Movie Themes Better Than Their Movie
A great theme song can make a great movie even more memorable. These great theme songs got stuck with some forgettable films.
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FM/FM
THE SONG. FM by Steely Dan. THE MOVIE: FM. Steely Dan put more production values into their song then the film makers put into this WKRP pretender of a movie. The song was a radio hit while the movie went straight to video.
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Darling Be Home Soon/You’re Big Boy Now
THE SONG: Darling Be Home Soon by The Lovin Spoonful. THE MOVIE: You’re a Big Boy Now. The second film The Lovin’ Spoonful scored (the first being Woody Allen’s What’s Up Tiger Lily) was Francis Ford Coppola’s very first movie, a forgettable sex comedy about a virgin torn between a good girl and go-go dancing user. But the soundtrack is surprisingly good for a movie of this caliber and featured unconventional songs in the Spoonful’s discography. The biggest hit of the albums (and one of the songs which outlived the group’s break-up a year later) was Darlin’ Be Home Soon. It was a Billboard top 100 twice in the same year, once at #15 for the Spoonful on the pop charts and again at #93 for Bobby Darin. Joe Cocker made the song a radio hit again in the 60 with a harder rendition.
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Baddest Man Alive/Man with the Iron Fists
THE SONG: Baddest Man Alive by The Black Keys Feat. RZA. THE MOVIE: Man With the Iron Fists. It would be hard to find a cooler band working today than The Black Keys, and hearing they were going to be collaborating on a song with RZA was a great idea. The song works brilliantly in creating a creepy, moody but oddly fun theme song to the martial arts film. But even with a great theme song that found radio play, no-one wanted to see RZA’s movie starring Russell Crowe, Chung Le, Jamie Chung and Lucy Liu.
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PJ & Rooster/Idlewild
THE SONG: PJ & Rooster by Outkast. THE MOVIE: Idlewild. Its too bad that the musical starring Outkast didn’t do better, as there are some nice parts of the uneven movie. It looks good, there are fun dance scenes and Andre Benjamin is a completely entertaining lead to watch. But the best thing to come out of the movie was the soundtrack, which including several great songs which never even made it into the movie (like Andre Benjamin’s Idlewild Blues on guitar, the most mature song he may have ever written).
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Daybreak/Son of Dracula
THE SONG: Daybreak by Harry Nilsson. THE MOVIE: Son of Dracula. If there is one great thing that came out of Ringo Starr’s miss-guided desire to act it would be his decision to team-up with Harry Nilsson. Starr decided to produce this campy parody of Vampire films, casting Nilsson as the son of Count Dracula being groomed to become king of the Vampires by Starr’s Merlin. The movie was so bad, it never got a theatrical release because Starr couldn’t sell it, even with cameos by Keith Moon, John Bonham, Peter Frampton, and Leon Russell. Hoping to create public interest for the movie, Nilsson and Starr recorded the Samba/hustle-esque best selling novelty song Daybreak.
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Flash’s Theme/Flash Gordon
THE SONG: Flash’s Theme by Queen. THE MOVIE: Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon the film could be classified as a cluster of fucks. Hawkmen, man eating tree stumps and over ambitious special effects that do not stand up combine for a ridiculously camp film. What is remembered most about Flash Gordon is Queen doing the soundtrack and no song is better than the title piece, Flash’s Theme.
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Lose Yourself/ 8 Mile
THE SONG: Lose Yourself by Eminem. THE MOVIE: 8 Mile. The movie was forgettable, but “Lose Yourself” was the number one song in America for 12 consecutive weeks, was nominated and won the 2002 Academy award for Best Original Song, and was named the 93rd best original song to appear in any movie by the American Film Institute. The song is a rallying cry for anyone that has ever truly had one shot and one opportunity to seizer everything you’ve every wanted.
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Pusherman/Superfly
THE SONG: Pusherman by Curtis Mayfield. THE MOVIE: Superfly. The 70’s were known for a drastic change in music with the funk and soul genres being inspired by African-American musicians and the rise of Blaxploitation films. One of the most famous films in the genre that targeted black, urban audiences was ‘Super Fly’ and it’s critically acclaimed soundtrack by the late Curtis Mayfield. With lyrics about drug abuse and poverty, the albums second track, ‘Pusherman’, a smooth song portrayed the neighborhood drug dealer as a businessman that is just trying to make a better life for himself in a bad situation. It was named in Rolling Stone’s ‘500 songs that shaped rock n’ roll’ which could have included several of the albums songs as the soundtrack out-grossed the movie itself.
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Live and Let Die/Live and Let Die
THE SONG: Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney. THE MOVIE: Live and Let Die. Trying to make James Bond relevant in the 70’s caused directors to throw the classic hero into an ethnic fray. “Live and Let Die” was the eighth Bond film which was thought to be daring since it featured black villains and a black female love interest. The film also strayed away from the usual super villain plot and focused more on drug trafficking with more stunts and car chases. Although the film left mixed impressions with the audience, the theme song by Paul McCartney and Wings did not. In the beginning of the music video it shows McCartney in a movie theater talking about how he doesn’t want to go to see the film, but to listen to the soundtrack. It Couldn’t be truer since the song was nominated for an Academy and Grammy Award. However the film did win an award for Evening Standard Best Film, so it’s up to the audience to decide which was better.
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