In the piece's tinkling piano and synths, you can hear a premonition of the iconic soundtracks of John Carpenter to come. The most signature piece of music to ever grace a horror movie (and now an instant evocation of creeping doom), Mike Oldfield's prog-rock composition was selected for this 1973 blockbuster's opening theme after an entire original score was rejected by director William Friedkin. 🎵 The 40 best musical movies of all-time But that still left us with a ton of pop, rock, jazz and classical bangers to choose from. To clarify, we excluded songs made specifically for the film itself – so that meant forgetting about ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’. But they’re far from the only filmmakers to have woven music into movies and made magic. Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino are generally considered the masters of the needle drop, and they’re well represented on this list of the best uses of songs in movies. And when done right, they don’t just elevate the moment, they become inextricably linked to it. They’ve been called ‘needle drops’ – recognisable tunes that punctuate a film at just the right moment. The real question, though, is should you? Let’s face facts: some of the greatest scenes in movie history are memorable precisely because they’re soundtracked by the perfect song. Can you make a movie without music? Sure, plenty have.
