5 Must-Have Movie Soundtracks for Your Vinyl Collection

This Is Spinal Tap, by Spinal Tap
Spinal Tap is a favorite among rock/metal fans and performers alike for its satirical (but also eerily accurate) take on the rock music industry. Part of the reason why it’s so effective is the music; for a joke band, Spinal Tap was really good. The actors who played Spinal Tap in the film—Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer—also wrote and performed every song on the soundtrack, and they nail the pomposity, sophomoric lyrics, and arena-sized melodies of that era’s mainstream rock music perfectly. “Hell Hole,” “Big Bottom,” and “Stonehenge” are all excellent, and “Gimme Some Money” and “Listen to the Flower People” are great music history lessons in disguise.

Super Fly, by Curtis Mayfield
One of the few soundtrack albums to outgross the accompanying film, Super Fly is a commercial and artistic triumph as a film soundtrack, a soul concept album, and as a career milestone for Curtis Mayfield. The grooves, tone, and subject matter on this record are dark, but the execution is dynamic and full of energy, with Mayfield’s gospel falsetto almost pleading to be heard. While the title track, “Pusherman,” and “Freddie’s Dead” are the best-known songs from this soundtrack, “Little Child Runnin’ Wild” deserves more credit for being one of the best opening tracks of any album from the 1970s, letting the listener know in no uncertain terms to expect something exceptional.

The Goonies: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The Goonies occupies an interesting place in film history, as it has a loyal cult fan base of people who loved it as kids and never stopped loving it. If the same isn’t true of the movie’s soundtrack, it should be: the Goonies soundtrack is as much fun as the movie, and features a more eclectic mix of music than one might expect. The obvious draw here is Cyndi Lauper’s “Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough,” which is one of her best pop jams, but REO Speedwagon’s “Wherever You’re Goin’ It’s Alright” is perfect for sing-a-longs, and Luther Vandross makes an appearance here with “She’s So Good to Me,” an uptempo number that plays on Mrs. Walsh’s radio in the movie itself.

Jackie Brown: Music from the Miramax Motion Picture
Jackie Brown doesn’t get the same love that other Tarantino films get, but the soundtrack definitely should. All of Tarantino’s films are scored with a discerning eye (as is only fitting for a pop culture junkie), but this one has some great soul and R&B songs, including Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street,” The Delfonics’ “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time),” and Bill Withers’ “Who Is He (And What Is He to You),” which immediately set the mood and tone of the film. Soul is this soundtrack’s unifying element, and the few non-R&B selections here, like Johnny Cash’s “Tennessee Stud,” have plenty of that to spare.

Angus
Angus isn’t a well-known movie, but it does have one of the best ’90s-film soundtracks around, with great songs by Green Day (the then-unreleased “J.A.R.”), the Muffs (“Funny Face”), Weezer (“You Gave Your Love to Me Softly”), and a surprisingly good contribution from the Goo Goo Dolls (“Ain’t That Unusual”). But what makes this soundtrack so solid are all the tracks from lesser-known punk and alternarock acts; bands like Tilt, the Riverdales (a side project of pop punk architects Screeching Weasel), Ash, and Pansy Division didn’t get much mainstream attention back then, and their inclusion here sets this soundtrack apart from its peers.