Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You - The Deer Hunter
Also Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You in Ten Things I Hate About You. Heath Ledger does bang up job with the matching band.
I’ve always enjoyed the climactic scene* in “Miami Blues” when the opening chords of Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit In The Sky” kick in.
*Hoke Moseley grins and says “I got my teeth back!”
Two episodes of St Elsewhere:
ZZ Top’s “Legs” playing while Luther the Janitor (Eric Laneuville) dreams he’s a bigshot cavorting with Playboy playmates.
The Alan Parson Project’s “Eye in the Sky” playing as Dr Bobby Caldwell (Mark Harmon) has his face slashed by a woman high on coke. (In the DVD version, “Eye in the Sky” was replaced with some nondescript tune I’ve never heard anywhere else.)
I used to associate “Don’t Fear the Reaper” with Stephen King’s The Stand miniseries, although the SNL “More Cowbell” sketch kind of ruined that.
Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” I also associate with The Stand (It was used in the opening for the second episode, IIRC), although I also kind of associate it with the montage in the season 6 premier of The Americans now.
ABBA’s “SOS” will always be linked to the trailer for the third season of The Leftovers for me.
Paul, Simon Pegg’s alien road movie, closes with ELO’s “All Over The World”. A great feel-good song to end the film on a high note.
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings version of This Land Is Your Land is a good match for the opening credits of Up In The Air
My Kubrick entry is Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walking” in Full Metal Jacket.
Another vote for “Hot Stuff” in The Full Monty.
“How Much Is That Doggie In The Window” and Pink Flamingos
Van Halen’s “Everybody Wants Some!!” and Better Off Dead
Running on Empty, Forrest Gump.
I don’t think these are theme music:
Heavy Metal (Takin’ a Ride) - The bomber scene (B-17) from Heavy Metal. Though I’ve always associated it with the Valkyrie in Den.
FM - FM I’ve never seen the movie and if I did it’s completely forgettable, but the song always makes me think about the movie.
Edit: Born to Be Wild - Easy Rider. Captain America and Billy going down the road.
Everybody’s Talking - Midnight Cowboy. Not sure if it’s the closing song, but I always think of the ending scene in the bus.
The Flower Duet:
Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon getting it on in The Hunger.
Which, oddly enough, doesn’t appear on the Forrest Gump soundtrack.
Van Halen’s “Beautiful Girls” is indelibly linked to “Schmitt’s Gay Beer” for me: SNL - Schmitts Gay Beer on Vimeo
Not one of you could be bothered to put up The Pixies’ Where Is My Mind? from Fight Club?
I am Jack’s feeling of deep disappointment in all of you.
…I agree this is the “correct” answer.
But for me personally the song will forever be linked to a couple of other TV shows. Firstly in the TV version of 12 Monkeys the song was used brilliantly throughout the series as Deacon’s favourite song. SPOILERS
But that was surpassed for me by Deke’s version from a recent Agents of Shield. Sheer brilliance.
But lets not forget James Roday Rodriguez’s for Psych, with bonus live version.
Brilliant series, amazing and compelling trailer. Time for a rewatch I think.
I remember seeing that in the original airing back in the 90s. About 10 to 15 years ago, I was watching a “best-of-SNL” show on either Comedy Central or E! and they played that ad. But… instead of Van Halen, they had WKRPed in some sound-alike generic guitar instrumental. I was stunned that even as late as the early 90s (given the presence of Farley, Sandler and Hartman in the bit, it had to be early to mid 90s) that SNL had not negotiated the music rights for reruns. Home video and cable reruns were definitely a thing by then, so it’s not like it didn’t occur to anybody, like in the case of WKRP or Heavy Metal or other late 70s/early 80s fare.
That reminds me - a song that always brings a particular scene to mind is “Eve of Destruction,” which features heavily in an episode of “The Greatest American Hero” (Operation Spoilsport) - but not if you watch the DVD or some reruns, which substitute a generic song, even though the episode dialogue specifically calls out Eve of Destruction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOU6ax1C99s
What song? That movie doesn’t bring any particular song to mind.
Certainly a great one, but an even better one was the “Private Eyes” promo…
The Night They Drive Old Dixie Down