The 20 most frequently used songs in cinema history
Before you scroll down, if I were to pose the question to you: ‘What’s the most-used pop song in cinema history?’ What would you guess? Personally, my mind instantly flits between the most iconic musical artists of the 20th century, names such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince and so on. In reality, while such names might rack up some serious overall figures, their individual songs haven’t received as much attention as the high-rankers below. Yes, you can look now.
As we look at this top 20, based on data published by Tunefind, I’m sure most of us will be aware of nearly all of the band names and artists, but David Bowie, Queen, AC/DC and Marvin Gaye are the only names to truly contend with the status of the above-mentioned pop sensations of the 20th century.
Despite my, and perhaps your, ill-conceived presumptions, my head began to nod in profuse acceptance as I scoured the list. MC Hammer taking the number one spot with their ubiquitous smash hit, ‘U Can’t Touch This’, totally checks out. It’s one of those songs that I’ve never downloaded, streamed, or even mistakenly heard on an algorithmically curated playlist, but I have still heard it enough times to be utterly sick of it -perhaps mostly in my head in a relentless cycle.
Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ still manages to turn over a wallet-ripping £500,000 a year. As we watch Noddy Holder recline into lucrative retirement, it becomes apparent that if you want to make the big bucks in the music business, you should try your hand at a tacky Christmas hit. However, as the below list attests, if you’re not a fan of Christmas, you could do just as well creating an earworm with a catchy hook.
The top 20 most frequently used songs below certainly have ear-wormery in common. Most of the films that push the highest ranking films into their positions are also mostly comedies; it would be rather shocking if, in the midst of a sex scene in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ played in the background. That said, stranger things have happened.
It is also important to note that songs recurring in various film franchises will unexpectedly lurch said track to a higher rank. For example, the Austin Powers trilogy was responsible for three of the 12 entries for The Turtles’ ‘Happy Together’. Had it only appeared in one of the beloved James Bond spoof movies, it would have lost its proud position in the top 20.
See the full top 20 list below. The number of movie features appears in brackets beside each title.
The 20 most frequently used songs in cinema history:
- MC Hammer – ‘U Can’t Touch This’ (15)
- Queen and David Bowie – ‘Under Pressure’ (14)
- Salt-N-Pepa – ‘Push It’ (13)
- Norman Greenbaum – ‘Spirit in the Sky’ (13)
- Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock – ‘It Takes Two’ (13)
- Young MC – ‘Bust a Move’ (12)
- Earth, Wind & Fire – ‘September’ (12)
- The Turtles – ‘Happy Together’ (12)
- Spandau Ballet – ‘True’ (12)
- AC/DC – ‘Back In Black’ (11)
- Wang Chung – ‘Dance Hall Days’ (11)
- Tears for Fears – ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ (11)
- Survivor – ‘Eye of the Tiger’ (11)
- Booker T. & The M.G.’s – ‘Green Onions’ (11)
- House Of Pain – ‘Jump Around’ (11)
- Marvin Gaye – ‘Let’s Get It On’ (11)
- The Temptations – ‘My Girl’ (11)
- Billy Squier – ‘The Stroke’ (11)
- The Isley Brothers – ‘It’s Your Thing’ (11)
- C+C Music Factory – ‘Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)’ (11)
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