The 100 Greatest Movie Soundtracks of All Time

Into the Wild2007

Tapping Eddie Vedder to do the music for Into the Wild was a smart move on Sean Penn’s behalf. The guy has a connection to nature that’s permeated Pearl Jam’s music from the very beginning. So, it was no surprise that the accompanying tunes for Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s novel-of-the-same-name would connect with the story of the late Christopher McCandless in ways that not even Emile Hirsch could dream up. Songs like “No Ceiling”, “Society”, and the Golden Globe-winning “Guaranteed” cha

Boogie Nights1997

Things get dark in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. Very dark. Still, it’s a film you don’t exactly want to leave, if only because it’s a vivid world filled with so many vivid characters. Yet part of the appeal is that, for a great majority of the film, it’s one long ’70s party that begins at dawn and ends by gunshot. To conjure up that vintage magic, Anderson leaned heavily on a soundtrack that’s as inspired as his casting, shimmying from one disco groove to the next soulful ballad. In fac

Almost Famous2000

Almost Famous is honest in its portrayal of rock as it was. The scene was a dream slowly fading into the ether, and while the musicians couldn’t see it, idealistic William Miller could, even if he never let it break his wide-eyed fascination. The songs Cameron Crowe chose here reflect this journey, from the use of a contemplative instrumental by The Who to a poignant introspection by Cat Stevens. Of course, Almost Famous’ spirit and theme feel best represented in “Tiny Dancer”, giving the story

Guardians of the Galaxy2014

Though the soundtrack contains some surprises, many were already staples of other films. But that’s not the point. The movie doesn’t attempt to hijack any of these songs (except Redbone). Instead, it uses the music to show off the spirt of the story. Sure, the song choices don’t always make sense – but Guardians doesn’t either. It’s a mish-mash collection of superheroes that definitely don’t belong together, and the same can be said of the music that inexplicably includes The Jackson 5, The Runa

The Big Chill1983

Say what you will about the movie — “It’s lame!”; “It’s baby boomer nostalgia!”; “It’s actually pretty sexist!” — but the soundtrack to Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill is a diamond. Actually, it’s a big ol’ chunk of Platinum, one that’s been certified 6x over the years, namely because it’s overstuffed with timeless hits that pop up on literally every wedding playlist. Seriously, you don’t have to watch Tom Berenger fuck up his leg while attempting to jump into a convertible or sit through Glenn

High Fidelity2000

Just by looking over the tracklist, you can tell director Stephen Frears toiled tirelessly over the soundtrack to this movie about obsessive music fans, perhaps even more than Rob Gordon toils over his own personal rankings. But that hard work pays off, with songs from across the musical spectrum that keeps the movie faithful to the spirit of Nick Hornby’s characters and show off the range of a true music fanatic, proving they’re just as comfortable with records by Smog and Stereolab as they are

Jackie Brown1997

With two celebrated films under his skinny tie, Quentin Tarantino fans knew that their favorite director’s musical choices were anything but arbitrary. For Jackie Brown, his homage to ‘70s blaxploitation films (which included a jump-start to Pam Grier’s career), Tarantino turned to those same films for inspiration, borrowing songs from them and even the score from the movie Coffy. As a result, the film has an unmistakable musical cohesion and authenticity as Jackie tears through the airport to B

The Crow1994

If you grew up in the ’90s, odds are there’s a copy of The Crow soundtrack sitting in your closet somewhere. Everyone owned this fucking thing, if not for the fact that they had a short-lived goth phase, then for the simple novelty of wanting to hear some of the most popular alternative rock of the era. But, to everyone’s credit, the soundtrack was really good, and you know what, it’s still pretty goddamn great. The Cure’s Crow-indebted “Burn” remains one of Robert Smith’s most underrated anthem

Adventureland2009

A film like, say, Singles used the Seattle music scene at that time to capture something about relationships in the early ‘90s. Adventureland, however, pulls off the challenge of saying something timeless about young love, in part, by borrowing the music of another time. The inherent risk, of course, comes down to filling up a soundtrack with beloved songs from the era (mostly the ‘80s in this case) that fit the time but not the film. Luckily, director Greg Motolla avoids the trap and captures s

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou2004

While Wes Anderson soundtracks typically revel in nostalgia, they do so with clever intentions. For The Life Aquatic, he utilizes all the right classic cuts to pull at the heartstrings: Iggy and the Stooges’ “Search and Destroy” for adrenaline-fueled action, The Zombies’ “The Way I Feel Inside” for grief, and “Gut Feeling” from Devo (via, of course, frequent Anderson collaborator Mark Mothersbaugh) for the heat of the chase. But he pairs that in part through the eye of the outsider: Seu Jorge as

The Wedding Singer1998

Adam Sandler’s ‘80s send-up gets a lot more respect these days than it did when it first hit theaters in the late ‘90s. The two-volume soundtrack does as well, and both deserve the praise. It’s one thing to load up a soundtrack with ‘80s songs we will never forget (even if we want to), but Sandler and team weren’t just licensing a bunch of songs to transport us back to that time. They were looking for music they could spin into comedy; hence, songs are included to set up period gags, foreshadow

Donnie Darko2001

Building the supernatural melancholy of Donnie Darko through song is no easy task, even when armed with gothic classics like Echo and the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon.” But Richard Kelly’s debut shoots for the stars, or more appropriately black hole, and lands pretty close thanks to brooding ‘80s songs and striking instrumentals. Of course, nothing quite sells the impending doom of the story like the hauntingly beautiful version of “Mad World” that made Gary Jules and Michael Andrews instant add

Waiting to Exhale1995

Waiting to Exhale wasn’t just a smash hit of a soundtrack. It was one of the biggest albums of 1995, period. Babyface’s work on “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” and the album’s legion of other hits was nominated for an Album of the Year Grammy, virtually unheard of for a compilation. But that’s how great, and how enduringly powerful, the film’s soundtrack was. With one honest-to-God anthem after the next, the Exhale soundtrack transcended the medium of soundtracks in a number of ways. It became a major mo

Footloose1984

The soundtrack to Kevin Bacon’s 1984 opus about destabilizing small-town values through the power of furious, often scandalous dancing encouraged us all to kick off our Sunday shoes, a slight against God if ever their was one. Yet Kenny Loggins’ quasi-Satanic sentiments were hardly the only source material for hits; the Footloose soundtrack is flush with them. Deniece Williams encouraged the Reagan ’80s to hear it for the boy alongside her, Bonnie Tyler held out for a hero, and hell, “Footloose”

Manhunter1986

With Miami Vice in his rearview mirror, Michael Mann brought all of his post-modern flourishes and new wave sounds to his 1986 adaptation of Thomas Harris’ cold-blooded thriller, Red Dragon. Even today, Manhunter is a dizzying spectacle, from the perfect shot selection to the meditative color palette to the moody selection of ’80s sounds with not a track to spare. In between the steamy new age instrumentals by Shriekback and The Reds are underrated pop gems like The Prime Movers’ bruising “Stron

8 Mile2002

Yeah, most people remember the 8 Mile soundtrack for a very specific reason: “Lose Yourself,” the song that not only won Marshall Mathers an Academy Award, but became one of the biggest rap hits of the early-aughts era. And while it’s almost certainly the standout track on the album, the film’s soundtrack at large serves as a window into what was hot at the time. In this case, namely, it’s anybody that Eminem said was hot. Obie Trice, D12, and 50 Cent all get ample time to highlight the Shady Re

The Shining1980

Not too long ago, we ranked Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining as the second scariest movie of all time. But here’s the thing, at least 65% of that decision came down to the soundtrack alone. Because without it, the movie just wouldn’t be as psychologically jarring and unnerving. Sure, Jack Nicholson’s performance is terrifying and those twins will forever haunt our dreams, but it’s the way Kubrick and music editor Gordon Stainforth weaves in this tapestry of noise that makes it all so out of this wo

Good Will Hunting1997

Weepy is one word to describe the soundtrack to Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting. Chock full of tearful jams by the late Elliott Smith, the somber soundtrack sounds as if someone bottled all the melancholy from autumn and put it on a single disc. Songs like “Angeles”, “No Name #3”, “Say Yes”, and “Between the Bars” offer a genius distillation of the great bard, but then you get to his Oscar-nominated original track “Miss Misery” and realize why the world kind of stopped when he passed away in 20

Dirty Dancing1987

Dirty Dancing could have rested solely on then-contemporary songs and still delivered a fantastic soundtrack to bolster its coming-of-age story. Utilizing doo-wop giants, R&B legends, and rock pioneers, it captured the expansive growth of popular music, using them to score crowded dances and intimate practices. But Dirty Dancing goes a step further, incorporating modern music that is as integral to the movie’s foundation as the classic songs themselves, and it’s that inclusion that propels this

Lost in Translation2003

Feeling lost is crucial to the success of Lost In Translation, and Sofia Coppola is a genius at finding ways to showcase this through dialogue and setting, both of which are boldly amplified through the carefully chosen music. Further trivializing the superficial conversations or making the Tokyo streets shimmer even brighter, the music is there to increase the divide the characters feel. The music on its own can elicit the same sentiment, with Air’s pulsating melancholy making it difficult to w

Lost Highway1997

Even before releasing his own albums and curating his own festival, David Lynch was no stranger to the power of a good song. Lost Highway is a fascinating intersection of Hollywood noir, industrial noise, lounge, and jazz — finding the shadowy corner in each, much like the film’s ’90s Los Angeles embodies the darkest corners of the minds of its inhabitants. David Bowie’s “I’m Deranged” in the opening and closing credits gives the film a disorienting wrapped structure; the insistent electronics p

Belly1998

After directing some of the biggest hip-hop music videos of the mid-to-late ‘90s, Hype Williams got his shot at directing a feature through Def Jam’s 1998 production, Belly. And while it didn’t exactly garner rave reviews, the neo-noir direction makes the Nas and DMX-starring vehicle an interesting watch—but really, the star-studded soundtrack is the reason to stick around. Jay-Z, the Wu-Tang Clan, and D’Angelo all contribute, as do the film’s stars in “Grand Finale”, a particularly winning trac

The Big Lebowski1998

For a lot of people my age, the Coen brothers’ now-classic kidnapping caper/bowling epic gone awry really tied the ’90s together. And the soundtrack did the same for the film. The Coens assigned musical cues to all of the parties at odds over the disappearance of Bunny Lebowski (e.g. The Dude’s theme is often CCR), and super producer T Bone Burnett secured rights to many of the songs that give the film its unique neon-bowling-alley-from-Mars aesthetic: Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me”, Townes Van Zan

Batman1989

There were plenty of musicians that could have matched the manic energy of Jack Nicholson’s Joker in song, but few could have dutifully explored that mania with the poise and promise of Prince. With “Batdance”, Prince brings you into Joker’s disjointed and hysterical mind, while other songs make his casual chaos feel exciting and entertaining, helping make this the best version of the iconic villian for nearly 20 years. Prince also helped Batman come to life as well, easing the transition from p