I watched Crime 101 the other day. Pretty good. I enjoyed it. Best of all was Sault performing Glory over the end credits. The bass line brought the film to a firm conclusion and the song’s soulfulness kept me engaged enough to watch the thousand names scroll by and gently brought me back to the real world.
It struck me that choosing the music to play over end credits is a tricky art. Radiohead have paid tribute in Exit Music (For A Film). The best example I can think of is David Bowie’s Heart’s Filthy Lesson underlining the shock revelation at the end of Se7en. Stunning.
Any other ideas?
Thumbs up for Season 6, episode 14 of The Sopranos, which had John Coopeer Clarke’s “Evidently Chickentown” playing over the end credits. Unexpected but terrific.
Sopranos deployed music brilliantly.
Here’s the JCC track in question:
One of the funniest things I’ve seen in years was seeing the signing person trying to keep up with this when I accidentally recorded the signed version of the programme on BBC4.
The ending of Goodfellas is great. IIRC, he says something like “Now I get to live the rest of my life like a schmuck”, followed immediately by the fast section of Sid Vicious snarling My Way.
Each of the Lord of the Rings films ends with good songs: Enya’s “May It Be”, Emilíana Torrini’s eerie and creepy “Gollum’s Song”, and Annie Lennox’s “Into the West”. If you’ve watched the extended editions and got caught up in the saga, “Into the West” is the perfect coda. I always find it extremely moving.
Michael Mann’s films usually have great soundtracks, and Heat is no exception, especially the use of Moby’s “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters” over the end credits after the fateful shootout.
Speaking of Moby, the Jason Bourne films use his “Extreme Ways” over the end credits. It’s somehow exciting yet mournful, which really suits the story of a lone assassin who has lost his memory.
I think I’ll pop this here for the simple reason that… ahem… I was in the audience. As you were.
Re: LOTR end music – I found the Enya song tolerable but a bit twee; but I always switch off before the end credits of The Return…I cannot stand that Annie Lennox song. I accept that I’m probably in a minority of one…
For me, Gollum’s Song is far and away the best of the three, certainly in terms of reflecting the atmosphere of the movie.
Re. Annie Lennox – her closing song on Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, ‘Love Song For A Vampire’, is sublime:
And also, Kate Bush has form on this score (!), with ‘This Woman’s Work’ (She’s Having A Baby) and ‘Lyra’ (The Golden Compass’);
Two that I liked
John Newman – Love Me again at the end of Edge of Tomorrow
and then there is this (should I be saying spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen Fight Club?)
Oh also this from Vanilla Sky
I watched Romeo + Juliet last night for the first time, it appears to be a bit of a favourite with Mini Paws. The aforementioned Exit Music (for a film) plays out at the end and although I’ve heard the song a thousand times before I did sit and watch the credits. A quick trip to wikipedia tells me that the band were “commissioned” to write a piece for the film and were given the last 10 minutes of the film to work to. Seems a funny thing to have done just for the credits, but there you go.
As an aside, on Christmas Eve Mrs. Paws and I wandered down our local High Street at around 3pm. Largely deserted, there was a busker standing by a statue in the middle of the pedestrianised part town, initially singing Creep by Radiohead (reasonable choice, I suppose) and followed it by Ext Music. An interesting song for the time of year (or any time of year) finishing as it does with the line “we hope that you choke, that you choke.” I gave him a quid for his troubles.
It was remiss of me not to mention that Exit Music is literally titled.
I’m not an Oasis fan by any means, but I liked the way that Peter Flannery’s brilliant TV drama “Our Friends in the North” (1996) concluded with “Don’t Look Back in Anger” over the final credits.
That was absolutely smashing that finale. And Don’t Look Back in Anger was a proper lump in the throat moment, rounding off a pretty consistent run of brilliant choices ending each of the preceding episodes. Like for instance the 1987 episode ending with When Tomorrow Comes somehow just hit perfectly
Yes indeed. Excellent use of music throughout Our Friends in the North. A series that gives the usual suspects – Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad – a run for their money, IMO.
A few notable entries:
1. Land of a Thousand Dances at the end of The Great Outdoors
Dan Aykroyd, John Candy and Annette Benning inexplicably dancing in a bar. Aykroyd giving it loads. Frankly unbeatable dancefloor energy,
2. Wake Up at the end of The Matrix
One of the greatest WTF moment movies ever produced by Hollywood, and then you all sit there dumbstruck at the end as Zack de la Rocha screams the words “wake up” at you. Perfection.
3, Jailhouse Rock at the end of The Blues Brothers
Several of the greatest musicians and two of the greatest comedians there have ever been, having a whale of a time in prison. Plus, that bloke who pretends to swim on the table,
4. Going Home at the end of Local Hero
Bit of a cheat as it was written for purpose, but dear god it fits that moment like a glove.
Dan Ackroyd must really love that song, given its role in the Blues Brothers as well.
Re. Going Home: a masterclass in writing film music, the buildup to the theme has callbacks to earlier cues as he remembers his time in Scotland, without any sense of contrivance at all. It’s beautiful.
Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier obviously gives some thought to his choice of End Music.
The Worst Person In The World played out by Waters Of Mars by Art Garfunkel. It seemed appropriate but for no real reason
His latest film Sentimental Value plays out with Cannock Chase by Labi Siffre. Again fits like a glove for no obvious reason.
BTW Labi Siffre seems to be having a renaissance on film soundtracks. I seem to have heard him there quite frequently in the last few years, most memorably on the soundtrack to The Holdovers.
Agreed, but conversely I thought that Roxy’s “Same Old Scene” (much as I love it) stuck out like a sore thumb in “Sentimental Value”…
Daft Punk’s end credits for Tron:Legacy. Wonderful.
Yes, a terrific way to end the film. Generally the Punk don’t do much for me, but they got this soundtrack exactly right.
Mad Men had a couple of outstanding examples of this:
*Season 5 Episode 8, where Megan introduces Don to what ‘the kids’ are getting turned on by, and Don signals his growing obsolescence by literally turning off the song she’s playing, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows” – which incidentally cost the producers $250,000 to use.
*The very final episode, where Don joins a spiritual retreat and is inspired by his new-found inner harmony to create one last, globe-straddling ad campaign…’I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke’. Absolute perfection.
And a couple of episodes before the end, Space Oddity as the desert looms up in front of Don in his car. Beautiful
When I was composing film and TV music it was always disappointing to hear the producers say “and you don’t need to bother with the opening/end credits music as we’re using xxx”. Disappointing because they both pay a higher rate in composer royalties than background music/underscore.
That confirms what I thought. Getting your song used to bookend a movie is where the real money is.
There’s actually 3 “tiers”. The highest paid is when the music is audible to the people on screen. like, riding in a car and singing along to a song on the car radio. Next comes opening titles/end credits and finally background music/underscore
You Can’t Always Get What You Want must have earned a fortune by itself! 😮
Runs off to compose follow up to “Bohemian Rhapsody…”
Last night I watched the excellent Japanese film “Kokuho” (“National Treasure”), which despite being the biggest Japanese live-action box office hit ever, and winner of all the major Japanese academy awards, is unlikely to see a major release elsewhere as, well, 3 hour movies about Kabuki theatre aren’t really catnip to western audiences… still, it had a wonderful soundtrack by Marihiko Hara, including this gorgeous end credits song, “Luminance”…
Honey bee by Grinderman – plays over the end credits of True Detective episode 4, season 1.
It’s like a hit of adrenaline that perfectly fits the final, frantic moments of the episode.
Is it not season 2?
Agh! This is torture! I must have dozens of examples but right now the only one I can think of Vera Lynn at the end of Doctor Strangelove.
I might be in a minority but I like watching the credits, who the musicians are, locations, Best Boy etc. It’s really irritating on streaming services when the moment the film ends the credits pop in into a unreadably tiny window and a load of “you might like this” ads pop up. I know you can get rid of them but FFS just leave it alone.
You are not alone. It also annoys that music credits are at the end and you have to read accountants, second underling to the director etc (no offence to them) before you get to the musicians.
Continuity announcers talking over the end music too.
Having been watching again the Mss Fisher Murder Mysteries the end music played has songs relevant to the plot.
Mrs Path is forever rewinding films/streams and shazamming the soundtrack.
I usually look up the info on IMDB.
Did she shazam the soundtrack of Shazam! ?
I always watch the credits, probably out of respect for the work that goes into making a film/show, and usually find myself drawn to the music section in particular.
This is how I end up looking to see if the ridiculously prolific (seriously: he has more than 460 credits on IMDB – have a day off man!) Booker White has had another gig as a music copyist/preparer, and Alan Meyerson (350+ credits) has mixed yet another soundtrack.
Yes, I am very dull – but boy do I love movies!
Another one I only learned about yesterday:
That one caused me to sob uncontrollably in the cinema for about 15 minutes.
Me too. The earlier shot of a certain pair of shoes – if you’ve seen the film, you’ll know of their significance – had me gasping, and that song over the credits finished me off.
Heroes is also used very well in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (although not over the end credits, IIRC), and Peter Gabriel’s sparse and rather good cover version is just right at the end of Lone Survivor, over images of fallen soldiers:
This is such a great song – Taylor at her best:
Rage Against the Machine’s Wake Up is just perfect at the end of The Matrix, I think.
I’ve been watching Deutschland ’83 / ’86 and they make very effective use of music of the day. The episode I watched this morning finished with a montage set against Paul Simon’s ‘Homeless’.
R.E.M.’s brilliant “Strange Currencies” was used very effectively to end the second season of “The Bear”.