To me soundtracks have always been a huge part of what makes a movie great and unforgettable. I always felt more moved by the music or song that was playing in a scene, and I wonder if I would have cried as much at movies like The English Patient if the music had not been so beautiful. Music Scores have populated my CD collection since I was old enough to save pocket money for them; I recall getting the bus into town just so I could buy the Michael Kamen soundtrack to ‘Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves’, and not long after doing the same to get the soundtrack to ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ by Wojciech Kilar.
Initially my love of soundtrack music was due to having liked the movie, but I was also developing a taste for the composer rather than the movie it went with. I knew the soundtrack to ‘Betty Blue’ long before I was old enough to see it and soon was hunting out other soundtracks by Gabriel Yared such as ‘The Lover’ and years later ‘The English Patient.’ I was also very fond of Eric Serra after having seen ‘The Big Blue’, he went on to do other amazing works such as ‘Leon’ and ‘Goldeneye’. One composer whose soundtracks I loved so much was Vangelis. I had not seen any other movie he had done apart from ‘Blade Runner’ but I soon had a collection of his other soundtracks.
It was rare that I liked a soundtrack that had actual songs as opposed to a score. The first one of these I owned was Dirty Dancing (I still love those fabulous 60’s songs,) shortly followed by the soundtrack to Young Guns 2. I know, shameful, but i was a big Bon Jovi fan when I was a young teenager!. I think the next one i had put on my Christmas list was ‘Until the End of The World.’ An amazing Wim Wender’s film that i did not see for some years after I got the soundtrack.
Since then there have been a plethora of great movie soundtracks, my CD collection is still largely soundtracks and even in this time of MP3 and i-tunes, i still like to own the CD. I could do a huge list of great soundtracks but this blog will not include the music scores, I’ll save those for another time…..
Here’s a list of some favourites, click the movie title to link to viewing the rest of the soundtrack.
Highlights; Fretless – REM, (I’ll Love you) Til the End of The World – Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Days – Elvis Costello
Highlights; Lets Stay Together – Al Green, Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon – Urge Overkill, Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
Highlights; Let Go – Frou Frou, Caring is Creepy – The Shins, Fair – Remy Zero,
Highlights; Sweetness Follows – REM, Have You Forgotten – Red House Painters, Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley. And the Sigur Ros Song that is not included on the CD – The Nothing Song.
Highlights; Rags to Riches – Tony Bennett, Beyond The Sea – Bobby Darin, Stardust – Billy ward and His Dominoes
Highlights; Colourblind – Counting Crows, Ordinary Life – Kristen Barry, Every You and Every Me – Placebo
Highlights; Wise Up, One, Save Me
Highlights; Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive – Johnny Mercer, Wheel of Fotrune – Kay Starr, Hit the Road To Dreamland – Betty Hutton
Highlights; Razor – Foo Fighters, My Drug Buddy- Lemonheads, There Goes the Fear – Doves
Highlights; In the Wee Small Hours – Carly Simon, Bye Bye Blackbird – Joe Cocker, Make Somebody Happy – Jimmy Durante.
Highlights; Ride – Carey Brothers, Today’s the Day – Aimee Mann, Warning Sign – Coldplay
Anne-Marie Ormsby 