The 10 Best Movie Soundtracks Of The 1960s
The 10 Best Movie Soundtracks Of The 1960s
From apes to an escape, from the Old West to outer space, the tumultuous decade of the 1960s provided many films with exceptional soundtracks.
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The 1960s continues to capture the popular consciousness with films like Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the recently rebooted The Wonder Years. The soundtrack of the decade, however, easily captured the political unrest, cultural revolution, and changing dynamics of the nation. With the meteoric rise of rock and roll to the Sexual Revolution, the 1960s were a decade in flux and change, showcasing in its music.
From The Beatles to film soundtracks such as Easy Rider, this cultural shift was shown in the music of the era. The creativity shown in the film soundtracks of the 1960s trickles into modern movie soundtracks, making the decade one of the most influential on Hollywood as a whole.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
When a film’s music is nominated for more Grammy Awards (in this case, six) than the movie itself landed Academy Award nominations (five), it’s impossible to ignore. With Audrey Hepburn as the star of the film adapted from a Truman Capote work, Breakfast at Tiffany’s needed music talent of equal renown.
Enter composer Henry Mancini and lyricist Johnny Mercer, both of whom won Grammys for a score that accentuated the playful and idiosyncratic nature of Hepburn’s Holly Golightly. Mancini is regarded as one of the greatest film composers to ever live, and this particular body of work certainly demonstrates why — as well as why it deserves to be ranked as one of the greatest soundtracks of the decade.
The Great Escape (1963)
Prisoners of war escaping from a Nazi prison camp, Steve McQueen jumping fences on a motorcycle, and a sweeping cinematic score by composer Elmer Bernstein; The Great Escape is one of the finest films of the 1960s for several reasons, including the nuanced approach Bernstein took to the music.
At turns patriotic and bombastic — which led to its use in the years since at political rallies and sporting events — the main theme spins off into individual pieces arranged for each character. It all of it ties ingeniously back to the overarching composition. Bernstein’s royalties from the sales of the soundtrack provided for him the rest of his life. It continues to sell well even into the 21st century.
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Few music acts were more prolific on the big screen during the 1960s than The Beatles, and for fans of the Fab Four, it’s difficult determining which of those soundtracks deserves to be ranked among the decade’s best. A Hard Day’s Night, however, captures the quartet at its most promising: young, vibrant, and at the height of Beatlemania.
“She Loves You,” “And I Love Her,” “All My Loving,” the title track: While The Beatles would go on to be groundbreaking and innovative pop music pioneers of the late 1960s, these are some of the songs that made them icons, and it’s little wonder then that the soundtrack to A Hard Day’s Night ranks as one of the decade’s best.
Mary Poppins (1964)
Of all the musicals produced by Hollywood, few hold more of a special place in the hearts of adults and children alike than Mary Poppins. Not only was it the highest-grossing film of 1964, but it was also nominated for 13 Oscars and won five, two of them related to the soundtrack: Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song for “Chim Chim Cher-ee.”
Yet that particular number, featuring vocals by stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, wasn’t even the most popular. That unofficial title lies with either the Andrews solo offering “A Spoonful of Sugar” or the whimsical “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” a tongue-twister revered by kids for more than a half-century now.
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
They may not realize it when they hear it, but the main theme of Sergio Leone’s Clint Eastwood-driven Western is a definitive pop-culture motif. The two-note melody is synonymous with a steely-eyed staredown that precedes a gunfight, and while it’s the most identifiable piece of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly soundtrack, it’s part of a sumptuous tapestry woven by composer Ennio Morricone.
At times as desolate as the landscape of the film, at turns poetic and mournful, it’s a work of art all on its own. It comes as little surprise that it stayed on the Billboard charts for more than a year. The soundtrack rises as high as No. 4 on the list of best-selling pop albums.
Planet of the Apes (1968)
When a film is a groundbreaking spectacle of sci-fi visuals and storytelling, the soundtrack is often considered an afterthought. But for Planet of the Apes, some of that success can be attributed to the score by composer Jerry Goldsmith, who would enjoy a long career putting together music for many science-fiction blockbusters, including five movies in the Star Trek franchise.
For a dystopian world ruled by apes (and later revealed to be a future version of Earth), Goldsmith experimented with unusual percussive sounds and a 12-tone technique that gave the music an eerie and ominous tone perfect for the accompanying visuals. As a singular body of work, it rivals many contemporary classical albums. When combined with the film, it’s a game-changer.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
When groundbreaking director Stanley Kubrick put his sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey together, he used classical pieces as placeholders in anticipation of an original score by Alex North. True to his idiosyncratic form, however, Kubrick jettisoned North’s work and made his placeholders permanent fixtures in the final cut of the film.
The result is a landmark soundtrack that gets credit for making classical music “cool” again, so much so that Richard Strauss’ tone poem “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” became part of mainstream popular culture. It was used by everyone from Elvis to the guys in Phish to wrestler Ric Flair as ways to set moods or stir up fanfare.
The Graduate (1968)
Casual film fans automatically associate the Simon & Garfunkel classic “Mrs. Robinson” with this Mike Nichols-directed gem. “Mrs. Robinson” echoes the story of the seductive older woman with whom Dustin Hoffman’s title character carries on an affair. The song, however, was only partially finished in time for the film, appearing on the soundtrack as both an instrumental and a clipped fade, receiving full treatment for the duo’s later album Bookends.
The pair do contribute four other songs for the record, however, including “The Sound of Silence,” used prodigiously throughout the movie. Along with instrumental contributions by Dave Grusin, the soundtrack to The Graduate is a case study in a carefully crafted soundtrack augmenting a film’s narrative.
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
In 1969’s Midnight Cowboy, Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight play a couple of hustlers on the mean streets of New York City. Ostensibly, it’s a gritty buddy drama with a Western ethos, but the original motion picture soundtrack — anchored by John Barry’s tender instrumental score, the pulsating jazz-funk of Leslie Miller, and the Age of Aquarius musical posturing by The Groop — casts a rich backdrop against the film’s darkness.
The film itself made iconic characters out of Voight’s Joe Buck and Hoffman’s Ratso Rizzo. With such talent on the screen, the music needed to be just as powerful. Add in Harry Nilsson’s Grammy-winning performance of “Everybody’s Talkin'” and the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy stands as one of the decade’s richest cinematic soundscape offerings.
Easy Rider (1969)
Up until the 1960s, many filmmakers treated the soundtrack as background music to build moods or underscore key plot elements. Director Dennis Hopper, however — who also starred in the film — intended for the soundtrack to Easy Rider to serve as a statement, and as such it includes some of the most recognizable songs of the 1960s.
The eclectic soundtrack includes Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher” and “Born to Be Wild”, “The Weight,” by The Band. Jimi Hendrix’s “If 6 Was 9”, Roger McGuinn (of The Byrds) covering Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” and contributing “Ballad of Easy Rider”. Even film fans who didn’t “get” Easy Rider sure snapped up the soundtrack, which cracked the Top 10 of the Billboard albums chart.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-movie-soundtracks-1960s/
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