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My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

#10: Mt. Rushmore Series

I've got to know your ideas for this 10th iteration of Mt. Rushmore, OK? Promise?

Which four great songs are inseparable from the scene in a movie (no musicals, please) that they're featured in? Doesn't have to be a great movie (see my Mt. Rushmore below) but it does have to be a great song. Mine are in alphabetical order by song title.

1.) "Chain Of Fools" from a little seen movie where John Travolta, playing a dissolute angel named "Michael", dances (surprise!) in a bar. Wisely, Director Nora Ephron used Aretha Franklin's original version of the song, without doubt the greatest one chord song ever written.

2.) "I Believe in You And Me" sung by the incomparable Whitney Houston in a weepy called "The Preacher's Wife". I love the Four Tops original recording but Houston takes the song to another level.

3.) "Making Whoopee" sung by Michelle Pfeiffer while straddling a piano in "The Fabulous Baker Boys". That voice, those sly lyrics, that red dress - whew!

4.) "You Don't Know Me" when Meryl Streep hit this old Eddie Arnold country standard out of the park in a party scene from "Postcards From The Edge", I thought - it's not fair for someone with so much acting talent to also be able to sing this well. But the scene and the song are now forever linked in my mind.

So, which four great songs from a movie are linked like that for you? Special one time offer to be sure I get something from you: Give me three, two or one songs. It won't be Mt. Rushmore but I'll deal.     

3 comments:

  1. 1. "The End" by The Doors as part of the Apocalypse Now intro.
    2. ""Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival for when Forrest Gump is going to war
    3. "Collide" by Howie Day when Carla's mother dies on Scrubs (not sure if this is a considered a "great" song but I love it).
    4. "Paradise CIty" by Guns N' Roses from Can't Hardly Wait

    It's really hard to think of songs off the top of my head but I know there are so many.

    There are a lot of songs that I wouldn't call great but that I immediately associate with movies such as "Stuck in the Middle with You" from Reservoir Dogs when the one guy is cutting the other's ear off. I don't even like to hear that song because of that scene in the movie. Or what about the famous "Unchained Melody" in Ghost? I always find it so interesting how music can transport me directly to a scene in a movie. Film scores especially do this - like Forrest Gump, when I hear that piano score I can't help but thinking of the feather floating up away from the schoolbus.

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  2. Hey Lisa; Thanks for your choices and especially your comment; love your first two choices and "Unchained Melody" from "Ghost" could have made my Rushmore as well. Afraid I don't watch "Scrubs" so I can't comment on that one and I don't recall seeing "Can't Hardly Wait" but now I'm intrigued - I'll have to rent it just to listen for The GN'R song.

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  3. Don’t You Forget About Me- The Breakfast Club

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