20 Songs You Should Download This Month

20 Songs You Should Download This Month

Cameron Crowe, Director of Elizabethtown and soundtrack geek extraordinaire, selects his all-time favorite movie tunes

1.Harry Nilsson – “Jump Into The Fire” – Goodfellas (Atlantic)

A perfect Scorsese marriage of visuals and song. And, of course, a lot of blow.

 

2. Aimee Mann – “Wise Up” – Magnolia (Reprise)

One of my favorite Aimee Mann songs, used here to a worshipful degree.

3. Henry Mancini – “Moon River” – Breakfast At Tiffany’s (RCA)

Audrey Hepburn, Henry Mancini, Blake Edwards – all at their JFK-era peak.

4. Eric Carmen – “All By Myself” – Bridget Jones’s Diary (Island)

Operatic misery from an ex-Raspberry, empathetically karaoke by Renee Zellweger.

5. Mike Oldfield – “Tubular Bells” – The Exorcist (WEA)

The “Smells Like Teen Spirit” of creepy themes.

6. Pixies – “Where Is My Mind?” – Fight Club (Restless)

Ideal world-crumbling-around-Edward-Norton-and-Helena-Bonham-Carter tune.

7. Nico – ‘These Days” – The Royal Tenenbaums (Hollywood)

Wes Anderson digs deep into his vinyl stash…

8. The Rolling Stones – “She Smiled Sweetly/Ruby Tuesday” – The Royal Tenenbaums (Hollywood)

…and then does it again.

9. The Delfonics – “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time) – Jackie Brown (Maverick)

Quentin Tarantino is one of the best when it comes to needle-drops, and this is his genius on full display.

10. Harry Nilsson – “Everybody’s Talking'” – Midnight Cowboy (Capitol)

A song forever connected to a film, and brilliantly so.

 

11. The Beatles – “I Should Have Known Better” – A Hard Day’s Night (Capitol)

John Lennon knew how to use a microphone, and Richard Lester knew how to shoot it.

12. Marvin Gaye – “Trouble Man” – Trouble Man (Motown)

Never has a title song towered so far above its movie.

 

13. Elvis Presley – “The Walls Have Ears” – Girls! Girls! Girls! (RCA)

Elvis, from his Spanish toreador mode. As authentic as a microwave burrito, and just as essential.

14. Cat Stevens – “Don’t Be Shy” – Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits Volume Two ( A&M)

Not, sadly, on the Harold and Maude soundtrack, but the stand-out track in a film full of Cat Stevens melancholy.

15. Mark Knopler – “Going Home (Theme Of The Local Hero)” – Local Hero (Warner Bros.)

A beautiful, lyrical score piece.

16. Neil Young – “Philadelphia” – Philadelphia (Sony)

Epic heartbreak.

17. Cheap Trick – “Downed” – Over the Edge (Warner Bros.)

Long before Molly Ringwald turned 16, there was this suburban teen-rock classic.

18. Iggy Pop – “Lust For Life” – Trainspotting (Capitol)

Iggy equals the frenetic energy of Danny Boyle’s glorious vomit fest.

19. Richard Strauss – “Also Sprach Zarathustra” – 2001: A Space Odyssey (Rhino)

Big Elvis never took the stage without it.

20. Thunderclap Newman – “Something In The Air” – The Strawberry Statement (Sony)

Ethereal Brit-rock from a 60’s movies.

Courtesy of Blender Magazine – Cameron Crowe – November, 2005