Well, this post was meant for last week’s Music Video Friday but then Leonard Cohen passed away & I decided to post some of his fantastic songs instead. So, it’s a week late but here are some songs that I can’t seem to get out of my head. Have a great weekend, everyone! 🙂
AC/DC – Highway To Hell
Green Day – American Idiot
R.E.M. – It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising
Tears For Fears – Mad World
Buzzcocks – Oh Shit!
A movie’s score and/or soundtrack of songs is extremely important to me as I think the right music can make a good movie into a great one or even a bad movie into a cult classic. When you think of the biggest Oscar films, almost all of them had award winning scores from highly respected composers. When I think of my own personal all-time favorite movies, the majority have brilliant scores that helped to suck me into that magical movie world that only the very best composers can help create. Can you imagine The Good, The Bad And The Ugly without Ennio Morricone’s amazing score??
I’m very picky when it comes to the horror genre & have loved very few horror films since the 70s & 80s. I do find it interesting that most of my all-time favorite old horrors are on this list of scores, though. It goes to show that they used to put so much more effort into these films than they do now, even down to the scores (but I do have a couple fairly current films on the list too). I think the score is even more important in horrors as the mood & atmosphere are fundamental to this genre. I don’t understand why so many modern horrors put so little effort into using a score effectively to create the right mood. Oh well – this genre is showing more promise again so maybe we’ll see a return to great horror scores.
More than anything, I love a good musical score that has been composed for a film but do also appreciate when a soundtrack of great songs, whether existing or new, are put together for a movie’s soundtrack. So my top ten will consist of scores but there are a few horror soundtracks that I really love so I didn’t want to exclude them.
Here are a few Horror Movie Soundtracks That I Love:
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Composer: AC/DC
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Composer: Danny Elfman
The Lost Boys (1987)
Composer: Thomas Newman Score/Various Artists Soundtrack:
Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Composer: Tyler Bates Score/Various Artists Soundtrack
And now onto My Top Ten Horror Movie Scores (and their composers):
Honorable Mentions:
– The Fog (1980)
Composer: John Carpenter
– Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Composer: Krzysztof Komeda
– The Shining (1980)
Composer: Wendy Carlos/Rachel Elkind
– The Omen (1976)
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Top Ten:
10. TIE: 28 Days Later… (2002)
Composer: John Murphy
AND
It Follows (2014)
Composer: Disasterpeace
9. Psycho (1960)
Composer: Bernard Herrmann
8. Jaws (1975)
Composer: John Williams
7. The Thing (1982)
Composer: Ennio Morricone/John Carpenter/Alan Howarth
6. Suspiria (1977) (but also want to mention Deep Red here, which is great too)
Composer: Dario Argento/Goblin
5. Mandy (2018)
Composer: Jóhann Jóhannsson
4. A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Composer: Charles Bernstein
3. The Exorcist (1973)
Composer: Mike Oldfield
2. Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
Composer: Goblin/Dario Argento/De Wolfe Music Library
1. Halloween (1978)
Composer: John Carpenter
I’ve been meaning to do this list for a while but there are just SO many songs with colors in the title. I decided to not go overboard like when I did My Top Ten Devil & Hell Songs and spent ages making sure I hadn’t missed any favorites with “Devil” or “Hell” in the title. There are too many color songs (or colour in the UK – I wish autocorrect would stop correcting me) so I’ve not spent ages doing an exhaustive list and am sure I’ve missed a favorite that’ll have me kicking myself.
However, there are too many to narrow it down to only ten so I’ll count down from 20 to my favorite. And, okay – I have honorable mentions too. Sorry! 😉 But I’ve still left out loads of songs. Would love to hear what other Color Songs are the favorites of fellow bloggers!
Here are My Top Ten Songs With Colors In The Title (based, of course, on how much I like the song):
My Top 20:
20. Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones
19. Red Alert by Basement Jaxx
18. Rainbow Connection by Kermit
17. Black History Month by Death From Above 1979
16. Little Black Submarines by The Black Keys
15. White Unicorn by Wolfmother
14. Blackbird by The Beatles
13. Behind Blue Eyes by The Who
12. Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix
11. White Room by Cream
My Top Ten:
10. Back In Black by AC/DC
9. Crimson And Clover by Tommy James & The Shondells
8. Pretty In Pink by The Psychedelic Furs
7. Mr Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra
6. Blue Monday by New Order
4. Rainbow In The Dark by Dio
3. Red Rain by Peter Gabriel
2. Golden Years by David Bowie
1. Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath
By the way – I already had the argument with the hubby on if “Rainbow” could be included or not. As always, I won. It’s my blog, after all. 😉 I’ll now do my best to not list 1,000 honorable mentions…
Honorable Mentions:
– Green Onions by Booker T. & The M.G.’s
– White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster & Melle Mel
– Fool’s Gold by The Stone Roses
– Fade To Grey by Visage
– Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan
– White Wedding by Billy Idol
– Black by Pearl Jam
– Golden Brown by The Stranglers
– Green Hell by Misfits
– Gold Lion by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
– Violet by Hole
– White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
– Colours by Donovan (also, Turquoise & Mellow Yellow…)
Oh, sweet Satan – you’ve been the inspiration for so many heavy metal bands!
Today I have not just one, not 666, but TWO Top Ten lists! One for each Devil horn!
\m/(>_<)\m/
When I started making this list, I only had Satan in mind. Then I thought “I think songs with the word Hell in the title can be included as well”. Turns out there are way too many to narrow it down to ten that way so I have one list of songs with “Devil” in the title and one for those with “Hell” in the title. (Although my number one doesn’t actually have “Devil” in the title but I do like to play by my own rules). 😉
As always, these are ranked according to how much I like the song.
Let’s start with My Top Ten Devil Songs:
10. Billy Talent – Devil In A Midnight Mass
9. Devil’s Spoke by Laura Marling
8. Devils Haircut by Beck
7. Devil Inside by INXS
6. Christmas With The Devil by Spinal Tap
5. The Devil Went Down To Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band
4. Runnin’ With The Devil by Van Halen
3. Shout At The Devil by Mötley Crüe
2. Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones
1. The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden
Honorable Devil Mentions:
– Devil’s Child by Judas Priest
– (You’re The) Devil In Disguise by Elvis Presley
– Devil Gate Drive by Suzi Quatro
– Devil With A Blue Dress On by Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels
– Devil Woman by Cliff Richard
– Goddamn Devil by Ugly Kid Joe (Ha! Remember them? I’d forgotten about this song…)
– Grab The Devil By The Horns & Fuck Him Up The Ass by Sum 41 (it’s a title that I had to include)
Now it’s time to go to HELL… Here are My Top Ten Hell Songs:
10. TIE: Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers & Hell by Foo Fighters
9. Catch Hell Blues by The White Stripes
8. Bat Out Of Hell by Meat Loaf
7. Run Like Hell by Pink Floyd
6. Green Hell by Misfits
5. Cowboys From Hell by Pantera
4. Straight To Hell by The Clash
3. Hell Bent For Leather by Judas Priest
2. Heaven And Hell by Black Sabbath
1. Highway To Hell by AC/DC (and Hells Bells, too!)
Honorable Hell Mentions:
– Go To Hell by Megadeth
– Hell Hole by Spinal Tap
– The Hell Song & Welcome To Hell by Sum 41 (what’s with them and Hell & Devil songs??)
Also, an honorable mention in general to Tenacious D’s Tribute since it’s about the Devil. Plus, Dave Grohl is the coolest Satan ever.
Here’s a quick thanks to Hard Ticket To Home Video’s Brian for recommending Black Sabbath’s Heaven And Hell back when I did a list of My Top Ten Black Sabbath Songs. Thanks, dude – I love it! And I especially love the other one (Children Of The Grave).
And there’s one on this list that I only heard for the first time yesterday but I thought it was pretty damn good considering it’s folk! It went straight into my top ten so thanks to my husband for suggesting I listen to Devil’s Spoke by Laura Marling. Here’s the video:
Cinema Parrot Disco 