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Which compilation soundtracks (different songs by different artists as opposed to a music score) of movies you really enjoyed and thought were good did you think augmented the movie's experience the best, and were perhaps even integral to the movie being enjoyable?

For example, even though "Private Parts" (the Howard Stern movie) had a great soundtrack covering all the best classic rock songs, I wouldn't list that because I didn't think "Private Parts" was that good. Same with "Romeo and Juliet."

My list:

Trainspotting - Danny Boyle
I think the Trainspotting soundtrack compilation is the best one ever for a movie in terms of how much the music added to the movie. It pretty much covers all the heavyweights of the early 90's british rock and techno scene, but also includes some well chosen songs by Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. The songs helped create the bleak, but slightly romanticed mood for the movie.

Snatch - Guy Ritchie
Who couldn't like this movie of slick bad-ass criminals all clashing with each other? The use of a pretty extreme blend of music for the movie added much flavor to it.


Forrest Gump - Robert Zemeckis
I'd kill myself before watching Forrest Gump again, but as I thoroughly enjoyed it the first time I watched it, I think that enjoyment was mainly due to the fact that they used great musical selections to convey the sense of the different time periods, from Elvis in '56 to Seger in'80.

Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarentino
Guns, blood and surf music. What a wonderful combo!

Kids - Larry Clark
The movie Kids greatly benefited by the assortment of wonderful indie-rock songs put together by musician Lou Barlowe. The eerie, frightening, and introspective songs helped make Kids both disturbing and enticing at the same time.

Run Lola Run - Tom Tykwer
I don't think this movie would have been good without the frenetic, tense techno music going the whole time.

Big Lebowski - Joel Cohen
One of my favorite movies of all time for some reason, the compilation soundtrack had everything; Southern Rock, Classic Rock, opera, jazz, world music, techno that went excellently well with the colorful characters of the film.

High Fidelity - Stephen Frears
This story, written by that guy Nick Hornby, was about a modern music afficianado and his romantic trials, and the soundtrack for the film would make any nostalgic Generation Xer music geek elitist squirm in their seat.

Kill Bill 1 & 2 - Quentin Tarentino
No explanation needed, except I fucking hated that stupid Rza Rap song in the Kill Bill 1 soundtrack, the one where he's talking.

Rushmore - Wes Anderson
Some of the best bittersweet rock&roll tunes ever in a movie.

Royal Tennenbaums - Wes Anderson
An excellent blend of folk-pop, classic punk, and 2 powerfully bittersweet songs by Rolling Stones and Elliot Smith set the odd tone for this quirky comedy-drama.

Y Tu Mama Tambien - Alfonso Cuarón
This was the highest-grossing Mexican when it came out, and had an excellent assortment of Latin American & Spanish alternative and electronica music.

Judgement Night - Stephen Hopkins
OK, I haven't seen this movie since middle school(and if I saw it now I'm sure I'd fall asleep), but back then I thought it was the coolest thing ever with Emelio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., and an evil Dennis Leary trying to kill everyone. What made this movie seem so cool was the music; each song in the movie was a joint-production of a trendy early-90's hard-rock group and a hip-hop group, like Cypress Hill and Pearl Jam, Helmet & House of Pain, and Slayer & Ice-T.

Pillow Book - Peter Greenaway
This movie was fucking strange, and it's soundtrack is probably one of the most esoteric assortments of music in a movie. Bhuddists prayer songs, Afghan Wedding songs and Japanese rock music went brilliantly well with Greenaway's strange photographic technique in evoking the intended mood of this artsy-fartsy film.

American Graffiti by George Lucas. A whopping 41 songs creating an almost ever-present diegetic soundscape.

You got most of mine, but I have a few more I can think of:

Goodfellas: No one can match Scorsese when it comes to picking soundtrack music. Great use of music to create a sense of historical context and complement the mood. The use of the instrumental half of Layla during the gory Lufthansa aftermath scene...fantastic. The famous May 11th, 1980 scene I can't really say enough about, but the the way song fragments are compressed together to create a compressed, hectic feel perfectly mirrors the scene. The Who, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, and Muddy Waters were all included. And to cap the movie off, the movie is perfectly ended by the Sex Pistols' cover of Sinatra's My Way, which really says it all about gangsters and what Scorsese was trying to say about them.

Joe wrote:You got most of mine, but I have a few more I can think of:

Goodfellas: No one can match Scorsese when it comes to picking soundtrack music. Great use of music to create a sense of historical context and complement the mood. The use of the instrumental half of Layla during the gory Lufthansa aftermath scene...fantastic. The famous May 11th, 1980 scene I can't really say enough about, but the song fragments compressed together to create a compressed, hectic feel perfectly mirrors the scene. The Who, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, and Muddy Waters were all included. And to cap the movie off, the movie is perfectly ended by the Sex Pistols' cover of Sinatra's My Way, which really says it all about gangsters and what Scorsese was trying to say about them.

Great pick. I can't believe I forgot about Goodfellas. Mean Streets, also by Scorcese had an awesome soundtrack.

Bertie Wooster wrote:Kill Bill 1 & 2 - Quentin Tarentino
No explanation needed, except I fucking hated that stupid Rza Rap song in the Kill Bill 1 soundtrack, the one where he's talking.

I've got those CDs, brilliant stuff. Though I wish they had a better selection of the in film music. Like the music that plays when Pai Mei and the Bride first fight, or when she first sees O-Ren + gang. (Not the Ironside stuff, just after it). They'd probably fit if you drop the RZA stuff.

Top Gun. The music was half of what makes this movie such a rush when you see it. Yes, it's 80's rock, but it's damn good 80's rock.

Miami Vice for the same reason. The show was basically a cop drama music video.

The excellent music choices for Starsky & Hutch was one of the main things that made the movie watchable.

Animal House rules the roost for movie compilation soundtracks.

Garden State
Harry Potter

Heavy Metal. Sammy Hagar, Devo, Blue Oyster Cult, Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, Stevie Nicks... how can you beat that?

Spiderman 2. I like both the movie and the soundtrack much better than the first.

Ocean's 12. You just can't lose with crazy 60s inspired shlock and drugged out Englishmen making music. Another bonus, no stupid dialogue clips, unlike the Ocean's 11 soundtrack. Also unlike that soundtrack, this one has a unified feel. It's very hip and groovy, appropriate, considering that which wasn't composed to sound like it was from the sixties actually was from that decade's underground scene.

I'm partial to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Sad, austere Jon Brion themes balance out the kooky stuff. Oh, and I love the theme from Amelie.

Most of the good ones have already been mentioned so let me add one. I was and still am a huge fan of the Crow Soundtrack compilation. Part of the reason I went to see the movie in the first place were the great commercials and trailers that had some of the music playing from the movie and the music was 90% of the atmosphere for the movie. I still listen to it from time to time.

I also loved just about every track on the modern Romeo and Juliet soundtrack. Nice stuff in there with a good mix of techno and alternative music.

While the trilogy itself is mostly shit, The Matrix soundtracks have some pretty good techno stuff on them, composed by several well known artists. Unfortunately a good majority of the Matrix songs are virtually cliched nowadays.

Air America and Full Metal Jacket soundtracks comes to mind.

Ocean's 12. You just can't lose with crazy 60s inspired shlock and drugged out Englishmen making music. Another bonus, no stupid dialogue clips, unlike the Ocean's 11 soundtrack. Also unlike that soundtrack, this one has a unified feel. It's very hip and groovy, appropriate, considering that which wasn't composed to sound like it was from the sixties actually was from that decade's underground scene.

Agree. I thought Ocean's 12 was a pretty crappy movie, honestly (felt like the filmmakers and actors were just playing an inside joke that everyone was in on but the audience), but the soundtrack was fantastic.

School of Rock has a fantastic sound track.

As did The Weddign Singer. Just listening even a little bit of Dead Or Alive makes me want to grow a mustache and let my hair grow.

I know that this isn't a movie, but The Sopranos series has spendid music. Artists range from Frank Sinatra to Moby. Go here to view the music that is on each episode.

Another Scorsese one: Casino

And though it was pretty chessy, I'm partial to the music from Scarface. I remember there was a radio station in Grand Theft Auto 3 that played almost all of those songs. Another soundtrack that I liked and helped set the mood was from Colors. I thought it did a good job of setting up the grimy, dark streets of LA.

I wish I could say I felt the same way about the music from Scarface, but it was really not my thing. Cheesy '80s synth-pop that's bad even by cheesy '80s pop standards, and Take it to the Limit is only good in comedic situations.

Well, the soundtracks from Saturday Night Fever (the best IMHO) and Forrest Gump comes to mind.

General Zod wrote:While the trilogy itself is mostly shit, The Matrix soundtracks have some pretty good techno stuff on them, composed by several well known artists. Unfortunately a good majority of the Matrix songs are virtually cliched nowadays.

Yeah, the matrix soundtrack kicked ass, I was unconvinced by reloaded's selection, but the first one is great. The crow is also great (that helmet song and The Badge by Pantera get my seal of approval) and everyone should own it.

I don't believe nobody has said Ghostbusters, the soundtrack to that film is so totally and unrepentantly 80s it's great.

For my 80's cheese needs, Old School can do no wrong. Makes me want a Whitesnake jacket.

*blinks*
Harry Potter had a compilation soundtrack? I must have missed something major.
Most of the good ones have already been mentioned so let me add 'Footloose' and 'Iron Eagle'. Yes, the movie is so stupid it hurts but I really like the soundtrack.
Also not a movie but the 'Fame' TV series had some great music.

Actually, there was a movie called Fame made in 1980.

And if you're refering to the 1982-1987 TV series, then the above film is what it was based on.