You may have seen lists of the top songs from movies before, but likely not as complete, as elaborate or frankly as enjoyable, as the countdown you are experiencing in real time, joining the thousands of other cinema and music lovers around the world. Let's get going with another 10 songs!
#140--"Sittin' Up In My Room" by Brandy (for the movie Waiting to Exhale--1995)
Written and produced by Babyface, this Brandy song is one of several winners from the 1995 movie Waiting to Exhale. It earned the #2 spot in the United States and sold over one million copies. It is one of seven songs from 1995, with Waiting to Exhale owning the lion's share of those.
Kenneth Edmonds, better known as Babyface, is one of the legendary singer/songwriters and producers. Babyface has amassed 13 Grammy Awards and has written and/or produced 26 #1 R&B hits during his career. It was Bootsy Collins who gave him his nickname because of his youthful appearance.
In the late 70's Babyface met and performed with drummer Antonio "L.A." Reid, with whom he would later form a dynamic writing and producing partnership. In 1989, Edmonds and Reid founded LeFace Records, signing TLC, Usher and Toni Braxton right away. Babyface has written and/or produced "End Of The Road" and "I'll Make Love To You" for Boyz II Men, "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "Exhale (Shoop Shoop) for Whitney Houston, "Take A Bow" for Madonna, "Change The World" for Eric Clapton, "Roni" for Bobby Brown, "Girlfriend and Mercedes Boy" for Pebbles and "Rock Steady" for the Whispers.
Babyface has also written and produced for Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Diana Ross, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Kelly Clarkson, Pink and many others.
In 1994, Brandy released her debut album, which sold six million copies. Her duet with Monica in 1998, "The Boy Is Mine", became the best-selling female duet of all-time. In addition to "Sittin' Up In My Room", Brandy's hits include "I Wanna' Be Down", "Baby" and "Have You Ever?"
Waiting to Exhale is the story of four friends (played by Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon) who have trouble finding reliable men. The four get together often to talk about life and love. The movie grossed $82 million.
#139--"I'd Die Without You" by P.M. Dawn (for the movie Boomerang--1992)
This song became the biggest career hit of P.M. Dawn after it was featured in the 1992 movie Boomerang. Attrell Cordes wrote the song for the group, which also includes his brother Jarrett.
Boomerang, starring Eddie Murphy and Halle Berry, is a romantic comedy in which Marcus Graham, played by Murphy, is a male chauvinist advertising executive. When Graham meets his new boss, he sees that she is basically a female version of himself.
Boomerang represented the breakthrough film for Berry that she used to land roles such as her Oscar-winning performance in Monster's Ball, a stewardess in the great thriller Executive Decision, her role as Storm in four movies in the X-Men series, the Bond girl Jinx in Die Another Day, Catwoman in 2004 and the television movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
"I'd Die Without You" was a Top 10 hit in most countries, including a #1 smash in the United States and New Zealand.
#138--"Let It Flow" by Toni Braxton (for the movie Waiting to Exhale--1995)
Here's another song written by Babyface in the countdown from Waiting to Exhale, the story of four female friends who have trouble finding the right man and get together often to console each other and hear each other out. This one made it all the way to #1, the first of two career number one's by Severn, Maryland's Toni Braxton.
After signing with Babyface and L.A. Reid's LaFace Records, Braxton exploded with a debut album that went to #1 and sold over 10 million copies. Among her many hits are "Breathe Again", "Un-Break My Heart", "You're Makin' Me High", "Let It Flow", "Another Sad Love Song" and "He Wasn't Man Enough". Braxton has won seven American Music Awards, seven Grammy Awards and nine Billboard Music Awards. Toni ranked 27th in Inside The Rock Era's list of The Top 100 Female Artists of the Rock Era*.
The soundtrack has topped eight million in worldwide sales while Waiting to Exhale grossed $81 in worldwide box office receipts.
#137--"Lookin' For Love" by Johnny Lee (for the movie Urban Cowboy--1980)
Here's the second of three songs from the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy. Wanda Mallette and Patti Ryan (two teachers) originally wrote it before Bob Morrison polished it up.
John Travolta and Debra Winger star in Urban Cowboy, and the film is largely a story of the love-hate relationship between their characters, Bud and Sissy.
The song is featured prominently in the movie as Bud Davis, played by Travolta, expresses a liking for the song.
Travolta was one of the top leading men of the late 70's and 80's with a career resume that includes Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Urban Cowboy, Blowout, Primary Colors, Wild Hogs, Phenomenon, Look Who's Talking, A Civil Action, Michael and Face/Off.
Winger was on a great roll in the 80's as well with Urban Cowboy, the classic An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, Shadowlands, Legal Eagles, Black Widow and Forget Paris.
"Lookin' For Love" topped out at #5 in the U.S. Johnny Lee only had Country hits after this one--"Lookin' For Love" was the only one he recorded that managed to have a large audience. The album reached #3, has sold over three million copies and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special.
Winger was nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globe Awards.
#136--"I Would Die 4 (sic) U (sic) by Prince (for the movie Purple Rain--1984)
Here's the fourth single from Prince's successful 1984 movie Purple Rain. In addition to writing the song, Prince created the rhythm through the use of an LM-1 drum machine, which had been released four years before.
"The Kid" (played by Prince) is a talented but troubled musician who is the leader of the band The Revolution. The Kid uses music to to escape from a troubled home life, rehearsing during the day and performing at night at the First Avenue nightclub. Apolonia Kotero, Morris Day, Olga Karlatos and Clarence Williams III co-star.
The Revolution is one of three house bands at the club, and Morris Day, leader of the Time, tries to take advantage of the fact that The Kid refuses to let guitarist Wendy and keyboardist Lisa play their own songs. Day tries to get club owner Billy Sparks to replace The Revolution with a girl group that Day is forming, and he manages to steal Apolonia away from The Kid's group, which enrages The Kid.
In Purple Rain, "I Would Die 4 (sic) U (sic)" is performed by Prince on stage, exciting the crowd.
The LM-1 was important in that it used real samples of songs, not synthesized drumming. Prince had a special talent for running the beats through guitar effects and making them sound unique through other studio tricks.
"I Would Die 4 (sic) U (sic)" made it all the way to #3 in the Netherlands and #8 in the U.S. The "Purple Rain" Soundtrack is The #35 Album of the Rock Era*, having spent 24 weeks at #1 and 32 weeks in the Top 10. Purple Rain has sold over 13 million copies in the United States alone and 15 million worldwide.
The movie grossed $70 million. Prince won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score, an American Music Award for Top Soundtrack and a Grammy for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special.
#135--"We Don't Need Another Hero" by Tina Turner (for the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome--1985)
Tina Turner was just coming off her amazing comeback with the Private Dancer album when she landed this song in the movie Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Written by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten, Turner recorded it for the 1985 movie which starred Mel Gibson and Turner. The song plays over the ending credits.
Beyond Thunderdome was the third installment in the Mad Max franchise, about a lone warrior who has been forced into exile in the desert. The world has become a desolate place after a nuclear war. Max must know who to trust to survive.
Britten and Lyle also wrote "What's Love Got To Do With It" for Turner and have written for Michael Jackson, Olivia Newton-John, Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Manchester, and others.
"We Don't Need Another Hero" reached the summit in Australia, Canada, Spain and Switzerland, #2 in the United States, Ireland, Denmark and Norway, #3 in the U.K. and France, #4 in Finland and Sweden and #7 in the Netherlands. It has sold just shy of one million copies and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
The movie grossed $36 million.
#134--"Change The World" by Eric Clapton (for the movie Phenomenon--1996)
We just heard a song from a John Travolta movie a couple of places back and here's another, one of six songs from the year 1996.
Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick wrote this originally for Wynonna Judd. Eric Clapton's remake is featured on the 1996 "Phenomenon" Soundtrack.
George Malley (Travolta) is an auto mechanic in Northern California who, after celebrating his 37th birthday at a bar, sees a ball of shining bright lights in the sky, which travels towards him and hits him with a loud bang, knocking him down. No one else sees the lights, nor what happens to George.
Afterwards, Malley acquires telekinetic powers and tries to use them for the good of the community, which understandably is wary of him and his newfound powers.
Kyra Sedgwick stars as Malley's love interest, with Robert Duvall and Forest Whitaker co-starring.
Duvall has enjoyed a fabulous movie career that began playing Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962. Duvall also starred in Tender Mercies, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Great Santini, The Apostle, A Civil Action, The Judge, Network, The Natural, The Paper, True Grit and M*A*S*H. Duvall has been honored with four Golden Globes and an Academy Award.
Sedgwick, wife of Kevin Bacon, got her start on the television soap opera Another World, and is best known for starring in the movies Born on the Fourth of July and Something to Talk About.
Sims has also played bass for Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Toni Braxton and many others.
"Change The World" hit #1 in Canada, #3 in New Zealand and #5 in the U.S. (#1 Adult Contemporary) and has topped one million in sales. The "Phenomenon" Soundtrack also sold over one million units.
Phenomenon grossed $152 million.
If I could reach the stars
I'd pull one down for you
Shine it on my heart
So you could see the truth
That this love I have inside
Is everything it seems
But for now I find
It's only in my dreams
That I can change the world
I would be the sunlight in your universe
You would think my love was really something good
Baby, if I could change the world
If I could be king
Even for a day
I'd take you as my queen
I'd have it no other way
And our love would rule
This kingdom we have made
Till then I'll be a fool
Wishin' for the day
That I can change the world
I would be the sunlight in your universe
You would think my love was really something good
Baby, if I could change the world
Baby, if I could change the world
That I can change the world
I would be the sunlight in your universe
You would think my love was really something good
Baby, if I could change the world
Baby, if I could change the world
Baby, if I could change the world
#133--"Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer (for the movie She's All That--1999)
We have heard many examples of how a song has greatly helped the movie it is featured in. Here's a case where a song from its group's debut album languished on its own until it was included in the movie She's All That.
The movie stars Freddie Prinze, Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard and Paul Walker. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, Zack Siler brags that he could make any girl at his high school popular. Zack's friend Dean bets him to turn any girl from school into prom queen in six weeks.
Matt Slocum, the principal songwriter and lead guitarist for Sixpence None The Richer, wrote this one while in a Dutch hotel and the group performed it that night at Flevo Festival! The song was well-received, but the group didn't record it until a year and a half later for their debut album.
But when Miramax used it as the main theme song of the teen romantic comedy She's All That, the film's exposure helped "Kiss Me" gain widespread attention and it promptly shot up to #1 in Australia and Canada and #2 in the U.S., where it became the #6 song of the year. The single has sold over three million copies in the U.S. and over four million worldwide. The group received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
She's All That grossed $103 million.
Kiss me, out of the bearded barley
#132--"Disco Inferno" by the Trammps (for the movie Saturday Night Fever--1977)
If you surmised that the 1977 classic "Saturday Night Fever" Soundtrack may land several entries among The Top Movie Songs of the Rock Era*, you won't be disappointed. Here's the first of six from that album to make the list. It's one of 77 songs by male groups to make The Top 200*.
Written as the title song for the Trammps' 1976 album by Leroy Green and Ron Kersey, "Disco Inferno" at first got little airplay outside of clubs. It plays prominently in the 1977 movie that exploded Disco music into the national consciousness and turned it into a cultural phenomenon and therefore when it was released as a single in 1978, the song exploded. In fact, the song had only limited success until being included on the soundtrack, when a re-release reached #11 and topped the Disco chart for 6 weeks.
The song was inspired by the great 1974 movie The Towering Inferno, in which a lavish party on the top floor of a skyscraper is threatened by a fire that breaks out several floors below.
John Travolta is Tony Manero, a young boy growing up in Brooklyn who works at a hardware store and can't wait for the weekend, so he can go dancing at the disco with his friends. The dance floor is where he excels, and there he meets Stephanie Mangano, played by Karen Lynn Gorney. Manero begins to get annoyed by the childish (and dangerous) antics of his friends and longs for a better life. He thinks Stephanie may help him get there, but does Stephanie think her life will be improved by Tony?
Saturday Night Fever stars Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape and Bruce Ornstein as his friends, Donna Pescow as Annette, who also has eyes on Tony, Val Bisoglio and Julie Bovasso as Tony's parents and Martin Shakar as Tony's brother Frank Jr.
Gorney was one of three children of Jay Gorney, the composer who wrote "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" about the Great Depression in America. Gorney had an early uncredited role in the classic movie The Sting (she's the manicurist for Robert Redford's character) and many thought her career would take off after the tremendous exposure in Saturday Night Fever. She appeared in just three movies afterwards, one of them as an uncredited announcer in Men in Black, and also appeared on episodes of Law & Order and The Sopranos.
The soundtrack album spent 18 weeks at #1 in the United States and was a #1 album in every country in the world. It is one of the biggest-selling of all-time with over 40 million copies sold. The album won six Grammys including Album of the Year and Producer of the Year and an American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Album and was nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Album. In 2004, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Saturday Night Fever grossed $237 million at the box office. Travolta at the time became the fourth-youngest to be nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. The movie also received Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Best Actor for Travolta and Best Original Score.
#131--"Ben" by Michael Jackson (for the movie Ben--1972)
Song #131* was written by Don Black and Walter Scharf and performed by Michael Jackson in 1972 for the movie Ben. It's the sole representative from the flicks of '72 to make the countdown.
The song is performed over the closing credits. Ben was a spinoff from the 1971 movie Willard. Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella and Arthur O'Connell star in Ben, in which Danny Garrison befriends Willard's former pet rat named Ben. Ben protects Danny from bullies and eventually, unites with other deadly rodents to wreak havoc while the police attempt to restore order.
Black collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber and co-wrote "Born Free" and James Bond theme songs with John Barry for Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever and The Man with the Golden Gun.
Campanella is a recognizable character actor who appeared in over 200 television and film roles, including the great series The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, Guiding Light, Mannix, Police Story, The Rockford Files, Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful.
In addition to attaining the #1 position in 1972, "Ben" won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Oscar in the same category.
Our latest music special has 20 segments (22 counting the Preludes*!) but it's going fast. We'll enjoy Part Eight tomorrow, exclusively on Inside The Rock Era!
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