Young Love Unrequited, The Soundtrack

My Life

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:

breakfast
The Breakfast Club

16candles
Sixteen Candles

prettyinpink
Pretty in Pink

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!):

poprocks

And, of course, a Sandisk slotRadio:
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.

Published

531 thoughts on “Young Love Unrequited, The Soundtrack”

  1. Pick me, oh Random Gods, pick me!Last scene of Sixteen Candles is something I’ve replayed in mind thousands of times..from age 12 to 30! I’ve never gotten over my awkward, frizzy-haired youth!

    Like

  2. Breakfast club, by far. Dance scene. Also best part ever: “It’s Snowing!” I laugh my butt off every time.

    Like

  3. She’s Having a Baby. Not the best or even a particularly memorable John Hughes film. The two things I remember about it are a tender scene involving I believe a turkey baster…and Van Morrison singing Crazy Love. I burst into tears right there in the theatre. Over Van, not the turkey baster. Must have been the hormones, though, since I was pregnant a the time with my first child. Although Van Morrison still makes me swoon.

    Like

  5. Ahh posted too soon. I meant to say:

    One of the most gorgeous scenes I’ve seen is at the end of “Michael Collins” where Sinéad O’Connor’s “She Moved Through the Fair” is playing.. Amazing.

    Like

  8. I don’t think anyone gets into the movie music the way Rocky Horror fans do, so that’s my favorite.

    “F*ck that bird, grease that pole, eat that bagel!”

    Like

  9. My absolute favorite music-related movie moment is the Great Balls of Fire piano scene in Top Gun. I love how much fun they’re having, and how awesome Meg Ryan’s southern accent is.

    Like

  10. Let’s see….

    How about “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News in Back to the Future. Loved Michael J. Fox in that movie.

    Hands down though has gotta be Duckie and his Tenderness dance. How could the girl not give it up to him!! Alo love that song when Blaine and Andy walk in the bar where Duckie and Iona are. It’s the song that the band is playing in the background…what is it? I love that song…I don’t think it’s on the soundtrack.

    Like

  11. Mine has to be from The Big Chill. When the whole gang is washing dishes to the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” It just screams love and community and friendship. 🙂

    Like

  13. Oh my gosh, I love every, single John Hughes movie EVER made. I really felt like he could see into my teenaged, high school soul!! He completely understood teen angst!

    Favorite movie scene: You nailed it! Duckie lip syncing to Otis Redding’s “Try a little tenderness”

    Like

  14. Oooo! I hope I win! I actually married my “Duckie” 20 years after we graduated. We love that movie.

    Like

  16. I LOVE that clip of Duckie lipsynching ‘Try A Little Tenderness’! That has to be my favorite scene in the movie! (The other is when Iona dresses up in her old prom dress later in the movie!)

    I have to be honest and say that my most memorable movie moments that are directly linked to music are in the movie Platoon. The use of Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ forever burned that piece of music into my mind. The scene where Elias is running out of the jungle getting shot; later in the movie when they show Charlie Sheen’s character, Chris, crying in the chopper as he is leaving; ‘Adagio for Strings’ will always make me think of Platoon. And although it is a hard movie to watch (my brother said he will never watch it again) I’m so moved by the movie, and that particular piece of music IN it, that I will watch it whenever it is on TV. I LOVE ‘Adagio for Strings’. It may be my all-time favorite classical piece and I would say it’s in my top 5 all-time favorite songs or pieces of music (and, for the record, my musical tastes span from modern rock, to alternative, to musicals, to industrial, to folky rock, to just about anything except country music.)

    Like

  20. My favorite is probably “In Your Eyes” in “Say Anything.” And then I can’t get “Falling Slowly” from “Once” out of my mind, and I’ve never seen the movie.

    Like

  23. Without a doubt, and I’m sure it’s already been mentioned, but Duckie in the record store wiling out to Otis Redding. The way that he dances? That’s how I feel all the time listening to my favorite songs. Doing that somewhere, anywhere, when my jam comes on, is on my life list.

    Like

  25. My absolutely favorite 80s soundtrack movie is actually 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank. It’s the older love unrequited (or young love revisited, still unrequited).

    The scene where Blank is staring into the baby’s face while Bowie & Queen’s “Under Pressure” playing, building up — completely captured what it’s like to be going on 30 and wondering what the hell you’re doing with your life.

    Like

  28. Yes please, yes please, yes please!!! And since I’m sure I can’t come up with anything as creative as folks have already written re both Hughes and Empire Records, ditto.

    Like

  29. From John Hughes to John Sayles… NOTHING in common as film-makers, except an obsession with getting the sound track right. The whole Men with Guns soundtrack is magnificent, and put to magnificent use in service of the story.

    Like

  30. My favorite is the end of The Breakfast Club, where Molly Ringwald gives Judd Nelson her earring, and he puts it in his ear as “Don’t you forget about me” starts to play. 🙂

    Like

  31. My favorite is the Karaoke scene in Lost in Translation where Bill Murry is singing More Than This while wearing his mid-life crisis shirt inside out.

    Like

  32. My absolute fave was also Captain Von Trapp’s Edelweiss, and alot of my others were mentioned, but a few other good ones:
    Beautiful Girls, no music is playing but he asks she can imagine anything better than making love to an attractive stranger in the ice fishing shack, and she replies, “Going back to Chicago. Ice cold martini. Van Morrison.”
    And Denise Richards in Drop Dead Gorgeous, singing “You’re Just Too Good To Be True” and dancing with the Jesus on the cross, on wheels.

    Like

  33. I’m going to go with Benny & Joon for favorite music-heavy movie, and the “500 Miles” scenes. Plus, hello there, bonus feature: the music video? disturbing and awesome, as only twins can be.

    Like

  34. I love movie musicals- from My Fair Lady and The Unsinkable Molly Brown to Moulin Rouge and Enchanted!

    Like

  35. I love movie musicals- from My Fair Lady and The Unsinkable Molly Brown to Moulin Rouge and Enchanted. For a non-musical I would have to say the iconic Say Anything scene with In Your Eyes.

    Like

  36. I love the scene in “Say Anything” where John Cusack holds his boom box over his head under Ione Sky’s window and plays “In Your Eyes.”

    I love it so much that the song was my first dance at my wedding.

    Like

  38. Besides the John Hughes classics . . . Flashdance. The ending dance scene to “What A Feeling.” Especially when she has to start the record over cause she messes up – I still find myself going into cheer mode every time I see that scene. “You can do it Alex, no strip clubs for you!”

    Like

  39. Love this post! I agree with oh so many above… my favorite tape in high school was “Pretty in Pink” soundtrack on one side and “Breakfast Club” on the other. I still have it. No way to play it, but I have it. (Agree on the Empire Records Sugar Rush scene mentioned above. Love that movie.)

    Like

  40. Not to jump on the bandwagon, but my favorite is the “In Your Eyes” scene in Say Anything. I used to have a black-and-white movie poster of John Cusack standing there, in that trench coat, with that boombox over his head. *sigh*

    Like

  45. Every year at Christmas, my Dad gives an assignment to my siblings and me. We compete at my sister’s St. Patrick’s Day party, with all attendees voting on the best project. This year, we had to share our high school memories. My entry:

    (I won!)

    Like

  47. Time Warp from Rocky Horror…I can’t help but laugh, every…single…time.
    Also? Pop Rocks are the best candy, of all time!

    Like

  49. Tough question — the song from St. Elmo’s Fire is emblazoned in my head for various reasons, but maybe my favorite soundtrack is the Shrek 2 soundtrack b/c I can play it with my kids and dance around and they don’t think I’m a dweeb for singing to FunkyTown. Won’t you take me there, slotdiskradio?

    Like

  50. I love the scene in Jerry Maguire when Tom Cruise is driving and flipping through radio stations–he can’t find anything that fits his mood so he can sing along. Finally he hits Tom Petty’s Freefalling and he’s a happy man. I can’t tell you how many times I felt that way back before I had satellite radio.
    I also really like the subway scene in the movie version of Rent–the song is Santa Fe, and Jesse L Martin’s voice plus the cool choreography made this fun. I usually go for the stage production over a movie, but this was exceptional.
    Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Maggie!

    Like

Comments are closed.