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March 28, 2024, 09:37:23 AM

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Films where a piece of music or part of score is ridiculously overused

Started by Shoulders?-Stomach!, May 11, 2021, 02:08:46 PM

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Shoulders?-Stomach!

Last of the Mohicans - Epic permanently hummable title melody, but it still would have been equally memorable if they hadn't used it once every 2 and a half minutes.

American Beauty - I think the clanging clinging clanging soundtrack which seems to fade back in almost whenever anyone stops talking for longer than 5 seconds has made this film close to impossible as a repeat watch. It's so annoying.

Smokey & The Bandit - Ok guys maybe let's not use the exact same tune for every cutaway to a car chase, cheers. By the end of the film you will have felt like you heard it on a jukebox 20 times running. That's bad, by the way.


Blumf

Dr No - That James Bond theme plonked in all over the place. Yeah, it's a good tune, but it just didn't fit with most of the events happening on screen.

popcorn

I seem to recall that Scarborough Fair plays every 45 seconds in The Graduate.

shagatha crustie

Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love. The only film that has actually made me think 'again?!'

joaquin closet

Quote from: shagatha crustie on May 11, 2021, 03:49:29 PM
Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love. The only film that has actually made me think 'again?!'

And Wong Kar-Wai's Chunking Express with California Dreamin'...

GoblinAhFuckScary

watched shutter island recently and god do they overuse pendercki's third symphony

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

There's a really twee refrain that plays throughout True Romance that I find annoying. Sounds like it's played on a xylophone or something.

Chedney Honks

Quote from: shagatha crustie on May 11, 2021, 03:49:29 PM
Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love. The only film that has actually made me think 'again?!'

This is is why I have given up on forums.

😂😂😅

Quote from: joaquin closet on May 11, 2021, 04:25:12 PM
And Wong Kar-Wai's Chunking Express with California Dreamin'...

No, this is.

🤣🤣🤣

Take care, everyone.

Muriel's Wedding used Dancing Queen at least three, maybe four times and despite what you've heard, most of the big ABBA hits aren't even played.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: popcorn on May 11, 2021, 03:44:05 PM
I seem to recall that Scarborough Fair plays every 45 seconds in The Graduate.

It's only used once or twice, isn't it? Mrs Robinson crops up a lot, obviously, but in a slightly different arrangement each time.

I am basing this on my memory of a film I haven't seen in about 20 years.

joaquin closet

Quote from: Chedney Honks on May 11, 2021, 06:51:55 PM
No, this is.

🤣🤣🤣

Take care, everyone.

Haha, sorry. It's not overused -- obv intentional + thematic reasons for it -- but I was laughing when in started playing for the 547th time

beanheadmcginty

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on May 11, 2021, 02:08:46 PM
Smokey & The Bandit - Ok guys maybe let's not use the exact same tune for every cutaway to a car chase, cheers. By the end of the film you will have felt like you heard it on a jukebox 20 times running. That's bad, by the way.

Actually I think you'll find that the tune playing for the first half of the film before they've collected the beer is called "Westbound and Down" and the tune playing in the second half of the film after they've got the beer is called "Eastbound and Down". How much more variety do you need?

phantom_power

I love the film, and the song, but If You Want to Sing Out gets used a few too many times in Harold and Maude if memory serves

Jerzy Bondov

The first thing that came to mind is Love Actually which has this awful twee thing that plays whenever anything happens.

The Roofdog

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on May 11, 2021, 02:08:46 PM
American Beauty - I think the clanging clinging clanging soundtrack which seems to fade back in almost whenever anyone stops talking for longer than 5 seconds has made this film close to impossible as a repeat watch. It's so annoying.

In its defence, being used as background music for every TV trailer and interstitial music in every British documentary for about 15 years didn't really help it.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: The Roofdog on May 12, 2021, 09:54:37 AM
In its defence, being used as background music for every TV trailer and interstitial music in every British documentary for about 15 years didn't really help it.

This is the same problem Mansell's Requiem for a Dream soundtrack suffers from.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on May 12, 2021, 10:11:50 AM
This is the same problem Mansell's Requiem for a Dream soundtrack suffers from.

Agreed. Totally neutered by the likes of The X Factor et al. File next to similarly ruined imposing music cues, Orff's Carmen Burana, and Prokofiev's Dance Of The Knights.

phantom_power

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on May 11, 2021, 04:46:36 PM
There's a really twee refrain that plays throughout True Romance that I find annoying. Sounds like it's played on a xylophone or something.

That was pinched from Badlands as well, wasn't it?

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on May 11, 2021, 02:08:46 PM
Last of the Mohicans - Epic permanently hummable title melody, but it still would have been equally memorable if they hadn't used it once every 2 and a half minutes.

I've not seen it, but is it the stereotypical "Red Indian" music I transcribe as - derrrrrrrr derr du-du-du-du-derrrrrrr.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Forgot an obvious one: That Axel F song in every Beverly Hills Cop film.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Quote from: Blumf on May 11, 2021, 02:17:38 PM
Dr No - That James Bond theme plonked in all over the place. Yeah, it's a good tune, but it just didn't fit with most of the events happening on screen.

The theme was a last minute addition, after Monty Norman, who had mostly written a calypso score, failed to come up with a powerful theme. The producers booked John Barry, then a young arranger with a reputation for working up very fast, and gave him a few sketches provided by Norman. They used the theme for every action scene, because they didn't have anything else. Then, they forced the theme into a couple of scenes in From Russia with Love against Barry's wishes.

Passage to Marseille, one of the many attempts by Warner to recreate the spark of Casablanca with Bogart and most of the same cast and crew (even if the source material wasn't really suited for that), features something like 20 renditions of the Marseillaise. Which was actually written in Strasbourg, far away from Marseille.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Quote from: phantom_power on May 12, 2021, 10:41:55 AM
That was pinched from Badlands as well, wasn't it?

It's originally by Carl Orff (famous for Carmina Burana).

beanheadmcginty

Quote from: Ant Farm Keyboard on May 12, 2021, 04:03:45 PM
It's originally by Carl Orff (famous for Carmina Burana).

Although the Hans Zimmer version in True Romance is just-enough-not-quite-the-same-as the Carl Orff original that it really irritates me when I hear it.

Quote from: Blumf on May 11, 2021, 02:17:38 PM
Dr No - That James Bond theme plonked in all over the place. Yeah, it's a good tune, but it just didn't fit with most of the events happening on screen.

Love that Casino Royale held off until the very, very end.

Keebleman

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on May 11, 2021, 07:03:31 PM
It's only used once or twice, isn't it? Mrs Robinson crops up a lot, obviously, but in a slightly different arrangement each time.


Scarborough Fair is used twice, on both occasions for a long montage of Benjamin mooning over/stalking Elaine.  Mrs Robinson is barely used at all.  There are two iterations of the chorus but in a very rough form, not at all like the record.  Famously it was originally called Mrs Roosevelt until Mike Nichols, desperate for another song, told them it was now called Mrs Robinson.

Sound of Silence is used three times.  Opening credits, closing credits and for the montage after Ben and Mrs Robinson start getting it on.

The Halloween series as a whole.  It was good in the first one but after that it got old.

lipsink

Do The Right Thing uses 'Fight The Power' in the opening credits and then Radio Raheem blasts it in nearly every scene he's in. Though his character is obviously meant to be symbolic or something.

The Roofdog

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on May 12, 2021, 10:11:50 AM
This is the same problem Mansell's Requiem for a Dream soundtrack suffers from.

Definitely, I bought that soundtrack when it came out for an extortionate sum and remember feeling smug placing it when the second Lord Of The Rings film's trailer used an orchestral arrangement, but that was the floodgates opening.

It baffles me when music supervisors do that, the Kill Bill Vol 1 soundtrack was another one, surely if a recent big film has used a track AND every other fucker is using it, it's your job to find something original but no, they're like lemmings.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Keebleman on May 12, 2021, 05:37:02 PM
Scarborough Fair is used twice, on both occasions for a long montage of Benjamin mooning over/stalking Elaine.  Mrs Robinson is barely used at all.  There are two iterations of the chorus but in a very rough form, not at all like the record.  Famously it was originally called Mrs Roosevelt until Mike Nichols, desperate for another song, told them it was now called Mrs Robinson.

Sound of Silence is used three times.  Opening credits, closing credits and for the montage after Ben and Mrs Robinson start getting it on.

Ta, I gladly stand corrected. As I say, I haven't seen the film in years, but I do remember the bit where Benjamin's car breaks down on the way to the church and Simon's instrumental version of Mrs Robinson gradually splutters to a halt too. Quite a nice touch that.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on May 12, 2021, 05:00:59 PM
Although the Hans Zimmer version in True Romance is just-enough-not-quite-the-same-as the Carl Orff original that it really irritates me when I hear it.

It may be the same story as for The Right Stuff. Request by the director who had fallen in love with his temp track.
Philip Kaufman (who had just fired John Barry, using him a scapegoat for the delays in production) left something like four weeks to Bill Conti to come up with a full score, and also asked him to write something in the style of the temp tracks he was using to edit the film.
In one particular case, Kaufman begged over and over to stick more closely to the temp tracks, up to the point Conti had to explain to him it would be simpler to just use the original pieces, or they would be forced to give the original composer a credit if they didn't want to get sued. In the end, there were a few co-credits, one or two existing pieces used in the soundtrack, and a lot of soundalikes (the main theme is Tchaikovsky's violin concert with a few adjustments).