I’m kinda hard-pressed to find a crush this month, given that August is a train wreck month for me: work and cycling collide in a mass of bits, bytes, spokes and gears to suck all available time into an amorphous blob of overcommitment.

But I do relax to music when I can. And something that’s tickled my ears is the work of Pete and Maura Kennedy’s newest musical venture, The Stringbusters.

Of particular note, I love their cover of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue.”

Enjoy!

Download: “Rhapsody In Blue” - The Stringbusters (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

If you like this track, you should definitely stop by The Kennedys’ website and buy a copy!

For this month’s flick-centric playlists, I stuck to pop songs used in films, and for my crush I’m going to share one of my favorite songs written specifically for a film: Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová’s “When Your Mind’s Made Up” from the movie Once.

The wife and I went to see the movie a few weeks ago, and we instantly fell in love with it and its jaw-droppingly excellent soundtrack. It’s hard for me to sum the movie up, but someone on the IMDB did a great job:

An (unnamed) Guy is a Dublin guitarist/singer-songwriter who makes a living by fixing vacuum cleaners in his Dad’s Hoover repair shop by day, and singing and playing for money on the Dublin streets by night. An (unnamed) Girl is a Czech who plays piano when she gets a chance, and does odd jobs by day and takes care of her mom and her daughter by night. Guy meets Girl, and they get to know each other as the Girl helps the Guy to put together a demo disc that he can take to London in hope of landing a music contract. During the same several day period, the Guy and the Girl work through their past loves, and reveal their budding love for one another, through their songs.

The Guy and Girl are real-life musicians and musical partners Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová — Hansard is the frontman for Irish indie/folk-rockers The Frames, Irglová is a classicly trained pianist, and they make unbelievably beautiful music together. After seeing Once, we ran over to our local music shop & grabbed the soundtrack — we’ve both been listening the heck out of it ever since. The best thing about the soundtrack is that while the songs are tied to the story of the movie, they don’t rely on knowledge of the film’s plot to work — this disc of intimate romance and heartbreak could have been well-received without the film.

Download: Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová, “When Your Mind’s Made Up” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Like what you hear? First go see the movie, then head over to the iTunes Store and download the Once soundtrack — it’s a steal at $7.99, too.

Around the US debut of the film, Hansard and Irglová went on a small tour of theaters to perform songs from the soundtrack. Here’s a clip of them performing “When Your Mind’s Made Up” in Tempe, AZ — it’s an audience recording, so the sound’s not perfect, but it’s a great sample of their performances:

Well, on August 16th, 1948, George Herman Ruth died. Charles Bukowski was born on this date in 1920, probably the last time he was ever happy to be anywhere. Bela Lugosi died on this day in 1956, bequeathing his unwon Oscar to Martin Landau. 8/16/85 saw the last new episode of Dukes Of Hazzard. In 1896, gold was discovered in the Yukon. And thirty years ago today, The King died on his porcelain throne.

I’ve never been a huge Elvis fan, my exposure really only coming in two concentrated bursts. The first was one summer in the late 70s, perhaps even 1977, when for some reason my brother became fascinated with the works of E.A.P., playing his Gold Collection cassettes over and over and over all summer while we were on vacation in Nantucket. The song that really stuck with me then was “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”, which is probably still my favorite Presley tune. Then I moved on, stopped being five years old, and Elvis retreated into someone I knew about and appreciated, but didn’t really seek out or listen to.

Many years later, my friend and bandmate Tom attempted to infect me with his lifelong fascination with The King. I mean it bordered on unhealthy, but it was hardly his fault; his mother was a diehard fan, having seen him in concert a few times, playing all his music for Tom from the womb onward, and even dating an Elvis impersonator for awhile during some formative years for Tom. So when Tom played me all this later Evlis stuff, the crazy funky comeback James Brown theatrical stuff, I was really blown away. I mean his band just jammed! But unfortunately all that stuff was on cassette and I don’t know where it is now, what I would have liked to put on here is some stuff from the Boston Garden performance that Tom’s mother went to.

Anyway, in tribute to Tom and his mother, I hereby present this pretty kickass song. “Little Sister” and “Suspicious Minds” are also damned good, but this is the one I’ve been listening to most. Plus, I wanted to point out that The Go Go’s subliminally (or perhaps purposefully) lifted the main riff for their song “How Much More”. I mean it’s even in the same key and everything. Check it out!

Download: Elvis Presley, “(Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

An article in today’s Guardian Unlimited wrestles with the idea of Celine Dion being “cool” because Timbaland has deemed her as such.

So have Justin Timberlake, Prince and Rick “I make everything I produce sound just like Johnny Cash’s American series” Rubin.

The author, Caroline Sullivan, sums up the whole thing thusly:

But where does this leave me? In a pickle. As a critic, I’ve come to rely on Dion as the gold standard of middle-of-the-road rubbishness, eg, “The new Enrique Iglesias album registers an impressive 7.1 on the Dion Scale.” Not only does she come in handy as a benchmark, she’s also the only pop star whose music I’ve been able to detest without fear of contradiction, because everyone else feels the same. (Apart from the people who’ve bought 175m of her records, I’ll grant you.)

My conclusion on the subject? This whole thing means that Timbaland has cleared the shark with room to spare.

This month’s selection comes from another new draftee, my good friend Erin McKenna, whose passion for life is equaled only by her passion for Italian disco music. Ms. McKenna’s directions are as follows:

I was watching Eurotrip again and was struck again by how much the song “Scotty Doesn’t Know” (performed at the beginning in a brilliant Matt Damon cameo) took what should have been a terrible movie and made it very enjoyable for me. I can think of many “musical moments” in the movies, where the music/song selection caused the scene stand out in my mind where otherwise it might not have. William Lichter’s lip synch of Gun’s N’ Roses’ “Paradise City” in Can’t Hardly Wait, the group sing along of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” in Almost Famous, the list goes on and on. Love them (Rocky’s “Eye of the Tiger”) or hate them (Titanic’s Celine Dion nightmare “My Heart Will Go On”), music and the movies go together like peanut butter and jelly. Your task: to compile 30 minutes of songs that made the movie for you… enjoy!

The “Scotty Doesn’t Know” bit from Eurotrip is pretty fantastic, actually. I couldn’t find a clip of the actual bit in the movie, but the made-for-DVD music video gives you the idea:

A good, fun challenge for us this month, no? Here’s what we came up with — hope you dig as much as we did:

• Uncle Sam’s “Sound + Vision”
• Onkel Rudi’s “Beyond the Wurlitzer”
• U.N.K.L.E. Matt’s “Muse en Scene”

Okay, so first off, some self-imposed restrictions: No Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson films (these guys are just uncanny in their ability to marry film and song, and there’s just too many stand-out examples to pick from), and in tribute to “High Fidelity”, anything involved in “The Big Chill” (and for good measure, “Stand By Me”) is automatically disqualified. I’m also just limiting myself to “found” music - that is, music that was recorded previous to and independent of the making of the film in question. No incidental music soundtrack songs, and nothing recorded for the film. This rules out things like the entire “Graduate” soundtrack, Anton Karas’ zither on “The Third Man”, Prokofiev’s “Alexander Nevsky”, Damon Albarn & Michael Nyman’s out-of-this-world work on “Ravenous“, “Dark Star’”s wonderfully incongruous “Benson, Arizona”, Wendy Carlos’ “A Clockwork Orange”, everything in “The Wizard Of Oz”, “Nashville”, “Flash Gordon” and “That Thing You Do”, and unfortunately the songs that accompany three of the best-edited film scenes I’ve ever seen: the new recording of “Danny Boy” in “Miller’s Crossing”, Plava Laguna’s opera / Leeloo’s fight in “The Fifth Element”, and the aforebanned Scorsese’s “Layla Reprise” in “Goodfellas”. Anyway, I could go on for days about what I didn’t use. Here’s what I did:

1. Geoff Muldaur, “Brazil”, film: “Brazil“
Well this just had to go on this list, didn’t it? I mean as far as a song “making” a film, this one is perhaps more integral than any other. Writer / director Terry Gilliam has said that the initial idea for this popped into his head while he was sitting on a beach, looking out at what should have been a beautiful natural setting but instead featured oil derricks and barges and pollution, while this song played on the radio. The wistful lyrics and bouncy tune made for quite a juxtaposition for the anti-technological Gilliam, and a film was born. And so now this song has been retconned by its inclusion in the film as well - what was once just a goofy fun song is now tinged with bittersweet escapism, and the almost desperate, hanging-on-by-his-teeth-and-fingernails delivery of Muldaur hardly helps matters. He now sounds like he’s saying he’d better get back to old Brazil, before the secret police find him. His vocals are so strained, he doesn’t even have the strength to hit the final note of the crescendo. Perhaps he was swallowed up by bureaucracy before he had the chance. Anyway, enjoy this song - when it comes to famous creative moments in British pop culture, this is the filmic equivalent of a field in Innsbruck and a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Europe…

2. Ray Charles, “Ol’ Man River”, film: “Joe Versus The Volcano“
The inclusion of this should also be seen as representative of two other instances of the wonderful use of Charles songs; the charming “You Don’t Know Me” in “Groundhog Day” and the amazing, completely bizarre yet unforgettable use of “I Can’t Stop Loving You” at the climax of the anime “Metropolis” - I’d have nominated this instead, but not a lot of people have seen that Japanese animated film. …You know, as opposed to the throngs of people that have ever seen “Joe”, which is honestly and without shame one of my favorite films of all time. It’s a film that everyone seems to have heard of, but not many have actually seen. I recommend it highly, though the quirky surreal absurdist qualities that appeal to me may not be for all tastes. As far as this song, it accompanies a pivotal scene early on in the film, just after Joe has found out from his doctor that he has a brain cloud and not long to live. Well, if Robert Stack told me that, I’d believe him too. The camera then pulls out on a long shot as Joe leaves the depressing brick expanse of warehouse that his doctor’s office is apparently in, reveals his lonely little car, and the little old lady walking by with the great dane that Joe can’t resist hugging as Ray mournfully croons, “I’m tired of living but I’m scared of dying.” It’s that kind of film. But speaking of surreal, listen carefully to this song; after the first refrain of “he keeps on rolling along” and before Ray sings, “he don’t plant taters”, if you listen very carefully, you can hear someone (very not Ray) in the studio cue the background singers that their next word was going to be “taters”. Go listen, it’s funny!

3. Arvo Part, “Spiegel im Spiegel”, films: “Gerry” and “Heaven“
Minimalist. That’s the word I was trying to remember when describing this track for Sam at the store a few days ago. Nothing but a piano playing single notes, and a violin playing single notes. A lonely conversation of sorts, chords forming somewhere in the middle of this simplicity, building and resolving, plaintive and beautiful. And fitting that this music should accompany at least two and half films about two people lost and alone and struggling to stay alive. The first time I heard this was in Gus van Sant’s film “Gerry”, another offbeat gem not for all tastes, featuring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, acting their dehydrated asses off as two friends lost somewhere in the American southwest. I’ve walked in Moab, it really does go on forever. Part’s is the only music used, this track and the only other one from his “Alina” composition, and it makes for an unforgettable complement to the stark unforgiving visuals of the film. A little while later I caught Tom Tykwer’s film “Heaven”, a project that started as Krzysztof Kieslowski’s last film but was completed by Tykwer upon Kieslowski’s death. Another starkly beautiful film, this follows tragically misguided terrorist Cate Blanchett as she escapes into the Italian countryside with the help of guardian angel Giovanni Ribisi. And there was Part’s music again! It bothered me for a whole night where I knew the music from, having only seen “Gerry” in the theater at that point, until finally the image of the two friends lost in the wilderness came to me. Okay, speaking of lost in the wilderness, time to explain why I mentioned that this song accompanies two and a half films: the dramatized documentary “Touching The Void“, about two mountain climbers who go through a harrowing survival story on the side of a mountain, in which one’s decision to let the other die is actually the only thing that saves both their lives, features music eerily similar to this, but no credit is given to Part. So it’s not some other similar composition by him, it’s some other similar composition by composer Alex Heffes who was obviously played the temp track of Part’s music and told, “give us something like this”. And he did, and the result is beautiful and adds some interesting complexity onto its minimalist source material. I highly recommend all three films, though “Gerry” should rightfully only be seen in a theater, where you are claustrophobically locked in this situation with these two as van Sant hammers the point home with interminably long shots of walking, or sitting, or clouds, or nothing at all. A film experiment, inspired by the work of Bela Tarr, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

4. Claudio Villa, “Tic Ti, Tic Ta”, film: “Big Night“
Well okay, on to brighter and happier times! And what could be more opposite from two people starving alone in a desert, than a whole neighborhood getting together for the biggest and best meal any of them will ever have? A joyous celebration of a film, “Big Night” features lots of wonderful music, and in fact revolves around the possible appearance of Louis Prima, but nothing stands out more than this song. A jazzy, dancy, rappy song, this amplifies the food orgy that is the main course of the night. If you’ve seen this film, this song probably stuck in your head. Now it’s just a click away!

5. The Platters, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”, film: “Always“
I already loved this song before seeing this film, but was overjoyed to see it featured so prominently. This is Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter’s “song”, and serves as a connection long after it seems all connection has been lost. A wonderful remake of “A Guy Named Joe”, I adore this film and can’t understand why more people aren’t familiar with it. I mean it is Spielberg fer cryin’ out loud! One would think this would be every bit as popular as… well, y’know, “1941″, “Empire Of The Sun”, “Twilight Zone The Movie”, “The Terminal”, “Duel”, or at the very least, “Sugarland Express”! But anyway, it’s a great film with a great cast (perhaps Roberts Blossom’s best role!), and this song is an integral part of the magic - even if you have to suffer through J.D. Souther’s live version at the beginning. And by the way, this film about the not-so-departed dearly departed, featuring a classic crooning love song, came out the year before “Ghost”.

6. Moby (f. Kronos Quartet), “God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters”, film: “Heat“
Okay I know I’ve gone on and on about this song in the past, it being one of my favorite pieces of music, etc etc. But now I get to explain how it got to be that way. Being a fan of electronic music, I picked up Moby’s “Everything Is Wrong” album when it came out, and found it to be an uneven mishmash of the light dancy stuff he’d previously done, and the serene soothing stuff he was about to get into. This song was a standout, and I popped it onto many a mixtape (yes, it was that long ago). Then I caught Michael Mann’s film “Heat”, on double-VHS (yes, it was that long ago!), which closes with a final showdown between two guys named Pacino and DeNiro, underscored with this song. And two things struck me - one is remembering how Mann seems to have always been in love with electronic music and has given exposure to said artists through his films (Tangerine Dream on “Thief”, Kitaro on “Manhunter”, Jan Hammer on… some TV cop show…), and indeed he persists with this film, which features Brian Eno, Lisa Gerrard, Kronos Quartet, and a score by Elliot Goldenthal. But what struck me as reveletory was the way that Goldenthal appears to have crafted the chord structure of Kronos’ theme after the droning building Moby song! There I am, watching the film end, hearing these chords fade in orchestrally over the final minutes of the film, until at some point Moby’s song slides in and continues. It is a seamless transition and a feat of composition and collaboration the like of which I’ve not seen in other films. And it just shocked me full of energy, I remember putting on my headphones, blasting this song, going out for a walk and connecting emotionally to Moby’s song for the first of many times to come. So thank you Mann, Goldenthal, Kronos, Moby, et al, for giving me that moment and this music. I’ve attempted here to graft on the Kronos introduction to the Moby song as best I could, to approximate the effect at the end of the film - but really, just go out and get the special edition DVD and watch it. Powerful stuff.

honorable mentions go to the following:

Eumir Deodato, “Also Sprach Zarathustra”, film: “Being There” - although I already used this on another playlist, so maybe I’d go with Cheech & Chong’s “Basketball Jones” from the same film. Talk about incongruous! Night Ranger, “Sister Christian”, film: “Boogie Nights” - I’m not a fan of the song, but it is a scene that everyone was talking about afterwards. Bo Diddley, “Bo Diddley”, film: “Fritz The Cat” - an unforgettably cool and imaginative linking scene, just a crow jamming to this groove while the next scene fades in behind him. Kraftwerk, “Tour de France”, film: Breakin’ - Turbo popping outside the store with the broom in his hand. Speaking of breakdancing, the use of La Caution’s “The A La Menthe” in “Ocean’s 12″ provides a sublimely unforgettable scene in an otherwise thoroughly forgettable film. And then of course the grandmommy of all bittersweet haunting satirical juxtaposotion, Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again”, concluding “Dr. Strangelove”.

Oh and speaking of “Eurotrip”, its use of Plastic Bertrand’s “Ca Plan Pour Moi” is a clear homage to the song’s memorable appearance in “National Lampoon’s European Vacation”.

Download: Geoff Muldaur, “Brazil” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Ray Charles, “Ol’ Man River” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Arvo Part, “Spiegel im Spiegel” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Claudio Villa, “Tic Ti Tic Ta” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: The Platters, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Moby (f. Kronos Quartet), “God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: UNKLE Matt’s “Muse en Scene” (XML Playlist)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

You can grab the whole thing in a single ZIP file, too:

Download: “Muse en Scene” (ZIP)
(Click here for download instructions)

Ever since the first displays of movies as entertainment, the soundtrack has played an important role. Back in the days of silent movies, that often meant that the emotion of the movie was carried by a talented organist at the helm of a massive Wurlitzer.

Since the “talkies” arrived on the scene in the 1920s, the art of the soundtrack has expanded greatly. The heyday of MGM Studios was marked by their incredible musical movies, and throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s, musical movies (sometimes based on Broadway plays, other times not) set a standard for lush soundtracks and songs written to help carry plot and character development.

But in the 1960s, everything changed. Pop songs, usually performed by artists other than the actors in the film, often featured prominently in film. In addition to providing a new flexibility for directors, the songs also could also assume a new life, outside of the pop music scene. Movies also allowed classical pieces that were never composed with the intent of scoring a film (many were composed before the advent of films) to assume a new identity: who can separate the image of the black monolith or the alignment of the planets from the sounds of Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” from 2001: A Space Odyssey?

So I present a small selection of songs from films that always bring back the imagery from the movies in which they appear.

1. “A Hard Day’s Night” by The Beatles (from A Hard Day’s Night)
   To me, this is the opening song to beat them all. It’s impossible to divorce this song from the image of the Fab Four, sprinting down Boston Place, next to the Marylebone train station, evading the mob of screaming fans. George Harrison even injured himself in the mess, his fall being captured in the film to perfect effect. The Fadd9 opening chord, simultaneously hit on both an acoustic six-string guitar and a Rickenbacker electric 12-string (as well as a piano, played by George Martin), is so incredibly perfect as an opening salvo, and it just gets better from there.
   
   
2. “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon & Garfunkel (from The Graduate)
   When Mike Nichols first conceived of The Graduate, he had two artists in mind for the soundtrack duties: Paul Simon and Dave Grusin. While the latter composed the incidental instrumentals in the film, the former was chosen because his lyrics often matched the angst and conflict that defined the film. To this end, Simon presented a work-in-progress tune, “Mrs. Roosevelt.” When Nichols heard this, he suggested that the title be switched to “Mrs. Robinson” to match the character in the film. And with that, history was made. When I hear this song, I can’t help but picture Benjamin Braddock driving around in his Alfa-Romeo Spider, trying to exorcise his demons: the manic guitar strumming gets the adrenaline flowing, and slows down as Ben (or his car) runs out of gas. This version of the song is the one used in the film, which is markedly different (and much shorter) than the retooled version that featured prominently on Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends album.
   
   
3. “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” by B.J. Thomas (from Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid)
   When I hear this song, I can’t help but picture Butch & Sundance on their bikes, playing around like there isn’t a care in the world, even though they know that the end will come with time. It’s one of many brilliant scenes in the film - watch it and enjoy!
   
   
4. “Porpoise Song (Theme from “Head”)” by The Monkees (from Head)
   Ever wonder what would happen if you took The Monkees, had them act in a movie scripted by Jack Nicholson, with appearances by Annette Funicello, Frank Zappa, Teri Garr and Victor Mature? The result is one of the most confusing, yet enduring, movies ever made. Head was the movie that broke the public’s image of the group as a bunch of go-lucky young folk, instead presenting them as a more introspective, hip group. While the movie was a rank flop in its initial release, it attained cult status over the years, and is now seen as one of the high points of psychedelic cinema.
   
   
5. “The Blue Danube (excerpt)” by Johann Strauss (from 2001: A Space Odyssey)
   The waltz king’s music sets the mood for the rather sexual docking of spacecraft and space station in Kubrick’s masterwork. I love how the scene plays out: the coldness of space, the solitude of the Pan-Am spaceship, and the grandeur of the space station are perfectly matched to the ebb and flow of Strauss’ music. And the imagery is loaded with sex (think of the whole slot-shaped motif with the landing area of the station, the circular/target shape of things…. you get the drill) - another depiction of the primal urges explored in the film.
   
   
6. “Adagio for Strings (Opus 11)” by Samuel Barber (from Platoon)
   You can sum up both the movie and this piece of music in one word: sadness. And that’s exactly why Oliver Stone chose this haunting Barber piece as the oft-revisited background music to his ultra-violent portrayal of the Vietnam War. The whole movie shows the utter senselessness of the war, and the confused morality of the setting, the soldiers and their actions, at the end leaving the viewer incredibly spent and sad. The swelling strings in this piece are tense and edgy, accurately portraying the feelings depicted by Private Taylor and Staff Sgt. Barnes. This montage video neatly sums up the movie vis a vis Barber’s music:
   
   

If you haven’t seen any of the movies mentioned here, you owe it to yourself to visit your local library, video store, or Netflix to catch up.

Download: “A Hard Day’s Night” - The Beatles (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: “Mrs. Robinson” - Simon & Garfunkel (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” - B.J. Thomas (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: “Porpoise Song (Theme from “Head”)” - The Monkees (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: “The Blue Danube (excerpt)” - Johann Strauss (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: “Adagio for Strings, Opus 11″ - Samuel Barber (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Onkel Rudi’s “Beyond the Wurlitzer” (XML Playlist)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

The whole thing is available as a single ZIP file for those who lose count of such things:

Download: “Beyond the Wurlitzer” (ZIP)
(Click here for download instructions)

I was really excited about this theme when Erin proposed it to me — we both love music and film, and we talk about both all the time (yes, she was the one who introduced me to the charms of “Scotty Doesn’t Know”), so this was her perfect storm of an idea, and I had lots of fun thinking about the movies and tunes that are completely inseparable in my mind.

Because this is such a wide open challenge, right off the bat, like Matt, I eliminated a couple of things to shrink the pool of available songs: no Tarantino (his soundtrack work is absolutely stellar, but it felt almost too easy because of his ubiquity), no Scorsese (I could have put together a list of just Rolling Stones songs he’s used), and no songs written specifically for a film (just ’cause). I also did some YouTube research & tracked down the scenes in which these songs were used so you can see what I’m a-talkin’ about. Enjoy!

1. Pee Wee Herman, “Surfin’ Bird” from Back To The Beach
The highlight of Back To The Beach, the seriously silly neo-beach-blanket-bingo flick that paired Frankie Avalon & Annette Funicello again on the big screen, was Pee-Wee Herman’s near-surreal performance of “Surfin’ Bird” at a big beach party — in the confines of the film, it seemed perfectly normal, which made it all the more insanely funny. I can’t hear this song without thinking of Pee-Wee, either, making the Ramones’ version even sillier (I had to research the bejebus out of this one, because the album is loooong out of print, so please do partake and enjoy):

2. The Pixies, “Where Is My Mind?” from Fight Club
I didn’t know the Pixies from the tooth fairy until I saw David Fincher’s Fight Club, and this apocalyptic tune was the soundtrack to the film’s apocalyptic ending (perfectly paired, too). Afterwards I had to track the song down, and my brother was only too happy to educate me on Frank Black & co. An excellent introduction, to say the least:

3. Sam Cooke, “Wonderful World” from Witness
The 1986 thriller Witness is a generally taut, thrilling affair, full of suspense, action, and Danny Glover (before he got too old for this sh*t), but the moment that made the movie for me is a sweet, romantic one where Harrison Ford’s undercover cop dances with amish Kelly McGillis to this song. The version in the film is sung by, I believe, Greg Chapman, but we all know that Cooke’s version is the definitive one:

4. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “American Girl” from Silence of the Lambs
Poor Catherine Martin, singing along to this Tom Petty classic in her car, tapping the steering wheel in time, just before she meets Buffalo Bill. Apparently, it’s a short trip from “Take it easy baby/Make it last all night” to “It put the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.” (Sorry, no clip available)

5. Gipsy Kings, “Hotel California” from The Big Lebowski
Eight year olds, dude.

Seriously, I can’t even hear the Eagles’ original without thinking ‘pederast’ — that’s just how good the marriage between John Turturro’s over-the-top Jesus and the Gipsy Kings’ ridiculous cover of this song is:

6. Underworld, “Born Slippy” from Trainspotting
As Ewan McGregor’s Renton frees himself from the insanity of the life he’s been living with his strung out crew, walking off into the sunset and declaring a fresh start, Underworld’s epic slowly builds on the soundtrack into an absolute frenzy of drums and club rhythms, punctuated by hopeful dashes of synth. It’s the perfect way to end the movie, and is its defining moment:

Alright, enough with the clips — here are the tunes!

Download: Pee Wee Herman, “Surfin’ Bird” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: The Pixies, “Where Is My Mind?” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Sam Cooke, “Wonderful World” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “American Girl” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Gipsy Kings, “Hotel California” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Underworld, “Born Slippy” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Uncle Sam’s “Sound + Vision” (XML Playlist)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

You can grab the whole thing in a single ZIP file, too:

Download: “Sound + Vision” (ZIP)
(Click here for download instructions)