# What movies have used this song?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-have-used-this-song/353905>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 23, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-have-used-this-song/353905 "2006-04-23T22:50:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![teemingONE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@teemingONE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teemingONE)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-have-used-this-song/353905/1 "2006-04-23T22:50:44Z")

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Teenage Wasteland by The Who

I was listening to it yesterday after a long while of not hearing it and I could almost remember a movie I have seen which used the song pretty well. I just can’ttttt put my finger on it.

So, it’s probably gonna be more then a couple movies, but which ones have used this song?

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**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-have-used-this-song/353905/2 "2006-04-23T22:59:57Z")

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**American Beauty** is the most recent that I can recall (I only remember it form the trailer, not the actual movie, though it is on the sdtk).

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**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-have-used-this-song/353905/3 "2006-04-23T23:01:45Z")

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I just googled “movie soundtrack: baba o’reilley”…(The song is really called Baba O’Reilly) and came up with the 1997 movie _Prefontaine_, for one. I’m sure there are others, too.

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**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-have-used-this-song/353905/4 "2006-04-23T23:03:23Z")

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Not a movie, but the TV series **CSI: NY** uses the song in its opening titles.

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**Author:** ![Mayo\_Speaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mayo\_Speaks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mayo_Speaks)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-have-used-this-song/353905/5 "2006-04-23T23:12:10Z")

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> [@Gail](#):
>
> I just googled “movie soundtrack: baba o’reilley”…(The song is really called Baba O’Reilly) and came up with the 1997 movie _Prefontaine_, for one. I’m sure there are others, too.

This works better when spelled “Baba **O’Riley** ”. I’m looking at a Who album, and this is the spelling it gives. A googlefight provides more evidence in favor of this spelling.

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**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-have-used-this-song/353905/6 "2006-04-23T23:43:43Z")

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> [@Mayo Speaks!](#):
>
> This works better when spelled “Baba **O’Riley** ”. I’m looking at a Who album, and this is the spelling it gives. A googlefight provides more evidence in favor of this spelling.

O’Riley is indeed correct; the song was partly (musically) inspired by composer Terry Riley (and Pete Townshend’s guru Meher Baba).