20 Soundtracks That Are Better Than the Movie

Music and movies go hand in hand. Imagine watching Halloween without John Carpenter's classic score punctuating all of Michael Myers' appearances. Or feeling the primal terror of Jaws minus John Williams' tension-mounting composition. Or wanting to save the day like Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars without Williams' epic symphony arrangements.

Not every movie needs music to sell its highs and lows, but whether it's an ace composer's excellent studio work or a collection of popular recording artists' contributions, a great soundtrack will oftentimes elevate what you'r seeing on the screen. In some cases, it can even overshadow everything the director and his or her cast has done. Do hip-hop heads even remember that there was a Sunset Park movie? Is there any reason to watch The Bodyguard when its soundtrack's songs are just an iPod's touch away?

You have to feel somewhat bad for the filmmakers who've been outperformed by these 20 soundtracks that are better than the movie. Talk about "song cry."

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Written by Matt Barone (@MBarone), Tara Aquino (@t_akino), and Ross Scarano (@RossScarano)

Release date: October 21, 1996
Record label: Warner Sunset/Atlantic

Director Joe Pytka's efforts were admirable. Who wouldn't want to see the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, yucking it up and shooting intergalactic hoops with Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, the Tasmanian Devil, and all of their Looney Tunes brethren? Sounds like a sports-loving kid's dream come true, no? In theory, yes, but not in execution. Space Jam's 2D/3D animation is shoddy, the humor is lazy, and Jordan mostly looks dazed and confused, as if someone spiked his Wheaties. It's really not a good movie (though you can appreciate it for its camp—if you squint).

The film never stood a chance against its own soundtrack for a couple reasons: "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Hit 'Em High (The Monstars' Anthem)." The former, of course, is R. Kelly's sweeping inspirational anthem, a real tower of song. Kelly is a polarizing figure, but even the most sensitive viewers have to appreciate the majesty of his earnest ode to perseverance.

Now, "Hit 'Em High"—a hardbody posse cut with B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, Coolio, and LL Cool J—still puts speakers on blast. This was during the hey day of '90s movie soundtracks nabbing quality rap songs (see: the Men in Black soundtrack, too).

Recognize that we are not riding for Bugs Bunny's embarrassing rap debut, "Buggin'." But if you want to talk about the comedic excellence of "Basketball Jones," we're right there with you. —MB

Release date: March 29, 2011
Record label: Republic

There's a reason why Take Me Home Tonight, originally shot in 2007, took four years to see a theatrical release—it's desperately nostalgic, unoriginal pap. Led by the never engaging Topher Grace, the film apes from several better versions of the nerd-gets-the-girl-at-a-party movie (e.g., Can't Hardly Wait) while smothering its perfunctory character arcs and unfunny jokes with a surplus of 1980s sight gags.

At least the film's '80s vibes allowed for a bitching collection of some of the decade's greatest jams. For rap heads, there's N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton." Hair-band lovers get a little "Kickstart My Heart," via Motley Crue. Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" services those hipsters who frequent '80s bars in "Frankie Says Relax" T-shirts. And The Buggles' euphoric "Video Killed the Radio Star" brightens any downbeat listener's day.

One question, though: Where the hell is Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight"? You know, the song the movie is named after? That record still goes hard. —MB

Release date: May 23, 1995
Record label: Atlantic

During the 1990s, part of the approach to selling a summer blockbuster was assembling a soundtrack full of potential hit singles across a variety of genres, from rap to pop to grunge. The Batman Forever soundtrack is a great example of that push.

The third in the original Batman movie franchise started by Tim Burton in 1989, Batman Forever was the beginning of the end. Joel Schumacher (Flatliners, Falling Down) took the reins and turned what was previously a dark but ridiculous series into something so hammy, you just felt bad for everyone involved. Especially folks like Val Kilmer, who has the camera basically travel up the crack of his ass during one shot of the new Batsuit; Tommy Lee Jones, an incredible actor who, as Two-Face, is asked to chew more scenery than any single body hold; and Nicole Kidman, who plays a character named Dr. Chase Meridian. This is a joke, and no one is laughing.

But let me tell you about something that isn't a joke: "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal. In 1995, hearing him mush-sing through those opening ba-da-da-da-das was the equivalent of Future imploring you to "turn up" in 2013. And then the chorus—which makes no sense from a words perspective—modulates, and you find out that you've just proposed to the person sitting closest to you. This is powerful music.

The soundtrack also includes songs from Nick Cave, Massive Attack, Method Man, PJ Harvey, the Flaming Lips, Sunny Day Real Estate, and lot of other acts who shouldn't legally be allowed to share a billing together. We'll never have another Batman Forever, Music From the Motion Picture. —RS

Release date: November 17, 1992
Record label: Arista

The Bodyguard is a fine movie, and, in 2013, an essential viewing experience for Whitney Houston fans, as it lets you watch the performer in her prime, singing her life out, exuding a complex confidence, and looking gorgeous. She owns all of her scenes. She's untouchable. (And is anything more badass than the scene when Kevin Costner's character cuts the scarf with his samurai sword? Just describing it, I'm shocked by its strangeness and beauty.)

Still, if all of the prints and VHS/DVD copies of the movie were to vanish overnight, we would still have the soundtrack, and that would be enough to sustain us. On the strength of its many hit singles, The Bodyguard became the best-selling movie soundtrack of all time, selling over 45 million copies.

When you bought this on cassette with your mom at Sam Goody in 1992, you bought it for Houston's house rendition of Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman," her new-jack "Queen of the Night," and you bought it for "I Will Always Love You." Not to get all Patrick Bateman on you, but her cover of Dolly Parton's country classic is a perfectly schmaltzy ballad raised to Olympian heights by Houston's vocals. Her voice is clear as glass, expressive to the point of tears. Oh, you don't like saxophone solos and cheesy modulations? Too fucking bad. This is Whitney Houston, and there's no denying her. —RS

Release date: November 6, 1987
Record label: Def Jam

There's only been one great adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, and Less Than Zero ain't it. Marek Kanievska lurid version of Ellis' first novel, released when he was just 21, is all flash. Following a group of similarly aged characters as they drift around Los Angeles, blowing money and coke, getting into increasingly ugly business, Ellis wrote a novel that will leave you chilled. Kanievska's film can't capture the writer's tricky tone; his movie just feels trashy, a vehicle for young stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Andrew McCarthy to play at being bad.

The props, then, go to Rick Rubin for his impeccably curated soundtrack. Released on Def Jam, the album contains classic singles like LL Cool J's "Going Back to Cali," Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise," and an incredible Paul Simon cover from the Bangles, "A Hazy Shade of Winter." —RS

Release date: December 3, 2010
Record label: Walt Disney

All looks and no soul, the pricey 2010 visual effects blowout Tron: Legacy is nothing but sensory overload. It's a video game come to life, with talented actors like Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, and Jeff Bridges struggling to avert viewers' eyes from the digital spectacle surrounding them. Which is made even more difficult thanks to the entrancing Daft Punk sounds that render things like "character" and "plot" obsolete.

Sonically, Tron: Legacy is a whirlwind of energy, with the Daft Punk guys blending orchestral grandeur ("Nocturne") with spurts of their quintessential, Discovery-era electronica ("Derezzed"). It's recommended listening for anyone who's fallen asleep trying to drink the Random Access Memories Kool-Aid. —MB

Release date: July 16, 2013
Record label: Milan Records

For his follow-up to 2011's vibrant crime flick Drive, Danish provocateur Nicolas Winding Refn went a bit too far over the edge of genre with Only God Forgives. Once again, Ryan Gosling is his leading man, but this time, Gosling's silent-stare acting is empty, not enchanting, and the film's ultra-violence, while impressively stylish, doesn't add up to much more than artistic gratuitousness.

Like Drive, Only God Forgives benefits from a dynamite score, anchored again by composer Cliff Martinez. Yet, in this case, Martinez's work outshines Refn's. The film is hollow, blood-drenched eye candy; the soundtrack, on the other hand, is full-bodied adrenaline. "Wanna Fight," for instance, sounds like an electro rave inside Dracula's castle, while the searing "More Hands" moves from Eraserhead-like ambiance to lush, symphonic elegance. —MB

Release dates: Vol. 1, March 28, 1995; Vol. 2, April 11, 1995
Record label: Tommy Boy

In the annals of hood flicks, New Jersey Drive is rarely, if ever, placed alongside the almighty trinity of Boyz N the Hood, Menace II Society, and Juice. Given a fresh look today, the film—produced by Spike Lee—holds up as a raw, unflinching look at the car-jacking subculture that struck fear in Garden State residents throughout the '90s. Even if cinema's history books never award New Jersey Drive its due respect, the filmmakers can always take comfort in the fact that their movie has a much better soundtrack than those aforementioned classics.

An epic collection of a who's who in 1990s hip-hop, the two-disc New Jersey Drive OST—released on two separate days, a la Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill flicks—made it simple for discerning fans to pick and choose. For the softer crowd, Volume 1 mixed in R&B, with Total's timeless "Can't You See" (featuring the Notorious B.I.G.) standing out amidst smooth rap tracks like Outkast's exceptional "Benz or Beamer" and Ill Al Skratch's (damn, remember them?) "Don't Shut Down on a Player."

The second volume, though, is where the real heat existed. At its best, the straight rap edition of New Jersey Drive captured the furious anger of kids pushing against authority, from Jeru the Damaja's strong anti-cop banger "Invasion" to the conceptual, in-the-mind-of-a-dirty-officer highlight "You Won't Go Far," a tag-team from O.C. and Organized Konfusion. —MB

Release date: November 8, 2005
Record label: G-Unit/Interscope

Unsurprisingly, 50 Cent used the soundtrack for his so-so biopic Get Rich or Die Tryin' to promote his newly expanded G-Unit lineup back in the fall of 2005. It's not like anyone actually thought he'd let non-Guerrilla artists eat off the strength of his big movie, right? We'd hope not.

And who could blame him? Get Rich or Die Tryin' debuted when the G-Unit squad was at its strongest, and the film's soundtrack embodies that crew-issued muscle. Being that the Unit's frontman raps on 12 of the album's 16 tracks (as well as on both of its two bonus cuts), Get Rich or Die Tryin' is essentially another 50 Cent album, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Some of 50's best singles are included here, like "Hustler's Ambition" and "Window Shopper," and he's a focal point on collaborations like "You Already Know" (with Lloyd Banks and Young Buck) and "I Don't Know Officer" (with Prodigy, Ma$e, Lloyd Banks, and forgotten Game replacement Spider Loc). —MB

Release date: November 15, 1977
Record label: RSO/Polydor/Reprise

It's hard to watch Saturday Night Fever today and not laugh for all the wrong reasons. From John Travolta's wardrobe to the close-ups of his mugging, director John Badham's musically powered drama is a flamboyant experience in molten cheese. But it's not without its strong characterization and impressive performances, namely that of Travolta.

Does the movie hold up as well as its disco-minded soundtrack, though? Not quite. Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack plays like a bell-bottom lover's jukebox of choice, with the Bee Gees taking center-stage via staples like "Jive Talkin'" and "Stayin' Alive." Just leave moves like these to your boy Tony Manero. —MB

Release date: June 25, 1984
Record label: Warner Bros.

Yes, believe it or not, kiddies, Purple Rain isn't just an amazing Prince album—it's also a pretty decent movie. Well, it was actually a glorified music video posing as a legitimate motion picture, in the same league as Jay-Z's Streets is Watching but with more Apollonia (score!).

In the pop culture history books, though, Purple Rain will forever be remembered for its music. Which is unavoidable, really, when the disc includes Prince classics like "When Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy," "The Beautiful Ones," and "I Would Die 4 U." That's the difference between a pretty decent movie and one of the most essentials LPs in the history of recorded music. —MB

Release date: December 6, 1994
Record label: Priority

Video game historians will forever look upon the 1994 big-screen adaptation of Street Fighter as a laughable attempt to cash in on the arcade and home console favorite. Blame it on Jean-Claude Van Damme's strained performance as Guile, or the late Raul Julia's over-acting in the villainous role of M. Bison. Don't, however, project any disappointment toward Kylie Minogue's work as Cammy—intense sexiness always outweighs bad thespian abilities in our book.

Street Fighter should be looked back upon as a complete creative washout, but there's just one problem: Its soundtrack is too damn excellent. Perhaps aware that the movie itself sucked (though probably not), the people involved with assembling the film's original music pulled no punches, corralling the likes of Nas ("One on One"), LL Cool J ("Life as…"), and The Pharcyde ("Pandemonium") to contribute first-rate songs that only the most ardent of die-hard fans show love to 18 years later. It's amazing how many Nas loyalists still haven't heard "One on One." —MB

Release date: August 10, 2004
Record label: Epic

This isn't to say that Garden State is a bad movie. It's a charming, twee love letter to Bruce Springsteen's New Jersey, not MTV's New Jersey. And if you're familiar at all with its director, actor Zach Braff, then you know to expect before even watching it: self-deprecating jokes and quirky personalities all glimpsed through a rain-covered lens.

Despite its competence as a standalone film, largely thanks to Natalie Portman as the quintessential manic pixie dream girl, its soundtrack takes the experience to another level and captures an essence that then-amateurish Braff couldn't quite perfectly bottle up by himself. Coldplay's "Don't Panic," Cary Brothers' "Blue Eyes," Frou Frou's "Let Go," and basically every great song by the Shins all tell the film's story, about a troubled man (Braff) trying to find himself, better than Braff actually does. You don't have to watch the film to experience and imagine the story being told, and that's a testament to the brilliance of its soundtrack. —TA

Release date: November 3, 1998
Record label: Def Jam

Music video director turned feature filmmaker Hype Williams made his big-screen debut with Belly. He sought to find out just how many gangster movie clichés could fit into one rapper-starring vanity project. While never boring, the finished product is a fascinating misfire, notable for Nas' wooden acting, DMX's unhinged charisma, and some striking cinematography.

Thankfully, the Def Jam Records team didn't share Williams' inefficiencies when creating Belly's original soundtrack. Rather, they went for broke, combining dynamite posse cuts (i.e., "Grand Finale," with DMX, Method Man, Nas, and Ja Rule) with heaters from the Wu-Tang ("Windpipe," featuring RZA, Ghostface Killah, and Ol' Dirty Bastard) and Roc-A-Fella ("Crew Love," with Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, and Memphis Bleek) camps.

Even the R&B joints hit hard, namely D'Angelo's DJ Premier-produced "Devil's Pie" and Mya's "Movin' Out," strengthened by verses from Raekwon and Noreaga. —MB

Release date: Vol. 1, September 20, 1995; Vol. 2, April 2, 1996
Record label: Capitol

After the reasonably straightforward, though nonetheless devastating, hood drama Menace II Society, the Hughes Brothers went ambitious for their sophomore film, Dead Presidents. It's many things: a heist movie, an intimate character study, a coming-of-age drama, and a Vietnam film. The problem, then, is that Dead Presidents never achieves cohesion. The film's as messy as it is frequently thrilling.

The soundtrack, however, is uniformly excellent. Comprised largely of classic '70s soul and funk jams, the two-volume series favors artists like James Brown ("The Payback," "I Got the Feelin'"), Isaac Hayes ("Walk on By," "The Look of Love"), and Curtis Mayfield ("We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue"), with a little Jay-Z ("Dead Presidents," of course) thrown in for good measure.

Save for Hov, the Dead Presidents soundtrack discs make for the perfect Now That's What I Call Good Music: 1970s Edition compilation. —MB

Release date: September 14, 1993
Record label: Epic

Call it the awesome culmination of Public Enemy's and Anthrax's efforts in recording the seminal 1987 rap/rock single "Bring the Noise." A full album's worth of that kind of fusion, the soundtrack to the Emilio Estevez/Cuba Gooding, Jr. thriller Judgment Night bypassed the usual all-MC approach and took 11 creative risks, pairing up respected hip-hop acts with equally acclaimed rock groups.

The results, while not all wholly successful, make for a truly one-of-a-kind listening experience. For those looking to bang their heads, the title track, a Biohazard/Onyx collaboration, is appropriately thrashing, while "I Love You Mary Jane," from Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill, slows things down a bit to give new-age hippies something to enjoy. Other interesting team-ups include Pearl Jam and, for a second time, Cypress Hill ("Real Thing"), Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funkee Homosapien ("Missing Link"), and Teenage Fanclub with De La Soul ("Fallin'"). —MB

Release date: December 14, 2004
Record label: Hollywood Records

In 2001, Wes Anderson released The Royal Tenenbaums, the grandest, most fully realized expression of his particular worldview, all symetrical composition and knickknacks. It's a great film that explores the jumble that is family. His follow up, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, is even more ambitious. It's also more of a cartoon, and largely an unsucessful one.

Which is to say nothing about the soundtrack—that's immaculate. Comprised mostly of classics from David Bowie ("Life on Mars?") and Portuguese-languge covers of classics from David Bowie sung by Seu Jorge ("Rebel Rebel"), the soundtrack is a strange and wonderful achievement, the kind of thing you didn't realize you needed until you heard it. Bowie in Portuguese? Yes, please.—RS

Release date: September 10, 1996
Record label: Big Beat/Atlantic

An early predecessor to spoof movies likes of Scary Movie and Meet the Spartans, the reasonably funny High School High starred Jon Lovitz as the white dude who steps into an urban high school to change the lives of its most troubled students. Moviegoers weren't begging for a send-up of flicks like Dangerous Minds and Stand and Deliver, but considering that it spawned a 20-song soundtrack that was miraculously devoid of any crappy filler, no one with an ear for quality hip-hop complained.

The LP's best track was also its biggest single: "Wu-Wear: The Garment Renaissance," a four-minute commercial/record on which RZA, Method Man, and Cappadonna kill it so convincingly that, if revisited today, you may still find yourself looking for Wu Wallabees on eBay. Across the board, High School High is tailor-made for heads who prefer substance in their hip-hop. The Roots get gully on "The Good, the Bad, and the Desolate," New Jersey underground stalwarts the Artifacts get braggadocios on "The Ultimate," and legends Large Professor and Pete Rock join forces for the state-of-affairs cut "The Rap World." —MB

Release date: April 20, 1993
Record label: MCA

Back in the 1990s, Ed Lover and Dr. Dre (the shorter, pudgier one) were hip-hop culture fixtures, thanks to their fun chemistry together hosting the groundbreaking Yo! MTV Raps. It was only natural that the fellas get their own low-budget movie, and that it be a silly comedy that featured cameos from rappers like KRS-One, Ice-T, Kris Kross, Busta Rhymes, and the House of Pain fellas.

And appropriately, Who's the Man? came equipped with a formidable, original soundtrack. Right out the gate, the LP establishes its classic status with "Party and Bullshit," the first-ever official, on-an-album solo recording from a promising young Brooklyn MC known as Biggie Smalls (later the Notorious B.I.G.). Elsewhere, Pete Rock & CL Smooth calmed things down with the funky "What's Next on the Menu?," while House of Pain nearly stole the show with the gritty title track. —MB

Release date: April 23, 1996
Record label: Elektra

As far as the movie itself, the sports drama Sunset Park was a lower-tier piece of white savior hokum, with Rhea Perlman playing a Jewish schoolteacher tasked with coaching an inner-city Brooklyn high school basketball squad. Which, of course, has thugs with hearts of gold as players. The only reason why anyone still remembers the film, in fact, is because of its successful soundtrack, one that reached as high as No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

A mixture of hardcore rap and edgy R&B, Sunset Park's musical companion set includes the best of both styles. On the rap front, you've got a couple of underrated yet all-time great tracks from Ghostface Killah ("Motherless Child") and Mobb Deep ("Back at You"), an obscure 2Pac joint ("High 'Til I Die"), and an atypically rowdy record from Queen Latifah (the Easy Mo Bee-produced "Elements I'm Among").

Perhaps the LP's most memorable song, however, is Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s "We Don't Need It," a raunchy call-and-response that feels quite out of place attached to a movie about inspiring hope in underprivileged teens. Something tells us that Rhea Perlman's character wouldn't condone the hook, which, amongst other profanities, has chicks declaring: "If you ain't lickin' no butts, we don't want it—we don't want it!" Or maybe she would? Yikes! —MB