Five movies only remembered because of one song
Pick some good songs, and a movie can go from being just OK to absolutely incredible, but the wrong soundtrack can literally destroy the whole tone of a film.
In some instances, though, songs become more famous than the movies they were written for, and in certain cases, these tracks feel like one of the main reasons for ensuring a movie’s legacy. This isn’t always the case, as people seem to love Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ as much as they love 8 Mile, while the whole Bee Gees soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever is just as iconic as the film’s exploration of working-class alienation.
But what about when a movie delivers a song so popular that it pretty much remains the sole reason for a movie being remembered years later, such that it makes you wonder if the film didn’t have that song in the soundtrack, would it have as many legs to stand on?
So, from Rocky III to Footloose, here are five movies that might not have been remembered as prominently as they are now if not for certain songs used on their soundtracks.
Five movies remembered because of one song:
‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ – Coolio: ‘Dangerous Minds’
The 1995 film Dangerous Minds was not great, with Michelle Pfeiffer starring as a teacher who is faced with the challenge of teaching a group of unbothered students who aren’t exactly thrilled to be sitting in a classroom. What was meant to be a powerful story of race and class became something a little more muddled in stereotypes, and it doesn’t exactly endure as one of the greatest works of the ‘90s.
Yet, if there’s one thing we can remember from the film, it’s the song ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ by Coolio, which won the ‘Best Rap Solo Performance’ award at the Grammys and has since become regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop tracks of all time. If it wasn’t included in Dangerous Minds, who knows what would’ve happened to the film’s legacy?
‘Footloose’ by Kenny Loggins – ‘Footloose’
Footloose was a huge hit when it emerged in 1984, with Kevin Bacon rising to prominence in the starring role of Ren, and it remains one of the most potent time capsules of the era, extremely dated to fashion and music’s worst decade (don’t argue with me on that one), to the point where I can promise you few young people are seeking out that cheese-fest today.
The fact is, the only reason it’s in anyone’s memory today is that it included the iconic Kenny Loggins track ‘Footloose’. It’s not exactly an expert piece of filmmaking, catering for the teeny-bopper market above anyone else, so it really doesn’t have much going for it besides a corker of a theme song, even if it’s unbearably ‘80s. So kick off your Sunday shoes and cut footloose, because the song is the only thing about the movie that has actually lived on into the 21st century.
‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Survivor – ‘Rocky III’
Sequels can often feel unnecessary, which is how many felt when Rocky III came out with Sylvester Stallone’s heavyweight champion returning to the screen for more sports drama, this time with new competition in the form of Mr T’s Clubber Lang. If it wasn’t for the inclusion of the classic theme song ‘Eye of the Tiger’, which was written by Survivor specifically for the movie, then we be certain that Rocky III would just be a slightly forgettable follow-up.
With so many movies in the franchise now, it’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’ that makes Rocky III memorable, with its punching riffs that have been used over and over ever since. Chosen for the film after Queen denied the use of ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, the song became one of the most recognisable tracks to ever emerge from the silver screen, synonymous with determination, motivation, and throwing in a few good punches.
‘Young and Beautiful’ by Lana Del Rey – ‘The Great Gatsby’
Baz Luhrmann loves to take a classic story and put on a modern spin on it, as seen by the enduring success of Romeo + Juliet, but sadly, his version of The Great Gatsby, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, was a bit of a mess, and if it wasn’t for its jam-packed soundtrack which dominated the airwaves for a few months upon its release in 2013, then I’m sure no one would even reserve braincells for it.
With will.i.am’s ‘Bang Bang’, Jack White’s cover of U2’s ‘Love is Blindness’, and Fergie’s ‘A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)’, the soundtrack blended modern pop and hip hop with the film’s ‘20s setting, but that was probably the most interesting bit about the whole shebang. Lana Del Rey’s ‘Young and Beautiful’ was the standout, though, becoming one of her most-streamed songs, a staple of her live sets over a decade later, and arguably much more successful and popular than the movie, which remains one of Luhrmann’s weakest efforts.
‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston – ‘The Bodyguard’
Let’s be real, the only reason why anyone remembers the Whitney Houston movie The Bodyguard is because of the very dramatic rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ that she gifted to the soundtrack. Taking the classic Dolly Parton number and turning it into an epic Hollywood power ballad, we’ve all been bored to tears by the song at some point or another, yet chances are you know all of the words anyway.
The song was a mega-hit, and the soundtrack became the best-selling in movie history (although I’m sure you couldn’t name a single other song from that album), but the movie wasn’t received positively by critics, yet it somehow became a box-office sensation, which leads me to wonder about the longevity of the film without the chart-topping song. Pretty slim, I’d imagine.
