Shampoo
Good period music throughout. Particularly at the party, Sgt. Pepper had just come out. ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’: “…look for the girl with the sun in her eyes and you’re gone (boom, boom , boom) LUCY…”
Someone was walking in the garden and their footsteps were in cadence with Ringos drum.
Bringing Out the Dead
Scorcese must have a soundtrack in mind and then film for it. When the Clash early ‘Janie Jones’ came on I knew I was in the presence of a master.
Magnolia, where each of the characters in the movie sing along to Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up” on the soundtrack. It was an amazingly bold device in an amazingly bold movie.
I’ll agree with oldscratch. RZA’s soundtrack to Ghost Dog is jawdroppingly good. How about Cooder’s work on Paris, Texas?
The entire soundtrack to The Crow was so fitting. Fantastic.
Whatever the industrial sounding music during the opening credits of Se7en is called. Bonechilling.
I’ll second Das Boot. Fantastic.
Warren Zevon singing Blue Moon during the closing credits of An American Werewolf in London. So wickedly misplaced, yet totally spot-on.
The soundtrack to Romeo and Juliet was beautiful as well.
I loved the music in Central Station (Central do Brasil). I like Ennio Morricone film scores (not surprising, as I’m a big fan of GSYBE).
Orca, it’s Little Green Bag, by the George Baker Selection. It is a great song. I own the soundtrack; i bought it last year…I would recomend it. Sure, not a lengthy as Pulp Ficton’s soundtrack, but the songs are definitely as good. 
Uggh! Are you in a large city Bad Hat? I am dying to see that movie and they still aren’t playing it here.
My nomination is from Boogie Nights. It was the scene where Scotty sees Dirk for the first time. Dirk is laying shirtless by the pool and light halos around him. (Where you from) You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate is playing.
It was a remix of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” done by some famous remix duo whose names escape me at the moment.
Of course, I was just an impressionable little tyke when this motion picture came out, but I think the score for Lawrence of Arabia, by Michel Jarre, was a perfect melding of music and mood throughout.
Or is this just too, too ancient a reference?
I thought Rushmore had the best use of a soundtrack in recent years. The director dug up a bunch of obscure, but very good 60’s and 70’s tunes. Much of the movie is essentially silent film, with the action playing out to music, sans dialogue. Beautifully done.
I’ll also vote for Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?.
I love that part! It gets me every time!
In Always - when Holly Hunter and Richard Dryefuss are dancing and the band plays “Smoke gets in your eyes”.
Oh yeah, and just to prove I’m a sappy sentimentalist, I thought the balalaika version of “Somewhere My Love” was used to great effect in Dr. Zhivago.
Thanks Phil, I’ll check that NIN song out.
Dutch pride! George Baker (or, Hans Bouwens in real life) is a multi-millionaire because of two songs: Little Green Bag and the even more famous Una Paloma Blanca.
Great story. This actually happened a few years ago: during a Super Bowl Final, George Baker is present in the stadium as a spectator (IIRC, he lives in Florida these days). At half time, some band starts playing Una Paloma Blanca. The crowd, really into the game and the atmosphere, start dancing in the stands. So does George’s neighbour. George nudges him and says:
Nobody believed him! 
At the end of the day, he couldn’t care less. The royalties of Una Paloma Blanca alone make him more than USD 1 million per year!
OK, I suppose that’s enough for that hijack!
One more:
The movie Matewan is about the coal miner’s strike in West Virginia (in the 20’s, I believe). Th coal miners consisted of rural whites, southern blacks and recently immigrated Italians. These three communities do not get along with each other, and the movie shows how they overcome their differences to band together in a union.
There is a scene where an Italian miner sitting on his porch starts playing a mandolin. A couple of white crackers sitting out on their porch hear it, and join in with a fiddle and guitar. Then a black man on his porch joins in on harmonica. Beautiful metaphor.
Well, I can’t remember the specific scenes but The Man From Snowy River had some excellent merges of music and scenery. I used the title track in my wedding.
I would agree with every one of these.
In Once Upon A Time in the West, the “Man with a Harmonica” theme played both in the final showdown and in the scene where Cheyenne meets Harmonica is great. Also in For A Few Dollars More, the music during Indio’s bank robbery is perfectly used. The mechanical watch’s music is also a perfect (if contrived) device to build tension.
I’d also include the landscape shots in The Last of the Mohicans with Trevor Jones’ majestic score booming in the background.
Jerry Goldsmith’s score in Star Trek: The Motion Picture is very well matched with the shots of the new Enterprise preparing to pull out of space dock.
(Note: both of the movies I just mentioned are mediocre at best; they just make nice use of their scores).
The music of Jaws played against the background of swimmers viewed from underwater is so famous that it’s become cliche.
The Dust Brothers?
Some of these have alrady been mentioneed, but they are so good, I’ll mention them again…
Magnolia - “Wise Up”. An amazingly beautiful sceen. Either you loved the movie or you hated it. I loved it.
Braveheart - Arguably, the most beautiful and most haunting score ever written.
Jaws - Perfectly scored. It’ll always creep me out.
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind - The ending “conversation” was an amazing piece of music.
The Shawshank Redemption - A very close second to “Braveheart” as the best score ever written (IMHO)
Seven - the opening credits NIN song completely sets the mood for the rest of the movie.
Titanic - that hauntingly beautiful Celene Dion song… sorry, just kidding!
The score from “ALLTHE PRETTY HORSES” was just awesome-especially as it plays-and the three cowboys are riding across the dramatic landscape of west Texas-brought back the memory of great western movies of the past!
I’ve got one for you all. “Hall of the Mountain King” from the Peer Gynt suite by Grieg, as used in Friz Lang’s M. It’s the only music in the entire film, making it all the more powerful. I can’t think of more effective use of music than in this film.