Two specific examples, both from House, make me wonder if you have some that you felt were particularly on target for the show involved:
Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line from Third Season Episodes :: #313 “Needle in a Haystack”
Fiona Apple - Why Try To Change Me Now from “House M.D.” Remorse (2010)
The first time I heard Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World” was not in “Donnie Darko” which made it famous- it was actually in an episode of a short lived Mob vs Fed drama “Line of Fire.”
Great song used very effectively there.
My wife and I always point out any sad, female, solo voice song by saying, “Oooh, an Alias song.”
If you watched Alias, it became very obvious that they loved to use these kind of songs at the end of an episode.
Caprica’s music is pretty amazing, and one feature is the incorporation of incidental music based on the orchestral score. In a recent episode, a recurring “Tauron Theme” was used as a funeral chant - excerpt here on the composer’s blog.
Old examples:
“Brothers in Arms” at the end of the “Two Cathedrals” episode of the West Wing
“Hashkiveinu” from “Take This Sabbath Day” same show
& “Eli’s Coming” on SportsNight
From time to time, Sorkin got the music right.
“Noteworthy” in the sense of terrible is the Grey’s Anatomy use of music. Too loud, lyrica interfere with dialog, and they don’t ever make any sense. F.
Back when I used to watch ER there was an episode where Carter got stabbed by some crazy guy during a party, and as he lay there bleeding he looked over to see another doctor, Lucy, laying on the floor, also stabbed.
This all went down while they were playing “Battleflag” by the Lo Fidelity All-Stars - the crazy confusion of the loud party music along with the confusion as the scene unfolded was quite memorable.
Aaand - here’s a low res version from Youtube.
Before I even opened the thread I was going to cite “Passing Afternoon” from the “Wilson’s Heart” episode of House. I heard that song in the supermarket the other day and started to cry. Powerful stuff. I agree that the music of House is particularly noteworthy and well-chosen.
Stunning!
I can’t remember any series doing better work with music than The Sopranos. We wound up with the soundtrack CD’s from the first two seasons and played them constantly in the car. Except for Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Easy Rider, David Chase and his crew were the tops in musical selections.
My favorite of them all was Bob Dylan’s version of “Gotta Serve Somebody.” The YouTube version of Bob’s that was my favorite has been taken down and the best one at present is Gotta Serve Somebody - Word of Life Church Band w/ Phil Keaggy & Paul Clark
Favorite from Sopranos: Evidently Chickentown
That song (in a version by Pigeonhed, I believe) is also used on The Sopranos. It rocks.
Homicide: Life on the Street used the Cowboy Junkies song This Street, That Man, This Life in the episode where Pembleton returned to work following a stroke. A search shows that the episode was titled Hostage: Part One. The use of this song made an already powerful storyline nearly unbearable for a few moments. It was brilliant. It hit me so hard I remember the scene about 10 years later.
I’ve actually never seen Grey’s Anatomy, but when Supernatural parodied it recently, they played this absolutely ridiculous music. I have been assured that it’s a pretty good representation. Stupid music begins at about four minutes in.
Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah in that episode of Scrubs with Jordan’s brother. The song has been used all over, but that’s the place it sticks out to me.
Ideal example of the ridiculous choices:
This last feature indicates they have an ex-CBS sound engineer managing things. Have you ever heard a CBS football game where you could hear the announcer plainly? Crowd noise to max! Whenever possible we mute the TV and listen to some radio coverage so we can hear what’s being said about the stuff we can’t see for ourselves.
Sales of Billy Vera’s At This Moment went through the roof when it was used on an episode of Family Tuies where Alex & Ellen first danced together.
I fell in love with Green Day;s Good Riddance when I first heard it ob Seinfeld.
For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while.
Got to go with “Eve of Destruction” from that Greatest American Hero episode where the left-leaning schoolteacher who came of age in the '60s needs to step up and avert an impending nuclear launch; he’s reluctant and none too sure of himself, but gets increasingly resigned to trying as best he can as the music builds and he realizes that nobody else can get the job done.
The whole thing was, surprisingly, played absolutely straight.
My Name is Earl had a great soundtrack on nearly every episode.