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Across 110th Street
Bobby Womack co-wrote the title song for Across 110th Street with J. J. Johnson and sang it. He gives the groove an easy stride while singing about the hard decisions of getting by. The worn edges of his voice make those choices feel lived in, even if you’ve never seen the neighborhood the film follows.
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Rainbow Connection
Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher wrote this for Kermit in The Muppet Movie. The little banjo figure and Jim Henson’s patient delivery leave room for the question in the melody. It sounds like someone thinking seriously about what they still want to believe.
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Lose Yourself
Eminem wrote the words to this 8 Mile song and composed its music with Jeff Bass and Luis Resto. The guitar figure can keep circling for as long as he needs it to, and his sentences keep getting more urgent over it. That mix of repetition and pressure makes the chorus feel like a decision he has finally run out of time to postpone.
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Le Festin
Michael Giacchino brought Camille in to sing this French song for Ratatouille. Listen to the way her voice hangs back while the little band keeps swaying, then lets the higher notes open up. The arrangement makes contentment sound like something the singer has arrived at after a long wait.
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Moon River
In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey Hepburn sings Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s song with very little force. The melody has room to travel because she keeps it at the scale of a private thought. If you mostly know it from bigger vocal recordings, listen to what this one leaves hanging at the ends of lines.
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That Thing You Do! (1996)
First released
Adam Schlesinger wrote the title song for Tom Hanks’s That Thing You Do! The soundtrack’s fast version puts the snare and bright guitars to work before the first line arrives. The harmonies make a simple complaint about somebody’s behavior easy to sing back after one chorus.
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Don't You (Forget About Me)
Simple Minds recorded the song for The Breakfast Club. Jim Kerr starts by calling out over a huge drum sound, but it’s the question in his delivery that gives the chorus its pull. The wordless ending makes it sound as if he’ll keep the conversation going as long as the band is still playing.
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The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) (2010)
First released
Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett wrote this for Crazy Heart. There is a steady guitar underneath, but it’s the way Bingham’s rough voice keeps letting words slip into the next line that makes you lean in. He sounds as though he’s giving advice he hasn’t learned to take himself.
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Theme From Shaft
Hayes wrote the theme for Shaft and made this fuller recording for the soundtrack album. The hi-hat and wah-wah guitar are already telling you how to walk before he starts describing the man. When the backing singers cut across him, the theme turns into a little argument about its own hero.
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Dos Oruguitas
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote this Spanish-language song for Encanto. Yatra keeps his voice close to the guitar, even as the melody stretches into its bigger lines. The two caterpillars in the song have to let go before they know what they will become, a story the performance carries on its own.
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Streets of Philadelphia
Jonathan Demme asked Springsteen for a song for Philadelphia. A restrained drum-machine pulse and a thin shimmer of keys leave him room to sing in a worn, almost conversational voice. There’s a whole walk through the city in the gap between that steady beat and the unease of the person keeping pace with it.
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Take My Breath Away (Love Theme from Top Gun)
Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock made this for Top Gun. The wavery low synth gives Terri Nunn something steady to sing against while she draws out the long notes. Play it without the scene and you can still hear the tension between a voice that wants to float and a bass line that won’t let it go.
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Satrangi Re
A. R. Rahman built this Dil Se.. song in sections. The opening has room for a voice to rise and hang there, then percussion gathers and the two singers bring different weights to the melody. It sounds like desire working through several states over the course of one long song.
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Mystery of Love (2017)
First released
Stevens wrote this for Call Me by Your Name. The picked strings keep moving underneath a vocal that barely rises above a murmur. That small disagreement between the parts is what makes it feel like a memory both warm enough to return to and hard to stay with for long.
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Uninvited
Morissette started writing it at the piano after seeing a rough cut of City of Angels. The repeating notes say very little at first, and her voice refuses to say much more. When the drums and strings swell, all that hesitation turns into a question about how much closeness the singer is willing to allow.
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Skyfall
Adele and Paul Epworth wrote the title theme for Skyfall. The piano leaves her plenty of silence at the beginning. Later the brass, strings, and voices gather around the same measured delivery, so the big chorus feels like one person resolving to hold her ground while everything else moves.
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Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head
Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s song was written for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The acoustic backing and B.J. Thomas’s easy phrasing help a lyric about getting soaked and falling short feel almost carefree. The tune’s small skips are all the encouragement the singer seems to need.
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What Was I Made For?
Billie Eilish and Finneas wrote it after seeing a rough cut of Barbie. The piano gives each line a place to begin, and the soft voice lets some lines die away without a firm answer. Listening without the film makes those little gaps feel like the real subject.
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My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme from Titanic)
James Horner and Will Jennings wrote this for Titanic. The breathy opening tune is easy to hold in your head, and Dion waits a long time before she sings at full stretch. The quieter start gives her something to grow from, so the final chorus feels earned even with the movie out of view.
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Footloose
Kenny Loggins and screenwriter Dean Pitchford wrote the title song for Footloose. The clipped guitar and jumping drum pattern put an invitation to dance into the sound before the chorus spells it out. Loggins hits the names in the chorus like he’s calling people over from the side of the room.
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The Power of Love
Huey Lewis and the News came up with the song after the Back to the Future team approached them. Those bright opening chords give the record a head start, and Lewis sings with just enough grit to keep the optimism from feeling automatic. The band sounds like it believes the chorus because it can play it that hard.
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