A few of my favorite movie songs

A lot of great songs come out of movies, and a lot of others get used in movies. Johnny Cash's fab "The Man Comes Around" has been in more movies than some movie stars.

You Tube's made reliving the musical moments from old films possible since soundtracks are sometimes hard to come by. Below are a few of my melodic favorites.

Tomorrow, tomorrow
"Tomorrow is the Song I Sing" from Richard Gillis is one of several tunes that punctuate the offbeat Sam Peckinpa Western The Ballad of Cable Hogue. It's catchy an infinitely hummable. It, happily, is available from iTunes as part of the Gillis album Blow the Gates of Heaven.



Reachin' to the sky
Folk genius Leonard Cohen's melancholy "The Stranger Song" opens another offbeat Western, Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller. It really is a perfect tone-setter for the Warren Beatty outing. It's also found on The Essential Leonard Cohen.



I can almost see that old Bandera Highway...
Barry De Vorzon's "San Antone" is actually on a couple of movie soundtracks that I know of, both of which he served on as musical director.  He's best known for Nadia's Theme.

The tune is the homecoming song that opens the revenge flick Rolling Thunder. It's more wonderfully moody and nostalgic in contrast to the opening scenes of William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration, aka Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane. Sadly it doesn't seem to be available for purchase in a pristine MP3.



Over the hills and far away
The television adaptations of Bernard Cromwell's swashbuckling Sharpe novels adopted a John Tams rendition of the 17th century British song "Over the Hills and Far Away."

 It's catchy and a wonderful mesh for the excellent films with Sean Bean. I don't think it's on iTunes, but The Music of Sharpe CD is available in the U.S. on Amazon.




I could go on, but that's a pretty good playlist for a blog post. I'll forego the theme from Kelly's Heros and The Osmonds?! performing "Chilly Winds" on the risque Rock Hudson/Angie Dickinson thriller Pretty Mains All in a Row from Gene, but I kind of like both of those too.