The Best Music in Film

Cameron Crowe

(Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous)

S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?
"It always changes, but right now my favourite is Mark Knopfler's score for Local Hero (1983). You can barely imagine the movie without it -- the music takes you by the hand and leads you into another world. It's unobtrusive and hugely effective. You can still hear that music long after you've left the theatre."
S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?
"The best soundtrack music by-passes your mind and goes straight to your soul. It sort of trips something in your brain, you know you're being transported."
S&S: What is the most effective sequence of music in your own films?
"Bruce Springsteen's "Secret Garden" in Jerry Maguire (1996). The song starts as Dorothy is watching her child kiss the shiftless Jerry Maguire in the kitchen, before their first date. It captures her guilt and advancing melancholy -- she knows this guy won't be around much longer in her life. Then she decides -- fuck it -- she's going to have a great time on that date, and the music continues as she runs across the lawns of her neighbourhood to meet Jerry Maguire by his car. I kept hearing the song in my head while we were filming -- nobody could figure out why I was so happy. The other instance I remember is when we were putting music on Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). Sometimes the wrong song in the right place can be a powerful thing. There was a scene where Damone, the big talking lothario, finally slept with Stacy and came instantly. No song worked, and finally we tried Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby." It was an upbeat song, and there was no reason for it to work -- but it did. Years later, I went to see Jackson Browne in concert and he introduced the song like this: "So I wrote this love song, and somehow it turned into a theme for premature ejaculation... ""
Last Updated: 29 Sep 2008