It feels a little weird to go with a text entry for a musical question. But to be fair, Stephen King has never shied away from incorporating popular songs into his work, often to excellent effect. Few carry as nasty or heartbreaking a punch as the appearance of “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” in the fifth Dark Tower book, Wolves Of The Calla, where it serves as a sort of anthem for Father Callahan, a refugee from the author’s much earlier ’Salem’s Lot. Damned by a failure of faith in the face of abject evil, Callahan’s slow redemption as a low-key vampire hunter is frequently underscored by John’s song of hard-won freedom, sometimes sincerely, and sometimes with a mean-spirited veneer of irony in the face of his many failures. King’s reliance on pop culture detritus sometimes overwhelms the often-unwieldy latter Dark Tower books—this is the same entry that ends with the reveal that its titular baddies are literally Doctor Doom robots carrying Harry Potter sporting equipment as weapons—but in “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” it finds a perfect spiritual sibling to Callahan’s suffering: a little mournful, full of painful moments, but ultimately, shot through with hope. [William Hughes]
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Least favorite for certain is as a backdrop for atrocities in the Gaza.
5000 Candles In The Wind.
I immediately thought The Muppets too so a different song.
Crocodile Rock is one my all time favourite Muppet moments. Along with another crocodile heavy routine.
Pablo Cruise.“Bill, this is Pablo. I won’t be in today. I’m at the bottom of the pool.”
I like it when Tiny Dancer is in everything at least 62 times a day.
What if it’s a Russian guy singing it in WKRP, but they didn’t get the rights for it in other formats so instead sometimes he says to Bailey “Hold me closer, terrible dancer”?
Jan Smithers…sighhhhhhhh.
yep.
I LOVE to hear from a WKRP fan anytime!
That’s one of my favorite episodes of the series and to this day it is me of that they had to change the music. I can’t fault the producers because who the hell would have thought about those rights is back in the late 70s.
FYI, Shout Factory went on a mission to secure music rights for that show a few years ago, and in 2014 they released a DVD set that includes that song. So if you have a DVD player (which if you remember this episode I’d say is 50/50 possible) then you can get your hands on it here. https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/wkrp-in-cincinnati-the-complete-series?product_id=3363
I was mainly referring to the syndication broadcast there. I had 100% forgot that I owned the WKRP box set already when I posted my comment. (Yes, I have a DVD player but I have to cop to the fact that I watched the episode when it originally aired and then when it was first repeated because that was a thing).Shout Factory is absolutely incredible in making sure they get all the original music rights for their releases. I’ve got so many of their sets. It amazes me when people complain about how expensive Shout Factory’s sets can be because they don’t understand the work and the costs that goes into securing those rights. Thanks for the reminder, now I know what I’m doing today.
Yes! When this song comes on the radio I have to say the title out loud in that thick Russian accent.
On the list of goofy crap I am going to do after I hit one of those massive/huge lottery pay outs is purchase the rights to every song on WKRP and reinstate them into the one, massive boxed set that everyone wants.“As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”
Phoebe’s version… “Hold me closer, Tony Danza…”
yep…that too.
A member of my family legitimately thought that was the line for YEARS. His reasoning? “Well, Elton John is gay, it could’ve been about Tony Danza!”
And, much like ALF, Elton John also constantly tries to eat the cat. Hah!
He stopped doing that in the ’80s.
Maybe you haven’t heard that ALF, like Elton John, is back—in pog form.
Lemme know when ALF comes back in PAWG form.
I’m not sure he really tried.
He was married too long not to have tried at least once.
I believe he explains it something along these lines…
What’s that from?
Dave Chappelle Show, part of the Charlie Murphy Stories bit
Either “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” in One Day at a Time (I know I’m showing my age.) Or the mangled “Benny and the Jets” from 27 Dresses.
An all time classic.And I say this in all sincerity, the One Day at a Time reboot’s failure to recreate this scene is why it ultimately failed. Well that, and hipster Schneider.
THIS IS WHY I’M HERE
I was 15 when that episode aired. “Don’t go Breaking…” was popular at least a year and one half before that episode aired. I loved One Day at a Time but remember thinking how “last year” is was to feature that song. It actually is worse than I remember, but thank you for perfectly encapsulating television of the 70s.
o gawd, the One Day at a Time cover was the first thing I thought of when I read the title of this article. It was corny as fuck.
Gotta be the opening scene of Dog Day Afternoon. What I especially love is that it subtly lets the cat out of the bag right away – this is a love story. It’s also a great establishing montage.
I was going to post that. Kudos!
Yeah, how this wasn’t mentioned in the article is beyond me.I thought I was the only one who remembered the Alf thing. In fact, when that song gets stuck in my head, it’s really just Willie Tanner singing the chorus over and over, rather than the original version.
I can do you one worse… I remember *ALFs* song from that episode.
Dog Day Afternoon should always win everything. Most enjoyable Al Pacino performance? Dog Day Afternoon. Best Sidney Lumet film? Dog Day Afternoon. Best movie about a bank robbery? Dog Day Afternoon. You’d admittedly have to fight a bit to argue Pacino is better in this than his other stuff, but you could easily make a strong case.
It’s one of my five favorite movies (I think it ties with “The French Connection” for best New York City film.) Everything about it is perfect. Pacino’s performance in the first two “Godfather” pictures is more nuanced and Michael’s slow spiritual curdling was probably much harder to pull off technically. But my God, he’s great in “Dog Day”- funny, sad, desperate, angry, etc. He just keeps rolling and rolling.
The editor simply put that song over the credits while they were cutting the footage, with the intention of replacing it later. But the director, Sidney Lumet, really liked it, and decided the audience would hear the same thing everybody else in the city was hearing at the moment the car pulls up to the bank, so he let it play on the radio. You may read that as telling us the movie is a love story, and that’s cool- that’s how movie music works best. You add your own details. But Lumet just heard a random song that worked, so he included it. (And yes- the montage is great. I live in New York City. It captures the tone of an average day beautifully. You do sweat A LOT in the summer, with all the cement and asphalt.)
That NONE of the AV Club’s finest chose this obvious example speaks volumes.
Before this day ends, I will revisit this perfect, flawless movie. Pacino in a crime film? With John Cazale? You bet! Maybe follow with …And Justice For All or Cruising…
Might I suggest Serpico? Pachino and Lumet again, NYC setting, also a fictionalized version of a true story.
A Pacino marathon.
And just like that you wrote a better article and it wasn’t even a contest.
This exhange from The Rock should totally count:Stanley Goodspeed: Listen, I think we got started off on the wrong foot. Stan Goodspeed, FBl. Uh – Let’s talk music. Do you like the Elton John song, “Rocket Man”?Captain Darrow: I don’t like soft-ass shit.Stanley Goodspeed: Oh, you – Oh, oh. Oh. Well, I only bring it up because, uh, it’s you. You’re the Rocket Man.[Goodspeed fires a rocket at him]
It’s kind of impressive, in how strained the journey is to get to the punchline.
It has to be the Sasson jeans commercial from the 80s. Sad songs, Sassons, same thing.
I’m just going to assume that Caitlin won the series of coin flips or games of rock-paper-scissors to be the one who got to use “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” from The Americans, and everyone else was resigned to each offer a second place choice.
Thank you! Came here for this (or to post this)!
The AV Club doesn’t like soft-ass shit!
When every little bit of hope is gone,
Sassons Say So Much
I remember seeing that at that time and thinking, “Ohhhh, he really is over, damn.”But he wasn’t.
This was just the beginning, as soon after Sir Elton John
became for the global spokesman for…..Diet Coke.
Life on Mars used Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as one of its endings and it’s certainly my favourite use of an Elton John song
No Elton John songs were part of the UK Life on Mars soundtrack.
They also used Rocketman in a really great episode.
I wanna say Rocektman in Disney’s Rocketman, as sung by the Rocketman Harland Williams in a bar. But I can’t find it on google or youtube, so I might just be imagining it.Although I am sure I vividly remember Harland drunk, on the bar floor, rolling around singing it. I pick that, unless I’m completely misremembering.
Sitting in a packed house opening day of “Almost Famous.” I’m a movie buff and really enjoy watching quietly and immersing myself during a film. Girl next to me apparently felt the need to comment on everything happening on the screen, several of us surrounding shushed her as she went on full voice “Oh look at that purple hat, so PURPLE!” etc.. The scene with Tiny Dancer starts and chatty Cathy decides to sing along—horrible voice and ridiculously off key. I turn to her, point my finger in her face and loudly say one word “NO!” Except for a whisper a couple of times she never said another word. Got a few pats and smiles from strangers and enjoyed the hell out of the rest of that film.
You forgot to mention the standing ovation and shower of $100 bills.
Your answer made my day; those of us who have suffered, know… “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well It were done quickly”
And you were Albert Einstein.
I always found that scene a little saccharine, but the Elton scene in Almost Famous that SLAYS me is later in the film when Patrick Fugit is trying to find Kate Hudson after learning of her expulsion from the main caravan. The song is “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” and it’s the timing of the song to when he finds Kate drugged out and heartbroken in a hotel room that makes my favorite moment in a film of terrific moments.
Tiny Dancer has gotten enough use anyway but the lesser known Mona Lisa… is a well written song. I think Hudson’s best moment is still when she smiles through tears delivering the “What kind of beer?” line. I tend to drift towards the melancholy EJ/BT tracks; We All Fall In Love Sometimes and the attached Curtains have been covered quite a bit, and all versions are pretty good.
Sir, this is an IHOP.
How much were you paid for this one?
Sorry, I gotta go with Biz Markie and the Beastie Boys covering ‘Bennie and the Jets’. Anything else is fucking trash.
Does another band doing a cover count for this question, though?
It’s pop culture, innit?
Don’t even need to know the words to kill it.
A slight cheat since it is not a new use but The Lion King soundtrack, which technically features severable memorable John/Rice songs (“The Circle of Life,” “I Just Can’t Wait to be King,” “Hakuna Matata,” “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”). Especially, the Zimmer-produced banger:(The corresponding Elton John recordings need never be mentioned again for what they did to mid-90s waiting rooms.)
Blatant commercialism aside, I’m gonna have to go with last years’ John Lewis Christmas Commercial. It was the first thing that sprang to mind.
aw that was lovely and made me really want to see Rocketman, which I assume was part of the point, so kudos(as an aside I’m a weirdo who loves commercials and really appreciates creative, affective advertising).
I saw this commercial for the first time a few days after I spent waaaay too much money on tickets to Elton John’s final tour. I am unabashedly psyched about it, and now I think I watch this commercial once a week in pure anticipation.
Are we just not?
He can add “Worst Version of an Elton John Song” to his previous award wins for “Worst Version of a Beatles Song” and “Worst Version of a Dylan Song”!And beating Dylan to that last one really was a massive achievement…
Also, Best Version of a Pulp song.
I can’t consider anything that endlessly rewatchable “the worst.”
“I’m gonna say ‘ouch’ for Dylan.”
I’d like to see this comparo – who’s worse at singing, Shatner of Telly Savalas?
Shatner by himself isn’t fantastic, but with a little help he really shines.
I mean… are we EVEN JUST NOT?!
Trump ruined that one.
How is that bad? I mean, he’s clearly a Rock . . . it . . . maaaaan.Cocaine’s a hell of a drug.
Or Chris Elliott’s version …
That’s very strange. Would people in 1992 remember, or even have seen, the Shatner one?
Many in Letterman’s audience probably weren’t familiar with the reference. But then, Chris Elliott’s segments were often very quirky, as were a lot of the other Letterman show segments.
It reminds me of Mike Myers, who often parodies things no one else has heard of and hopes that it’s weird enough that lands anyway.
Anything that doesn’t involve Candle in the Wind.
Or Nikita
My favorite use of an Elton John song in pop culture would have to be when one showed up on Elton John’s albums. Always a treat when that happened.
Agreed.
It’s a cover version, but “Your Song” from Haven, after the other Audrey got her memory erased
Not one mention of “Your Song” on The Simpsons?
A bit off the beaten path, but the moment around 1:45 when Girl Talk’s “Smash Your Head” lets Notorious B.I.G. rap over “Tiny Dancer” is just sublime.
Damn, I love Girl Talk and it’s the small choices like this that make the songs so fun.
I’m also not sure whether this counts as pop culture per se, but I’ll leave it here anyway because it’s HILARIOUS. The story of Andrew W.K.’s nightmare “Rocketman” audition for The Best Damn Band in New York, via This Is Not Happening:
When I finally got around to bingeing The Americans I was blown away by the choice of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” as an expression of each character’s disillusionment. At that point in his career EJ’s sexuality wasn’t widely known to the general public. But in that context, the theme of power politics as expressed in the song really resonates with the situation each character in the series is going through in the season finale.
I watched the clip above, and it occurred to me that people who haven’t watched it won’t get the significance of the parking lot Paige leaves through.
as soon as she walked into it, I got a shiver…
The Americans is the perfect choice, but my pick might actually be The Office using “Tiny Dancer” at the end of ‘The Dundies’ as Jim watches Pam leave the parking lot. I can’t hear that song without thinking about that scene and getting a little choked up.
No mention of William Shatner’s epic “Rocketman” cover?
Filed under “less said, the better…”!
Wednesday Night!
For me it’s gotta be Rocketman in the season three finale of Californication, when Hank and Karen are finally together and happy and then he has to come home and tell her that he accidentally slept with an underage girl, who happens to be the daughter of Karen’s ex-husband and he is arrested for statutory rape.
It’s so easy to forget how good that show could be, when it wasn’t being fucking horrible.
So I turn on the TV and pick up some movie midstream. I had no idea what movie it was. But I see the dude that played Cyclops. Cool! I like him! His in some car with a girl. They’re arguing sarcastically. It’s raining. Car swerves in the slick and goes off road and no more car.I’m not sure what is about to happen. What sort of movie is this?! It’s funny at the moment but I have zero context for what’s up. The two in the car walk, soaked, into a bar with a non working phone. They seem to hate each other. They have a drink, loosen up, and start jamming to Bennie and the Jets. That was fun.Then I find out the movie is 27 Dresses. And I don’t know how to feel about this.
These are all good. I’d add a different use of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” in the movie American Hustle (which just as masterfully uses ELO’s “10538 Overture”). Perfectly sets the mood and sense of reckoning for what’s about to come.
Someone Saved My Life Tonight – Hamlet 2
I’m with Gwen on this one. Tiny Dancer is my #1 favorite song of all time. Almost Famous cemented that.
Hamlet 2- the Gay Men’s Chorus of Tucson and their rendition of “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.” Gets me right in the feels, everytime. Next would be when they used “Rocketman” on The Greatest American Hero.
The acapella intro to Hello, Hello in Gnomeo & Juliet is quite lovely.
In Canada, “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” is frequently paired with hockey, much the same way that I assume “Manic Monday” is routinely used during Monday Night Football in america.
Oh, if only.
So, never?
Point of clarification: Nickelback’s cover of “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”, featuring Kid Rock. Note: It sucks!
You’re half right. We only have Nickelback in Canada, so yes. There’s no such thing as Kid Rock here though, so it evens out.
Does anyone remember that gum commercial from the late 80s that used “Rocket Man?” It had people kissing for “a long, long time” because their gum breath was so fantastic, while everyone waiting around them missed their trains and stuff.
Pretty sure those were just Big Red commercials, but I don’t recall them ever using licensed music as their original jingle was airtight.
AT&T commercial from like 1997 where the traveling businessman faxes his wife from the airplane to “meet me on the porch at 9:00” and then calls her as he flies overhead, set to “Rocket Man”
https://youtu.be/JacMJO3z_Qk
“it’s like trying to pick grapefruit from a strawberry vine” save us, Jesus
Ewan McGregor singing “Your Song” in Moulin Rouge.
I’m not much of an Elton John fan and am genuinely sick of Tiny Dancer any time it isn’t the scene from Almost Famous. That’s one of the best uses of music ever in a movie, and is just this simple little moment of musical joy.
Once, while driving, had the pleasure of listening to Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast as he dueted with Tom Scharpling on “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. 5 o’clock traffic and I’m behind the wheel, laughing like a madman.
I know. I know. But I goddam love it.
There are movie moments, and then there are movie moments.
Can’t believe I had to scroll this long to get to Moulin Rouge!
Seriously. It’s omission completely invalidates the list.
I usually hate covers of songs I consider already perfectly done (see: the entire Beatles catalog) but I was shocked how much I love Ewan McGregor’s version. It’s really damn good!
Saw that one in the theater and loved it. Who knew McGregor could sing so well?
Sorry, guys, but the correct answer is the use of “I’m Still Standing” in Viva Laughlin. May this clip live on forever on the internet:
Season 1 of “Nip/Tuck”, in which Sean McNamara waches his terminally ill mistress kill herself via barbituates and a plastic bag as “Rocketman” plays. They cut to a tearful Dylan Walsh right at the “And I think it’s gonna be a long long time” lyric and it’s heartwrenching
The short-lived series “Starved” used Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters in the final episode to moving effect, and it’s stuck with me.
Ummm, what? (sorry, not sorry)
VeeKaChuFriend detected.
Yes. THIS.
Came here for this, the only right answer.
The world owes a lot to Matthew Vaughn.
I was looking for this in the comments and was going to put it if it wasn’t there! This is so awesome to me. Thumbs up!
Came here this. Thank you.
Ph-ph-ph-Pharaoh And His Pets!
“Gnomeo and Juliet”. While I agree that those Muppet moments are special, Elton John himself doing a performance that has little-to-no actual story is just a cool concert for kids. “Gnomeo and Juliet” at least have to work those Elton John songs into the plot.As an aside, “Sherlock Gnomes” is a movie that HAD to be made for the pun.
The “Tiny Dancer” scene gets all the love in Almost Famous, but I already knew that song was great. The movie actually introduced me to one of my favorite Reg songs “Mona Lisa’s and Mad Hatters”, which I believe is playing while William and Penny are walking around Central Park after her overdose. It’s a beautiful love letter to New York and a great song all around.
I’m glad someone else mentioned this. Like, obviously Tiny Dancer was going to get the nod in the article, but the whole movie was full of moments like this.
Yes – Tiny Dancer will always be the big one, but “Mona Lisa and the Mad Hatters” is just a beautiful use of cinema, Hudson’s acting there is so amazing as well.
Heart do an amazing cover of Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters. One of the few covers I like more than the original.
I always heard it as a disappointing response to seeing New York City for the first time as a European and realizing the class system is alive and well here.
Without Moulin Rouge, this list is 100% bullshit.(and of course you just KNEW that that fucking awful scene from “Almost Famous” would make the list.)
hey, I love that scene! For years it was the only thing I remembered about that movie besides Kate Hudson in the airport. I’d heard Tiny Dancer before but I didn’t love it until that scene. Since I still can’t remember most of the movie, I have no context in my head for that scene and I probably attribute way more melancholy to it than is there but that’s why it works for me.
Tiny Dancer in Almost Famous night be my favorite use of a song in pop culture ever, period.
Thank God no one said 27 Dresses.My kids have watched Sing I don’t know how many times, and somehow, I was never in the the room for the gorilla singing “I’m Still Standing.” That’s one of my favorite Elton John songs.Anyway, the only right answer is this one:
Did someone say ‘don’t tease the bear’?
Ugh.
Too many comments for me to look through the grays right now but there is a surprising lack of Gnomeo and Juliet in the approved comments.
I’m not sure why, but this scene from American Hustle always makes me laugh-cry.
Six Feet Under’s choice of Rocket Man as an emotional fork in the road for David and Keith’s rocky relationship was pretty spot on.
Nearly 30 years ago and I still remember seeing this when it aired – and thinking, “Why in Christ isn’t this the version on the radio?!”
Wow, thanks.
Needs the hiss cleaned off. Then it needs to be released. Like as a single.
Thanks, I was previously unaware of this.
Crocodile Chop…
I really love how “Benny and the Jets” is used on the popular Elton John album, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”
Since Shatner was taken and is the correct answer, I’ll post Billy West and the Futurama writers and composer kinda phoning it in:
Hamlet 2 – Someone Saved My Life TonightPowerful
Yo, ATCQ, Massive and crew
Bars to any beat, we beat the beat for true
It’s Almost Famous and it’s not close.
“Sir Elton, stay here. We’re under attack.”“Is it a rescue attempt?“Might be.”“Yes!… Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday night’s all right! Hey!”“Isn’t that supposed to be Saturday?”“What day is it today?“Wednesday?“Exactly!”
Phoebe singing “hold me closer, Tony Danza” in Friends. Her little pause before she starts to sing… Lisa Kudrow is a goddess.
btw is that the first use of that joke? I’ve heard it mentioned a lot since, but did the Friends writers create it?
I had been making that joke for a while before that episode aired and was half-convinced somebody on the Friends staff owed me money.Case closed, your honor!
I’m in the permagreys so no one’s going to see this, but I’m shouting out his showstopping scene in Tommy. That huge, multi-tiered theater packed to the roof with fans, who are all real, not computer generated.
Fred Armisten on Last Man on Earth by farhttps://youtu.be/jgqA5QdgTvs
Not pop culture, but I am gonna share it anyway. Last year I saw Elton John in Vegas (amazing, must see) and Yellow Brick Road came on and I zoned out and sang along verbatim*. The reason is back in 91 I got obsessed with that song and was listening to it on repeat at a doctors office because I was bored and did not want to be there. It was when my younger ten year old sister got diagnosed with type one diabetes changing her life forever. I love the song, and sing along, truly the meaning of bittersweet.* Brain which had no idea what vodka and tonics was replaced it with anacins.
Everyone thinks of Tiny Dancer from Almost Famous, but Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters is amazing in that movie too
No cover version of Levon?
“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” is forever synonymous with the dance number at the end of Ella Enchanted for me. (Yes, I was eight. It was formative!)
Not a pop culture use, but a real life one.
My roommate and I spent 3 weeks in Great Britain in 1983, and I swear that every day, somehow, somewhere we’d hear ‘I’m Still Standing’. Last time was waiting in Heathrow for the fog to lift so we could leave.
It kinda became our theme song for that trip.
In a the short story “The Sound of Music” by David Carrico, part of the 1632/Ring of Fire series where a town of West Virginians is transported to Seventeenth century Germany, a “down-time” musician is shocked by a bar-band rendition of Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”:“All right, it’s Saturday night here at the Gardens, and tonight we have some entertainment. Preeeee-senting the world’s greatest rock-and-roll, blues and country and western band, give it up for Mountaintop!”The man who had been talking stepped away from the tall skinny pole with the knob at the top, and another man bearing a most outlandish looking device stepped up to it and said, “Thanks for the intro. Of course, we’re the ONLY rock-and-roll, blues and country and western band in the world. Anyway, we’re going to kick it off tonight with a song made popular by Elton John.”There were five young men on this platform, surrounded by cabinets and very strange devices. Three of them were holding things that in some very faint way could be likened to lutes or Spanish guitarras, and they were gyrating and gesturing with them. One of them was pounding on a strange flat cabinet with his hands. The last one was sitting surrounded by a group of drums of different sizes and Turkish cymbals on poles, beating them all rapidly with sticks.Friedrich, do you remember when we sat in the tavern and listened to that Swiss traveler talk about being in the Alps and seeing an avalanche pour down a mountainside toward him? That is what I felt like. They produced the most awful cacophony I have ever heard, a veritable avalanche of sound. Even now I hesitate to call it music.If I concentrated, I could hear individual musical notes and tones, but it sounded like no music I had ever heard. It was definitely polyphony—there was more than one voice present—but there was no contrapuntal flow, no interweaving of parts. I could hear moments of tertiary harmony, but they were overwhelmed by seconds, fourths and sevenths. It was harsh, it was discordant, it seemed like what an anthem from the infernal regions would sound like.“Mmmph!”“What are you laughing at?” he asked.“Rock and roll, the music from hell. Remind me to explain that to you later.”Then one of the men started trying to sing, but it seemed to me that he was more shouting. The only thing I could understand was “Saturday night’s all right for fighting.” I thought surely I misunderstood, that they would not be inciting a riot.“I don’t know . . . with those boys, that’s entirely possible.”“Hush.”This went on for what seemed like eternity, but I have been assured was less than four minutes. It was more than loud. It was so rhythmic and percussive it was like some obscene martial music. I felt it physically as much as I heard it.Remember your worst morning after a night spent drinking. Remember how your head felt. Now, double that feeling. Double it again. That approaches how I felt—as if my entire being was throbbing with the pulse of the universe. And then suddenly—blessed stillness—for a moment, anyway, until everyone else in the tavern stood to their feet and began clapping and yelling and cheering and whistling.I sat stunned. Shocked. Appalled. Soon the crowd quieted and the men began making noise again. Unable to move, I listened to several more bouts of chaos. Eventually, I made the astounding discovery I could become used to even this.
“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, as used in a montage re: Pluto’s love for a lady dog in a 1980s Disney television special.
I’ve said for years that is I was ever hired to film a Dark Tower adaptation, the second half of my trailer for the film would be set to “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” and the tagline for the film would be “Kill with your heart.” And then my soundtrack would be contemporary music that somehow strangely fits this world, alongside spaghetti western and barroom piano versions of famous songs from our world.
It’s amazing how well “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” fits into the plot of The Lion King. It’s as if it were written for the movie.
Hold Me Closer Tony Danza.
+1 for Tiny Dancer in Almost Famous.
Oh, The Americans… always depicting the most poignant sadness in the subtlest, most nuanced manner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3WpzA6LiAoAll good answers but there’s only one right one.
His collaboration with this classic soul singer is my favourite by far –
Surprised nobody mentioned the piano section from “Bennie and the Jets” that’s played when the Lakers take the ball out. I love that.
Great use of a deep cut from an iconic artist. Didn’t save the movie, but didn’t hurt it.
Starts at 6:37 if I didn’t embed it right…younger me really grew up around 7 minutes and 18 seconds
Wow, that AVC review page for Sing was so… hateful. It’s a goddamned cartoon movie, for fuck’s sake. It doesn’t warrant that much vitriol from us grown adults.
Not technically a USE of him, but HIM. On the Muppets. This is always how I think of him, since it’s the first time I saw him.
EJ superfan here. Up until a couple years ago, the answer was unquestionably Tiny Dancer in Almost Famous. I’m only 45 so on the young side for an Elton groupie, and I never felt more heard and seen than in that lovely and moving homage. And then, Bunheads lived for one glorious season on ABC Family before being strung along and then sadly cancelled. The dancers actually came together one last time to say goodbye to each other and the fans, performing the most bittersweet choreography to Blues for Baby and Me – a totally surprising deep cut that I chose to take a direct shout out to me. It’s gorgeous and still brings tears to my eyes.
Is it too late to say “English Rose” from Diana’s funeral?