During my last trip to the grocery store I was caught singing aloud by an amused cashier. I'd been doing it, unwittingly, as I waited in line. Not humming, or halfheartedly whistling. Actually singing along with the song playing on the store's speakers. The song was Eric Carmen's Hungry Eyes. I was in (relative) tune and hadn't missed a word. How was my singing so faithfully accurate to a track I hadn't heard in well over a decade?
Hungry Eyes is, most famously, part of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, which remains one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. The Lorde-curated soundtrack for the newest Hunger Games film, and Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, are the most recent examples of albums boosting the pre-release interest in a big-budget film (not to mention the Annie remake reviewed on this page). But a strong and/or celebrated soundtrack (obviously) doesn't ensure a strong film, and vice versa. Soundtracks, regardless of calibre, will often carry their own significance.
The Dirty Dancing soundtrack was the only tape my mom kept in our van when I was young. So my siblings and I played it on short drives to school, to the grocery store, to appointments, to visit friends, long road trips, everything. For a few years I heard that soundtrack in its entirety several times a week.
I didn't associate the Dirty Dancing soundtrack with the movie, or a song with a corresponding scene, because I'd never actually seen the film. It was, for us, more accurately the soundtrack of the van. When I finally saw the movie in late high school it was surreal. The images and plot were completely foreign but the music, every song, was intoxicatingly familiar.
Here, some film-loving musicians and writers share their own soundtrack obsessions:
Alex Edkins, musician (Metz)
"I've always loved how Quentin Tarantino's films integrate popular music. He seems to have an uncanny ability to re-contextualize obscure '60s soul, country or surf music (Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) and breathe new life into the song and the scene. His films have introduced many people, myself included, to an array of amazing artists. For example, Urge Overkill covering Neil Diamond's Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon or The Delfonics' cassette being played ad nauseum in Jackie Brown or continuously messing up the name of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich in Death Proof. His films are a treasure trove of musical gems."
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Heather O'Neill, author
"I won the tickets to The Lost Boys, by calling into a radio station. In one of the early scenes, a single mom and her two boys enter into the fictional town of Santa Carla, when a cover of People are Strange by Echo and the Bunnymen starts playing. I'd never heard the original Doors song, but I thought it was so wonderful and the lyrics were so great, all about being an outsider. On screen was a series of images of the coolest people in the world, one right after the other, walking down the boardwalk. My whole body responded to the song and I felt all electric, like I was a jukebox a quarter had been dropped into. You know how yoga pulls weird muscles, well music makes you feel odd reclusive emotions in hidden parts of your brain. And I thought that I was somehow in the deep dark heart of the teenage soul. All the songs on the soundtrack were naughty and funny: Cry Little Sister, Walk This Way. The music made me feel so good. It made me feel like what it felt like to be a vampire: immortal, sexy and 18 years old."
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Ron Sexsmith, musician
"I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson's films and when I saw Rushmore I was really taken by the soundtrack. It has these lovely sort of chocolate box instrumentals with harpsichords and guitars by Mark Mothersbaugh that are very graceful and innocent sounding. And as well it's filled with a wonderfully thoughtful collection of rare and vintage pop songs from the '60s and '70s."
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Kathleen Edwards, musician
"I LOVE the Ghostbusters soundtrack so much, and had it on vinyl as a kid. I played it relentlessly and took the record everywhere, until one day it was sadly forgotten in the car in the back window. And who are we kidding, The Bodyguard? Robin Hood? Seriously good middle school make-out session starters!"
These interviews have been condensed and edited.