1980s Movie Soundtracks - What A Feeling!

Monday is about movies. (Or TV). Today it's about movie soundtracks from a specific time and place.

I find, most often, when I talk about movie soundtracks, the conversation turns to the 1980s. That’s if the conversation actually continues. In most cases, people run for the hills. My son has started mocking me with an eerie realism.

“ Listen to the score of this film”, he’ll say, as me. Being sure to nearly trip over his own words. “My favourite bit of the film is when The Penis Band arrives with this expertly timed drum fill and a few glorious notes of guitar…”

Um, thanks Oscar…

I can’t help who I have become. And by writing a newsletter three times a week and other blog posts around that, I’m barely hiding it. And sometimes celebrating it.

Before I got (way too) serious about listening to and collecting film scores, I was a collector of soundtrack compilations. Probably because it was some of the first music to make a major impact, and definitely because it was very cheap to access it on second-hand vinyl. Also those films. So many good memories of watching films on video, of being dropped off in the holidays to see a film, be it Karate Kid III or Lethal Weapon or Iron Eagle or Labyrinth…

Those 1980s movie soundtracks still clog my record collection. I love them. Easy memories. And some great, deep cuts.

So, here’s a very simple question for you – what is the best 1980s film soundtrack? What is your favourite?  I ask this because, as I’ve told you too many times, I am a collector of film soundtracks. particularly those from the 1980s. Obscure, obvious and all points between. You want it (or most likely you do not in fact want it) and I’ve got it!

Need to hear Sammy Hagar singing The Winner Takes It All from Over The Top? Well, I can do that. I have that record.

I knew I suffered from a collecting compulsion. I knew it was largely music-based. I knew that I was a fiend for 1980s music – particularly compilations and soundtrack albums – and it’s obvious that part of the reason I have so many 1980s soundtrack LPs is because these vinyl copies would otherwise be clogging up landfill. They’re easy to find and cheap to buy because they were clearly – at the time – bought on a whim and very quickly discarded.

Music stores and other second-hand traders, Salvation Army stores, TradeMe, garage sales – I’ve been to all and picked up a soundtrack from the 1980s (or two, or three…)

I have classical and jazz scores that evoke other eras but were made to suit a film that was released in the 1980s because that is how a particular writer/director works (for example Woody Allen’s Hannah And Her Sisters).

I’ve got scores by Randy Newman and Ry Cooder because I collect everything by Randy Newman and Ry Cooder. And I have collections of pop and rock songs – compilations that tell part of the story, or try to.

But your favourite 1980s film soundtrack means you have to name a film that was made in the 1980s (it can’t be a 1980s-referencing film/soundtrack like The Wedding Singer or Grosse Point Blank or Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion - great soundtracks, though they are). It also cannot be a film made in the 1980s that features a soundtrack evoking another era altogether (like The Blues Brothers or Stand By Me or The Big Chill or Dirty Dancing, all soundtrack-favourites too. At least at one point or another).

So – will you pick a score – like one of the great Giorgio Moroder pieces or will you go with a Footloose or Flashdance (more Moroder) or something more obscure?

I own copies of every soundtrack I’ve mentioned here – and hundreds more. Some to films I will probably never see. Some to films that I love. And some to films that I would probably not like at all. But you find interesting things on soundtracks – a Madonna vehicle that also houses a Scritti Politti track for example.

I got hooked on the soundtrack to The King Of Comedy – a really decent compilation of strong songs – and it has this great tune by Robbie Robertson. Which really feels like the long, lost reunion of The Band. The closest we would ever get to a meaningful and proper reunion of the feel and sound of that legandary group.

I’m also digging Ry Cooder’s score to Johnny Handsome (a film I watched years ago because of the score). Cooder might be the reason I got obsessed with movie scores, actually.

I’ve never really questioned my attachment to collecting this music, these soundtracks. I figure, most obviously, it’s to do with the era I grew up in – the music and films I was absorbing. And because I love a bargain. Somewhere between those two ideas – and the fact that it’s a good way to collect some one-hit-wonders, some kitsch sensations and some stone-cold classics – I arrive at the fact that I’ve become obsessed with collecting 1980s soundtracks.

But I don’t know that I can pick a single favourite. I got sick of some of the big ones - Top Gun, Footloose etc, but then, just recently, I realised I love the soundtrack to Arthur. So who knows?!

I do know that the Ry Cooder and Mark Knopfler soundtracks from the 1980s taught me to appreciate score. The Prince albums that worked as bonus soundtracks but existed as wonderful albums in their own right (Purple Rain, Parade, Batman) helped me to love the idea of soundtracks too. And things like Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Do The Right Thing, Flashdance, The Lost Boys, Repo Man and The Breakfast Club sold me on classic complilations, huge anthems, and the collected vibe of a film.

So, what about you? Can you name a classic 1980s soundtrack that takes you right back to where you were when you first saw the film or experienced the music?