Has our special got you wanting to see some of these movies? Long for the good days? Lots of great ones in here! We continue now with another 10 cinema tunes!
#120. "Nothing's Gonna' Stop Us Now" by Starship (from the movie Mannequin--1987)
Legendary songwriter Diane Warren penned this with Albert Hammond, best known for his 1973 hit "It Never Rains In Southern California" for the 1987 romantic comedy Mannequin. Co-lead vocalists Grace Slick and Micky Thomas alternate in a superb performance that is heard over the ending credits. This Starship movie tune is one of five represented from 1987 and 1 of 10 from mixed groups(male and female).
Warren ranks as one of the top songwriters for cinema tunes by writing "Because You Loved Me" for Celine Dion, "There You'll Be" for Faith Hill, "For You I Will" by Monica and "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" for Aerosmith for a total of 5 entries in The Top 200 Movie Songs of the Rock Era*.
Michael Gottlieb made his debut as a director in the movie, which stars Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall and James Spader. Artist Jonathan Switcher (played by McCarthy) lands a job as a window dresser in a department store with the mannequin he created. Soon, Switcher learns that the mannequin comes alive with the spirit of an Ancient Egyptian woman that only he can see.
Spader has come a long ways since starring in films such as Pretty in Pink and Mannequin. He began to show his promise in Sex, Lies and Videotape in 1989 and starred in True Colors and Lincoln. He then turned to television where he starred on The Practice and its spinoff Boston Legal, which gave Spader three Primetime Emmy Awards. James then starred in The Office for two seasons and earned two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in The Blacklist for playing Raymond Reddington from 2013-2023.
Slick was right there during the magical decade of the 60's and all its Psychedelic Rock glory, delivering powerful vocals on Jefferson Airplane's classics, "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love". Up until then, Slick had been the lead singer for a San Francisco Bay Area group called The Great Society, which also included her husband Jerry, who played drums and co-wrote songs.
Meanwhile, Jefferson Airplane was proving itself to be a significant force and when lead singer Signe Anderson left the group to raise her child, bassist Jack Casady asked Slick to take her place. Grace made the move and became one of the premier female vocalists of the period.
Casady and Jorma Kaukonen left in 1969 to form Hot Tuna, and the group reformed both their name and sound in 1974, becoming Jefferson Starship. With that group, Slick and the band enjoyed eight Gold or Platinum albums between 1974 and 1984, highlighted by the fabulous album Red Octopus and the smash "Miracles" in 1975. Jefferson Starship also gave us "With Your Love", "Count On Me" and "Runaway". Slick also later joined the group when they were known as Starship, alternating on lead with Mickey Thomas on this song and singing backing vocals on "Sara".
Starship achieved one of their biggest hits with the #1 smash "Nothing's Gonna' Stop Us Now" in the United States, the first of Warren's storied career, also #1 in the U.K., Canada and Ireland. It landed in the Top 10 on the charts of 14 countries and has sold 1.6 million copies to date. The song was nominated at both the Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Original Song.
Mannequin grossed $42 million.
#119--"Glory Of Love" by Peter Cetera (from the movie The Karate Kid Part II--1986)
Peter Cetera wrote this with David Foster and Diane Nini for the 1986 movie The Karate Kid Part II. It was Cetera's first hit after leaving the supergroup Chicago and highlights Jeff Porcaro of Toto on percussion. The song is featured prominently throughout the movie and plays over the end credits as well.
The sequel to The Karate Kid once again starred Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. Daniel LaRusso, played by Macchio, travels with his karate teacher Mr. Miyagi (Morita) to see his dying father in Okinawa, Japan. But Miyagi has old issues to deal with in Japan--while there many years ago, he fell in love with a woman named Yukie, who had been arranged to marry his best friend Sato. After learning this, Sato challenged him to a fight to the death, but Miyagi chose to leave the country instead.
Porcaro packed a lot of punch into 38 years of life, first becoming known as the drummer for Steely Dan on their 1975 album Katy Lied. In addition to co-founding the highly-respected Toto, Jeff became one of the most utilized session musicians in history, along with other members of the group. Porcaro has played drums on hundreds of albums and thousands of songs.
In addition to drumming on "Glory Of Love", Porcaro has played on "When I Need You" for Leo Sayer, "Beat It", "The Girl Is Mine", "Human Nature" and "Heal The World" for Michael Jackson, "Arthur's Theme" for Christopher Cross, "Cherish" for Madonna, "Lowdown", "Lido Shuffle" and "Look What You've Done To Me" for Boz Scaggs, "Running With The Night" for Lionel Richie, "New York Minute" and "Dirty Laundry" for Don Henley, "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" for Melissa Manchester, "Get Closer" and "Diamond Girl" for Seals & Crofts, "When A Man Loves A Woman" for Michael Bolton, "Thank You For Being A Friend" for Andrew Gold, Time Passages" for Al Stewart, "She Did It" for Eric Carmen, "The Pretender" for Jackson Browne, and countless others.
Porcaro died on August 5, 1992 after becoming ill while spraying insecticide in his yard. Jeff was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame posthumously in 1993.
"Glory Of Love" rocketed to #1 in the U.S., Canada and Sweden and was one of the top songs of the year. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy and Golden Globes Awards.
The Karate Kid Part II grossed $130 million.
Tonight, it's very clear
'Cause we're both lying here
There's so many things I wanna say
I will always love you
I would never leave you alone
Sometimes, I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying
I don't wanna lose you
I could never make it alone
I am a man who will fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of
We'll live forever
Knowing together
That we did it all for the glory of love
You keep me standing tall
You help me through it all
I'm always strong when you're beside me
I have always needed you
I could never make it alone
#118. "Love Theme From 'Romeo & Juliet'" by Henry Mancini (from the movie Romeo and Juliet)
Legendary composer, arranger and conductor Henry Mancini arranged this song written by Nino Rota and played piano on the track as well, with the prolific Hal Blaine on drums. The song also has lyrics, but was featured in the movie and also the single release as an instrumental.
Romeo and Juliet is a 1968 movie based on the famous play by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet are two young people on opposite sides of a bitter and violent feud between the Montague and Capulet families who fall in love and are later secretly married. Juliet's parents are unaware of the marriage and arrange for their daughter to marry another man.
This is an unacceptable consequence for the two lovers, but a plan devised by Friar Laurence goes tragically awry. Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey star as Romeo and Juliet, respectively, while Sir Laurence Olivier spoke the movie's prologue and epilogue and also dubs the voice of the character Lord Montague. Michael York and Milo O'Shea co-star.
Olivier was one of the giants of his generation on stage, first appearing in Private Lives on London's West End in 1930. He later starred in a West End production of Romeo and Juliet and played dynamic roles in Shakespeare's Richard III and Sophocles's Oedipus.
Olivier also starred in the great movies Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III, Spartacus and Sleuth.
Olivier won four Golden Globe Awards, an Academy Award, five Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. He was knighted by the British monarch in 1947 and won the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes.
"Love Theme From 'Romeo & Juliet'" hit #1 in the U.S. for two weeks, taking the place of the Beatles' classic "Get Back", also dominated the Easy Listening chart for eight weeks and sold over one million copies.
#117. "The Entertainer" by Marvin Hamlisch (from the movie The Sting--1973)
Considered a ragtime classic, the first recording of this song was by the Blue Boys in 1928. Marvin Hamlisch adapted it in 1973 for the all-time classic movie The Sting, starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Robert Shaw. "The Entertainer" is featured prominently throughout the movie.
The movie paired Newman and Redford again after their successful performances in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. This time, they star in an awesome web of trickery set against the backdrop of The Great Depression in which Johnny Hooker (Redford) strives to avenge the death of his partner Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones), which was ordered by crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Shaw).
Prior to his death, Coleman advised Hooker that he was retiring and to seek out a good friend by the name of Henry Gondorff (Newman) in Chicago, Illinois. Along the way, Hooker must evade the corrupt Joliet police lieutenant William Snyder (played by Charles Durning) as well as Lonnegan's goons long enough to play out the con.
Eileen Brennan, Harold Gould, Jack Kehoe, Dana Elcar and John Heffernan round out the superb cast.
Newman was one of cinema's Top Five actors of all-time and The Sting was one of his best performances. Paul attended both the Yale School of Drama and the Actors Studio after graduating college in 1949. Moviegoers in 1959 saw a glimpse of Paul's tremendous talent in the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He continued to amaze with The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Hud, The Helen Morgan Story, Exodus, Sweet Bird of Youth, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Towering Inferno, Fort Apache,The Bronx, Absence of Malice and The Color of Money (which earned him his only Academy Award) and delivered a masterpiece in one of the best-acting performances of all-time in The Verdict. Paul also directed Rachel, Rachel, for which he won a Golden Globe Award.
Newman was forever someone to look up to. He founded Newman's Own, a food company that donated all profits to charity. Donations by the company, which continued to be run by his daughter after Paul's death in 2008, reached $570 million as of 2021.
Hamlisch rose to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #3 overall in the United States and won an Oscar for Best Original Song.
The Sting cemented its place in history as one of the top movies of all-time when it captured seven Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Song Score, Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction and Best Film Editing out of 10 nominations (also nominated for Best Actor for Redford, Best Cinematography and Best Sound) in a highly-competitive year.
The Sting grossed $257 million in 1973, the equivalent of $1.8 billion today. In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected the movie for preservation in the National Film Registry
#116. "Got To Get You Into My Life" by Earth, Wind & Fire (from the movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band--1978)
The legendary team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this song and the Beatles included it on their great 1966 album Revolver. Earth, Wind & Fire recorded the track for the 1978 movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with permission from Lennon & McCartney, one of the few times the pair has allowed a cover version of their songs.
The film was loosely based on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road, an off-Broadway production from 1974. Mr. Kite (sung about on the Beatles' landmark album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band), is the mayor of Heartland (with the voice of George Burns), who narrates the movie, telling the history of Sgt. Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club Band, the beloved marching band of Heartland.
In the plot, the band brought happiness to the town and to everyone who heard their music, even causing World War I and II troops to stop fighting. Sgt. Pepper died in 1958 but left the band's magical musical instruments to the town with the stipulation that they remain in Heartland. Sgt. Pepper's grandson Billy Shears (played by Peter Frampton) forms a new Lonely Hearts Club Band with best friends Mark, Dave, and Bob Henderson (played by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees). Steve Martin, Paul Nicholas, Donald Pleasance, Sandy Farina, Aerosmith, Earth, Wind & Fire, Alice Cooper and Billy Preston co-star.
Earth, Wind and Fire transcended boundaries with their repertoire of happy music and inspirational lyrics, giving us "Shining Star", "That's The Way Of The World", "Fantasy", "Sing A Song", "After The Love Has Gone", "Reasons", "Getaway", "Serpentine Fire", "September", "Boogie Wonderland" and "Let's Groove". Earth, Wind and Fire has won six Grammy Awards from 17 nominations, have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Kennedy Center Honors.
"Got To Get You Into My Life" raced to #9 in the U.S. and sold over one million copies.
The soundtrack album debuted at #7 and peaked at #5 for six weeks with sales of over one million copies.
The movie had high hopes, with Beatles producer George Martin producing the soundtrack, all the star power, and the hot run of Robert Stigwood, who had produced the monumental movie and soundtrack Saturday Night Fever in 1977 and the wildly successful "Grease" Soundtrack earlier in the year, but failed to keep up the momentum.
#115--"Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing" by the Four Aces (from the movie Love Is A Many-Splendored-Thing--1955)
Sammy Fain wrote this with lyrics from Paul Francis Webster for the 1955 movie Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. It was used as the theme song to the soap opera Love is a Many Splendored Thing from 1967-1973, based on the movie.
William Holden and Jennifer Jones star in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, which tells the story of a married, but separated, American reporter in Hong Kong named Mark Elliot (Holden) who falls in love with Han Suyin (Jones), a doctor originally from China. The two face prejudice from her family and from the Hong Kong society.
Fain wrote many pre-Rock Era standards, including "Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella", "You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me", "I'll Be Seeing You" and "That Old Feeling". Sammy wrote music for over 30 movies in the 1930's, 40's and 50's, including "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing" and "Calamity Jane", the latter which gave him his first Academy Award.
Fain was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Award a staggering 10 times, also writing the second theme to the television series Wagon Train and composing song scores for the Walt Disney films Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and The Rescuers. Fain was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.
Holden was one of the biggest movie stars of the 50's, taking home Best Actor honors for Stalag 17 in 1953. He also had an iconic role in Sunset Boulevard, as well as Our Town, Streets of Laredo, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Picnic, The Towering Inferno and Network. During filming for the 1954 movie Sabrina, Holden became romantically involved with fellow star Audrey Hepburn, though the relationship didn't last long past the completion of the movie.
The Four Aces went all the way to #1 in the U.S.,#2 in the U.K. and #3 in Australia. The song received the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
The movie finished its theatrical run with a box office of $4 million in 1955. It won a Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting International Understanding and won three Academy Awards, including Best Costume Design-Color and Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, among seven nominations that also included Best Motion Picture, Best Actress for Jones, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.
#114. "People" by Barbra Streisand (from the movie Funny Girl--1964)
Julie Styne and Bob Merrill wrote this 1964 classic for the Broadway play Funny Girl, with Barbra Streisand singing it and starring in the play. Streisand also starred in and sang "People" in the movie version, her debut on the big screen opposite Omar Sharif.
Funny Girl is loosely based on the life of Fanny Brice. The movie opens in New York City with Brice, a star of the Ziegfeld Follies, waiting for her husband Nicky Arnstein to arrive at the theater. This scene is actually the end of the film, and the movie then proceeds to take us back to how Brice and Arnstein met and what happened to them.
Brice's son-in-law Ray Stark produced the movie with Walter Pidgeon, Kay Medford, Anne Francis and Mae Questel in supporting roles.
Sharif was one of the charming male actors of his time and one of Egypt's greatest male movie stars. Sharif starred in over 100 films over 50 years and won three Golden Globes. In addition to Funny Girl, Sharif starred in Lawrence of Arabia (which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Doctor Zhivago, which gave Omar his first Golden Globe for Best Actor, and The Guns of Navarone.
Many know him for his screen presence, but may not know that he was ranked as one of the world's best contract bridge players at one time. Not unlike the character he plays in Funny Girl, Sharif lost large amounts of money gambling and buying horses, and took several roles in what turned out to be bad movies.
Streisand rode to #5 and #1 on the Easy Listening chart in the United States with "People".
Many singers have recorded the song. In 1998, Streisand's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The "Funny Girl" Soundtrack reached #4 in Australia, #10 in Canada and #12 in the United States and has sold over one million copies.
Funny Girl was the top-grossing movie of 1968 ($58 million, the equivalent of $594 million today) and received eight Oscar nominations, including a win for Streisand as Best Actress (who tied with Katharine Hepburn for her role in The Lion in Winter). The other nominations were for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for Medford), Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing and Best Score. The movie was also nominated for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Best Director and Best Actress - Comedy or Musical (for Streisand) at the Golden Globe Awards.
Several lists, including those of Entertainment Weekly and Broadway.com include Funny Girl among the greatest musicals ever made. In 2016, Funny Girl was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
#113. "For Your Eyes Only" by Sheena Easton (from the movie For Your Eyes Only--1991)
Mick Leeson wrote this song with arranger/conductor/ composer Bill Conti for the 12th James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only, in 1981. United Artists suggested Sheena Easton, who was coming off her #1 hit "Morning Train", as the performer. The song appears in the opening credits.
Roger Moore starred as Bond, with support from Carole Bouquet, Chaim Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson and Julian Glover. Bond 's mission is to find a missile command system before the KGB does, but he also has to fend off interference from several other players.
Easton was one of the most promising and successful artists of the early 1980's, scoring a string of big hits with "Morning Train", "Modern Girl", "When He Shines", "For Your Eyes Only", "You Could Have Been With Me", "We've Got Tonight", "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)" and "Almost Over You". Easton, who was nominated for six Grammys in her career, winning two, remains the only artist in history to achieve a Top-Five hit on each of the Popular, Adult Contemporary, Country, R&B and Dance formats. Among The Top 100 Female Artists of the Rock Era* that Inside The Rock Era presented in 2014, Sheena ranks #49*.
Easton reached #1 in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Norway with "For Your Eyes Only", which also hit #3 in Sweden and Austria, #4 in the U.S. and #8 in the United Kingdom. The track was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and is ranked #9 among The Top James Bond Themes*.
The movie grossed $195 million at the box office.
For your eyes only, can see me through the night.
For your eyes only, I never need to hide.
You can see so much in me, so much in me that's new.
I never felt until I looked at you.
For your eyes only, only for you.
You'll see what no one else can see, and now I'm breaking free.
For your eyes only, only for you.
The love I know you need in me, the fantasy you've freed in me.
Only for you, only for you.
For your eyes only, the nights are never cold.
You really know me, that's all I need to know.
Maybe I'm an open book because I know you're mine,
But you won't need to read between the lines.
For your eyes only, only for you.
You see what no one else can see, and now I'm breaking free.
For your eyes only, only for you.
The passions that collide in me, the wild abandoned side of me.
Only for you, for your eyes only.
#112. "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly (from the movie Space Jam--1996)
R. Kelly wrote and produced this song for the 1996 movie Space Jam, starring Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, Danny DeVito, Billy West and Theresa Randle. The Looney Tunes characters coax basketball superstar Jordan out of retirement to help them win a game against aliens who have invaded the planet.
Jordan was hands-down the best basketball player to ever play the game, who became famous for soaring through the air from the free-throw line that ended in tumultuous dunks, making baskets with acrobatic moves never seen before or since, and hitting clutch game-winning shots in championship games.
Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA Championships, was awarded NBA Finals Most Valuable Player six times, led the league in scoring a record 10 times, won five MVP regular season awards and played in 14 All-Star Games. Michael continues to hold NBA records for career scoring average (30.1 points a game) and career playoff scoring average (33.4 ppg.)
The talented Knight joined the cast of the television blockbuster Seinfeld from 1992-1998 and became the top "fifth star" of the show outside the main group of Seinfeld, George, Elaine and Kramer. Knight also starred on 3rd Rock from the Sun and in the movies Jurassic Park, JFK and Basic Instinct and provided voices for the animated Tarzan and Toy Story 2.
"I Believe I Can Fly" went to #1 in the U.K., New Zealand, Switzerland and the Netherlands and #2 in the United States and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. It captured the Grammy for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, while also being nominated for Song and Record of the Year.
The "Space Jam" Soundtrack went to #2 in the U.S. and Norway and #5 in the U.K. and has sold over 6 million units in the United States alone.
Space Jam has exceeded $250 million in box office receipts.
#111. "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith (from the movie Armageddon--1998)
Prolific songwriter Diane Warren wrote this winner in 1998 from the science-fiction movie Armageddon. We find out right away that an enormous asteroid is set to hit Earth, so a team of drillers is sent by NASA to avert the tragedy. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the movie stars Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton and Liv Tyler.
Bruckenheimer became one of the top movie producers of modern times, overseeing the blockbuster franchises for Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure as well as producing Days of Thunder, The Rock, Crimson Tide, Dangerous Minds, Con Air, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon and Black Hawk Down. Jerry also worked on television dramas such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and won 10 Primetime Emmys for his work on The Amazing Race. Bruckenheimer's films have grossed over $13 billion worldwide, and he has received 15 Academy Award nominations, 3 Golden Globes, 4 Grammys and 2 Oscars for Best Original Song.
Aerosmith scored early hits with "Dream On" and "Walk This Way", and after faltering in subsequent years, they rose from the ashes like the mythical bird Phoenix, revitalizing their career beginning with the album Permanent Vacation, 10 years after "Walk This Way". The group miraculously scored some of their biggest career hits in the 80's with "Angel", "Rag Doll", "Love In An Elevator", "Janie's Got A Gun", "What It Takes", "Livin' On The Edge", "Cryin'" and "Crazy" before achieving their biggest career hit with "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing".
"I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" reached #1 in every major country in the world, including a four-week stay at the top in the United States, and has topped 5 million sales in the U.S. and 8 million globally. Warren was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television at the Grammys.
The "Armageddon" Soundtrack was a #1 album in the United States, Canada, Switzerland and Austria and has sold over 5 million units, 4 million in the U.S. alone.
The movie, in addition to Warren's nod above was nominated for Best Sound, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects Editing and grossed $553 million at the box office.
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