Songs surprisingly left out of soundtracks

Cafe Society
1

I taped Bunny Lake Is Missing in June, but I didn’t get around to watching it until last night. I was surprised during the opening credits to see that The Zombies were in it as well. They’re one of my favorite bands from the 60s so how cool is that?

So all through the movie I waited for them to play the song that would obviously fit into the movie perfectly. And waited…And they never did play " She’s Not There"! That just stuck me as odd. The movie is from 1965, the song was out in 1964…“Just Out of Reach” was in the movie, and that was a single im 65’ so it couldn’t have been a case of it being left out because it was out after filming. :confused:

Then, there’s The X-Files. There are two various artists soundtracks in addition to the orginal scores. Both the movie soundtrack and show soundtrack have songs on them that appear in neither the show nor the movie. I realize that the show soundtrack came out in 1996, but the movie soundtrack came out in 1998. So why leave out " Mulder and Scully" by Catatonia (1998) and “Extremis” by Hal feat Gillian Anderson (1997)?
So what other obvious or puzzling ommisions from sound tracks have you noticed?

2

I think they should have worked the Police’s Friends into “Silence of the Lambs” someplace.

3

I was rather upset that the Mel Gibson Maverick movie didn’t include the great theme song from the original TV show. I’ll bet this was due to some sort of copyright problem but I was pissed about it.

4

Before the first Batman movie came out, I imagined it with an all-Cowboy Junkies soundtrack. “Misguided Angel” being a particularly appropriate song.

Also, I thought that songs by The Smiths and The Cure were conspicuously absent from Donnie Darko.

5

The American ‘Godzilla’ flick from a few years ago should have had Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Godzilla’ in it somewhere; during the end credits if nowhere else.

6

If “Mulder and Scully” is the song I think it is, it’s really poppy and upbeat, so I don’t think it would’ve fit in the movie, and doesn’t really have anything to do with the show. Plus if you ask me it’s very annoying.

7

Oh man, I am so happy with it the way it is though. Off topic:
I first saw the movie a little over a year ago, and had just gotten into Echo and the Bunnymen. I think it was the day after my birthday, and I had gotten Ocean Rain as a present.
So when The Killing Moon started playing, I jumped up and down in excitement and said to my friend “This song is awesome!!!”
I tend to get excited about things like that…

8

Practically all of the songs from the film Moulin Rouge. Even though there are 2 soundtracks, nearly all of the songs are different versions. I still feel ripped off. If I buy a soundtrack, I want the music that was in the movie. I like different, alternate versions of songs, but as an extra, not a substitute. If the descriptions on the CDs had said the music wasn’t the same and that the original music wasn’t on them, I wouldn’t have bought them, which I guess is why they kept it secret.

This is a different situation, but Kate Bush recorded a cover of the song “Brazil” that never made it into the Terry Gilliam movie of the same name, but is on the soundtrack.

9

This probably doesn’t count, but I was looking up the David Bowie song Velvet Goldmine on allmusic when I found out that there’s a movie named after it.
I was surprised when the song wasn’t on the soundtrack, but then I found out it was because David Bowie wouldn’t let them use it.

10

For some reason. the Big Lebowski soundtrack doesn’t include the Creedence Clearwater Revival tune ‘Dude looking out my back porch’ on it. But it does have the Gypsy Kings ‘Hotel California’.

11

Sometimes, people bitch about songs left out of a soundtrack, when indeed the soundtrack CD was really more about showcasing the score, not the pop songs that were fleetingly heard in the movie. I don’t think I see anyone here complaining about that sort of thing, though.

Some films solve this problem by having two separate CDs: one with the film score, one with the songs. For instance, one soundtrack CD of LA Confidential had all the oldie songs played in the film, while the other soundtrack CD had the Oscar-nominated score by Jerry Goldsmith. I suppose there were a few people who bought the “wrong” CD and bitched about it, but really, it would be their own fault for not looking at the track list before buying.

Sometimes I read customer reviews on Amazon.com, where customers bitch about a soundtrack, give it only one star, not because it wasn’t a good CD, but because it was a score-only soundtrack, instead of a compilation CD of pop songs. I really feel no sympathy for this. I mean, on one hand, I’m sure it’s a disappointment that their favorite song wasn’t on there, but on the other hand, Amazon.com lists all the tracks and usually gives RealAudio samples of the first few.

It vexes me to see these clueless dolts (who obviously didn’t look at the track list, but blithely assumed that their favorite song must be on there) will trash a soundtrack—not because it was bad, but because it wasn’t what they stupidly assumed it was going to be. The fact is, not all soundtracks are going to be pop song compilations. Some movies have scores written by “cult favorites” in the film music business. Like, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Newman, John Debney, Hans Zimmer, and so on. I usually expect that when a film has a score written by one of these guys, the CD will have a lot of their music, perhaps only their music. And usually, I’m right.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this. The record labels (like Varese Sarabande or Intrada) who produce many soundtrack CDs know that many of the soundtrack collectors are interested in one of the “cult favorite” composers, not in the random pop songs in the movie. So the score is often what’s on the soundtrack—not the songs. Not all the time, but often.

I realize that this is not wholly what is being discussed here, however. It does suck when a soundtrack is mostly song-driven (instead of score-driven) and then they leave off a vital song or use a different version in the soundtrack CD. That is irritating.

12

Near Dark has an amazing piece that they play during the bar fight scene that doesn’t show up on the album. I was very disappointed, since that was the one song I bought the CD for.

13

It’s not much of a “surprise”, but Prince’s Purple Rain did not include the great dance songs of Morris Day and the Times. Nor did it include Vanity’s “Sex Shooter” or the sweet piano version of “Purple Rain” supposedly written by the Kid’s dad.

Bend it For Beckham did not include Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up” in its soundtrack.

14

A number of critics observed/complained that John Landis’ film An American Werewolf in London conspicuously lacked “Werewolves of London” (although it had a zillion versions of “Blue Moon”.
My biggest disappointment about ten years ago was seeing that Rick Wakeman was doing the score for a release of the 1925 silent version of The Phantom of the Opera. I’d been wanting to do my own sound-dub for TPOTO, because every commercially available version had a terrible score (this has since been fixed – pick up the Criterion DVD version for a wonderful treatment). In any event, one of the pieces I’d wanted to use was Wakeman’s “Judas Iscariot” from “Rick Wakeman’s Criminal Record”. It sounds like the work of a psychotic organist. So he would’ve been the ideal choice to do TPOTO.

I went to see the film and the score was awful!!! Not up to his standards at all. And nothing remotely like Judas Iscariot in the whole thing.

15

And what, pray tell does " Star [fuck] Me Kitten" by William S. Burroughs have to do with the show? Given that one made the cut…

16

Although Terence Blanchard’s score for 25th Hour is beautiful and haunting, I wish the soundtrack also had Bruce Springsteen’s “The Fuse”, which memorably plays over the closing credits.

And I hate “Inspired by…” soundtracks, that features music not actually appearing in the movie. I think Stewart Copeland’s score for Fresh is absolutely remarkable, but the only “soundtrack” that exists is of an assortment of interchangeable rap-crap, none of which appears in the film.

17

Well, as being the entire basis for the Movie is the lyrics of the songs, it is incredible that Pink Floyd’s The Wall does not include a hauntingly beautiful track (When the Tiger’s Broke Free), and one not so memorable track (What Shall we do Now?); although they included a great replacement (Hey You) to be found nowhere in the movie.

18

I was ticked off when I purchased the soundtrack to *Daredevil * and discovered they had omitted the House of Pain song, “Top O the Morning To Ya”. I finally just bought their album instead. Why oh why isn’t it on the DD soundtrack, though? It’s Bullseye’s theme song, and the background music to the best 5 minutes in the movie. grumble

19

And I was ticked when I bought the soundtrack to Pump Up The Volume and the first track was “Everybody Knows,” not by Leonard Cohen, but by Concrete Blonde. Gimmie the song he actually played in the movie, dammit!

20

So in Love, from the De-Lovely soundtrack. The version in the film alternated between Kevin Kline singing, lachrymose, to piano accompaniment, and a significantly more upbeat stage premiere (in the film) of the song. I guess it wouldn’t have made much sense for them to put the mixed one in the soundtrack, but I am at a loss as to why they picked the stage premiere one over Kevin Kline’s rendition.