Greetings, reader!
Following last week's post about the greatest soundtrack moments from TV, I'm doing a similar one but for all the movies out there. Bear in mind, this list will not include original songs that were made for the purpose of the film, like Danger Zone from Top Gun or I've Had the Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing - those cases will get their own list in next week's post. So, this list is all about movies using pre-existing, licensed songs as a part of the soundtrack, in a memorable key moment of the film. A spoiler alert is in order, so please skip over the descriptions for any films you don't want spoilers from!
Here are my honorable mentions:
Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones in Casino (1995)
Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Laid by James in the American Pie franchise (1999-)
September by Earth, Wind & Fire in The Intouchables (2011)
Wicked Game by Chris Isaak in Wild At Heart (1990)
20. I'm Shipping Up to Boston by Dropkick Murphys in The Departed (2006)
This certified banger of celtic punk sets the mood for a few key scenes in this Martin Scorsese masterclass. The intensely energetic vibe of the song's intro makes it into a delicious motif, and for a film about the Irish mob battling the police force in Boston, they really couldn't have picked a more appropriate song.
19. Danza Kuduro by Don Omar and Lucenzo in Fast Five (2011)
Say what you will about the Fast & Furious movies, they sure know how to curate a soundtrack department. The fifth and best film in the franchise is a full-on heist flick, reading like Ocean's Eleven on wheels, and what every good heist flick needs is the "haha, it only looks like the plan failed, but this safe was a fake and our heroes made off with the real one" reveal at the end. And for that sweet payoff, this reggaeton banger underscores the feeling in a fun, hype-filled fashion.
18. Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones in Goodfellas (1990)
Not only is Gimme Shelter the best song that the Stones ever produced - it also has the best combined soundtrack mileage of all time. Its use in an episode of Person of Interest made it to the top ten on last week's TV soundtrack list, and in the world of cinema, one Mr. Scorsese has used the same song in three of his films - and all three instances made it onto today's list and/or honorable mentions.
Scorsese and Gimme Shelter are a match made in heaven, as proved by the deliciously specific atmosphere that it helps create for the drug-business montage in this mafia epic. Fantastic stuff.
17. You Could Be Mine by Guns N' Roses in Terminator II: Judgement Day (1991)
Most of the items on today's list are cases where the song is heard once in the film, in a very specific scene - but like I'm Shipping Up to Boston in The Departed, this is one of the few exceptions. We hear this hard rock thrill ride multiple times in what I consider to be the greatest action movie ever made, and honestly, I'm not sure it would be the #1 action movie of all time without this song.
The adrenaline-charged groove and heavy sound of You Could Be Mine fit the atmosphere of the Terminator sequel with unreal perfection - so much so that I, a massive Guns N' Roses fan, cannot hear this song without immediately thinking of the film. Truly a match made in heaven.
16. Layla by Derek and the Dominos in Goodfellas (1990)
Ah, a song choice so great that they had to include it in the Goodfellas homage episode of Community as well. In a major turning point for the film, we follow a montage of how the bad times have started to roll, and that moment called for something particularly bittersweet in the soundtrack department. Thankfully, they got the permit to use the Layla outro - famously one of the most bittersweet pieces of music ever composed. It works so incredibly well in this context.
15. Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
The entire Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack famously slaps, with Star-Lord's "Awesome Mixtape" being a fun plot element in addition to giving us an auditive blast of energy throughout the runtime. If an individual high point has to be singled out, there's no way around it - it's gotta be Ain't No Mountain High Enough in that utterly brilliant ending montage. Such a delicious motown vibe, concluding the film on the exact right note!
14. Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival in every Vietnam war movie ever made
I'm pretty sure this song spontaneously appears in the air around us whenever someone even mentions the Vietnam war. And for good reason - both the lyrics and the sound of this CCR classic are profoundly fitting for that context, and it has been used so much that the ringing of that opening riff is inseparable from imagery of choppers and jungles in the minds of cinephiles around the world.
13. All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix, also in every Vietnam war movie ever made
It's hard to choose which one is better out of the legendary 'Vietnam movie song' duo, but at the end of the day, I had to go with Jimi Hendrix's legendary cover of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower. For whatever reason, this tune has found an even more profound connection to 'Nam than Fortunate Son - historical juxtapositions between Hendrix, Woodstock, the hippies and the anti-war movement definitely help. I just know that when this starts to play during the Vietnam section of Forrest Gump, the vibes are immaculate.
12. Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton in Blue Velvet (1986)
It's a pretty special case when a film gets its whole title from an old, pre-existing song, and builds at least part of its whole vibe around it. The first moments of David Lynch's greatest film are such a delicate mixture of beautiful elements - the imagery of the red roses, in front of the white picket fence, to the backdrop of a bright blue sky, is absolutely iconic in itself, but this song is what really solidifies it as one of the most aesthetically impeccable film openings of all time.
11. Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts in Cars (2006)
This was a bit of a grey area. Today's list is about pre-existing songs being used in a film soundtrack, and next week's list will be its own separate post for original songs made for movies - so what to do with a case where the song already existed, but a different artist made a cover of it specifically for a movie? I went back and forth on this, but ended up counting it on today's list - at the end of the day, Life Is a Highway predates Cars, and the filmmakers wanted to use that specific song but just commissioned a slightly different version to be made.
(Sidenote: an even greyer area had to be ruled the other way: Finnish artist Tommi Läntinen has a song called Kevät Ja Minä, and he made a different version of it for the film Kulman Pojat, with new lyrics specific to the movie. Now that's an interesting case, but I had to put that on next week's list and not this one).
Anyways, Life Is a Highway (and Flatts' version in particular) makes the film so much better than it would otherwise be, and its vibrant and goofy energy has a massive impact on its whole atmosphere.
10. Redbone by Childish Gambino in Get Out (2017)
Ah, such a vibe. The opening act of Get Out doesn't even call for a very specific type of song as strongly as many of the moments on today's list, and I could imagine it working well enough with any number of good songs. But when reaching for the stars and shooting for perfection, I cannot think of a better tune to set the mood than Redbone. Absolute cinema.
9. Monster Mash by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett in The Bride! (2026)
I felt like I should start clapping when I recently experienced this moment of utter brilliance in the cinema. It's one of those song choices that isn't at all predictable, but feels completely obvious in hindsight. Like, no part of my mind was expecting to hear this Halloween-time golden oldie when watching Maggie Gyllenhaal's surrealist-feminist take on the Frankenstein lore, but the very moment it started to play as the credits started to role, it felt like it's the only piece of music in the world that could've been considered for that moment. A true cherry-on-top song choice if I ever heard one.
8. Where Is My Mind by Pixies in Fight Club (1999)
The final scene of David Fincher's masterpiece Fight Club is certainly one of the greatest movie endings of all time, and oh man, did they nail it with the song choice...I can't quite put my finger on what it is about Where Is My Mind, a song that seems like just a regular alt-rock tune, that boosts an already amazing culmination scene into even further levels of greatness.
Something about the combination of the song, the cataclysmic imagery and the line "You met me at a very strange time in my life" just creates an untouchable atmosphere, one that feels dreamy and apocalyptic and romantic and nihilistic all at once. It's bizarre, in the best possible way.
7. Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
This one means everything to me. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a very personal film to me, as so much of the narrative resonates with my own life and experiences from my youth, and the movie has had a profoundly healing effect on me over the years. One of the many key scenes that really moved me is the school dance, where protagonist Charlie is observing from the background, until this song starts to play and his cool new friends invite him onto the dance floor, and he gathers his courage and joins them.
Logan Lerman's acting in this scene is bound to resonate deeply with us shy, awkward and self-aware people, and the banger energy of this song makes the moment infinitely more empowering and unforgettable.
6. Wake Up by Rage Against the Machine in The Matrix (1999)
Most of the songs on today's list play in the background of certain scenes, and only very few end credit songs made it onto the list (usually the very best end credit songs are original compositions, so next week's list will have plenty of those). However, this is one of the exceptions - when this specific RATM song starts to play as the credits to this particular film start to roll, it goes so incredibly f**king hard that there's nothing quite like it.
Everything fits so well - the lyrics match the themes of the film, the badass tone of the track goes together with the cool action flick style, the transition as the opening build-up chord starts to play in the final seconds of the final scene before the main riff explodes into action just as the credits begin...utter perfection.
5. All Star by Smash Mouth in Shrek (2001)
Very few pieces of media are as deeply ingrained into my generation's collective childhood nostalgia as the opening moments of Shrek. Our introduction to the iconic ogre, to the backdrop of this blistering banger by Smash Mouth, is somehow silly, endearing, badass and chill all at once. The entire Shrek trilogy is filled with great song choices, but really, you can't beat the very first one in terms of what a mood it sets.
4. Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones in The Departed (2006)
Out of all the fantastic uses of Gimme Shelter in movie and TV soundtracks, the opening of The Departed is the GOAT. The brilliant atmosphere of the song's all-timer intro forms a perfect harmony with Jack Nicholson's opening words: "I don't want to be a product of my environment - I want my environment to be a product of me".
The Departed is the film that Scorsese finally won the Best Picture Oscar for, and honestly, you can feel this already from this opening: deep down, it feels like the opening to a true Best Picture winner. And the song choice, and just how well it plays together with the imagery and the opening monologue, is a big part of that.
3. Stand By Me by Ben E. King in Stand By Me (1986)
In a deeply artistic move, Rob Reiner and company made a genius connection. They were adapting Stephen King's short story The Body, but decided not to call the film that, because they realized that this immortal song by Ben E. King deals with such similar themes and ideas as the story that they should include the song in the film - so much so that they decided to name the entire film after the song.
That's some out-of-the-box thinking right there, but God damn, it sure paid off. Stand By Me (the song) is such a crucial part of building the atmosphere for Stand By Me (the film), as we hear brilliant arrangements of its bass line throughout the film's atmospheric score, before eventually gifting us with the payoff of the entire song in the end credits. Many of the entries on today's list are cases where the song really makes the scene, but it's an extremely rare thing for the song to make the entire f**king movie.
2. Heroes by David Bowie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
I had to consider whether I'd even qualify this song for today's list, as the existence of this song on a certain mixtape is such a big part of the plot and themes that it doesn't feel like a mere 'soundtrack moment'. But still - the context in which Heroes starts to play at the tail end of the final scene, right after Charlie's closing monologue (one of my all-time favorite moments in cinema), and continues to play throughout the closing credits, is such a pitch-perfect needle drop.
It really feels like it mashes together everything that the film did well, working as a brilliantly pallet-cleansing bookend for the deeply emotional viewing experience that has just come to a close. As much as I loved the song already before this film changed my life, it has most definitely become one of those cases where the song and scene are forever linked in my mind.
1. Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
I had to think long and hard about which way I'd rank my top two, but in the end, I had to put this formidable feat of soundtrack artistry at #1. It just doesn't get better than this. Classical music isn't used for licensed soundtrack moments as often as popular music, and as movie score composers use many elements familiar from classical music, it's understandable that a whole lot of people think that Also Sprach Zarathustra was composed for 2001: A Space Odyssey. The movie did such wonders to boost Strauss' composition culturally, making it an instantly recognizable household name for decades to come.
I don't know if it was Kubrick himself, or someone from his soundtrack department, who had this genius vision - but the world of cinema is better off for it. The atmosphere created by this piece of music, together with the grandiose visuals, at the beginning of this film, is a promise of greatness to come if I ever saw one - and not to spoil too much, but the full-circle moment when the piece reappears at the film's end is profound on all the levels. 2001 is one of the three only films that I have ever given a 10/10 rating to on IMDB, and this choice of music is one of the many big reasons that paved the way for such an opinion. Astronomically good stuff.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I contrast this list of licensed soundtrack choices by ranking the greatest original songs written for movies.
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