This is the last gift sponsored by Sandisk slotRadio, so I thought we might actually talk about music. Since John Hughes passed, I’ve been thinking about how much more I enjoy movies when a director is passionate about the soundtrack.
My favorite Hughes scenes are about the music that’s playing in his characters’ lives. Remember Duckie lip-syncing to “Try a little Tenderness?”
Or Ferris Bueller’s “Danke Schoen” cum “Twist and Shout” on the parade float:
And of course, The Breakfast Club dance scene:
Then there are the Hughes songs that knock you flat and replay footage of your bedroom ceiling, circa 1985.
“Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds
“If You Were Here” by the Thompson Twins
“If You Leave” by OMD
So this present celebrates the music Mr. Hughes brought into our lives. If you win, I’ll send you everything you need for a nostalgic movie night.
The Ringwald holy trinity:
An absurdly large box of Watermelon Flavored Pop Rocks, (Purchased after I ate the packages I bought for you at the corner store. Taste the Explosion!):
And, of course, a Sandisk slotRadio:
It comes with a bunch of songs already, but also gives you the option of picking your own music. Before you load your workout mix, I’d like you to check into these:
The Ultimate John Hughes Playlist
John Hughes Movie Soundtrack Hits
Leave a comment below, bonus points if you tell me about your favorite music-related movie scene. Be sure to include your email address in the field provided (so I can reach you if you win) by August 14 at 5 p.m. PST. Just one comment, please — I have to delete duplicates for fairness. Random.org will decide who wins. I’ll contact the lucky via email, and I’ll also tell you who won here.
Danke schoen to Sandisk for making this gift project a go. It’s been fun.
Mighty Girl 
Ok, now my head is all clutter-y with all of the wonderful/poignant/hilarious/meaningful songs in other movies that the previous 99 commentors have mentioned. Rather than a favorite, can I just say that, while I adore the movie “Ladyhawke,” whenever they go into a big musical bit, it almost always makes me want to laugh?
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Like Megan, I’m a fan of the Commitments version of “Try a Little Tenderness”. Though Ducky’s is awesome, too. And there’s a movie called Kikujiro which I saw probably 10 years ago which had a score that was so perfect for the movie it just knocked me flat. First and only time I’ve ever gone out and bought an instrumental soundtrack after seeing a movie.
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Hands down: Lloyd Dobbler holding a Peter Gabriel-busting boombox over his head to get the girl.
Swoon.
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The guitar lesson scene in School of Rock when he teaches the kid Black Sabbath’s Iron Man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EHg9HdnuD4&feature=related
Also when Jack Black is singing the Immigrant Song in the van. These two scenes remind me so much of my brother. I crack up every. single. time.
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Someone already said this, but – I love the music in the film “Magnolia,” especially Aimee Mann’s “One” in the opening credits and the full-cast “Wise Up.”
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My favorite movie soundtracks have to be “Harold & Maude” (Cat Stevens), “The Graduate” (Simon & Garfunkel), & “About a Boy” (Badly Drawn Boy). The parade scene in “Ferris Bueller” was brilliant…actually, all those John Hughes films were brilliant music movies!
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I love John Hughes and swear I would settle in for a movie marathon weekend with popcorn, vodka and junior mints if I win.
My favorite movie/music scene is probably when Max Fischer et al slow dance to the Faces’ ‘Ooh La La’ at the end of Rushmore. It makes me cry every time.
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I love the end of Before Sunset when they’re listening to Nina Simone and talking about her and “Just in Time” is playing.
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My favorite song is called ‘Do Re Mi’ from the Sound of Music. It’s from the scene where Maria introduces music to all of the Von Trapp children. For me, Maria taught me English =)
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Quentin Tarantino is also one of those directors who puts A LOT of thought into the music for his movies. Reservoir Dogs is pretty much spot on throughout, but Stephen Wright is excellent as the DJ and when “Stuck in the Middle with You” is playing and the camera follows Michael Madsen outside to his car and then he comes back in and does a little hip shake dance before he cuts the cop’s ear off… Yeah. That’s fucking classic.
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Aloha Maggie & Ohana~
I’ve been a long time lurker~ have enjoyed your site for years. I fear commenting since I love your style and it would consume me to comment as cleverly as I’d like to be every time.
My first instinct of what movie song stirs me~same era as John Hughes and BOY do these songs take me right back. Time Warp!!!
I love the final scene in Dirty Dancing. I guess the boldness of doing “their” dance—love that they flipped off the establishment….just sends shivers !
Really love all the new things you’re doing! Very inspiring.
If you guys come to Maui~ please let us show you the sights.
Mahalo Nui,
Lisa
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Frou frou’s “let go” from garden state.
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I have two current favorites, both from watching these shows with my daughter. Dance Magic Dance from Labyrinth. Awe-some. And a little more traditional for a three-year-old, the fair song from Charlotte’s Web (the fair is a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord). But, I also love John Hughes. I have all those movies on VHS (eek) but could use the upgrade.
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10 things i hate about you. Heath Ledger being goofy and singing i love you baby ( is that how it’s called?)
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Def. the Heath Ledger scene in 10 Things I Hate About You … and actually I really like the entire soundtrack of Romeo + Juliet (1996 Baz Luhrman version).
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The soundtrack that I still have to stop and sing along to is the Commitments. Although it is fairly limited in scope and style, the songs are classics.
Am I the only person who will daydream about the soundtrack to my life ? It makes me feel like such a dork……but I’ll hear a certain song and think “I would play this song during the scene when…..” For example, I would have to play “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morrisette during the scene when my first husband left me. Bastard.
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bride and prejudice, hilarious when they start singing in the middle of the movie.
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Ah… I love me some John Hughes, but since I was BORN in 1985 I’m not so sure some of you “true 80’s girls” would take me seriously if I picked a song from one of those flicks. If I were being honest about my FAV movie scene song (?) It would hands down be the movie Lucky Seven (with Patrick Dempsey and Kimberly Williams-Paisley) the scene where he takes her as his wedding date and the band plays “So are you to me” (I think its by EastMountainSouth-RANDOM, I know!) That song literally moves me to tears every time I hear it, so its what I walked down the aisle to when I married the love of my life =)
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I am right there with She Likes Purple. The Tiny Dancer scene from Almost Famous is not only my favorite music scene in a movie, but my favorite movie scene period. It made me want to be Penny Lane. The Shins, for some reason, keep ignoring my calls though…
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Oh, Duckie, how I loved you. Try a Little Tenderness wins for me. Although I do confess that I totally ON PURPOSE danced like Claire for quite some time after seeing the Breakfast Club.
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My most recent favorite music scene is in (500) Days of Summer when Joseph Gordon Levitt dances in the street to Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams”- complete with a cartoon blue bird on his shoulder!
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Oh god, pretty in pink is such an amazing movie. Love the car scene in that movie, with the underwear. Classic. Or pretty much the whole movie. Yeah, that’s what I’m going with.
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i can’t believe i actually forgot about the duckie scene – so good! *sigh*
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Heartfelt favorite: In your Eyes, Lloyd holding the boombox for Diane.
Very, Very close second: The entire Singles soundtrack.
Gotta’ get the ipod out now. 🙂
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I am a fan of Hughes and his films, some may say the biggest, and if I were to think of a song or music that instantly takes me into a film or vice versa, i would have to say PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET ME GET WHAT I WANT from the Art Institute of Chicago scenes in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but specifically when Cameron is staring at Seurat’s painting…I am required to go that painting each time i return to the Art Institute, and that is the music that plays.
If I had to do a second moment, it would be Johnny B Goode in Back to the Future..whenever I hear that song, I think of Marty McFly and a quick call to Chuck Berry from his cousin Marvin.
Thanks for this.
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I really love “Singin in the Rain.” Bad-ass dance moves and hilariously quotable lines… And the dancing during the theme song? Awesome.
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I think it’s impossible for me to pick just one! I love musicals and so that makes it hard. Maybe Dirty Dancing though. Um… all of it? No, the bedroom scene…. or the practicing in the water scene. Or, when he drives away! Waaaaah!
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I must admit, my favorite of these is the parade sequence from “Ferris Beueller’s Day Off”. The fashions of the ’80’s were pretty bad, but I did like his snazzy vest in that film, too.
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As far as John Hughes’ movie music goes, I think that scene in “She’s Having a Baby” with the Kate Bush song (“This Woman’s Work”) has been permanently imprinted on my brain and heart.
I get all choked up every time, even though I know she lives!
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I love the moment in A Little Princess when Sara is asleep and the windows fly open and the snow blows in and she just runs out on the little balcony and spins around in the snow.
Makes me cry happy tears and gives me goosebumps every single time.
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I still can’t get over just about every song used in P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia. Aimee Mann rules.
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The Thompson Twins “If You Were Here” during the scene in Sixteen Candles when Sam and Jake have their first kiss.
Dear Random.com, I really love Pop Rocks so please pick me.
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My favorite recent scene is in (500) Days of Summer when he’s dancing to Hall & Oates. 🙂
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My favorite is definitely Lloyd in Say Anything with the boombox. I’ve had way too many daydreams about that happening in real life.
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I love the My Sharona scene at the convenience store in Reality Bites.
Do not care for pop rocks – really. The movies just remind me of Saturdays and Sundays growing up in Buenos Aires. I think Canal 13 played The Breakfast Club every other week.
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The soundtrack of Pretty in Pink is the soundtrack of my teenage years. So full of angst. And none more angsty than “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”.
(Kind of applies here too.)
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Favorite movie music scenes:
1. All the fight scenes in The Matrix when it gets intense and the really great techno music kicks in.
2. Donnie Darko & Tears for Fears – Mad World
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I graduated high school in 1985, so I certainly come of age watching John Hughes movies. OMD’s “If you leave” and Simple Minds’ “Don’t you forget about me” are among my favs.
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Sigh. The Thompson Twins brought back lots of good memories.
My favorite soundtrack moment though? Last of the Mohicans, racing away… 🙂
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The very beginning of Saturday Night Fever. Watching John Travolta playing the oh so cool Tony Manero, strutting down the street in Brooklyn to Stayin’ Alive.
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A Man without Love from Romance and Cigarettes! Watching James Gandolfini burst into song just trumps every other musical movie scene I can remember.
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I had a Ferris Bueller poster in my room! Snagged a couple when I took a date to it’s opening night. I’ll bet she was very impressed.
Anyway, I always loved the soundtrack as it nailed my musical tastes at the time… The Smiths during the museum scene is a fave for some reason. Made me, as a 16 year old small town kid, feel kinda cosmopolitan for recognizing the song and forever after associating it with art museums. Silly.
I also read a particular fantasy series while listening to OMD over and over, so now when I hear OMD I think of Thomas Covenant and vice versa…
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I’ll always remember the scene from Pretty in Pink when Duckie is in his room brooding over his unrequited love for Andie and we hear the strains of The Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” in the background. Who among us can say they did not have a moment (or years) like that in high school?
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dirty dancing, the whole movie really
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People are mentioning “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” from Pretty in Pink, but I’ll always remember it from Ferris Bueller’s, when they’re going through the Art Institute. It’s an instrumental version of that song, with an oboe carrying the primary melody.
So wistful, so melancholy. Even as a teenager it made me feel nostalgic for my teen years.
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The other day (okay, over a month ago), my sweetie and I were walking to the Kabuki theater when we passed an outdoor screening of Dirty Dancing in that new plaza on Fillmore street. There were kids and grandmas and preeteen girls eating Italian ices, and it was perfect.
Sylvia…
Yes, Mickey?
How do you call your loverboy?
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Gosh there are so many songs and movies to choose from in the 70’s & 80’s… there aren’t so many now though which is sad.
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For me it’s a toss up between the dance scene from The Breakfast Club and pretty much all the dance scenes from Dirty Dancing. Well, no, I’d have to go with Dirty Dancing, all of it.
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my favorite movie/music scene is when susan sarandon sings “Ain’t No Mountain” with her children in Stepmom. Moving to say the least.
I enjoyed watching these videos!
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I loved all those 80s movies. That was my adolesence! Brings back great memories looking at those DVD front covers.
I love musicals so it’s difficult to choose a music related scene favourite but I do love the ‘toot sweet’ scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with loads of dancing, dogs and mayhem! Yay!
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