This week Tony and I went to the movies! Soundtracks have been a feature of film for longer than speech (in the form of live piano or organ accompaniment), and the silver screen has inspired some of the twentieth century’s most iconic music. This week we heard a handful of hits from well-loved movies.
Tiffany’s & Tarantino
Moon River was composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and first performed by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and received two Grammy Awards the following year. Its lyrics draw on Mercer’s memories of his childhood in Savannah, Georgia; an inlet near the city was later renamed Moon River in his honour. In the film, Hepburn performs the song on a fire escape, and the performance serves as an emotional turning point for her character.
Stuck In The Middle With You was written by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan, and appeared on Stealers Wheel’s self-titled debut album in 1972. Originally intended as a parody of Bob Dylan’s songwriting style, the song offers a satirical account of the music industry’s social pretences. It reached No. 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 8 in the UK. Its later use in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) recontextualised the track, pairing its upbeat melody with an act of sadistic torture (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT IN THE VIDEO ABOVE).
Car Wash & Counting Crows
Written and produced by Norman Whitfield, Car Wash served as the title track for the 1976 film of the same name and became Rose Royce’s most commercially successful single. Built on a one-chord D minor groove, the song combines disco rhythm with lyrics celebrating work, community, and humor. It topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Soul Singles chart and won the 1977 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. In 2004, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott reinterpreted the track as “Whale Wash” for DreamWorks’ Shark Tale, maintaining the song’s celebratory tone within a new animated setting. Both versions use music to frame labor as performance and identity.
Accidentally In Love was written by Adam Duritz and members of Counting Crows for the opening sequence of Shrek 2, and was released in 2004 as a single shortly before the film’s premiere. The song uses a cyclical chord progression and bright acoustic instrumentation to match the tone of the honeymoon sequence it accompanies. It received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture.
Electronica & Elio
Composed by French electronic musician College (David Grellier) in collaboration with Electric Youth, A Real Hero gained prominence through its inclusion in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011). The song was partly inspired by Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s 2009 emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549, reflected in the lyric “155 people on board”. In the film, the refrain “a real human being and a real hero” underscores the central character’s dual nature: compassionate and violent.
Futile Devices originally appeared on Sufjan Stevens’ 2010 album The Age of Adz. The 2017 remix by producer Doveman was commissioned for Call Me by Your Name, where it underscores the film’s themes of desire and emotional ambiguity. The arrangement builds gradually from sparse piano arpeggios to layered textures, mirroring the progression of feeling within the song. In both versions, Stevens’s quiet vocal delivery and minimalist harmonic structure frame love as an internal, unresolved experience rather than a declaration.
George Michael vs Taylor Swift
Our soundslike this week explored a lyric interpolation (and a shared title) between George Michael and Taylor Swift. The latter released a song on her recent album titled Father Figure…
Movies Quiz
For our quiz this week, we played clips from famous songs from movies – guess the artist and song!
As always, find the show and blog at joebennett.net/5live, with occasional Instagram extras at @joebennettmusicology. With a new show comes a new Spotify mega-playlist, which contains all songs featured on the show:
And you can still listen to our old mega-playlist here.
- Words: Joe Bennett, John Pierce O’Reilly
- Audio production: Joe Bennett, Rafi Waters
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