# Songs that are never the same again after their use in a movie. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2007, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574 "2007-10-13T11:54:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/101 "2008-02-17T10:13:57Z")
[QUOTE=Knowed Out] At the end of _Dr. Strangelove_, with all the bombs dropping and mushroom clouds billowing while Louis Armstrong sings “What a Wonderful World.” That gravelly, happy voice is now the voice of the Apocalypse. [/QUOTE] _Dr. Strangelove_ ends with “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn. You might be thinking of the movie _Good Morning, Vietnam_ instead. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/102 "2008-02-17T22:26:11Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] I can’t hear Tom Petty’s “American Girl” without thinking of _Silence of the Lambs_, even though it was used in quite a brief scene with no huge dramatic impact. [/QUOTE] Same here! And a lot of people don’t even remember it being in the movie! ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/103 "2008-02-17T22:51:31Z")
“What a Wonderful World” was also used in advertisements for the movie **The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** over an image of Earth being obliterated, but not in the movie itself. I believe it was used in the final episode of the BBC TV series, but memory’s a little hazy. (By the way, that song never struck me as simply happy. The lyrics, maybe, but the music and vocals always made me think of someone who has been beaten up by life making a conscious effort to find joy in everyday things. But I’m off on a tangent now.) ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/104 "2008-02-18T00:32:20Z")
Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman post Julia Roberts/Richard Gere. Rolling Stones Jumping Jack Flash will always cause me to think of Whoopie Goldberg in penguin slippers dancing around and shouting “speak English, Mick!” ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/105 "2008-02-18T01:45:14Z")
Digital Underground’s Humpty Dance was in Step Up 2. It was a better segment in the movie than watching the music video. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/106 "2008-02-18T04:19:54Z")
Harry Nilsson singing Fred Neil’s "Everybody’s Talkin’ " pretty much takes me right back to “Midnight Cowboy”. That song means that Ratso is dead. Dead dead dead !! 😃 E.T.A.: **Annie X-mas** wins the thread for _Play Misty For Me_ !!! Goooood one. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/107 "2008-02-18T08:50:21Z")
An eallier post mentions music they associate with SNL. As for me, I can’t hear Haddaway’s “What is Love?” on the radio without thinking of the Butabi brothers going clubbing. Similarly, when I hear Everything but the Girl’s song “Missing” I have to fight the urge to shout “Mango!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/108 "2008-02-18T09:14:00Z")
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach] Oh! Oh! Oh!! \*Carmina Burana \* in **Excalibur**. [/QUOTE] or in _the Doors_. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/109 "2008-02-18T09:58:42Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] “What a Wonderful World” was also used in advertisements for the movie **The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** over an image of Earth being obliterated, but not in the movie itself. I believe it was used in the final episode of the BBC TV series, but memory’s a little hazy. [/QUOTE] Yep, as Arthur and Ford are stranded on prehistoric earth, musing on the senselessness of it all. It’s also used at the very end of **12 Monkeys**. In part because of those two associations, it’s a song I can’t listen to dry-eyed. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/110 "2008-02-18T15:51:09Z")
**Against All Odds** ruined Phil Collins’ _(Against all Odds) Take a Look at me Now_ **Vision Quest** forever represents Red Rider’s _Lunatic Fringe_ and Madonna’s _Crazy For You_ and I see the party scene in **Platoon** when I hear Smokey Robinson’s _Tears of a Clown_ ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/111 "2008-02-18T16:30:35Z")
[QUOTE=Knowed Out] At the end of _Dr. Strangelove_, with all the bombs dropping and mushroom clouds billowing while Louis Armstrong sings “What a Wonderful World.” That gravelly, happy voice is now the voice of the Apocalypse. [/QUOTE] I’m sorry but the correct response is, “What is _We’ll Meet Again_ as performed by Vera Lynn?” That will cost you $200 but you still have control of the board. From the TV show _Murphy Brown_ when she sings _(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman_ to her new born baby. Bob Seger’s _Roll Me Away_ will always be associated with the movei _Mask_ _Heard it through the Grapevine_ from the beginning of _The Big Chill_ _Everybody’s Talkin’_ will always be associated with _Midnight Cowboy_ _In the Air Tonight_ makes me think of Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay riding the “el’ in _Risky Business_ _You Can Leave Your Hat On_ always makes me think of Kim Bassinger dancing in[_9 ½ Weeks_.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPk72nUYri4&feature=related) **NSFW** ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/112 "2008-02-18T18:46:44Z")
[QUOTE=Algher] There was music during that scene? :eek: I gotta go with Jackson Browne’s Somebody’s Baby if we are talking _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_. [/QUOTE] It’s funny, I always associate Petty’s “American Girl” with the opening of “Fast Times”. No one’s mentioned Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” after the bus scene in “Almost Famous” yet ? I loved the song before the movie, and now that scene always comes to mind when I hear the song. Actually “Almost Famous” has a number of song-remembering scenes - Cat Stevens’ 'Listen to the Wind" (Penny Lane spinning about the concert floor after a show). ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/113 "2008-02-18T18:58:46Z")
“The End” by the Doors = **Apocalypse Now** in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/114 "2008-02-19T03:09:58Z")
How could I have forgotten this one? I was sobbing through the entire song. At the end of **Coming Home** , the song “Time” plays as the most painful and brilliant sequence is cross-cut. Jon Voigt talks to a group of high school students about the war. Meanwhile, Bruce Dern removes every stitch of clothing including, at the end, his wedding band, and swims into the ocean to commit suicide. Brutal. Brilliant. That song? Forever linked to that scene. ---
**Author:** ![Malienation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Malienation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malienation)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/115 "2008-02-19T03:25:50Z")
_Killing Me Softly_ was used in _About a Boy_ in full-wince mode. A pity, too…I used to like that song. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/116 "2008-02-19T03:44:56Z")
Halloween II forever spookified _Mr. Sandman_. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/117 "2008-02-19T04:59:25Z")
It seems to be a phenomenon I’m immune to. I’ve been trying to think of an example that’s applicable to me; meanwhile, reading everyone else’s and going “nope…nope… not me…nope” The only exceptions I can come up with are _initial_ associations, i.e., the original context in which I heard the music. I can’t hear the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony without thinking “it’s the news”, but that’s because that what that music _was_ to me as a child long before I discovered that it was Beethoven. That’s not really in the “never the same again” category though. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/118 "2008-02-20T02:00:02Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] Barber’s \*Adagio for Strings, \*from _Platoon._ [/QUOTE] Makes me bawl , every damn time. Making me tear up just thinking about it. “Your eyes” was another one I was going to mention. “Oh Yeah” from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “I’m all right” Caddy Shack.i The whistling song on “The Bridge Over River Kwai.” Or maybe “The Big Red One,” can’t remember. It’s funny how you can see the scene in your mind’s eye, while the song is played. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/119 "2008-02-20T05:05:13Z")
118 posts and noone has mentioned Frank Sinatra singing “Love And Marriage” for nine years (!) at the beginning of each episode of **Married With Children**. I can’t hear the song without thinking of Al Bundy. (The DVD version uses a different song.) ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574/120 "2008-02-20T07:57:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ronald C. Semone] 118 posts and noone has mentioned Frank Sinatra singing “Love And Marriage” for nine years (!) at the beginning of each episode of **Married With Children**. I can’t hear the song without thinking of Al Bundy. (The DVD version uses a different song.) [/QUOTE] Speaking of Frank Sinatra, Neon Genesis Evangelion has forever warped “Fly Me To The Moon” for me by using something like 26 different covers of that song in the closing credits for the show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-never-the-same-again-after-their-use-in-a-movie/422574.md?page=7)