I was randomly listening to tracks from the Hangover Soundtrack and it got me thinking about all the different CDs I used to have of movies I liked. I used to love getting them after I'd seen the movie and sometimes in anticipation of seeing it. My best friend and I used to go to the music store and specifically look for good soundtracks to buy. We've always had similar tastes in movies so it was always fun to see what the store actually carried. Once I started working in a music store (Camelot - they no longer exist, well now they are FYEs, but I think those all closed too) I was almost unstoppable. I had a huge CD collection until we got rid of them a few years ago when we converted to mp3s.
Some of my favorites in no particular order:
The Matrix
Strictly Ballroom
Sliding Doors
That Thing You Do!
Stealing Beauty
The Phantom of the Opera (although this was WAY before the movie came out)
The English Patient and many more.
I even had the sheet music for the theme to the English Patient; it is still one of my favorite movies. I also bought the soundtrack for Pocahontas before it came out in the movie theaters (hence the title of the blog). I memorized all the songs on the soundtrack and sang them in my room before the movie was out in theaters so I knew them before going to see another Disney musical. I still remember listening in my room and singing along to the music, trying to picture what the animation would be.
Movie soundtracks were fun to get after seeing the movie because it always reminded me of the scenes from the movie associated with the specific songs. Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs are some good examples of that. It's no wonder that my first ever CD I bought with my own money was the Twin Peaks soundtrack. I played that CD all the time and loved hearing the orchestration of Angelo Badalamenti along with the songs by Julee Cruise. Ahh the memories.
Soundtracks also provided more variety in one CD than most musician's albums. Hackers was an album of electronic music, but it had a bunch of different artists with different bpms depending on the style. Scream had some great remakes of classic rock songs done by artists of the moment. The Truth About Cats & Dogs got me into Suzanne Vega again and also got me into her poetry. Soundtracks opened me up to new artists and genres, but allowed me to have favorite songs and movie moments all in one CD.
If you haven't thought about listening to movie soundtracks I highly recommend it. You don't have to like every song on the album (Boogie Nights, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Cruel Intentions are some where I liked some songs, but always skipped others), but it's nice to have some variety sometimes instead of listening to the same artists the whole time. Not that I don't like that, it's just for a change of pace.
If you haven't noticed, I have a specific number of years (mostly the 90s, which might date me) that I collected soundtracks until I stopped pretty abruptly. Hence why I am talking about it now and reminiscing a bit. As a final thought, here are some others I used to love to listen to:
Corrina, Corrina
High Fidelity
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory - Gene Wilder version
Amadeus
Circle of Friends
Now & Then
and The Wedding Singer.
What soundtracks have you listened to or wanted to have?
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