots of Fire - Vangelis

Ned Racine gets played.

Back to back song-intensive scenes in Fire Walk with Me. “Questions in a world of blue” by david lynch and julee cruise when sad laura enters the roadhouse to meet her john and innocent donna tries to intervene; “the pink room” instrumental at the Power and the Glory club in canada when laura and donna succumb to the dark side of the night.

The End by the Doors in opening of Apocalypse Now (best opening of any Hollywood film period)

Jennifer Jason Leigh's "singing" of Take Me Back in Georgia

Best thing in the whole film -

Paul Thomas Anderson also knows how to meld pop music with atmosphere and character.

In Boogie Nights, he uses Jessie’s Girl to emphasize how far Dirk Diggler is from his dream of being a rock star. He uses an especially long close-up in the middle of the insane tension to land this realization on DD.

Hurdy Gurdy Man in Zodiac with the couple parked at night.

Original Thelma & Louise ending

R58, I posted the Valkyries but concede this is better. What a movie and also to the Body Heat post. That whole movie was defined by the great score.

Show Me The Way To Go Home!

R63, interesting. I don't like the song in that scene at all. It doesn't work with the mood or tempo. But I love that song in the scene on the road when they confront the pervert truck driver.

All of Muriel’s Wedding.

Most of the songs in Flashdance

The infamous “And Then He Kissed Me” Steadicam shot in Goodfellas. Scorsese really needs to be on the list too.

Yes R69. Especially for the use of the piano break in "Layla" for the horrific reveal in Goodfellas. Masterful. Also the use of "Jump Into The Fire" and "Monkey Man" to heighten Henry's paranoia.

R67 Yes, several parts, but I do love this whole segment.

Another whole film that made great use of music: The Big Lebowski. This was a favorite:

Most of the songs in Dirty Dancing

"Blue Moon" as the movie ends and credits begin in American Werewolf in London.

From the great Max Steiner -

I can't believe this is the DL and no one has mentioned this yet:

Kinda creepy

Julian Kay is getting ready for work... Smokey Robinson "The Love I saw in you was just a Mirage"

The techno soundtrack for Run Lola Run is awesome, but I especially love this use of "What a Difference a Day Makes":

Cat Stevens in Harold and Maude

R60 I only recently discovered it's actually a cover of a Randy Newman song

R77 reminded me of.....

La Piscine Ruth Price "Ask yourself Why"

Bernard Hermann's score for Hitchcock's North by Northwest.

Excellent all the way through.

Anything composed and orchestrated by Jerry Goldsmith -

At the age of 9-years old, my parents took me to see the original "Planet of the Apes" film. Rather than being enthralled with the film's imagery, I was more enthralled with the film's score/soundtrack.

Genius -

R69 What was so significant about "Then He Kissed Me" used in Goodfellas? Did Ray Liotta ask Lorraine Bracco to marry him?

There's a scene in the movie Fanny with Leslie Caron where she's walking in the street and this sublime dramatic movie swells!

Thank you Cat Power

R86 it's a great song for that scene because Karen is impressed and intimidated by Henry's connections and his cockiness and totally swept off her feet.

Mermaids

Over opening credits, but perfect anyway....hard to believe these are 44 years ago!

This

Instead of a stamp I put kisses..

The entire soundtrack from Ragtime. I just loved it. It fit the movie so perfectly.

Love Ida and the soundtrack in this film.

Once Upon a Dream - Sleeping Beauty

Pretty much everything from The Big Chill. It makes the movie, actually.

r97 Completely agree.

The opening of "Boys in the Band" uses Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" to great advantage.

I guess you are looking for popular music used in films, more than soundtracks. Sakamoto wrote great music for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and for years I listened to the music just to enjoy it. And then there is David Sylvian's sung version of the title song.

Really? 100 posts and no mention of this...

"He Was a Friend of Mine" (a song first performed in 1939) from "Brokeback Mountain".

Danny Boy:

JAWS - creepy, ominous music.

Libertango is used throughout this seriously underrrated film, but it was especially effective in this scene showing the disorientation of a guy who's wandered into a deadly game in a foreign city where he doesn't know anyone and doesn't speak the language, and is about to confront the men who've kidnapped his wife after having barely slept in days.

The cheesiest 90s techno piece in the cheesiest 90s film in a 90s harmonic convergence:

Born Sloppy:

The Roxanne scene in Luhrmanns MOULIN ROUGE

The incomparable Dinah Washington number, This Bitter Earth, in SHUTTER ISLAND.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow, WIZARD OF OZ.

You bitches are slipping

Another vote for Vangelis, but this time for "A Year of Living Dangerously." By the way, OP, great thread!

Tubular Bells

I feel this list wouldn't be complete without something from Ennio Morricone. In this clip (from around the 4:20 mark) a former slave trader (played by Robert De Niro) seeks redemption, accompanied by Morricone's exquisite, soaring score. (And on a side note, check out a young, angelic-looking Liam Neeson at the 7:24 mark.)

John Barry and "Out of Africa" (watch this clip from the 2:10 mark).

The entire Thomas Newman score from American Beauty

Speaking of Ennio Morricone...

Many good examples above. I particularly agree with Across 110th St from Jackie Brown and Tiny Dancer from Almost Famous.

I thought a great fit with the music and the scene was in Twilight: New Moon when the werewolves chase Victoria through the forest while Thom Yorke's Hearing Damage plays during the scene. Still love that song and the movie was what introduced me to it.

With no particular ranking reason, David Lean's use of Rachmaninov in Brief Encounter, and Carly Simon in Heartburn.

This is one of my favorite scenes in any movie, and it is cpped off with Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade. (Did I miss it or has no one mentioned Woody Allen's use of music?)

I also love this scene from Everyone Says I Love You. Though Goldie Hawn is not known as a singer, I think she is lovely and sounds perfect in this number.

And there is the opening to Manhattan, which I think is astonishing in how it uses Rhapsody in Blue.

The RAGTIME score is Randy Newman too, and is just beautiful.

Woody Allen, Martin Scorcese do a good job of choosing music for their films. As for original soundtracks, I have to say, Ragtime, and Glory are personal favorites. I also seem to like James Horner's soundtracks. Now Ridley Scott did a fantastic job on American Gangster blending original score with contemporary music for that time.

Don't laugh but Good Morning Vietnam did a good job of recreating an era with the music choices too.

Anyone here remember Eve's BAyou? Erika Badou. Good stuff.

The music from Body Heat. Damn that was some hot jazzy stuff.

John Williams's music in the brontosaurus scene in "Jurassic Park."

Boy, howdy, it sure didn't take long for the YouTube ball monitors to take down that clip from Miller's Crossing. Here's a shorter version:

This whole scene.

Having spent my childhood on Air Force Bases, I can can attest Carter Burwell's music for the scene where the Sheriff investigates the crime scene in the opening of Fargo captures the wintry bleakness of the northern Plains to a T.

Trainspotting ending

This. "The Host of Seraphim" by Dead Can Dance in The Mist.

Koyaanisqatsi. All of it.

Loved this film. great soundtrack

Trainspotting opening.

The shower scene in Psycho, which was originally supposed to be without music. Those violin shrieks ... just chilling.

Eyes of Laura Mars photo shoot scene with Burn by Michalski & Oosterveen

And of course Let's All Chant by the Michael Zager Band also from Eyes of Laura Mars

R121 "Don't laugh but Good Morning Vietnam did a good job of recreating an era with the music choices too."

No reason to laugh, the GMV soundtrack is excellent. I love the scene with "What a Wonderful World."

The introduction of Romeo in Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet using Radiohead's "Talk Show host" is great.

Holly Golightly singing "Moon River" in Breakfast at Tiffany's. So poignant, even though Audrey couldn't sing for shit.

I hope animation counts :D ! Beauty and The Beast was made perfect by it's titular song. Even Angela's wobbly voice was perfect.

The prelude to Richard Wagner's opera Tristan And Isolde in 'Melancholia'.

“April Come She Will” in The Graduate. Every song in that movie was on point, but if I had to choose, this is my favorite.

The flower duet in The hunger

Looking For Mr. Goodbar

We Dont Need Another Hero

The movie was shit, but the Music in Suicide Squad made it bearable.

[quote]The incomparable Dinah Washington number, This Bitter Earth, in SHUTTER ISLAND.

This Bitter Earth was even more perfect in "Killer of Sheep"; this scene never ceases to bring me to tears.

You bitches *are* slipping...

Terrence Malick is another director who knows how to perfectly use music.

Not a "movie" but this scene from The Tudors is great.

*ungh*

Also not a movie, but the music at the end of each Sopranos episode was always well chosen. Loved the one with “I Saved the World Today.”

How have we missed this? Included just a small portion -

Welcome to the Overlook.

Look out Tommy

Jeepers Creepers

Opening sequence from THE FRONT with Woody Allen.

Scorsese is the best at picking music for movies. Casino is the best example. The music made the movie.

I like this a lot.

The Sound of Music

Most of the songs in "Mean Streets".

"Everybody's Talkin' " from "Midnight Cowboy".

My Fair Lady

The Cranberries Pretty in Robert Altman's Pret-A-Porter.

Seems like we’re only really including pop music, not original score, so..

I’d cast additional votes for R23, R29/R48.

I rewatched the 1980s so-bad-it’s-good cult classic Highlander recently and was surprised by how good Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever?” Is in that film.

Tarantino and Scoresee use music well, but it sometimes seems forced, a little “look at me!” as it draws attention to itself rather than the emotion of the scene.

For scores, R123 mentioned a great one. There are too many perfect John Williams scenes to mention, so I’ll only cite the last 15 minutes of “E.T.” as a masterpiece of the marriage between visual and music.

Queen's Who Wants to Live Forever is a good choice, R161. Crappy movie, but great song.

Can't believe I actually watched this one day, but...

Damn, that’s a great scene, R160. Forgot about that movie, I need to watch it again.

I hated Natural Born Killers, but there was some fabulous music in there. L7’s “Shitlist,” Cowboy Junkies’ “Sweet Jane” cover and this one from Leonard Cohen, for starters.

Sigur Rós - "Svefn-g-englar" (Vanilla Sky)

'The Future's So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)' by Timbuk 3 laid over a montage of Coreys Haim/Feldman getting all dolled up for school in DREAM A LITTLE DREAM, moussing and DIY jean-ripping and smoking.

It's fantastic, I don't even know where to start. How both boys face the camera as they preen, like it's a mirror; the silly self-indulgent pan-up; how they nod their heads in time to song even though they can't hear it in the narrative. I like also that it's incredibly gay for no reason that serves the story. It's painfully obvious that this scene only exists to make the Coreys and their characters look trendy and cute but also relatable to deadbeat teen boys watching, and 'The Future's So Bright' puts a big lipsticked exclamation point on that.

In the context of the movie this song choice is cheeky and goofy and snotty, as a soundtrack ought to be in a kooky dramedy about suburban slacker teens. In the context of reality it's brain-crackingly and cruelly ironic.

btw this is my secret favorite movie, and I have no idea why this scene isn't in the 'Iconic '80s Scene' canon.

Way back before Tom Cruise got so creepy, for me it was Risky Business and Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight while Rebecca De Mornay and Cruise had sex while the rail car thumped over the train tracks.

[quote]Tarantino and Scoresee use music well, but it sometimes seems forced, a little “look at me!” as it draws attention to itself rather than the emotion of the scene.

I disagree, but would be interested to hear why you think so. Examples?

r66, I like the Don't Look Down version. I know it's on-the-nose and arguably atonal to the scene, but because of that I find it really darkly funny and so prefer it to the final assembly. They didn't leave it in because testing showed more reactions like yours than mine in that people found the juxtaposition jarring rather than a final fuck-you to established forms and norms.

Free Bird in The Devil's Rejects

I liked this one from Thelma & Louise better.

The Strangers use of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" (I could only find a version dubbed en espanol--the dialogue, not the song)

Sigur Ros at the end of Mysterious Skin.

Though it's sanctimonious and cheesy and I still can't believe it beat out Goodfellas for Best Picture, there's no denying the soundtrack during the Buffalo Hunt is the essence of what an epic western should be. It's right up there with Red River.

Once of the most brilliant uses of music, and it was improvised....

Madonna's Vogue in The Devil Wears Prada.

R177

I love James Horner! He does beautiful work. RIP James.

IMO this is one of the best movie soundtracks ever written. It works perfectly with the story. Jerry Goldsmith. He did the track for L.A. Confidential,too, and it was an entirely different vibe. Genius!

Laugh if you want but James Newton Howard's finest work was on The Hunger Games. He carried the entire franchise on this theme alone.

R181 The way he used The Hanging Tree song was amazing.

Diane Keaton's reprise of "Seems Like Old TImes" used extremely effectively by Woody to end Annie Hall...

"Don't Cut Me Down" by Olivia Newton-John used in the movie "It's My Party".

I found the soundtrack in a cut-out bin back in the day for probably $5.

Little did I know it was an earlier song of hers written about trees.

Head Over Heels in Donnie Darko.

Perfection! Perfect music for a penominal scene.

from Running on Empty

Donnie Darko was SO 80's. The music was perfect.

I probably shouldn't post this here because it's not the movies. But Matt Weiner did an amazing job with the music selections for Mad Men. It was almost cinematic.

I feel the same way about the way Game of Thrones is scored. One of the most incredible music sequences I've heard is from Game of Thrones, IMO. It was this one, involving Cersei and leading up to the destruction of the Sept of Baelor. In fact her personal theme music is chilling. Perfection. :

Gorgeous. David Lynch's love for This Mortal Coil's "Song To The Siren" is clear.

R188 I've also been tempted to post some of the Mad Men selections. But only fans of Mad Men like you and me would get it. The significance to the plot and characters would be lost on everybody else.

The ones that immediately come to mind are The Beach Boys "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" when Roger was having his LSD trip, The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Comes" when Don was trying to adapt to the too many changes in his life, of course the finale's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", and for me, this one....

"On Broadway" - George Benson (All That Jazz)

I love this

Have always liked this montage; edited by George Lucas for his friend Francis. That's Francis' father playing the piano - he wrote the music as well.

This one was memorable for me - Cattle Call, in My Own Private Idaho. Ever since, I've associated the song with the River Phoenix character's narcolepsy.

The poppy field scene in A Room With A View. Starting with the beautiful carriage driver at 1:05 in the clip at the link.

R188 and R190 I'd like to add "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line," because of its association with the Don Draper scene at the link (song near the end of the clip).

"You're incredible (shameless)..."

"Thank you"

Malick's The Thin Red Line, mostly for Hans Zimmer's score, but here's a clip of a scene featuring Fauré's In Paradisum, Requiem

When it was on Netflix, over and over I'd watch the first 3:20 of Midnight In Paris simply for the beautiful shots of Paris and the song performed by Sidney Bechet. Now I've saved the YouTube link.

R196 Damn, I miss that show!!

Re R198, a totally different take on Paris in the opening 3 minutes by Ennui Morricone:

Gorgeous James Coburn in one of the definitive moments from this great film made in 1971. Directed by Sergio Leone. Music by Ennio Morricone. The pub filming location is Toner's Pub on Baggot Street in Dublin, Ireland. The pub today is the same as it was then and Leone fans from all over travel to Dublin to see it.

Wonder Boys - Bob Dylan

Undead, undead, undead.

R202 Loved that movie and soundtrack - great choice.

Can’t believe Mean Streets isn’t on here yet for “Be My Baby.”

I enjoyed Knight's Tale for the modern music used for the medieval times story. Bowie's "Golden Years" somehow fit in the movie quite surprisingly.

R42 There were so many great choices in Breaking Bad: “Windy” - The Association (Wendy the prostitute), “Goin’ Down” - the Monkees (meth cooking scene) “Pick Yourself Up” - Nat King Cole (prison massacre montage), “Baby Blue” - Badfinger (final scene of the series).

"She's Having a Baby" Kate Bush "This Woman's Work"

I can't find it on line anywhere, but the arrangement of Just One of Those Things when Jane Birkin descends the stairs at the end of Evil Under the Sun

The end of Strictly Ballroom

"Guardians Of The Galaxy" beginning song -" Come And Get Your Love"

I thought this thread was about using music (songs) from other sources instead of about scores too, but it morphed into the latter.

To get it back on track: here's one of my favorite's, Sccorsese (again) using Enya's cover of "Marble halls" to make a segue from Newland's and Ellen's unhappy talk overlooking the sea to the incredible shot of men walking on a windy day in the streets of 1870s Manhattan.

Sofia's movies are like a kiss from the 80's. I love all the songs she chooses - but we're the same age, so...go figure.

Then He Kissed Me - Adventures in Babysitting

Softly And Tenderly - The Trip to Bountiful

R191 WINS! THREAD CLOSED!

No, R217 . The real winner just arrived :) .

" Never Enough " from The Greatest Showman.

The face acting and body language combined with this beautiful score and EPIC lip sync make it the unequivocal winner.

.

Ferris Buller Sing's - Twist And Shout

The Guru Does Grease Starring Heather Graham

Gorgeous version....Sex and the City: The Movie - Auld Lang Syne

I'm deranged - Lost highway

I love how the rhythm or tempo of the piano is reflected in the emotion expressed in Meryl’s face...I know, Mary!

There are a good dozen examples of great song use in Boogie Nights. Here’s one of my personal favorites.

Roy Orbison's In Dreams in David Lynch's Blue Velvet.

R225 That is a good one.

Des'ree kissing you in romeo+juliet. Just gorgeous.

Street Life ~ Randy Crawford - Sharky's Machine (1981)