10 Classic Songs You Didn’t Know Were Written for Movies

There’s an art to the perfect movie soundtrack single. It’s gotta be catchy, it’s gotta be thematically appropriate, and it’s gotta be something the people will remember long after the release of the movie it was written for. This trend goes in and out of fashion. It was popular in the 1970s and ’80s when radio play was just as important as box office numbers, and has had a bit of a resurgence in recent years (even the Avatar movies have had original songs that play over the credits).

Some original soundtrack songs are so synonymous with their movies it would be impossible to separate one from the other. You can’t listen to “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, “Lose Yourself” from Eminem’s 8 Mile, “Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun, “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic without also considering the context.

It’s also a bit of an easy bid for an Academy Award — if you don’t think the movie itself is a shoo-in for Best Picture, why not tack a tune onto the end credits to get that Best Original Song nomination? Sometimes, though, the songs are so good and get so popular that the movies they were originally written for are left behind, and people forget that one of their favorite rap tracks, for example, was written for a movie where Michelle Pfeiffer plays an inner city teacher.

Let this list serve as a reminder, then, of the origins of some of your favorite summer jams and ballads whose runaway fame has divorced them from their humble origins as movie soundtrack singles. These songs run the gamut from pop hits to atmospheric themes to stadium rock hymns and everything in between, including one impudent number about the infidelity of someone’s girlfriend. You know the songs, now it’s time to watch (or rewatch) the movies.