Billie Eilish has become the second-ever artist to have a Bond theme song at the top of the UK singles chart.
Eilish follows Sam Smith, whose song “Writing’s On the Wall” from Spectre topped the charts in 2015.
“No Time to Die“ is also the Bond song with the biggest opening week, with 90,000 equivalent sales.
Smith’s theme sold 70,000 copies in its first week, while Adele’s “Skyfall” sold 84,000.
1/40 40. High Fidelity (2000)
Before Garden State and 500 Days of Summer, the team behind the adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel compiled 15 tracks like a mixtape. It was one its lead character would have approved of: as with many of the soundtracks on this list, High Fidelity’s success lies in a balance between old-school gems by the Velvet Underground, The Kinks and Elvis Costello to Noughties newcomers like Stereolab and Royal Trux.
Touchstone/Kobal/Rex
2/40 39. Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights (2004)
This may seem like sacrilege given that the first Dirty Dancing soundtrack is indisputably the more iconic of the two. And yes, the sequel (essentially a remake set in Cuba during the 1950s), starring Romola Garai and future Rogue One star Diego Luna, suffered from a plot loaded with clichés and lack of chemistry between its two lead actors. But the soundtrack – featuring the Grammy-nominated Latin fusion band Yerba Buena, Colombian rock band Aterciopelados, and the Cuban hip hop group Orishasis – is what draws me back to this guilty pleasure of a film. Dirty Dancing 2 didn’t really deserve such a soundtrack, but it adds some actual heat to a film that, asides from the superb dance routines, leaves you cold.
Rex
3/40 38. Goodfellas (1990)
Martin Scorsese had strict rules for the soundtrack to his film Goodfellas: each song had to have been around during the time in which the scene was set, and the tracks had to make some kind of comment on the scene or character in question “in an oblique way”. A staggering 48 songs are heard during the film, including classics by Dean Martin, Fred Astaire and The Drifters, Sid Vicious, The Who and The Rolling Stones. One of the most unforgettable moments is when Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” plays as the Wise Guys cook dinner, which was “always a big thing” in prison.
2012 Getty Images
4/40 37. Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010)
When it comes to soundtracking your movie, it helps if the director is a massive music nerd. Of course, music was always going to play a huge part in a film about a boy in a band and his video game quest to win the girl of his dreams. But Edgar Wright, a former music video director, found a way to seamlessly integrate his soundtrack into Scott Pilgrim vs the World’s narrative. Beck, who wrote the music for Scott Pilgrim’s garage band Sex Bob-omb, was a perfect match for their chaotic, DIY approach, while Metric’s song “Black Sheep” was used for a performance by ex-girlfriend Envy Adams’s (Brie Larson) band The Clash at Demonhead.
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
5/40 36. Drive (2011)
Drive wouldn’t have worked as well as it did without the soundtrack. Steven Soderbergh’s go-to composer Cliff Martinez assembled the songs for Nicolas Winding Refn’s ambitious indie project, showing an understanding that the most effective soundtracks are often the ones that transport you into the movie without you realising. By using a set of mostly female vocalists, all of whom sing over dry electronic beats, Martinez achieved a sonic portrayal of Drive’s startling juxtaposition between beauty and violence.
Picselect
6/40 35. The Bodyguard (1992)
It’s the biggest movie soundtrack of all time and the 15th best-selling album in the US. Whitney Houston breathed new life into songs by Dolly Parton (“I Will Always Love You”) and Chaka Khan (“I’m Every Woman”). Five of the songs performed by Houston were hits: “I Will Always Love You”, “I’m Every Woman”, “I Have Nothing”, “Run to You” (both Oscar-nominated), and “Queen of the Night”
Rex
7/40 34. Magical Mystery Tour (1976)
Yes, it was the Fab Four’s worst film, but the soundtrack is packed with some of their best songs: “I am the Walrus”, “She Loves You” and “Hello, Goodbye”. Where A Hard Day’s Night, Yellow Submarine and Help were undoubtedly more influential on popular culture, Magical Mystery Tour is the most fun to listen to – regardless of how much effort is required to watch.
Getty
8/40 33. Belly (1998)
Few films offer as comprehensive a look at hip-hop stars during the heights of their creative powers – even though the movie itself was a clumsily written crime drama. Belly’s soundtrack captured the East Coast rap scene as it stepped towards a grittier sound and underwent one of the most important transitions for any genre in music history – with contributions from the likes of D’Angelo, members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas and Jay-Z.
Artisan Entertainment/YouTube
9/40 32. Donnie Darko (2001)
At the time, it felt like Richard Kelly’s dark and gloomy film starring a young Jake Gyllenhaal was one of the few to truly capture what it meant to be a confused, alienated teenager. With composer Michael Andrews, Kelly picked some the best songs from an era that dealt in existential angst via upbeat synth-pop: Echo and the Bunnymen, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, The Pet Shop Boys and more. By choosing to close the film on Michael Andrews’ cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World”, Kelly underpins both the self-absorbed attitude of teenagers convinced that only the artists singing these songs truly understood them, and the nostalgia felt by their parents who were there in the moment.
Rex Features
10/40 31. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Midnight Cowboy – the first X-rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture – took original material and pre-existing songs to complement the theme of a naïve cowboy/wannabe sex worker trying to survive in a big city, and the juxtaposition between Jon Voight’s character Joe Buck and dying con artist “Ratso” (Dustin Hoffman). Fred Neil’s song “Everybody’s Talkin’”, which underscores the first act, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male (for Harry Nilsson).
Rex Features
11/40 30. Lost Highway (1997)
Trent Reznor’s work on David Lynch’s 1997 neo-noir movie is loaded with stark electronics and instrumentals by Angelo Badalamenti. In between, you have Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and, of course, This Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren” – a track that caught Lynch’s attention and inspired him to co-write two albums for Twin Peaks chanteuse Julee Cruise.
Rex
12/40 29. The Last Days of Disco (1998)
Whit Stillman’s 1998 indie-classic starred then-virtual unknowns Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny as friends and roommates in early-Eighties New York. Add that to a wall-to-wall disco soundtrack and you’ve got an intoxicating film, set 20 years after the genre’s heyday, with classic dancefloor anthems from Chic, Diana Ross, and Sister Sledge belted out one after the other.
Castle Rock Entertainment
13/40 28. Singles (1992)
In the summer of 1992, the soundtrack to a film that flopped at the box office offered the masses the gateway they needed into the Seattle grunge scene. Cameron Crowe wanted the Singles soundtrack to be “more like a simple mixtape of Seattle’s finest”, and ended up with a veritable who’s-who of every important band from that moment in music history: Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden and Mudhoney… everyone apart from Nirvana. Regardless, almost three decades after the film’s release, the soundtrack serves as a landmark for one of the most pivotal moments in music history.
YouTube/Screengrab
14/40 27. Cruel Intentions (1999)
Adapting literary classics to modern-day high-school scenarios was the big thing in the Nineties. Cruel Intentions came from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 18th-century work, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe as Kathryn and Sebastian: two spoilt, bored rich kids toying with the naïve and virtuous Annette (Reese Witherspoon). John Ottman was originally enlisted to compose the score, but producers decided that wouldn’t sit well with the teenage demographic it was going for and instead plumped for a soundtrack of Placebo, Blur, Skunk Anansie, Aimee Mann and Counting Crows. This mix of credible and corny mirrors a typical experience we go through as adolescents, discovering individuality via the music we listen to and trying to leave the theatrics behind. The cult status of both the featured music and the film itself suggests we can never let the drama go completely.
Studiocanal
15/40 26. Flashdance (1983)
Flashdance, the first collaboration between producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, is important because it actually changed how some of the most popular films of the Eighties were shot. For each song featured in the film there is a scene presented in the same way as a music video, like the use of “Maniac” as Alex (Jennifer Beals) trains for her dance audition, or the lead song of the film “What a Feeling”, which plays during the opening montage of the steel mill. The latter, written by Italian composer Giorgio Moroder, Keith Forsey and Irene Cara (who performed the track), became the singer’s first and only number one hit. It also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Michael Sembello’s “Maniac”, meanwhile, went on to become one of the highest-grossing songs ever written for a film.
16/40 25. Half Nelson (2006)
While Half Nelson isn’t as highly regarded as Lars and the Real Girl or Drive, it’s the one that helped Ryan Gosling break away from his status as the heartthrob from The Notebook. It also has a phenomenal soundtrack steered by Broken Social Scene, whose brilliant collection of B-sides proved indispensable for this film about a drug-addicted middle-school teacher struggling to deal with the aftermath of a breakup. In between those tracks you’ve got gritty hip hop that shows Dan’s crossover into the world of his pupil, the stoic Drey (Shareeka Epps) – from New York collective Dujeous, to Rhymefest.
ThinkFilm
17/40 24. Lost in Translation (2003)
Sofia Coppola has a history of needle drops that encapsulate certain moods that can’t be expressed through dialogue, particularly if it involves a medley of shoegaze from Air and My Bloody Valentine, and the full-throttle debauchery of Peaches on “Fuck the Pain Away”. The soundtrack was so influential that several critics suggested it had something to do with the rebirth of shoegaze in the mid-Noughties. Either way, there a few better songs to close a film than Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey”, that plays just after the kiss goodbye between Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and that indecipherable whisper.
Rex
18/40 23. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Former Massive Attack producer Nellee Hooper is the brainchild behind one of the greatest film soundtracks of all time. Working with composers Craig Armstrong and Marius de Vries, he beta-tested many of the tracks that ended up on the album by playing them at 5am to afterparty guests at his house in London. Others took direct inspiration from Shakespeare’s original text, with Justin Warfield of One Inch Punch and Art Alexakis of Everclear both allowed to watch early edits of scenes from the film to inspire them. Like the soundtracks for Kill Bill, Trainspotting and Marie Antoinette, it’s the vast eclecticism of the songs featured in Romeo + Juliet that make you remember each one, and the scene where each is used, for years after first seeing the film.
19/40 22. The Harder They Come (1973)
As well as making a star of reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, both the film and soundtrack for The Harder They Come exposed mainstream audiences to the emerging Kingston recording industry, helping bring the genre to the US and beyond. Only the title track was an original recorded by Cliff for the movie; the rest were singles released in Jamaica between 1967 and 1972, including Cliff’s superb “You Can Get it if You Really Want”, plus songs from seminal artists like Toots and the Maytals and Desmond Dekker.
New World Picures/YouTube
20/40 21. The Beach (2000)
A veritable masterpiece: The Beach soundtrack is what gives this film starring a fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio its vitality, capturing the essence of the trance music heard during Thai beach parties during the Nineties. It was supervised by Pete Tong, who said the songs, including Moby’s “Porcelain” and Dario G’s “Voices”, are what make the film “watchable time and time again”. The way the music progresses mirrors the grit and darkness that begin to emerge out of paradise.
Rex Features
21/40 20. Pretty in Pink (1986)
John Hughes virtually pioneered the formula for teen movies soundtracked by angsty British post-punk rock. Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order all appeared on what is essentially Hughes’s checklist of what cool kids were – or should have been – listening to in the Eighties.
22/40 19. Black Panther (2018)
Curated and co-executive produced by Kendrick Lamar, the Black Panther soundtrack brought on a select group of extraordinary talent that would understand the themes in the film, from Anderson .Paak to Earl Sweatshirt. Leading this group is Lamar himself, undoubtedly the best choice of artist for a film that explores responsibility, black power, family dynamics and loyalty. Where Jay-Z failed to step aside on the Great Gatsby soundtrack and let other artists do their thing, Lamar is more interested in highlighting the skills of his fellow artists, like South African singer Babes Wodumo, or Jorja Smith. It’s true that the Black Panther album pales in comparison to some of Lamar’s solo work, but it’s rare to see a soundtrack that so deeply considers the subject matter it has been presented with, and the responsibility of continuing the story through music.
Marvel Studios-Disney/AP
23/40 18. Dazed and Confused (1993)
Dazed and Confused was relatable even if you didn’t happen to spend your teenage years riding shotgun in a 1975 Chevy El Camino. This is largely due to director Richard Linklater highlighting an era of raucous butt-rock anthems and stoner jams, from Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” to Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold”.
Gramercy Pictures
24/40 17. Marie Antoinette (2006)
In a year that was saturated with serious historical and period dramas, from a remake of Jane Eyre to The Queen, Marie Antoinette stood out for its highly stylised and fun approach to a well-known figure. Director Sofia Coppola took a similar approach with the music as James Gunn did for Guardians of the Galaxy, mixing new wave and post-punk – including The Strokes, New Order, Adam and the Ants and The Cure – with period music by Baroque composers Vivaldi and Couperin. By doing so, Coppola gave her audience something to relate to, and a soundtrack that suited Marie Antoinette’s rebellious teenage spirit. The best example of this is in the shopping scene – set to the song “I Want Candy” by Bow Wow Wow – that famously included a pair of purple Converse: one of the most defining fashion items of Nineties teen culture. It is a brilliant yet subtle alignment of modern Western consumerism and the outrageous decadence at Versailles during the 18th century.
Getty/Leigh Johnson
25/40 16. Call Me By Your Name (2017)
One of the most eclectic compilations to grace cinema-goers’ ears in recent years: the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack wins for those three songs by Sufjan Stevens alone. The American singer-songwriter remixed his 2010 track “Futile Devices” and also wrote two new songs specifically for the film: “Visions of Gideon” and “Mystery of Love”, the latter of which was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar. Director Luca Guadagnino worked with film editor Walter Fasano and music supervisor Robin Urdang, all understanding that music would play a “vital role”. He wanted the music to give the film a “precise identity” that would act as a “voice” in the movie, he told Billboard. “That’s when I thought of Sufjan Stevens.” Other tracks, like the buoyant “Love My Way” by The Psychedelic Furs, captured the wistful, heady nature of hot, endless summers in Italy during the Eighties.
Sony Pictures Classics
26/40 15. Straight Outta Compton (2015)
Of course, any biopic about the rise and fall of gangsta rap collective NWA had to have a killer soundtrack – especially if its former members were involved in its production. Even so, the meticulous care with which the soundtrack for Straight Outta Compton was assembled is impressive, and provides backdrop for an origin story about some of the most influential and important records – and artists – of the Eighties and Nineties.
Universal Studios
27/40 14. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
This offbeat romantic comedy has developed cult status over the years and stood out at the time for its original take on the “boy meets girl” genre. Music is what first drew characters Summer (Zoe Deschanel) and Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) together (they start talking after Summer overhears The Smiths playing on Tom’s MP3 player). Each song mirrors the various highs and lows the characters go through, helped by director Marc Webb’s background making music videos for indie pop artists. Regina Spektor’s song “Hero” is the perfect backdrop for the scene where Tom realises his hopes of getting back with Summer are futile; the track closes on the lyric “no one’s got it all”, as if to point out that not everyone gets the fairytale ending they hope for.
Rex Features
28/40 13. Baby Driver (2017)
A veritable smorgasbord for any self-respecting music nerd: Baby Driver took movie soundtracks to a whole other plane. The Fault in Our Stars actor Ansel Elgort stars as “Baby”, a skilled getaway driver who relies on a steady stream of music in order to counteract the effects of tinnitus.There are vintage cuts from The Beach Boys, Beck and Barry White, and Seventies rock gems by Queen and Golden Earring. Yet it was the slightly more unassuming song “Bellbottoms” from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album Orange that initially inspired the film. A then 21-year-old Edgar Wright was sitting in his bedroom, “completely broke”, when he began to visualise a car chase set to the songs on that album.
“It was almost like the closest thing to having action-movie synesthesia, [where] I would listen to that song and imagine this car chase.” he said.
Sony Pictures/YouTube
29/40 12. American Graffiti (1973)
George Lucas managed to amplify the already-nostalgic mood on his “summer of ‘62” film by choosing songs from the mid-to-late Fifties as the lead tracks on the American Graffiti soundtrack. Songs from Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry to The Beach Boys are all presented by legendary disc jockey Wolfman Jack.
NBC Universal/YouTube
30/40 11. 10 Things I Hate About You
If Pretty in Pink captured teenage angst in the Eighties, 10 Things I Hate About You achieved it for the decade that followed. Unlike many films of the Nineties, which attempted to capitalise on the major rock stars of the day, 10 Things managed to select what is essentially a list of one-hit wonders, from Letters to Cleo and Semisonic to Save Ferris. When you watch the film today, it only serves to fuel that feeling of nostalgia and add to its ever-growing cult status.
31/40 10. Do the Right Thing (1989)
Spike Lee’s Brooklyn-based masterpiece is set to a breathtaking jazz score conducted and composed by his father, Bill Lee. It’s also punctuated by summer jams and blissful ballads, or the urgent demands of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, which is played from Radio Raheem’s boombox a number of times through the film.
32/40 9. Eden (2014)
Until Eden, there was no film about club culture that took the scene seriously. French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love’s character Paul (Felix de Givry) is based on the experiences of her brother Sven – a relatively popular DJ who had to look on as his peers, including Daft Punk, achieved global fame by pioneering the early EDM scene. Its soundtrack offers a comprehensive look at the house, jungle and garage music that was the lifeblood of Paris youth culture in the Nineties, but is also carefully chosen to match the situation of the film’s characters. Daft Punk’s “Veridis Quo” signals a mood-change at a celebratory dinner, while “Happy Song” by Charles Dockins conveys Paul’s euphoria as his hero Tony Humphries works the decks in a New York club.
33/40 8. The Graduate (1968)
This was one of the first films to be defined by its music; Mike Nichols also helped pioneer the practice of curating pre-existing songs that would appeal to a pop radio audience. Simon & Garfunkel’s music was the perfect fit when it came to music that would show Dustin Hoffman’s character’s intensifying feelings of isolation, particular whenever “The Sounds of Silence” was used.This was one of the first films to also be defined by its music; Mike Nichols also helped pioneer the practice of curating pre-existing songs that would appeal to a pop radio audience. Simon & Garfunkel’s music was the perfect fit when it came to music that would show Dustin Hoffman’s character’s intensifying feelings of isolation, particular whenever “The Sounds of Silence” was used.
Moviestore Collection/REX
34/40 7. Super Fly (1972)
Curtis Mayfield’s third studio album was released as the soundtrack to the Blaxploitation film of the same name. It was groundbreaking for its themes of poverty and drug abuse which made the record stand out among the less socially aware music of its time. It would go on to influence everyone from TV score composers to soul singers in the decades that followed.
YouTube/screengrab
35/40 6. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
How do you make a film with aliens, a talking tree and an anthropomorphic tree feel believable? This is the question director James Gunn asked himself during production for Guardians of the Galaxy, before deciding on a mixtape of Sixties and Seventies classics – many of which would be played on the lead character’s Walkman. Arguably the best moment is right at the beginning of the movie, where Quill [Chris Pratt] dances through a deserted temple on a post-apocalyptic planet to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love”, using a very angry lizard like you would a hairbrush for lip-syncing in front of the mirror.
“The music and the Earth stuff is one of those touchstones that we have to remind us that, yeah, Quill is a real person from planet Earth who’s just like you and me,” Gunn explained. “Except he’s in this big outer space adventure.”
36/40 5. Trainspotting (1996)
The soundtrack for Danny Boyle’s adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel was so popular it promoted a release of a second soundtrack a year later, in 1997. After two decades, it still holds up as one of the greatest and most lovingly curated collections of songs in music history. The use of “Lust for Life” in the opening scene triggered something of a career renaissance for Iggy Pop (one that many would argue didn’t do him many favours). There’s a romanticised overdose set to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”, and Heaven 17 soundtrack a club scene with “Temptation”. A particularly disgusting toilet scene is set to Brian Eno’s “Deep Blue Day” and French composer Georges Bizet’s “Carmen Suite No.2”.
37/40 4. Pulp Fiction (1994)
Quentin Tarantino didn’t commission a traditional film score for what is arguably his most adored film, 1994’s Pulp Fiction. Instead, he mixed American surf music and classic rock and roll, including the late Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” in the iconic opening scene. The track was suggested to Tarantino by musician Boyd Rice, via their mutual friend Allison Anders. The soundtrack had such an impact – reaching number 21 on the Billboard 200 and selling more than two million units by 1996 – that it was credited with “reinvigorating” surf rock and sparking a trend by advertisers to use it in their commercials, “to help sell everything from burritos to toothpaste”. Chuck Berry’s song “You Never Can Tell”, also known as “C’est la Vie”, also enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to its use in the famous dance scene with Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta).
38/40 3. Almost Famous (2000)
Neither Cameron Crowe nor his music coordinator Danny Bramson wanted to pander to the charts for this story based on the director’s years as a teenage rock journalist. If anything, they avoided tracks that seemed like potential radio favourites, choosing lesser-known songs like “Sparks” from The Who’s album Tommy as the theme for Crowe’s alter-ego William Miller. The music is essentially a whole other character – a narrator who offers running commentary on the scenarios the others find themselves in. And there are few scenes more uplifting than the one in Almost Famous where, having retrieved guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) from a drugs and alcohol-fuelled party, the fictional band Stillwater and their crew take up a rowdy singalong to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”.
Rex Features
39/40 2. Purple Rain (1984)
Prince’s acting debut took place in a film that also produced one of his greatest works. The concept for the plot, about a talented but tortured frontman of a band in Minneapolis, was developed by Prince during his 1999 tour. Purple Rain was one of the 10 highest-grossing films of 1984 and shows Prince as his best and most outrageous self. Yet the songs also provided a window through the Purple One’s enigmatic facade, to reveal the soul beneath.
Alamy
40/40 1. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
The Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA worked with director Quentin Tarantino on the collection of music that would accompany Uma Thurman’s character The Bride on her bloody quest for revenge. What is particularly brilliant is the alternation between non-diegetic sound and the silence that precedes and lasts during some of the most tense action sequences. When it comes to the most crucial battle between O-Ren Ishii and The Bride at the end of the film, they first chose the disco flamenco intro from Santa Esmeralda’s Latin arrangement of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. At the gory conclusion, where O-Ren falls, RZA and Tarantino used Meiko Kaji’s “The Flower of Carnage”. The song was first used in the 1973 martial arts film Lady Snowblood, in which Kaji starred. She sings: “I’m a woman who walks at the brink of life and death/ Who emptied my tears many moons ago” and then: “I’ve immersed my body in the river of vengeance.” It’s as though the song was written with The Bride in mind.
Miramax
1/40 40. High Fidelity (2000)
Before Garden State and 500 Days of Summer, the team behind the adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel compiled 15 tracks like a mixtape. It was one its lead character would have approved of: as with many of the soundtracks on this list, High Fidelity’s success lies in a balance between old-school gems by the Velvet Underground, The Kinks and Elvis Costello to Noughties newcomers like Stereolab and Royal Trux.
Touchstone/Kobal/Rex
2/40 39. Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights (2004)
This may seem like sacrilege given that the first Dirty Dancing soundtrack is indisputably the more iconic of the two. And yes, the sequel (essentially a remake set in Cuba during the 1950s), starring Romola Garai and future Rogue One star Diego Luna, suffered from a plot loaded with clichés and lack of chemistry between its two lead actors. But the soundtrack – featuring the Grammy-nominated Latin fusion band Yerba Buena, Colombian rock band Aterciopelados, and the Cuban hip hop group Orishasis – is what draws me back to this guilty pleasure of a film. Dirty Dancing 2 didn’t really deserve such a soundtrack, but it adds some actual heat to a film that, asides from the superb dance routines, leaves you cold.
Rex
3/40 38. Goodfellas (1990)
Martin Scorsese had strict rules for the soundtrack to his film Goodfellas: each song had to have been around during the time in which the scene was set, and the tracks had to make some kind of comment on the scene or character in question “in an oblique way”. A staggering 48 songs are heard during the film, including classics by Dean Martin, Fred Astaire and The Drifters, Sid Vicious, The Who and The Rolling Stones. One of the most unforgettable moments is when Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” plays as the Wise Guys cook dinner, which was “always a big thing” in prison.
2012 Getty Images
4/40 37. Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010)
When it comes to soundtracking your movie, it helps if the director is a massive music nerd. Of course, music was always going to play a huge part in a film about a boy in a band and his video game quest to win the girl of his dreams. But Edgar Wright, a former music video director, found a way to seamlessly integrate his soundtrack into Scott Pilgrim vs the World’s narrative. Beck, who wrote the music for Scott Pilgrim’s garage band Sex Bob-omb, was a perfect match for their chaotic, DIY approach, while Metric’s song “Black Sheep” was used for a performance by ex-girlfriend Envy Adams’s (Brie Larson) band The Clash at Demonhead.
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
5/40 36. Drive (2011)
Drive wouldn’t have worked as well as it did without the soundtrack. Steven Soderbergh’s go-to composer Cliff Martinez assembled the songs for Nicolas Winding Refn’s ambitious indie project, showing an understanding that the most effective soundtracks are often the ones that transport you into the movie without you realising. By using a set of mostly female vocalists, all of whom sing over dry electronic beats, Martinez achieved a sonic portrayal of Drive’s startling juxtaposition between beauty and violence.
Picselect
6/40 35. The Bodyguard (1992)
It’s the biggest movie soundtrack of all time and the 15th best-selling album in the US. Whitney Houston breathed new life into songs by Dolly Parton (“I Will Always Love You”) and Chaka Khan (“I’m Every Woman”). Five of the songs performed by Houston were hits: “I Will Always Love You”, “I’m Every Woman”, “I Have Nothing”, “Run to You” (both Oscar-nominated), and “Queen of the Night”
Rex
7/40 34. Magical Mystery Tour (1976)
Yes, it was the Fab Four’s worst film, but the soundtrack is packed with some of their best songs: “I am the Walrus”, “She Loves You” and “Hello, Goodbye”. Where A Hard Day’s Night, Yellow Submarine and Help were undoubtedly more influential on popular culture, Magical Mystery Tour is the most fun to listen to – regardless of how much effort is required to watch.
Getty
8/40 33. Belly (1998)
Few films offer as comprehensive a look at hip-hop stars during the heights of their creative powers – even though the movie itself was a clumsily written crime drama. Belly’s soundtrack captured the East Coast rap scene as it stepped towards a grittier sound and underwent one of the most important transitions for any genre in music history – with contributions from the likes of D’Angelo, members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas and Jay-Z.
Artisan Entertainment/YouTube
9/40 32. Donnie Darko (2001)
At the time, it felt like Richard Kelly’s dark and gloomy film starring a young Jake Gyllenhaal was one of the few to truly capture what it meant to be a confused, alienated teenager. With composer Michael Andrews, Kelly picked some the best songs from an era that dealt in existential angst via upbeat synth-pop: Echo and the Bunnymen, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, The Pet Shop Boys and more. By choosing to close the film on Michael Andrews’ cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World”, Kelly underpins both the self-absorbed attitude of teenagers convinced that only the artists singing these songs truly understood them, and the nostalgia felt by their parents who were there in the moment.
Rex Features
10/40 31. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Midnight Cowboy – the first X-rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture – took original material and pre-existing songs to complement the theme of a naïve cowboy/wannabe sex worker trying to survive in a big city, and the juxtaposition between Jon Voight’s character Joe Buck and dying con artist “Ratso” (Dustin Hoffman). Fred Neil’s song “Everybody’s Talkin’”, which underscores the first act, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male (for Harry Nilsson).
Rex Features
11/40 30. Lost Highway (1997)
Trent Reznor’s work on David Lynch’s 1997 neo-noir movie is loaded with stark electronics and instrumentals by Angelo Badalamenti. In between, you have Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and, of course, This Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren” – a track that caught Lynch’s attention and inspired him to co-write two albums for Twin Peaks chanteuse Julee Cruise.
Rex
12/40 29. The Last Days of Disco (1998)
Whit Stillman’s 1998 indie-classic starred then-virtual unknowns Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny as friends and roommates in early-Eighties New York. Add that to a wall-to-wall disco soundtrack and you’ve got an intoxicating film, set 20 years after the genre’s heyday, with classic dancefloor anthems from Chic, Diana Ross, and Sister Sledge belted out one after the other.
Castle Rock Entertainment
13/40 28. Singles (1992)
In the summer of 1992, the soundtrack to a film that flopped at the box office offered the masses the gateway they needed into the Seattle grunge scene. Cameron Crowe wanted the Singles soundtrack to be “more like a simple mixtape of Seattle’s finest”, and ended up with a veritable who’s-who of every important band from that moment in music history: Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden and Mudhoney… everyone apart from Nirvana. Regardless, almost three decades after the film’s release, the soundtrack serves as a landmark for one of the most pivotal moments in music history.
YouTube/Screengrab
14/40 27. Cruel Intentions (1999)
Adapting literary classics to modern-day high-school scenarios was the big thing in the Nineties. Cruel Intentions came from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 18th-century work, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe as Kathryn and Sebastian: two spoilt, bored rich kids toying with the naïve and virtuous Annette (Reese Witherspoon). John Ottman was originally enlisted to compose the score, but producers decided that wouldn’t sit well with the teenage demographic it was going for and instead plumped for a soundtrack of Placebo, Blur, Skunk Anansie, Aimee Mann and Counting Crows. This mix of credible and corny mirrors a typical experience we go through as adolescents, discovering individuality via the music we listen to and trying to leave the theatrics behind. The cult status of both the featured music and the film itself suggests we can never let the drama go completely.
Studiocanal
15/40 26. Flashdance (1983)
Flashdance, the first collaboration between producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, is important because it actually changed how some of the most popular films of the Eighties were shot. For each song featured in the film there is a scene presented in the same way as a music video, like the use of “Maniac” as Alex (Jennifer Beals) trains for her dance audition, or the lead song of the film “What a Feeling”, which plays during the opening montage of the steel mill. The latter, written by Italian composer Giorgio Moroder, Keith Forsey and Irene Cara (who performed the track), became the singer’s first and only number one hit. It also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Michael Sembello’s “Maniac”, meanwhile, went on to become one of the highest-grossing songs ever written for a film.
16/40 25. Half Nelson (2006)
While Half Nelson isn’t as highly regarded as Lars and the Real Girl or Drive, it’s the one that helped Ryan Gosling break away from his status as the heartthrob from The Notebook. It also has a phenomenal soundtrack steered by Broken Social Scene, whose brilliant collection of B-sides proved indispensable for this film about a drug-addicted middle-school teacher struggling to deal with the aftermath of a breakup. In between those tracks you’ve got gritty hip hop that shows Dan’s crossover into the world of his pupil, the stoic Drey (Shareeka Epps) – from New York collective Dujeous, to Rhymefest.
ThinkFilm
17/40 24. Lost in Translation (2003)
Sofia Coppola has a history of needle drops that encapsulate certain moods that can’t be expressed through dialogue, particularly if it involves a medley of shoegaze from Air and My Bloody Valentine, and the full-throttle debauchery of Peaches on “Fuck the Pain Away”. The soundtrack was so influential that several critics suggested it had something to do with the rebirth of shoegaze in the mid-Noughties. Either way, there a few better songs to close a film than Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey”, that plays just after the kiss goodbye between Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and that indecipherable whisper.
Rex
18/40 23. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Former Massive Attack producer Nellee Hooper is the brainchild behind one of the greatest film soundtracks of all time. Working with composers Craig Armstrong and Marius de Vries, he beta-tested many of the tracks that ended up on the album by playing them at 5am to afterparty guests at his house in London. Others took direct inspiration from Shakespeare’s original text, with Justin Warfield of One Inch Punch and Art Alexakis of Everclear both allowed to watch early edits of scenes from the film to inspire them. Like the soundtracks for Kill Bill, Trainspotting and Marie Antoinette, it’s the vast eclecticism of the songs featured in Romeo + Juliet that make you remember each one, and the scene where each is used, for years after first seeing the film.
19/40 22. The Harder They Come (1973)
As well as making a star of reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, both the film and soundtrack for The Harder They Come exposed mainstream audiences to the emerging Kingston recording industry, helping bring the genre to the US and beyond. Only the title track was an original recorded by Cliff for the movie; the rest were singles released in Jamaica between 1967 and 1972, including Cliff’s superb “You Can Get it if You Really Want”, plus songs from seminal artists like Toots and the Maytals and Desmond Dekker.
New World Picures/YouTube
20/40 21. The Beach (2000)
A veritable masterpiece: The Beach soundtrack is what gives this film starring a fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio its vitality, capturing the essence of the trance music heard during Thai beach parties during the Nineties. It was supervised by Pete Tong, who said the songs, including Moby’s “Porcelain” and Dario G’s “Voices”, are what make the film “watchable time and time again”. The way the music progresses mirrors the grit and darkness that begin to emerge out of paradise.
Rex Features
21/40 20. Pretty in Pink (1986)
John Hughes virtually pioneered the formula for teen movies soundtracked by angsty British post-punk rock. Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order all appeared on what is essentially Hughes’s checklist of what cool kids were – or should have been – listening to in the Eighties.
22/40 19. Black Panther (2018)
Curated and co-executive produced by Kendrick Lamar, the Black Panther soundtrack brought on a select group of extraordinary talent that would understand the themes in the film, from Anderson .Paak to Earl Sweatshirt. Leading this group is Lamar himself, undoubtedly the best choice of artist for a film that explores responsibility, black power, family dynamics and loyalty. Where Jay-Z failed to step aside on the Great Gatsby soundtrack and let other artists do their thing, Lamar is more interested in highlighting the skills of his fellow artists, like South African singer Babes Wodumo, or Jorja Smith. It’s true that the Black Panther album pales in comparison to some of Lamar’s solo work, but it’s rare to see a soundtrack that so deeply considers the subject matter it has been presented with, and the responsibility of continuing the story through music.
Marvel Studios-Disney/AP
23/40 18. Dazed and Confused (1993)
Dazed and Confused was relatable even if you didn’t happen to spend your teenage years riding shotgun in a 1975 Chevy El Camino. This is largely due to director Richard Linklater highlighting an era of raucous butt-rock anthems and stoner jams, from Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” to Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold”.
Gramercy Pictures
24/40 17. Marie Antoinette (2006)
In a year that was saturated with serious historical and period dramas, from a remake of Jane Eyre to The Queen, Marie Antoinette stood out for its highly stylised and fun approach to a well-known figure. Director Sofia Coppola took a similar approach with the music as James Gunn did for Guardians of the Galaxy, mixing new wave and post-punk – including The Strokes, New Order, Adam and the Ants and The Cure – with period music by Baroque composers Vivaldi and Couperin. By doing so, Coppola gave her audience something to relate to, and a soundtrack that suited Marie Antoinette’s rebellious teenage spirit. The best example of this is in the shopping scene – set to the song “I Want Candy” by Bow Wow Wow – that famously included a pair of purple Converse: one of the most defining fashion items of Nineties teen culture. It is a brilliant yet subtle alignment of modern Western consumerism and the outrageous decadence at Versailles during the 18th century.
Getty/Leigh Johnson
25/40 16. Call Me By Your Name (2017)
One of the most eclectic compilations to grace cinema-goers’ ears in recent years: the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack wins for those three songs by Sufjan Stevens alone. The American singer-songwriter remixed his 2010 track “Futile Devices” and also wrote two new songs specifically for the film: “Visions of Gideon” and “Mystery of Love”, the latter of which was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar. Director Luca Guadagnino worked with film editor Walter Fasano and music supervisor Robin Urdang, all understanding that music would play a “vital role”. He wanted the music to give the film a “precise identity” that would act as a “voice” in the movie, he told Billboard. “That’s when I thought of Sufjan Stevens.” Other tracks, like the buoyant “Love My Way” by The Psychedelic Furs, captured the wistful, heady nature of hot, endless summers in Italy during the Eighties.
Sony Pictures Classics
26/40 15. Straight Outta Compton (2015)
Of course, any biopic about the rise and fall of gangsta rap collective NWA had to have a killer soundtrack – especially if its former members were involved in its production. Even so, the meticulous care with which the soundtrack for Straight Outta Compton was assembled is impressive, and provides backdrop for an origin story about some of the most influential and important records – and artists – of the Eighties and Nineties.
Universal Studios
27/40 14. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
This offbeat romantic comedy has developed cult status over the years and stood out at the time for its original take on the “boy meets girl” genre. Music is what first drew characters Summer (Zoe Deschanel) and Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) together (they start talking after Summer overhears The Smiths playing on Tom’s MP3 player). Each song mirrors the various highs and lows the characters go through, helped by director Marc Webb’s background making music videos for indie pop artists. Regina Spektor’s song “Hero” is the perfect backdrop for the scene where Tom realises his hopes of getting back with Summer are futile; the track closes on the lyric “no one’s got it all”, as if to point out that not everyone gets the fairytale ending they hope for.
Rex Features
28/40 13. Baby Driver (2017)
A veritable smorgasbord for any self-respecting music nerd: Baby Driver took movie soundtracks to a whole other plane. The Fault in Our Stars actor Ansel Elgort stars as “Baby”, a skilled getaway driver who relies on a steady stream of music in order to counteract the effects of tinnitus.There are vintage cuts from The Beach Boys, Beck and Barry White, and Seventies rock gems by Queen and Golden Earring. Yet it was the slightly more unassuming song “Bellbottoms” from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album Orange that initially inspired the film. A then 21-year-old Edgar Wright was sitting in his bedroom, “completely broke”, when he began to visualise a car chase set to the songs on that album.
“It was almost like the closest thing to having action-movie synesthesia, [where] I would listen to that song and imagine this car chase.” he said.
Sony Pictures/YouTube
29/40 12. American Graffiti (1973)
George Lucas managed to amplify the already-nostalgic mood on his “summer of ‘62” film by choosing songs from the mid-to-late Fifties as the lead tracks on the American Graffiti soundtrack. Songs from Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry to The Beach Boys are all presented by legendary disc jockey Wolfman Jack.
NBC Universal/YouTube
30/40 11. 10 Things I Hate About You
If Pretty in Pink captured teenage angst in the Eighties, 10 Things I Hate About You achieved it for the decade that followed. Unlike many films of the Nineties, which attempted to capitalise on the major rock stars of the day, 10 Things managed to select what is essentially a list of one-hit wonders, from Letters to Cleo and Semisonic to Save Ferris. When you watch the film today, it only serves to fuel that feeling of nostalgia and add to its ever-growing cult status.
31/40 10. Do the Right Thing (1989)
Spike Lee’s Brooklyn-based masterpiece is set to a breathtaking jazz score conducted and composed by his father, Bill Lee. It’s also punctuated by summer jams and blissful ballads, or the urgent demands of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, which is played from Radio Raheem’s boombox a number of times through the film.
32/40 9. Eden (2014)
Until Eden, there was no film about club culture that took the scene seriously. French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love’s character Paul (Felix de Givry) is based on the experiences of her brother Sven – a relatively popular DJ who had to look on as his peers, including Daft Punk, achieved global fame by pioneering the early EDM scene. Its soundtrack offers a comprehensive look at the house, jungle and garage music that was the lifeblood of Paris youth culture in the Nineties, but is also carefully chosen to match the situation of the film’s characters. Daft Punk’s “Veridis Quo” signals a mood-change at a celebratory dinner, while “Happy Song” by Charles Dockins conveys Paul’s euphoria as his hero Tony Humphries works the decks in a New York club.
33/40 8. The Graduate (1968)
This was one of the first films to be defined by its music; Mike Nichols also helped pioneer the practice of curating pre-existing songs that would appeal to a pop radio audience. Simon & Garfunkel’s music was the perfect fit when it came to music that would show Dustin Hoffman’s character’s intensifying feelings of isolation, particular whenever “The Sounds of Silence” was used.This was one of the first films to also be defined by its music; Mike Nichols also helped pioneer the practice of curating pre-existing songs that would appeal to a pop radio audience. Simon & Garfunkel’s music was the perfect fit when it came to music that would show Dustin Hoffman’s character’s intensifying feelings of isolation, particular whenever “The Sounds of Silence” was used.
Moviestore Collection/REX
34/40 7. Super Fly (1972)
Curtis Mayfield’s third studio album was released as the soundtrack to the Blaxploitation film of the same name. It was groundbreaking for its themes of poverty and drug abuse which made the record stand out among the less socially aware music of its time. It would go on to influence everyone from TV score composers to soul singers in the decades that followed.
YouTube/screengrab
35/40 6. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
How do you make a film with aliens, a talking tree and an anthropomorphic tree feel believable? This is the question director James Gunn asked himself during production for Guardians of the Galaxy, before deciding on a mixtape of Sixties and Seventies classics – many of which would be played on the lead character’s Walkman. Arguably the best moment is right at the beginning of the movie, where Quill [Chris Pratt] dances through a deserted temple on a post-apocalyptic planet to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love”, using a very angry lizard like you would a hairbrush for lip-syncing in front of the mirror.
“The music and the Earth stuff is one of those touchstones that we have to remind us that, yeah, Quill is a real person from planet Earth who’s just like you and me,” Gunn explained. “Except he’s in this big outer space adventure.”
36/40 5. Trainspotting (1996)
The soundtrack for Danny Boyle’s adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel was so popular it promoted a release of a second soundtrack a year later, in 1997. After two decades, it still holds up as one of the greatest and most lovingly curated collections of songs in music history. The use of “Lust for Life” in the opening scene triggered something of a career renaissance for Iggy Pop (one that many would argue didn’t do him many favours). There’s a romanticised overdose set to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”, and Heaven 17 soundtrack a club scene with “Temptation”. A particularly disgusting toilet scene is set to Brian Eno’s “Deep Blue Day” and French composer Georges Bizet’s “Carmen Suite No.2”.
37/40 4. Pulp Fiction (1994)
Quentin Tarantino didn’t commission a traditional film score for what is arguably his most adored film, 1994’s Pulp Fiction. Instead, he mixed American surf music and classic rock and roll, including the late Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” in the iconic opening scene. The track was suggested to Tarantino by musician Boyd Rice, via their mutual friend Allison Anders. The soundtrack had such an impact – reaching number 21 on the Billboard 200 and selling more than two million units by 1996 – that it was credited with “reinvigorating” surf rock and sparking a trend by advertisers to use it in their commercials, “to help sell everything from burritos to toothpaste”. Chuck Berry’s song “You Never Can Tell”, also known as “C’est la Vie”, also enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to its use in the famous dance scene with Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta).
38/40 3. Almost Famous (2000)
Neither Cameron Crowe nor his music coordinator Danny Bramson wanted to pander to the charts for this story based on the director’s years as a teenage rock journalist. If anything, they avoided tracks that seemed like potential radio favourites, choosing lesser-known songs like “Sparks” from The Who’s album Tommy as the theme for Crowe’s alter-ego William Miller. The music is essentially a whole other character – a narrator who offers running commentary on the scenarios the others find themselves in. And there are few scenes more uplifting than the one in Almost Famous where, having retrieved guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) from a drugs and alcohol-fuelled party, the fictional band Stillwater and their crew take up a rowdy singalong to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”.
Rex Features
39/40 2. Purple Rain (1984)
Prince’s acting debut took place in a film that also produced one of his greatest works. The concept for the plot, about a talented but tortured frontman of a band in Minneapolis, was developed by Prince during his 1999 tour. Purple Rain was one of the 10 highest-grossing films of 1984 and shows Prince as his best and most outrageous self. Yet the songs also provided a window through the Purple One’s enigmatic facade, to reveal the soul beneath.
Alamy
40/40 1. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
The Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA worked with director Quentin Tarantino on the collection of music that would accompany Uma Thurman’s character The Bride on her bloody quest for revenge. What is particularly brilliant is the alternation between non-diegetic sound and the silence that precedes and lasts during some of the most tense action sequences. When it comes to the most crucial battle between O-Ren Ishii and The Bride at the end of the film, they first chose the disco flamenco intro from Santa Esmeralda’s Latin arrangement of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. At the gory conclusion, where O-Ren falls, RZA and Tarantino used Meiko Kaji’s “The Flower of Carnage”. The song was first used in the 1973 martial arts film Lady Snowblood, in which Kaji starred. She sings: “I’m a woman who walks at the brink of life and death/ Who emptied my tears many moons ago” and then: “I’ve immersed my body in the river of vengeance.” It’s as though the song was written with The Bride in mind.
Miramax
However, the BBC noted that Adele’s track was released on a Wednesday, meaning it achieved 84,000 equivalent sales in just two days.
In its second, full week on the charts, it sold 92,400 copies.
Eilish is the youngest-ever artist to record a theme for the Bond franchise, having turned 18 in December.
She performed “No Time to Die” live for the first time at the Brit Awards in London, where she was accompanied by Hans Zimmer, Johnny Marr, and her brother Finneas O’Connell.
At the ceremony, she also accepted the award for Best International Female.
She and O’Connell recently revealed they wrote the song on their tour bus over three days. Billie Eilish lands UK number one with Bond theme No Time to Die.
Read our review of the song here.
