Couch Theater – June 10, 2021

#Middlebury #Soundtracks

I’m a certified believer in movie soundtracks. Music can not only trigger a great movie memory, but from where I sit, it just makes sense to have a playlist curated by an expert. Maybe it’s my age – I’m firmly Gen X, and movie soundtracks are the precursors to today’s Spotify playlists. The Recording Industry Association of America ranks songs, albums, etc., and the top 20 list agrees: The majority of bestselling soundtracks are movies in the 1980s and ’90s. Here are some gems from the top 20, by decade.

John Travolta starts us out with the phenomenon that was 1977’s “Saturday Night Fever.” Tony Manzano (Travolta) and friends live for the weekend disco, and the Bee Gees became the score of the late ’70s with the title track, “More Than a Woman,” “Night Fever,” etc. Travolta follows it up alongside Olivia Newton-John with 1978’s “Grease.” The decade feel closes with Neil Diamond’s soundtrack to “The Jazz Singer,” where Diamond plays a young musician wresting himself from a traditional upbringing on a path to musical success.

The 1980s feature some absolute iconic soundtracks that trigger instant recognition. Think about the biggies from this decade: “Flashdance,” “Footloose,” “The Big Chill,” “Top Gun.” But in the No. 3 spot of all time sits the soundtrack for “Purple Rain,” pitting The Kid (Prince, who performs with his band, The Revolution) in all his earnestness climbing the Minneapolis club scene, against a rival band, Morris Day and The Time. Another chart-topper features music from the 1950s, ’60s and ’80s, but all highly associated with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in 1987’s “Dirty Dancing.” Then in 1989, a Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” bubbled up from the bottom of the ocean to soundtrack success.

Whitney Houston in “The Bodyguard” (Warner Bros. photo)

While the 1990s gave us tracks like “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” in which Madonna sang her way to the No. 18 spot for the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical “Evita,” you have absolutely “nothing, nothing, NOTHING,” if you don’t have the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard.” This masterpiece by Whitney Houston – where she plays an incredibly popular and talented singer who brings on a gruff bodyguard (Kevin Costner) and falls in love – sits as the queen of soundtracks, going platinum 18 times. Other jams from the 1990s: George Strait’s “Pure Country” soundtrack, as well as albums for “The Lion King,” “Forrest Gump,” “Space Jam,” “City of Angels” and “Titanic” (carried almost exclusively by Celine Dion’s ubiquitous “My Heart Will Go On”). Rounding out the decade is 1995’s “Waiting to Exhale,” also populated by Whitney Houston songs.

All that’s left on our journey through the top 20 selling movie soundtracks? 2000’s unexpected romp through rural 1937 Mississippi, with its bluegrass and Great Depression themes in the Coen Brothers’ “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.