the greatest soundtrack songwriter/scorer? you've probable never heard of.

Ry Cooder

• Alamo Bay

• Blue City (film)
• The Border (1982 film)
• Brewster's Millions (1985 film)

• Crossroads (1986 film)

• The End of Violence

• Geronimo: An American Legend

• Johnny Handsome

• Last Man Standing (1996 film)
• The Long Riders

• My Blueberry Nights

• Paris, Texas (film)
Primary Colors (film)

• Southern Comfort (1981 film)
• Streets of Fire

• Trespass (1992 film)

1996 said:

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When did the movie soundtrack song become irrelevant? The last one I remember was Batman Forever with Kiss from a Rose and Hold Me, Thrill Me... I had so many soundtrack cassettes as a kid

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They are still relevant but instead of being a bunch of soundtracks making medium impacts its a smaller number of soundtracks making a huge impact. There's still a place for soundtracks but in the Spotify age artists aren't limited to releasing new singles on some sort of album so there's probably less of a desire to lend out their songs to help out a movie if they can just as easy release it themselves.

A Star is Born, Spider-verse, Greatest Showman, Hamilton, Black Panther, Trolls, Pitch Perfect, 50 Shades Movies, have all done really well recently.

Here's a vote for Heavy Metal. This is the album that converted me to a rock n roll heathen.

No. Title Artist Length
1. "Heavy Metal" (Original Version) Sammy Hagar 3:50
2. "Heartbeat" Riggs 4:20
3. "Working in the Coal Mine" Devo 2:48
4. "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" Blue Oyster Cult 4:48
5. "Reach Out" Cheap Trick 3:35
6. "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)" Don Felder 5:00
7. "True Companion" Donald ***en 5:02
8. "Crazy (A Suitable Case for Treatment)" Nazareth 3:24
9. "Radar Rider" Riggs 2:40
10. "Open Arms" Journey 3:20
11. "Queen Bee" Grand Funk Railroad 3:11
12. "I Must Be Dreamin'" Cheap Trick 5:37
13. "The Mob Rules" (alternate version) Black Sabbath 3:16
14. "All of You" Don Felder 4:18
15. "Prefabricated" Trust 2:59
16. "Blue Lamp" Stevie Nicks 3:48

Included Open Arms, the number 1 power ballad of all time according to VH1 and Journey's most successful hit.

Pretty in Pink
Heathers

Stand By Me
Streets of Fire
Uncle Buck
St. Elmo's Fire

I'm a huge fan of the 80's instrumental themes of David Foster -- Secret of My Success, Stealing Home, St. Elmo's Fire

Missed it by a few months in 1990 -- Pump Up The Volume

Grammy winner and possible Faustian bargain maker Kenny *********Loggins

Danny Elfman with Oingo Boingo

Weird Science

But many many oingo boingo songs have been in great movies and Elfman has scored a ton of movies.

AC/DC songs are well represented in the movies:
https://screenrant.com/best-movie-scenes-featuring-acdc-music/

That article doesn't even mention the entire soundtrack by AC/DC in the 1986 movie "Maximum Overdrive".

Valley Girl
Pretty in Pink
Less Than Zero

Grosse Pointe Blank (the movie came out in '97 BUT the premise has the main characters at their 10 year HS reunion, and the DJ is playing music from that time frame)

That is a GREAT soundtrack.

JCA1 said:

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Rocky IV is a sneaky awesome soundtrack.

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Man that is sneaky. Doesn't come to mind when thinking of the standard 80s movies but I remember having that soundtrack as a kid - loved listening to it. Started working out because of it!

Vision Quest

2 words

John Hughes

G Martin 87 said:

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OK, this thread is clearly in danger of going off the rails. It's really simple, folks. Two rules:

• 80s movie
• soundtrack

Not 90s, not 70s, not scores, not overall body of work across multiple decades, not covers of 80s soundtrack songs 3 decades later, etc etc.

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Thought it was performers of 80s movies songs made for that movie.

Lefty96 said:

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Vision Quest

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I started wrestling in the early 80s and high school freshman in 1987. This VHS tape got warn out. I hear Change and I feel a need to climb the peg board. To be young again.

Who needs quantity when you have quality:

1996 said:

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When did the movie soundtrack song become irrelevant? The last one I remember was Batman Forever with Kiss from a Rose and Hold Me, Thrill Me... I had so many soundtrack cassettes as a kid

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Are you kidding me?

tk for tu juan said:

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Who needs quantity when you have quality:

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I see you too are a man of culture.

G Martin 87 said:

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OK, this thread is clearly in danger of going off the rails. It's really simple, folks. Two rules:

• 80s movie
• soundtrack

Not 90s, not 70s, not scores, not overall body of work across multiple decades, not covers of 80s soundtrack songs 3 decades later, etc etc.

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Actually maybe I'm confused but to me - the OP did not say what are great 80s soundtracks - he said who has the better 80s soundtrack RESUME. So looking for ARTISTS not soundtracks.

He specifically was saying what artist was kinda known for soundtrack songs. His examples were Kenny Loggins with like 5 big soundtrack songs and Queen with several soundtrack songs and at least one complete soundtrack album.

Prince would be another as someone mentioned.

That's different than just whats a good 80s soundtrack album.

The last huge movie soundtrack I can think of that isn't a musical or animated movie is probably Titanic. 1999 had a couple decent ones with The Matrix and Austin Powers 2. I think those are the last ones I owned.

John Cafferty, writer/performer of music for Eddie and the Crusiers



Writer/performer of theme for Cobra

That was the original point, but all responses are welcome. I think the undeniable point is that the greatness of the movie soundtrack (pop music,, not score) hit its peak in the 80s (aided and abeted by another 80s trope - the montage scene) and will likely never be anywhere close to that peak in the future.