Your favorite lesser known movie soundtracks?

[D_W]

My daughter is in musicals now and bold like dad never would've been, at least not at stage stuff. I remember playing in a cover band and being kind of blank on stage - it was OK, but not like "I'd love to do this for a living!".

At any rate, she's come across orchestras playing music from some of my favorite movies (a few dollars more, the good, the bad and the ugly, ...). Music by Ennio Morricone.



Love the movies -they don't try to be overly smart or statusy, and the characters don't look like they took a shower 5 minutes ago with perfect teeth when they've supposedly been on a week long ride (Van Cleef's missing middle finger tip is just a treat on close ups, same with yellow teeth and bald head when his hat comes off).

Back to the point - can you think of soundtracks like this that nobody really knows what it is (general public, at least), and maybe done on a shoestring as these movies were, but you hear bits and pieces of the music all over the place on TV in commercials, etc.

Wife just hates these movies, by the way.

Daughter is particularly taken by this version and desperately wants to be the girl with the brows singing the soaring parts:

 

[Daniel2]

After The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, A Fistfull Of Dollars, and a
For A Few Dollars More, there are, IMO, no movie soundtracks even
worthy of further consideration.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had the original, which was slightly different to (better than) the one used.

Nothing compares to anything by John Barry, not even Morricone.

 

[Ollie78]

I love the classic spagetti western soundtracks too.
Bladerunner is awesome, Akira, Millers crossing is great, in fact a lot of Carter Burwell sound tracks on Coen brothers movies and others are good.
Hans Zimmer went absolutely mental on the new Dune movie.

No doubt more will come to mind...

Ollie

 

[bushwhaker]

 

[Linus]

After The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, A Fistfull Of Dollars, and a
For A Few Dollars More, there are, IMO, no movie soundtracks even
worthy of further consideration.

.....and the soundtrack to Dances with wolves is naff?

 

[Linus]

Not to mention Samuel barber.....

 

[Yojevol]

Going Home from Local Hero

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Not from a movie, but inspired by the Russian sci fi movie Solaris. An amalgamation of two pieces, I believe J.S.B. would approve. A stunning piece of music, I have it marked for my funeral.

 

[Auldfart2010]

 

[TheUnicorn]

Amelie has great music, almost artificially nostalgic french, but still great

Also akira, as someone mentioned above, and ghost in the shell, I always like vocals in a foreign language, you just get the voice as an instrument with no distraction of meaning

 

[stuart little]

What about 'The Alamo'? I have it on 'Vinyl' (John Wayne & co. film)

 

[Yojevol]

Theme from Schindlers List

 

[Sideways]

I'm smiling.
From the spaghetti western on down, so many of the above are anything but "lesser known" .
It's a list of classics !

On a more modern tangent, Riot Games recently created an 8 part anime series called Arcane. It's soundtrack is based on a collection of modern tracks from the likes of Imagine Dragons, Bea Miller, Ramsey and Sting and uses them really well.

 

[Richard_C]

If you want obscure, "Cal" - 1984, bleak NI during the troubles, Helen Mirren stars, Mark Knopfler soundtrack.

(assuming Local Hero is too well known to qualify - another great soundtrack much of it Knopfler)

Less obscure as a film, 1966 version of "Alfie" with Michael Caine. The Bacharach/David title track is pretty well known as a Cilla Black single, but the film's soundtrack is totally different and brilliant. Sonny Rollins , tenor sax giant, was touring here and agreed to write it which he did in 2 or 3 weeks. Performed by him, Ronnie Scott and others for the film and by Rollins and others for an album when he was back in the USA.

 

[D_W]

I'm smiling.
From the spaghetti western on down, so many of the above are anything but "lesser known" .
It's a list of classics !

On a more modern tangent, Riot Games recently created an 8 part anime series called Arcane. It's soundtrack is based on a collection of modern tracks from the likes of Imagine Dragons, Bea Miller, Ramsey and Sting and uses them really well.

They're not lesser known as in obscure and never appreciated as much as less known now. I couldn't tell you who does movie soundtracks now because the movies are almost unwatchable and everything is kind of forumlaic, wokey and maybe data driven?

The last big time movie soundtrack that I can think of is o brother where art thou. Everyone recognizes the songs now, but nobody knows who played them - maybe 1 in 50 people that you meet would identify the music as coming from AKUS, and most people I've mentioned the actual band to think that George Clooney was the singer and it was "studio magic" that made him sound good.

My ringtone is the chimes from a few dollars more. Never hear it in a noisy shop but it is the anti-typical ringtone. I can hear it, the phone rings, it's unobtrusive and nobody else ever has it.

"when the chimes end, pick up your gun....try and shoot me colonel...just try" (not on my ringtone, of course, just the chimes)

 

[D_W]

Side thought - the budget for the entire movie was $600k. I didn't check the inflation for that, but it's probably about 10 to 1 ($6MM in current money). Scenes, staging, writing, casting, music.....I wouldn't be surprised if the rights to music from some of the larger composers wasn't more than that inflated figure.

 

[Jacob]

.. maybe 1 in 50 people that you meet would identify the music as coming from AKUS, ...

...and they'd be wrong!

Only one came from AKUS and two with AK plus Gillian Welsh and Emmylou Harris. Most of the songs, and Ralph Stanley and the Stanley Brothers are well known, but a few less so.

Modern film & music has to be Paris Texas with Ry Cooder and HD Stanton - brilliant!



Or my favourite oldie would be Rififi

 

[Jacob]

Forgot to say - "O Brother Where Art Thou" plot is a rip off of "Down By Law" (another brilliant film!) which only has one song in it, by the lovely Irma Thomas



Tom Waits is the lead but he doesn't sing, which is good he can be very boring!

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Best musical - Blues Brothers original (not the sequel/remake).