I've stumbled across any number of lists touting the best usage of songs in movies and I have never, not ever, not once, nosirree, uh uh, come across the mention of what is undeniably the greatest -- and I do mean GREATEST -- utilization of a song in a film. And it's a damned shame.I don't care if the list is Top Ten or Top 50 or Top 100, I've not yet found anyone with the acumen to realize the importance of the adaptation of this song into a key moment in the film which, without said song, would be just another couple of minutes out of a hundred rather than a true centerpiece of the storyline. And it's not as if no one ever saw the movie; it was a box office hit and can be found on cable TV with great regularity. What is the song? We'll come to that. So . . .
In copyrighted David Letterman reverse numerical order, the Top 10 usages of song in film are:
10) Midnight Special / Creedence Clearwater Revival from 'Twilight Zone'. To quote John Lithgow's character, "Oh, I love Creedence!" Dan Ackroyd's shining moment?
9) Stuck in the Middle With You / Stealer's Wheel from 'Reservoir Dogs'. The dance of the psychopath, choreographed to Gerry Rafferty's breakthrough toe-tapper. Oops, did I nick your ear? That's gotta hurt.
8) Oh Yeah / Yello from 'The Secret of My Succe$s'. This is the only redeeming feature of this Michael J Fox dog of a movie, played as the characters do a bit of bedroom hopping that would have played better if staged by the Marx Brothers. A lot of people will mention this song in such lists but will reference its use in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. Yeah, I get that. But if I'm gonna pick a song from that movie, I'm going with Twist and Shout.
7) You Can't Always Get What You Want / The Rolling Stones from 'The Big Chill'. Now almost a cliché but, at the time, it was a slap in the face during the semi-somber opening scene of a movie that would depend heavily on it's pop-rock-soul soundtrack. Changed funeral services forever.
6) Just Dropped In / The First Edition from 'The Big Lebowski'. Can you say "drug-induced"? Hilarious hallucinatory bowling-with-Busby-Berkeley-on-acid scene. Far out, dude.5) Tubular Bells / Mike Oldfield from 'The Exorcist'. I had a friend argue the point that this song was played throughout this film as a sort of underlying theme. It was not. That is how powerful the connection is between this tune and the image of Father Merrin arriving in the night haze at the Georgetown apartment building of Regan MacNeil. Indelible.
4) In Your Eyes / Peter Gabriel from 'Say Anything'. All I have to say is: Lloyd Dobbs. Boom box. That's all you need to know.
3) In Dreams / Roy Orbison from 'Blue Velvet'. A heavily rouged Dean Stockwell lip-synching into a hand-held drop light. Chilling. Creepy. I remember telling a friend of mine after we'd gone to see this film when it first hit the screen that this was always a weird and creepy song but this movie (and Stockwell) took it into uncharted territories of strange.
2) The Sound of Silence / Simon & Garfunkel from 'The Graduate'. It may be hard to realize or remember now just how unique, different and groundbreaking the scene over which this song played truly was back in 1967. The techniques employed by director Mike Nichols, film editor Sam O'Steen and cinematographer Robert Surtees challenged the viewers' sensibilities, senses and expectations. This was not your father's Oldsmobile. Of course, Hollywood being the self-cannibalizing entity that it is, by 1969, these methods were old hat. Still, mesmerizing.
And, now for . . .
1) Sinnerman / Nina Simone from 'The Thomas Crown Affair' (1999). Pierce Brosnan spreads his arms wide in the rotunda of the museum, dons his bowler hat, grabs his briefcase and saunters off to perform an ingeniously clever bait-and-switch with dozens and dozens of other similarly dressed men, all to the syncopation of Nina Simone's rhythmic take on this old gospel tune and a classic scene is etched forever within this oft-uneven, oft-unbelievable but oft-enjoyable remake of the Steve McQueen classic. If I didn't know for a fact that Ms. Simone had recorded this song for her 1965 "Pastel Blues" LP, I'd have sworn that she'd recorded it specifically for this scene, hand-in-glove with the film's editor and director looking over her every take. Perfection. Don't argue with me. I'm right; you're misinformed.




