The best songs featured in movies

25 April 2021, 22:00

Axl Rose of Guns N'Roses and a scene from Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Axl Rose of Guns N'Roses and a scene from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Picture: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images/ Moviestore/Shutterstock

Radio X picks the perfect playlist of songs written for classic films… Is your favourite on here?

  1. Guns N’Roses - You Could Be Mine

    Axl Rose and co launched their epic set of twin double albums Use Your Illusion I and II by having this stormer appear on the soundtrack to Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

  2. Underworld - Born Slippy .NUXX

    Best known for being the theme song to 1997’s classic Irvine Walsh adaptation Trainspotting, where it appears in the final scene.

  3. Queen - Flash

    Having taken on a remake of King Kong in 1976, producer Dino De Laurentiis next tackled the comic strip/movie serial antics of the Flash Gordon from the 1930s and made the genius move of enlisting Queen to do the music. The band are perfect for the job - the ideal blend of camp and operatic, dramatic and moving, with a title song that pounds through the movie like a heartbeat. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'FLASH GORDON APPROACHING'?"

  4. David Bowie - Absolute Beginners

    One of Bowie’s most underrated singles, this track was the theme song of the 1986 adaptation of Colin McInnes’ novel of 50s London.

  5. Aerosmith - Don’t Want To Miss A Thing

    The ‘Smith’s excellent power ballad made an unlikely appearance in the 1998 sci-fi disaster flick Armageddon.

  6. Simon And Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson

    The theme tune to 1967’s The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, this classic was later covered by The Lemonheads.

  7. Prince - Purple Rain

    This classic 80s power ballad forms the climax to Prince’s movie debut from 1984. It’s suitably epic.

  8. Eminem - Lose Yourself

    This is the theme song to Marshall Mathers’ autobiographical movie, 8 Mile, about his tough life in Detroit.

  9. Blondie - Call Me

    Yep, this new wave classic was actually the theme song to a film nobody really remembers now, 1980’s American Gigolo, starring a young Richard Gere.


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