# Unlikely movie music that works **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460 "2004-05-16T19:16:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/21 "2004-05-17T15:34:35Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > _Kill Bill_ used bits and pieces of televison themes, and, more notably, the opening to a Latin Disco cover of “Please Don’t Let me be Understood” to start off a samurai duel. > > Worked brilliantly. Tarantino strikes again. See also his use of Gerry Rafferty’s “Stuck in the Middle With You” in _Resevoir Dogs_ … to set off what ius essentially a torture scene. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/22 "2004-05-17T15:51:40Z")
Kubrick again: The soundtrack for **2001** was oddly retrograde, but it worked fine. As one sour-grapes composer at the time put it, “The _genius_ wants to create the universe here, but instead of a film score, he plays a bunch of _records._” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/23 "2004-05-17T16:19:17Z")
I vote for the wild Indian video and accompanying music that leads off and closes **Ghost World**. Also, I never heard “In Dreams” or “Blue Velvet” the same way after seeing the movie **Blue Velvet**. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/24 "2004-05-17T16:47:18Z")
> [@Joey P](#): > > Not sure if it ‘dosen’t match’ but IIRC The Third Man uses the same music throughout the entire movie. Try listining to just the ‘soundtrack’ and it would drive you nuts after a while. It’s not that the music is “the same,” but the entire score is played solo on a [zither](http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/z1/zither.asp), an unusual choice to say the least. In a similar vein, the entire score to _The Last Detail_ is played by a military band and most of it is banal, would-be-inspirational marching tunes, often contrasting pointedly (and purposely) with the melancholy action on screen. Neil Young’s electric guitar score for Jarmusch’s _Dead Man_ is pretty incongrous, given that the movie is set in the old West. Whether any of these examples “work” is a matter of opinion, but I tend to like them even if the music itself is pretty lousy. (I’d never want to own the _Last Detail_ soundtrack, but I can’t imagine the movie any other way.) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/25 "2004-05-17T17:18:39Z")
“Lost in Translation” has some pretty interesting stuff. Of course the Japanese inspired techno stuff is quite fitting, but the karaoke stuff is surprising apt. But the nicest/oddest song is “Just Like Honey” at the end. The music is great, but the lyrics, umm, ahh; well, let’s just say that the words may not apply to that particular situation. (BTW: according to the display on my DVD player, I’m 10 minutes from that scene.) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/26 "2004-05-17T17:38:46Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The music is great, but the lyrics, umm, ahh; well, let’s just say that the words may not apply to that particular situation. Ah, well, in that category we may also add **“Pretty in Pink”** as used in the movie of the same name. When asked in an interview once how far from the meaning of the song the movie fell, Richard Butler replied “About a million miles.” ---
**Author:** ![Wasabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f05b48/32.png) [@Wasabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wasabee)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/27 "2004-05-17T18:33:42Z")
On the flip side a case where it doesnt’ work… “Black Like Me” About a white journalist who goes undercover as a black man in America. The soundtrack is “jungle” rythms and percussion. It’s offensive and does not work at all. The music sounds like it came from “Planet of the Apes”. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/28 "2004-05-18T03:26:08Z")
Oooh. Should have thought of “Pretty in Pink”, nice catch **spoke-**. It fits the movie perfectly _only_ if you focus on the chorus. Since I already loved the song before the movie, I was thinking "Are they really trying to suggest that Molly Ringwald is a “girl with something extra?” Surprised no mention of Dick Dale &c’s surfing music in “Pulp Fiction”. C’mon folks, this is Cafe Society, _every_ movie thread has to have a mention of “Pulp Fiction.” It’s the law you know. A movie with surfing music and no surfers. The closest you get is when Vincent and Jules walk around in Tshirts and shorts. Even that Urge Overkill cover _sounds_ great, but trying to picture Uma Thurman as someone who is not yet a woman… ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/29 "2004-05-18T04:43:49Z")
Yet more Kubrick: In Full Metal Jacket, when Joker’s squad approaches the town with the massive grinning caricature on a building (Ho Chi Minh?), some insane song with a phrenetic tempo is played in the background - something to the effect of “Let me tell you a word about the bird” iirc. I guess the Mickey Mouse song at the end fits the category too. ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/30 "2004-05-18T04:45:25Z")
> [@Paladud](#): > > Yet more Kubrick: In Full Metal Jacket, when Joker’s squad approaches the town with the massive grinning caricature on a building (Ho Chi Minh?), some insane song with a phrenetic tempo is played in the background - something to the effect of “Let me tell you a word about the bird” iirc. I guess the Mickey Mouse song at the end fits the category too. Whoops. Meant to type **f** renetic. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/31 "2004-05-18T06:41:51Z")
Thanks, everybody! Now I have quite a few movies I’ll have to watch (or re-watch) with an ear out for the music. I still haven’t heard any suggestions for the earliest movie that purposely used incongruous music. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/32 "2004-05-18T14:23:20Z")
The score by Michael Nyman/Damon Albarn (of Blur) for **Ravenous** used folksy traditional instruments (banjo, squeezebox, etc.) but in a very arty, ahistorical way, eschewing the traditional song forms that actual settlers of the 19th C. would have known (jigs, reels, waltzes, hornpipes, hymns, etc.) for eerie, off-kilter psychological pieces that, in their unusual tonality and rhythms, underscore the general air of insanity depicted in the film. And for the one-off George Lazenby Bond film **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service** , both the score (by John Barry) and theme song (sung by Louis Armstrong) broke away from the prevailing patterns in the Bond franchise to date. Breaking away from the brassy theme songs sung by Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey (and the chanteuse number “You Only Live Twice,” sung by Nancy Sinatra), the titular opening-credits theme (by Barry) was an ominous-sounding instrumental. The song (“We Have All the Time In the World” was pointedly not about Bond or his nemesis, but was presented as a music video, with the song layered over a striking montage sequence condensing the love affair between Bond and Tracy (Diana Rigg), which, uniquely to the franchise, culminates in Bond’s getting married. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/33 "2004-05-18T14:37:05Z")
I liked the '60s Britrock soundtrack to _Rushmore_. The lyrics generally matched the feel of the scenes (although the “You are forgiven!” climax to The Who’s “A Quick One While He’s Away” is used to ironic effect in a revenge sequence), but the movie is set in 1990s America so the music is obviously something from another place and time. As the hero is a rather strange and geeky teenaged boy who very much lives in his own world, it seemed appropriate that the music was _not_ contemporary or currently “in”. ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/34 "2004-05-18T15:24:48Z")
I was always jarred awake at “Back In The Saddle Again” in the middle of **Sleepless In Seattle"** , but in context it works as a quick throwaway joke. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/35 "2004-05-18T15:42:20Z")
**Plunkett and Macleane** is set in the mid-18th century (it’s the semi-true story of a pair of highwaymen), but has music that sounds like it was recorded in the back room of a bar in New Orleans. But it works. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/36 "2004-05-18T22:01:35Z")
> [@Paladud](#): > > Yet more Kubrick: In Full Metal Jacket, when Joker’s squad approaches the town with the massive grinning caricature on a building (Ho Chi Minh?), some insane song with a phrenetic tempo is played in the background - something to the effect of “Let me tell you a word about the bird” iirc. That would be _Surfin’ Bird_ by **The Trashmen**. A classic psychobilly tune also covered by such luminaries as **The Cramps** and **The Ramones**. Another good one not mentioned yet is the song _Brazil_ used as the theme for the movie of the same name. Michael Kamen’s score isn’t all that great but the title song’s bright, happy 1940’s style latin beat provides a wonderfully ironic counterpoint to the bleak trials and tribulations of Mr. Sam Lowry. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/37 "2004-05-18T22:22:28Z")
I nominate “Roundabout,” by Yes, in the stripjoint scene in **Buffalo 66**. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/38 "2004-05-19T02:08:01Z")
Ray Charles’ _I Can’t Stop Loving You_ from the anime _Metropolis._ Maybe it isn’t entirely “improbable,” considering the semi-retro feel of the rest of the movie, but it’s still unexpected. And it works, dagnabit. And works well. One of the best scenes ever put to film, if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/39 "2004-05-19T02:34:50Z")
I happen to like _Hudson Hawk_. Plllll. I knew that Bruce was totally riffing on his tough guy persona right from the start, when he and Danny sang ‘Swinging on a Star’ while doing the heist at the beginning of the film. Too bad nobody else got the joke. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460/40 "2004-05-19T02:55:59Z")
> [@Reloy3](#): > > I was always jarred awake at “Back In The Saddle Again” in the middle of **Sleepless In Seattle"** , but in context it works as a quick throwaway joke. Unless you already saw “Semi-Tough” (among others), in which case it’s a very unoriginal non-joke. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-movie-music-that-works/245460.md?page=1)