And that is probably “Sunrise” from Rossini’s William Tell. I can’t find a midi of it to link, though…
It’s never been used so perfectly as in the re-cut trailer for The Shining.
I wanted to nominate “I feel good”, but I thought of an even better: Je t’aime (moi non plus) by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin.
Everytime any advertiser or filmmaker wants to make something over-the-top romantic, there it is. Often combined with “soft” camera focusing, rosy lights, silk bed clothing and candle lights.
For shame, 'cause the man really produced many great songs and that one really isn’t one of the better.
Morning from the Peer Gynt Suite, surely?
I’ve also heard Sunrise quite a bit, but you’re right. In any given cartoon, it’s as likely to be Morning as Sunrise.
The theme from Miller’s Crossing.
Every time some schmuck shuffles off the mortal coil too early, someone will play “Wind beneath my wings”. Dead teenagers also score “Good Riddance” (“Time of your lives”) a lot.
I remember Mozart’s Alla Turka being played a lot, but I can’t place where.
Khachaturian’s Saber Dance became generic frantic-chase-scene music for a while, but I haven’t seen it around lately. It’s almost comic.
For a long time, bits from the score of The Stunt Man were used for any movie ad where the movie music wasn’t quite done when the ad was shot. Not so much any more, and it was always fun to spot it.
Either those, or that Boccherini minuet.
For a time in the eighties, there seemed to be a law that every movie had to have Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now playing over its closing credits.
Shake Ya Ass by Mystikal. It was cute in About a Boy and even in Down to Earth, but I’ve now heard it in several films and TV series, almost invariably attached to a white person trying to act cool. (I think it was in 40 Year Old Virgin most recently but may be mistaken.)
And I think it’s illegal to make more than two movies about the 1960s (Vietnam in particular) in any decade that do not use Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth.
Hendrix’s cover of All Along the Watchtower is also very popular for that purpose.
Two Iggy Pop songs used a lot now: Lust for Life and The Passenger.
I love Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah, but I’m sick of every damn tv show using it over some closing montage.
That Gary Glitter Rock and Roll Part 275 thing. MMM MMM MMM HEY!!
Yeah I agree with a whole bunch of these: Sunrise, O Fortuna, Romeo and Juliet, Boccherini, Solsbury Hill.
I’ll add the one from Shrek and it seems like just about every movie of 2001 – Smash Mouth’s “All Star”. Maybe it’s just that all the music from that time sounds about the same and there were a hundred songs that sounded like that.
“Dreams” by the Cranberries found its way onto the soundtracks of “Mission: Impossible,” “You’ve Got Mail,” and “Boys on the Side.” It also got heavy rotation in trailers for movies in which it didn’t appear on the soundtrack.
I came here to mention this, and Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace is usually played when someone dies right at the closing montage, especially slowly and tragicially (execution, for example). Hallelujah is used when it’s been a long tough day and everyone’s sitting around reflecting and sighing (off the top of my head, I can think of episodes of House, West Wing, and Without a Trace, and I’m starting to really prefer Rufus’s version, dammit).
Let’s just say that while I loooove singing Mozart’s Dies Irae, I don’t especially like hearing it anymore.