Friday, August 28, 2009

Music: Best Movie Soundtrack . . .

The hills are alive
With the sound of music,
With songs they have sung,
For a thousand years.
The hills fill my heart,
With the sound of music.
My heart wants to sing every song it hears.
My heart wants to beat like the wings
Of the birds that rise from the lake
To the trees.
My heart wants to sigh
Like a chime that flies
From a church on a breeze,
To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls
Over stones on its way
To sing through the night,
Like a lark who is learning to pray.
~ Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein

Remember my video from my Fulfilling Childhood Dreams post . . .



Julie Andrews, who plays a whirlwind soon to be nun named Maria, comes running up this beautiful hill in Salzburg Austria, turning with her arms open and singing as the camera pans across the beautiful backdrop of Austria. Heck, this scene and this song alone affected me so much that I made two trips to Salzburg just to see it and even took the Sound of Music Tour! Very few movies and their music soundtracks can completely captivate people in this way. This is why I consider it to be "The Best" Movie Soundtrack of all time!

Second best . . .

Well now, I get low and I get high,
and if I can't get either, I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes.
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.
You know it's all right. It's OK.
I'll live to see another day.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And ev'rybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
~ Bee Gees

A guy from Brooklyn, New York strutting (on beat with the music) down a street and holding a can of paint. The story is of a young guy working a dead end job and blowing his money living weekend to weekend at a night club with no real future ahead of him. He discovers that he wants more in life and uses his love and talent for dancing to shoot for the stars and try to make something of his life. Throw some great dancing, a hot new rising star and you have the second best Movie Soundtrack, "Saturday Night Fever" by the super talented Australian group known as the Bee Gees. This music soundtrack defined an entire generation and music genre (Disco)! And it's great to dance to as well!

Check out all the stars present to watch this very memorable Bee Gees "Staying Alive" concert in 1996...



There are many fabulous Movie Soundtracks out there and if you are interested in knowing if your favorite made the top 100 list, check this out: 100 Best Movie Soundtracks . And although it didn't make my top two choices for Best Movie Soundtrack, it was great to see the Cool One's Purple Rain on there. :)

Have a Music filled fun weekend!

14 comments:

  1. She's BAAAACK! Agree with you about Stayin' Alive. The music captured the beat of that whole generation -- I loved disco! (And I proudly say that too) Stayin' alive, menehune

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  2. Great post Kathy! I used to own both of these soundtracks (on vinyl)and played them so often, esp. Sound of Music. I never get tired of hearing those songs.

    Love looking at the Top 100 list (and Purple Rain definitely deserves its spot in the Top 10). Glad to see Local Hero made it at #81. There are so many on there that I love: all the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals, The Wizard of Oz, and Woodstock (40 years ago this month!). Makes me want to go buy some soundtracks on CD because there are several of these I haven't heard in a while.

    Thanks for the great memories and have a good weekend!

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  3. Hi Menehune, yes I am... :) I love Disco too and I thought the Disco period was great fun. And it's cool to see today's artists remaking some of the old school songs and making them current. Even more fun....

    Hi Annie, I love listening to these two sound track and will always manage to watch the SOM at least once a year. Yes, Purple Rain in the top 10 was sweet! That was cool to see Local Hero at # 81. I loved that one song Going Home a lot and it really went so well with the movie. I was actually surprised Kinky Boots didn't make the top 100. It deserves to be. I also loved the Wizard of Oz too. One of my all time favorite classics is the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland. Isn't there a movie coming out about Woodstock? I actually sort of like the sound track of the Graduate too with Simon and Garfunkel, kind of from that Woodstock era.

    It's interesting how songs can reflect certain generations or the times of that era.

    Thanks Menehune & Annie for your comments. Have a great weekend!

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  4. I forgot about Kinky Boots - another great soundtrack! I love The Graduate soundtrack too. And yes, there's a movie called "Taking Woodstock" that opens today. It's getting great reviews and I can't wait to see it.

    There was a wonderful documentary called "Woodstock Now and Then" on the History channel recently. It's not on netflix yet but when it is, I highly recommend it. Really interesting to see recent interviews with many of the performers and organizers, plus lots of great old footage. Janis Joplin was amazing!

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  5. Hi Annie, that's cool that there are great reviews for that movie. Janis was pretty hardcore rock and very talented. I think it was at Woodstock that Jimmy Hendrix did that infamous rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

    I remember when they tried to reinact Woodstock several years ago and although they had the mud sliders and some cool artists I think it just didn't work as well as the original Woodstock, because it was just a different time and era.

    I hope that show about the history of Woodstock comes out on Netflix, it would be great to watch it, especially the interviews. Or maybe I'll check to see if my History Channel here is running it or will run it sometime.

    Thanks Annie!

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  6. Yes, Hendrix did that amazing Star Spangled Banner there! That was in the documentary and I didn't know that he was the very last performer at Woodstock and by the time he played that, only about 40,000 people were still there (the rest of the half million people had gone home already)!

    Have you ever seen the original Woodstock movie (the one that came out in 1970)? It's really good if you haven't. Lots of concert footage but also lots of very entertaining crowd parts too. I love hippies!

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  7. Me again....just wanted to tell you that both VH1 Classic and the History Channel have been showing that documentary. Hope you can catch it but if not, I'm sure netflix will have it at some point.

    Have a great weekend!

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  8. Hi Annie, I bet all the people that left early was probably upset with themselves for having missed that very memorable performance by Hendrix...I'm not sure if I have watched the original movie. I know that I've seen some interviews and some video clips of the crowd like the mud dancers and other things.

    I remember hearing that as large as that crowd was, people were surprised that there were no disturbances and that everything was pretty peaceful. I would love to watch that documentary. Thanks for the great tip! I'll check out my VH1 stations here to see if I can catch it or at least tape it so I can watch it.

    Have you ever watched the movie "Flashback" with Kiefer Sutherland. I really like that movie a lot and I think you would like it too if you haven't already seen it.

    Thanks for the great tip on the documentary Annie, I'll make sure to catch it.

    Have a great weekend! TGIF...

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  9. Kathy,

    What a fantastic post! I also love the Sound of Music, how lucky you got to do the tour..twice!

    I enjoyed looking at top 100 list, I am glad Grease is there, and the Wizard of Oz, and I thrilled to see Oh Brother, how art thou? on there, I love the movie and the music in there.

    Thanks for sharing this.

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  10. Hi Candi, another SOM fan! Yay! Sadly, I was only able to do the tour once because the first time I was there, I was on a group tour and we breezed through Salzburg in the blink of an eye. (which is big reason that I'm glad to be a Slow Traveler now). I would do that tour over and over again if I ever get back to Salzburg. So much fun.

    I'm glad you said Grease. I am a fan of that soundtrack too. And Oh Brother is another cool soundtrack and movie too!

    Thanks for your comments Candi. Have a great weekend! Safe travels back to the mainland too.

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  11. You know I am a huge Sound of Music fan :) Not a disco fan though. Think it started when our Stairway to Heaven prom theme was changed by the prom committee to some disco song (don't even remember the song now)!

    Great list! I thought of two though that I was surprised were not on the list -
    A Star is Born (the Barbra Streisand version) and The King and I (original version).

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  12. Hi Kathy, I haven't seen Flashback - I will check it out on Netflix. Thanks for the recommendation!

    It's cool how many SOM fans we have in our blogging group.

    Hope you had a great weekend!

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  13. Hi Girasoli, thanks for your comments. I found it interesting that the Star is Born wasn't on there too. I thought the soundtrack was wonderful. I can't remember how the soundtrack of the King & I was? I'll have to check it out on i-Tunes. I was definitely surprised that some great soundtracks weren't on that list. Music can be so subjective sometimes. On the SOM tour the guide told us that they can average up to 4 or more bus loads a day on their tour. When I took it there was not one seat that was free.

    Hi Annie, I think you will like that movie. I think it's cool too how many of us are SOM fans! I had a great weeekend...a little hot though. :) Hope you had a great weekend too. Have a great day today. Can't wait for this coming long holiday weekend!

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  14. Just catching up - add me to the list of SOM fans, bigtime!!! Also a fan of SNF (and the BeeGees in general). And of course, Mamma Mia! although not particularly into ABBA themselves. So many great musicals...thanks for a great post, Kathy!

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It's me Trekcapri (aka Kathy). Thanks so much for visiting and leaving a comment.