Sam Mendes’ five favourite songs of all time
For over 25 years, director Sam Mendes has built a reputation as a master of epic storytelling, seen in war dramas like Jarhead in 2005 and 1917 in 2019, as well as the Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, released in 2012 and 2015, respectively.
When he shared his favourite films with Sight & Sound in 2012, the director’s choices reflected that same love for sweeping drama—Citizen Kane, The Godfather Part II, and There Will Be Blood all made the list. But years earlier, during a guest DJ set on US radio station KCRW, he named five of his favourite songs, and the tone was very different: simpler, more intimate, and surprisingly, no Beatles in sight. A notable omission, especially now, as he takes on their upcoming biopic.
“I suppose a lot of my musical tastes come from my dad,” Mendes told KCRW’s Chris Douridas. “The reconstructed hippie that he was and still is — big Dylan fan, an English teacher and lecturer.”
Bob Dylan, of course, could occasionally dip his toes into the musical equivalent of a four-hour period piece, but Mendes’ Dylan selection, ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ sits on the other end of the spectrum—a wistful acoustic change-of-pace from the electrified rock that preceded it on side one of 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home.
“It’s actually a song that reminds me of my childhood,” Mendes said. “My dad sang me to sleep with this song… When my son was born I used to sing him to sleep with this song as well, until I got to the point where I couldn’t sing it without bursting into tears like a sentimental old fool.”
Mendes used ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ in one of his smaller, more personal films— the 2009 romantic comedy Away We Go—in which it’s sung by actress Maya Rudolph. “I suggested she sing this song because it had some other meaning for me and also it’s one of the most beautiful songs ever written, I think.”
Mendes’ second song selection was also a call back to his childhood, but with a vibe much more representative of his rebellious teen years. The classic 1978 track ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ was easily the biggest hit scored by London rock outfit The Only Ones, and it’s somewhat ironically the only thing Sam Mendes associates with that band, as he embarrassingly admitted to KCRW.
“Music is never quite as important again as it is when you’re 17 years old, you know, and I’m still drawn to stuff that sounds a little bit like that,” he added. “You’ll find me listening to the Kaiser Chiefs or the Raconteurs or what have you. It’s kind of one degree to the left or to the right of the Buzzcocks or the Clash, you know, and The Only Ones is definitely of that era for me. I was very effective on air guitar for the guitar solo on ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’.”
The Only Ones are on their own a bit in Mendes’ list, as his last three choices all return to a slower, more thoughtful and yearning sort of tone. ‘Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken’ by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, ‘Barcelona’ by Rufus Wainwright, and ‘Caravan’ by Van Morrison are all vulnerable, lazy summer songs of a sort.
Mendes was a big Lloyd Cole fan during his university days, and considers ‘Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken’ from 1984’s Rattlesnakes to have “a sort of slight lyric—lyrical self consciousness—and the acoustic guitars and the sort of ambient synth, that to me just defines the whole idea of college rock, but I love it.”
Wainwright’s tear-jerking ballad ‘Barcelona’ was in heavy rotation for Mendes during the production of American Beauty in 1999, and was even playing when his wife Kate Winslet gave birth to their son Joe.
Mendes’ final song selection, Morrison’s ‘Caravan’ from the classic 1970 album Moondance, serves as a good bookend to the opening Dylan track; a mellow pick-me-up tune that similarly requests someone to play a song and change the energy of the day.
“My life has lived out in songs rather than in photographs,” Mendes told KCRW. “I don’t keep a lot of things. I’m not a hoarder, I’m not a memory junkie. I don’t like to gather my memorabilia and stuff like that… But music, for me, is the way I retain memory best.”
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