To be cheeky, and comment on my own post - I want to share this playlist. The TV show Supernatural (one of my favorites) had one of the best music supervision teams ever - IMHO.
The iconic scenes they fitted these amazing songs to are too numerous to mention.
I remember when I went to Hustlers and Scott Walker came on the soundtrack doing Jacques Brel's Next, i nearly screamed. But my favorite sync was Norma Tanega's You're Dead for What We Do In the Shadows. I really hope you get your moment, Tamara. Your songs are good enough to stand on their own!
The theme from Cheers really might be the best sync placement in TV history. It fits the vibe of the show so perfectly. It’s also really nostalgic for me. I grew up watching Cheers, and when I was taking piano lessons as a kid I drove my family crazy learning that song.
I’m going with a recent one for me. “The Windmills of Your Mind” my Mel Torme was playing in the background at the season 2 finale of Severance. That was honestly the first time I can remember hearing that song, so there literally is no other association I have with it. I must have listened to that song two dozen times or so after watching that episode. What’s so awesome is the freeze frame they end the episode with and allowing Mel to finish his verse a few seconds after. I love syncs like this.
The creator of the show, Dan Erickson, and the whole crew have been fantastic at the music they have created or chosen to use throughout the series. One of the reasons I am obsessed with this show.
100% on GooGoo Dolls Iris. And those TV theme songs! I just started watching this season of The Voice and the coaches break out into the Cheers theme song.
I have an abandoned post (or three) about perfect song placement!
The ones I can remember: Smalltown Boy and Drink Before the War - both in Euphoria (season 1 and season 2 respectively).
The show Shrinking. Does incredible music! Medicine by Daughter and Looking to Closely by Fink are the 2 standouts for me. That show is so incredible with their song placement.
The Bear - R.EM.’s Strange Currencies and Half a World Away… Chef’s Kiss!!!
I know you didn't really do soundtracks, but I think one of my all-time favorites.....because of the perfect placement/intentional choice of each song.....was perfect.....is The Big Chill soundtrack.
There are so many individual songs that you nailed it (loved the nod to Iris in City of Angels - placed ever so perfectly there), but so so so many great soundtracks that are the same for me.
Thank you Chris. Yes, Big Chill was incredible. Called it out in my early soundtrack post. Again, a masterful work of music supervision. I only touched on it in my earlier post because I was more focused on music specifically written for the films versus placements of existing tracks. However, Big Chill is up there with Supernatural for best placement work.
"Composer Doug Cuomo, who wrote the theme to Sex and the City, tells Rolling Stone that when the show went into syndication, he called up the company that manages his performance royalties and 'asked if this was a mistake.' 'My quarterly payment was literally 10 times more than I’d ever gotten before,' he says."
The first example that comes to mind of noticing a musical choice that was both perfect for the moment in the show and a cool choice was hearing Rebecca Pidgeon's cover of "Searching For A Heart" on an episode of Covert Affairs -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP6waHZ-pHU (from comments on YT episode 12 of season 2)
“The song plays after CIA agent Sydney Bristow discovers that her father, also an agent, has lied to her, telling her that her repentant KGB-agent mother wants to kill her. She also finds out that her father brainwashed her and programmed her to be a spy when she was six years old. The brainwashing scheme was known as Project Christmas.”
Oh wow, what an amazing topic!! That’s always kinda been a dream job for me, not even sure what it’s called — music supervisor? — whoever the person is that selects songs for movies or TV shows. That always sounded amazing to me.
I could probably write an entire post about my favorite songs from TV shows and movies (maybe I will!) but I’d definitely have to give it some thought.
Amazing call on Goo Goo Dolls in City of Angels - that one ripped my heart to pieces.
One iconic movie scene that comes to mind for me is “In Your Eyes” from Say Anything when John Cusack is holding the boombox. Scorsese was always a good one for music and there’s some great songs/scenes in Goodfellas — the use of “Layla” is the most obvious one. A tearjerker for me was Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” used in Platoon, absolutely brilliant.
On TV shows, some of my favorite theme songs are from my youth (dating myself here): Taxi, WKRP, Three’s Company, Bosom Buddies.
And yes Music Supervisors and Music Directors are the ones the film or show directors turn to for handling all the music…and the licensing of it. The second part is less fun.
It’s been years (decades?) since I watched The Sopranos so nothing comes to mind outside of Alabama 3’s “Woke Up This Morning” as the theme music. Maybe it’s time to go back and binge the show!
I have a buddy who has a company and he and his partner will get together for a week at a time every couple months and just make tunes for 16 hours a day. They've had some good placements but they've also had a lot of near misses too and the amount of work they put into it is insane. I've had some success in the sync thing but it always seemed too fickle to me to be able to trust it.
The 90s had some great soundtracks though and I remember getting City of Angels for Iris. But the thing about that song was that the Goos would do that annoying 90s thing where they'd use words that never appeared in the songs as their titles so it was really hard to figure out what the song was lol
Really interesting post, Taz. You seem to have a really good grasp on today's music industry.
It's hard for me to identify one theme song or soundtrack because I tend to be influenced by all of them. I often key into the music and lose touch with the plot, which is both a curse and a blessing as I find new music that way.
Even though Twilight is targeted at teens/young adults, the books and films are really good. I've read and watched multiple times. Iconic themes, really interesting moral dilemmas, and intriguing characters. Well worth checking out.
Michael Sheen plays a really delicious character later on. Couldn't share a clip because it would be a spoiler. But realizing that I need to watch it again!
I adore Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever." Brian May did a fantastic job writing a song that supports the Highlander movie and stands perfectly well on its own. It has a lot of the same attributes as his "Too Much Love Will Kill You." He did an amazing version of "Too Much Love..." at the Pavarotti & Friends concert in 1992 and a stellar version of "Who Wants to Live Forever" with Andrea Bocelli:
To be cheeky, and comment on my own post - I want to share this playlist. The TV show Supernatural (one of my favorites) had one of the best music supervision teams ever - IMHO.
The iconic scenes they fitted these amazing songs to are too numerous to mention.
Wanted to share as a bonus. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1IEQ8C3G1qT0W80muYgROT?si=25f04d506c2b44ec
Yes, I love all those old themes too. Great soundtrack choices. American Beauty was pretty iconic.
I remember when I went to Hustlers and Scott Walker came on the soundtrack doing Jacques Brel's Next, i nearly screamed. But my favorite sync was Norma Tanega's You're Dead for What We Do In the Shadows. I really hope you get your moment, Tamara. Your songs are good enough to stand on their own!
Great choices! This one was pretty amazing too. https://youtu.be/NakTu_VZxJ0?si=0oYTh1VG5QoUdbhP
That was great! One of the best scenes in the series and Jenna Ortega's story about it amazing (if true . . . I assume it is): https://ew.com/tv/jenna-ortega-wednesday-viral-dance-routine-two-days/
The theme from Cheers really might be the best sync placement in TV history. It fits the vibe of the show so perfectly. It’s also really nostalgic for me. I grew up watching Cheers, and when I was taking piano lessons as a kid I drove my family crazy learning that song.
Love all of this! Thanks for reading Paul.
I’m going with a recent one for me. “The Windmills of Your Mind” my Mel Torme was playing in the background at the season 2 finale of Severance. That was honestly the first time I can remember hearing that song, so there literally is no other association I have with it. I must have listened to that song two dozen times or so after watching that episode. What’s so awesome is the freeze frame they end the episode with and allowing Mel to finish his verse a few seconds after. I love syncs like this.
BTW. So many amazing artists have covered this. You should check out Dusty Springfield and Alison Moyets versions.
Amazing. Its from the Thomas Crown Affair originally. One of my favorite songs of all time.
The creator of the show, Dan Erickson, and the whole crew have been fantastic at the music they have created or chosen to use throughout the series. One of the reasons I am obsessed with this show.
100% on GooGoo Dolls Iris. And those TV theme songs! I just started watching this season of The Voice and the coaches break out into the Cheers theme song.
I have an abandoned post (or three) about perfect song placement!
The ones I can remember: Smalltown Boy and Drink Before the War - both in Euphoria (season 1 and season 2 respectively).
The show Shrinking. Does incredible music! Medicine by Daughter and Looking to Closely by Fink are the 2 standouts for me. That show is so incredible with their song placement.
The Bear - R.EM.’s Strange Currencies and Half a World Away… Chef’s Kiss!!!
Break out that abandoned post and pile it on.
I should! 😂
I would love to see it.
This was a fantastic piece.
I know you didn't really do soundtracks, but I think one of my all-time favorites.....because of the perfect placement/intentional choice of each song.....was perfect.....is The Big Chill soundtrack.
There are so many individual songs that you nailed it (loved the nod to Iris in City of Angels - placed ever so perfectly there), but so so so many great soundtracks that are the same for me.
Great work, Tamara!
Thank you Chris. Yes, Big Chill was incredible. Called it out in my early soundtrack post. Again, a masterful work of music supervision. I only touched on it in my earlier post because I was more focused on music specifically written for the films versus placements of existing tracks. However, Big Chill is up there with Supernatural for best placement work.
Yes, the Big Chill Soundtrack was amazing!
What a fun post -- clearly something that you've thought about a lot, and I appreciate getting the brief summary version.
You know this, but worth mentioning for some people that getting music on TV shows can be one of the best ways for a musician to make money -- https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/theme-songs-devo-ridiculousness-big-bang-theory-abbott-elementary-1235233087/
"Composer Doug Cuomo, who wrote the theme to Sex and the City, tells Rolling Stone that when the show went into syndication, he called up the company that manages his performance royalties and 'asked if this was a mistake.' 'My quarterly payment was literally 10 times more than I’d ever gotten before,' he says."
The first example that comes to mind of noticing a musical choice that was both perfect for the moment in the show and a cool choice was hearing Rebecca Pidgeon's cover of "Searching For A Heart" on an episode of Covert Affairs -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP6waHZ-pHU (from comments on YT episode 12 of season 2)
Nice - love Covert Affairs.
:)
My other possible reference from a questionable spy show was that the use of Joni Mitchell’s “River” in Alias was really well chosen — https://jonimitchell.com/library/cr_tv.cfm?id=148
“The song plays after CIA agent Sydney Bristow discovers that her father, also an agent, has lied to her, telling her that her repentant KGB-agent mother wants to kill her. She also finds out that her father brainwashed her and programmed her to be a spy when she was six years old. The brainwashing scheme was known as Project Christmas.”
And for the record, there is nothing questionable about Alias. One of my favorites.
I enjoyed watching it. A few years ago I tried watching an episode and it did not hold up well.
But that’s okay; I sill have positive memories.
ooh, I remember that clearly. Another great shout out.
Oh wow, what an amazing topic!! That’s always kinda been a dream job for me, not even sure what it’s called — music supervisor? — whoever the person is that selects songs for movies or TV shows. That always sounded amazing to me.
I could probably write an entire post about my favorite songs from TV shows and movies (maybe I will!) but I’d definitely have to give it some thought.
Amazing call on Goo Goo Dolls in City of Angels - that one ripped my heart to pieces.
One iconic movie scene that comes to mind for me is “In Your Eyes” from Say Anything when John Cusack is holding the boombox. Scorsese was always a good one for music and there’s some great songs/scenes in Goodfellas — the use of “Layla” is the most obvious one. A tearjerker for me was Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” used in Platoon, absolutely brilliant.
On TV shows, some of my favorite theme songs are from my youth (dating myself here): Taxi, WKRP, Three’s Company, Bosom Buddies.
Great topic Taz!
And yes Music Supervisors and Music Directors are the ones the film or show directors turn to for handling all the music…and the licensing of it. The second part is less fun.
You nailed some really great examples Mark. The soprano's has a lot of great placements as well.
It’s been years (decades?) since I watched The Sopranos so nothing comes to mind outside of Alabama 3’s “Woke Up This Morning” as the theme music. Maybe it’s time to go back and binge the show!
I have a buddy who has a company and he and his partner will get together for a week at a time every couple months and just make tunes for 16 hours a day. They've had some good placements but they've also had a lot of near misses too and the amount of work they put into it is insane. I've had some success in the sync thing but it always seemed too fickle to me to be able to trust it.
The 90s had some great soundtracks though and I remember getting City of Angels for Iris. But the thing about that song was that the Goos would do that annoying 90s thing where they'd use words that never appeared in the songs as their titles so it was really hard to figure out what the song was lol
So true about the title thing. And yeah, sync is as fickle as it gets.
Nailed it.
Ha! Now I know you really did read it. Perfect response. Thanks 👍
I almost said,
“Here we are!
Born to be kings,
We’re the princes of the universe!”
But, my singing voice is currently out of commission.
No worries 😁
I love this. All that comes to mind are the theme songs for Phineas and Ferb, and Adventure Time. Even to this day, I can recite the songs.
Love that.
Really interesting post, Taz. You seem to have a really good grasp on today's music industry.
It's hard for me to identify one theme song or soundtrack because I tend to be influenced by all of them. I often key into the music and lose touch with the plot, which is both a curse and a blessing as I find new music that way.
Even though Twilight is targeted at teens/young adults, the books and films are really good. I've read and watched multiple times. Iconic themes, really interesting moral dilemmas, and intriguing characters. Well worth checking out.
Thanks Ellen. I don’t know why I have shied away from Twilight, seems like my kind of thing.
Michael Sheen plays a really delicious character later on. Couldn't share a clip because it would be a spoiler. But realizing that I need to watch it again!
Lonestar soundtrack 👌 and the movie is a keeper.
I adore Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever." Brian May did a fantastic job writing a song that supports the Highlander movie and stands perfectly well on its own. It has a lot of the same attributes as his "Too Much Love Will Kill You." He did an amazing version of "Too Much Love..." at the Pavarotti & Friends concert in 1992 and a stellar version of "Who Wants to Live Forever" with Andrea Bocelli:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bfZZ0AzWDw&list=RD9bfZZ0AzWDw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oygIWCseYI0&list=RDoygIWCseYI0
Yes!
Cool piece! I really like doing sync stuff, briefs and constrictions are usually pretty good for my creativity.
I remember a teacher saying to me once: “since the inception of film it has been the musicians duty to cover for bad acting”. I think about it often 😅
It was also interesting to see the way pop music became more cinematic as the only money that could be found was in sync.
I LOVE that quote. Priceless. I can easily see you doing your thing in sync effortlessly.