12 Songs Celebrating (Some of) My Favorite ‘90s Soundtracks
My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a 12-song playlist around some theme. This week, Heather Wixson presents her mixtape that runs the gamut of all the endlessly listenable music that was tied into some of the most memorable movies released during the 1990s.
As someone who grew up during the heyday of movie soundtracks - which includes both the 1980s and the ‘90s - my love for soundtracks began at a very early age, thanks to my mom’s obsession with Dolly Parton and THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS album (I may have been the only four-year-old that knew the word “whorehouse” back then). And from there, I bought countless movie soundtracks throughout those formative years (almost in equal measure with general album releases), and I thought that for this playlist, it might be fun to show a little love to all the kickass soundtracks that came out during the 1990s since the ‘80s generally get all the love.
As both a movie and music fan, there’s no greater pure joy than experiencing a perfectly crafted collection of songs that not only capture a specific moment in time but it also has the power to transport you right back to the multiplex whenever you hear it. Admittedly, when I set out to do this list, I ended up with over 50 soundtracks on my initial planning list, so it was quite the undertaking to rope myself in and only pick 12 songs for this playlist. With that in mind, here’s a collection of 12 songs that run the gamut of all the endlessly listenable music that was tied into some of the most memorable movies released during the 1990s.
And who knows - just because I had to cut so many favorite tracks and titles to make this playlist manageable, I may just have to do this all over again in the near future.
1. “Halcyon & On & On” by Orbital (HACKERS, MORTAL KOMBAT)
When Eminem declared in 2002 that “Nobody listens to techno,” I felt slightly besmirched by Mr. Marshall Mathers because I had initially been introduced, and subsequently fell in love with techno, through the HACKERS soundtrack in 1995. So I guess if someone out there was listening to techno, it was me, and I owe a lot of it to the brilliant electronica that HACKERS blew my proverbial mind with more than 25 years ago now. Truth be told, I could have put every single song from the HACKERS soundtrack (from either volume) on this list and been just as happy with my choice, but I decided to open this list with Orbital’s “Halcyon & On & On” because it totally sets the right tone (at least for me it does) and to this day, if I’m feeling slightly stressed, this song really does the trick in getting me back on track.
Plus, if you need further proof that “Halcyon & On & On'' is a totally kickass song, it just happens that it also appears on the MORTAL KOMBAT soundtrack the very same year, too, and that’s a movie that relied on a ton of killer music to keep audiences amped up from start to finish.
2. “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” by U2 (BATMAN FOREVER)
When most people look back on the hugely successful BATMAN FOREVER soundtrack, I think the first song that comes to most people’s minds is “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal because that song was EVERYWHERE for like a whole year or something. And yeah, it’s great and Seal sings his heart out for sure. But for this ol’ gal, the best song that really captures the vivid and vivacious nature of Joel Schumacher’s first Batman film is “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” from U2. Look, I am perfectly aware that U2 is a band that has (wrongly) become something of a punchline as of late to a lot of folks out there, but for me, I grew up a huge fan of Bono and the boys (especially their euro-rock turn with Achtung Baby and Zooropa - which this song initially came together during the latter album’s recording sessions), so having them kick off the Batman Forever soundtrack was like a dream come true, especially to this huge Batman nerd.
And not only is this a fantastic song, but the animated music video that features Bono as both of his alter egos (The Fly and MacPhisto) traipsing through Gotham City is just the bees knees. Back when I got my license and drove by myself for the very first time, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” was the first song that I ever played in my car (R.I.P. to my hand-me-down 1984 Ford Tempo).
RIP. It’s being a sensible car in Heaven now.
3. “Another Body Murdered” by Faith No More and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E (JUDGMENT NIGHT)
The JUDGMENT NIGHT soundtrack is yet another one where you could choose any track, and you would have made the right choice. But since I’m something of a simp for Faith No More in general, I had no choice but to go with “Another Body Murdered” from FNM and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. for this playlist. Kids today simply will not understand how freaking huge the JUDGMENT NIGHT soundtrack was in 1993, as its rock-meets-rap approach wasn’t the first of its kind, but the success of its release and reception by music fans helped recalibrate and revolutionize the music industry for the better - and maybe just a little bit for the worse, too (see: Kid Rock).
Every single song on the JUDGMENT NIGHT soundtrack destroyed my brain in the best possible way back then, but I think the one that has always stuck with me the most after all these years is “Another Body Murdered,” as I had never heard of the Samoan hip hop group Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. until I listened to this song, and I’ll tell you - it may be nearly 30 years later, but I’ve never forgotten them or their brutally raw delivery in “Another Body Murdered” since.
“Bang your head to this,” indeed.
4. “#1 Crush” by Garbage (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET)
As I was a teenage girl in the 1990s, there’s no way in hell that I wasn’t going to include Garbage’s “#1 Crush” on this playlist. Garbage has created a ton of memorable songs throughout their decades-spanning career (and even for other soundtracks, too), but if you wanted to experience 1996 cinema in song form, I’d argue that it is hard to top this track from Shirley Manson and the rest of Garbage. Also, I had no idea until recently that the song had been released as a B-side to several of their singles at the start of their career (I only had purchased their self-titled album), and the version of “#1 Crush” that appears in ROMEO + JULIET is actually a remixed edition of the song.
Remix or not, beyond being just hella sexy in general, the lyrics and mood of “#1 Crush” is oozing with a sense of primal yearning that two star-crossed teenagers who fall in love, and are ultimately doomed by that love, can only understand. For the rest of us, we were left to experience it as outsiders, but it still resonated all the same. And if I’m being perfectly honest, if you were looking for a make-out song in 1996, Garbage’s “#1 Crush” definitely got the job done and then some.
5. “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (SCREAM, DUMB AND DUMBER)
As a horror nerd, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a song from my favorite franchise that first launched during the ‘90s, so here I am celebrating Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ “Red Right Hand” from SCREAM. Yeah, it’s probably the most obvious song off the SCREAM soundtrack to pick for this playlist, but I’m nothing if not a traditionalist, and “Red Right Hand” became synonymous with Wes Craven’s genre-changing slasher series (the only film in the franchise in which it doesn’t make an appearance is SCREAM 4). Plus, the Republica joint “Drop Dead Gorgeous” only made an appearance on the European release of the original so I couldn’t exactly go with that (but man, did I LOVE Republica back in the day).
Beyond that, “Red Right Hand” is such a perfect aural representation of what the first three SCREAM films would come to be about: contemplative vengeance and reconciling your fate, so I think it was just fate that it ended up becoming the song for the original SCREAM trilogy. Besides that, it’s still just a barn-burner of a track. Technically, “Red Right Hand” also appears in DUMB AND DUMBER, but it was never released as part of that film’s official soundtrack, so for all intents and purposes of this playlist, it’s included here to represent my favorite horror series from this decade more than anything else.
6. “Burn” by The Cure (THE CROW)
I think it’s safe to say that if you were a teenager during the 1990s, you owned the soundtrack for THE CROW. In fact, I didn’t know a single person my age who didn’t own this CD (that’s a compact disc to all you youngin’s out there) or who wasn’t completely obsessed by all the gritty industrial and gothy awesomeness that was contained within this soundtrack’s 14 different songs. This is yet another case of where I could have easily closed my eyes, pointed at some random track, and would have been happy to include it for this playlist, but I opted to go with “Burn” from The Cure because it really feels like a stand-out song from a band whose career was comprised of an endless array of stand-out musical efforts. Plus, “Burn” was released just a few years after The Cure’s album Wish, which was a bit more broad and bright in comparison to some of their earlier albums.
So, for Robert Smith and company to come back with the soul-scorching “Burn” after delivering a crowd-pleasing tune like “Friday, I’m in Love,” I was totally stunned (and frankly, every time I re-listen to the song, it takes over every fiber in my being all over again, just like it did that very first time I heard it in theaters back in 1994).
7. “New Age Girl” by Deadeye Dick (DUMB AND DUMBER)
So, “New Age Girl” from Deadeye Dick is probably the silliest song on this playlist, but it is mathematically impossible for me to be in a bad mood whenever I hear it, and I thought that perhaps it might lighten things up between the last song I featured and what’s coming up next on my list. Much like the movie it is featured in, “New Age Girl” is a light-hearted song about an idealistic vegetarian named Mary Moon who marches to the beat of her own drum (and apparently won’t eat meat, but loves the taste of the bone...take that as you will). This of course works out perfectly since Lauren Holly’s character in DUMB AND DUMBER is also named Mary, and because of the success of the Farrelly Brothers’ comedy, “New Age Girl” did rather well on the Billboard charts (although Deadeye Dick’s successes were short-lived, as the band broke up shortly after releasing their second album in late 1995).
Again, there are probably other songs from the DUMB AND DUMBER soundtrack that may have been more “worthy” entries from a playlist like this, but sometimes you wanna just sit back and smile, and “New Age Girl” will always make me smile.
8. “Shitlist” by L7 (NATURAL BORN KILLERS, PET SEMATARY TWO)
Sometimes, you get pissed off and you just feel like kicking a little ass. And in the summer of 1994, if I was feeling a “certain kind” of angry, there was no better song to fuel that fire than “Shitlist” by L7, thanks to the NATURAL BORN KILLERS soundtrack. I know that “Shitlist” had originally been released a few years earlier in 1992 on the L7 album Bricks Are Heavy, but I wasn’t nearly cool enough to fully experience and appreciate the riot grrrls of L7 at that point in my life. Thankfully, just a few years later, it was none other than Trent Reznor (who produced the NATURAL BORN KILLERS soundtrack for Oliver Stone) who would serve as my entry point into the world of L7, and my world was forever changed for the better.
Also, the fact that it’s “Shitlist” that is playing during the diner scene in NATURAL BORN KILLERS when Juliette Lewis (as Mallory Knock) kicks the ever-loving crap out of some dumbass redneck who just wouldn’t leave her alone, is utter perfection. Plus, it’s yet another song that appears on multiple soundtracks during the decade (it’s also featured in PET SEMATARY TWO, but I believe the sequel didn’t get an official soundtrack release) only amplifies the badassery of “Shitlist.”
9. “Colorblind” by Counting Crows (CRUEL INTENTIONS)
When it comes to the CRUEL INTENTIONS soundtrack, I think the first song that pretty much everyone immediately thinks of is “Bittersweet Symphony” from The Verve, which is fair. Especially because of how well it ties into the perfectly crafted comeuppance scene where Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has to answer for her misdeeds in the wake of her brother Sebastian’s (Ryan Phillippe) death. But deep down, I’m a big softie at heart - and I’m also a big softie who absolutely loved (still loves, really) Counting Crows so I had to go with my gut and choose “Colorblind” for this playlist.
If I’m being honest, every single time I hear this song, I still get chills after more than 20 years, and so much of that is tied to the raw emotion of Adam Durtiz’s vocals and the perfect placement of “Colorblind” in CRUEL INTENTIONS as well. There are a lot of hauntingly emotional ballads that were released on a variety of soundtracks throughout the 1990s, but “Colorblind” still remains my absolute favorite (not to disrespect the efforts of Whitney Houston or Celine Dion who obviously had the more well-known soundtrack ballads in the ‘90s).
10. “Hoochie Mama” by 2 Live Crew (FRIDAY)
Look, I understand that it probably would make more sense to pick songs like “Keep Their Heads Ringin’” by Dr. Dre or or Ice Cube’s titular track, but when it comes to the FRIDAY soundtrack, I’m a basic bitch and I had to go with “Hoochie Mama” from the controversial, but catchy, 2 Live Crew. FRIDAY is a film that is in heavy rotation in our house (especially during out late-night Friday night Scrabble games), and I swear to god that, even after all these years, I turn into an absolute fool whenever “Hoochie Mama” hits - it just brings me so much (wait for it) joy - or perhaps, Joi.
And speaking of Joi, “Hoochie Mama” ends up becoming the anthem for Craig’s (Ice Cube) extremely jealous (but unfaithful) girlfriend throughout FRIDAY, played by the scene-stealing Paula Jai Parker. In an ensemble bursting with brilliantly hilarious performances, Joi has become my favorite supporting character in FRIDAY over the years, and if anyone deserves her own damn anthem, it is the vivacious Joi - hands down.
11. “Drown” by The Smashing Pumpkins (SINGLES)
As someone who was a teenager during the glorious Grunge era of the ‘90s, the SINGLES soundtrack stands out as the perfect window into a time and place when the Seattle music scene reigned supreme and forever changed the landscape of popular music during that decade (so much so that entirely new types of radio stations and even a separate Billboards chart had to be created). When I look back on the SINGLES soundtrack, I still love Paul Westerberg’s contributions and it might have made more sense (or at least felt more “authentic” to this love letter to Seattle) to pick offerings from Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone or even Chris Cornell. But I’m a Chicago gal, so I had to go with our hometown heroes, The Smashing Pumpkins and “Drown.”
The Smashing Pumpkins may have better songs in their catalogue, but what I love about “Drown” is that once those first few bars hit, there is an immediate sense of calm that washes over me, despite the fact that its lyrics are most likely about regret over a lost love. Since I’ve moved out to Los Angeles, “Drown” has become a song that represents the complicated feelings I have about my home state of Illinois where I miss it, but also recognize its a place that is firmly in my past now. I love it so much and I feel like it’s an oft-overlooked song from the Pumpkins that doesn’t get nearly enough love.
12. “Born Slippy .NUXX” by Underworld (TRAINSPOTTING)
Well, I figured if I started off this list with some techno, why not end it with some techno, too? And that brings us to “Born Slippy .NUXX” from the British electronic group Underworld. The original version of “Born Slippy” has no vocals, but after an alcohol-fueled bender, Karl Hyde found himself “inspired” by the events of his night out in Soho, London and crafted some lyrics that he felt perfectly represented the fragmented viewpoint of someone under the influence. Which of course, makes it the absolute perfect track to serve as the backdrop for Danny Boyle’s TRAINSPOTTING, a film about the highs and lows of confronting addiction.
The instrumental version of “Born Slippy” is great by its own right, but whenever “Born Slippy .NUXX” pops up on Spotify, I’m immediately lost in the hazy euphoria of its pulsating beats and Hyde’s repetitive lyrics that give off the vibe of some stumbling drunk’s transcendent confusion. Hell, I’m not above admitting that “Born Slippy .NUXX” immediately causes me to dance around like a total buffoon, almost like I’m desperately trying to escape from something hanging over me in my life (but that’s like a whole ‘nother conversation for a different day). In any case, I absolutely adore “Born Slippy .NUXX” and I can’t think of a more perfect song to top off this playlist than this classic track from Underworld.
YouTube playlist for Heather Wixson’s “12 Songs From (Some Of) My Favorite ‘90s Soundtracks”
