Scene Stealing Songs Part 1

Have you ever heard a song on the radio and immediately thought of a scene from a movie? This happens to me on a regular basis. Often, I find myself listening to various songs on either the oldies channel, the classic rock channel, or the light channels of the radio and can’t help imagining scenes from the movies that feature that song in a prominent way. This, to me, is the sign of a good music supervisor. If you can hear a song and ultimately think of the song in the film you know the supervisor has done a good job. Here are a few of my favorite scene stealing songs which will be continued at a later date.  

1) Risky Business using Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock N Roll:  One cannot think of anything but tom cruise dancing around in his tighty whiteys and button down shirt when listening to this song. In fact the freedom in Tom’s lip singing and the way he dances shines through with the use of this song. In fact this scene has been parodied too many times to count. More recently it was used in the Guitar Hero commercials. 

2) 10 Things I hate About You using Letters to Cleo’s I Want You To Want Me: Yes I know all you purists out there will say, this is a cover song! I know it is, but the cheap trick song has the same effect on me as the excellent cover by Letters to Cleo.

3) Say Anything’s use of Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes: Oh Loyd Dobbler. You were so dreamy, if only I had a guy stand outside of my window with a boombox and play a song for me. The fact is, I can and always will remember Loyd Dobbler as Loyd Dobbler because of this scene in this movie, which has also been parodied numerous times (my favorite of which is on the ABC family show Greek where a girl asks a guy “who are you loyd dobblering?”)

4) The Breakfast Club’s use of Simple Minds’ Don’t You Forget About Me: This song still reminds me of this movie every time I hear it. Whether it is the cover version as mentioned on my blog or the original Simple Minds version, it evokes a feeling of the 80’s and of every John Hughesian movie there is. Sorry I cant embed the file, but click on the song title to see the video!

5) Ghost’s use of the Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody: This scene made me look at pottery in a very different way. Yet every time I hear this song I immediately think of this sensual and inappropriate scene. When I went to travel camp we watched this movie and my friend Jennifer and I used to randomly sing unchained melody and be super grossed out.

6) Love Actually’s use of The Pointer Sisters song Jump: Love Actually is one of my favorite Christmas movies. It does what Valentines Day couldn’t do which is be a Crash- like movie about love/romance. Sorry for the quality of the video. Due to NBC copywriting, the video had to be split up with actual crazy footage of the Pointer Sisters. If you haven’t seen Love Actually it is worth it just to see this scene where Hugh Grant dances to Jump for my Love.