For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a music junky. Dating back to the time of first learning to stand, right up until this very moment, music has and will always be, a large part of my life. When I was asked to contribute articles to this site, I was both excited and nervous. With so many different topics to jump into, I found myself starting and deleting piece after piece, until one night, with the help of Edward Norton and The Pixies I finally settled on a beginning.

Music and movies have been a perfect marriage ever since the emergence of sound on film. Have you ever turned on a movie and hit the mute button? Obviously you will loose out on what the characters are saying, but try it during a scene where there is no conversation and watch how much emotion, overall, is lost when you remove the music. With all of this in mind, an email was sent out to the two biggest movie/music nerds I know, with the intention of creating a Most Memorable, or Best Of type list which would combined a specific movie scene with a specific song. (keep in mind that it would be very easy to write 4000 words on this, but we wanted to keep this down to a quick light read) After much deliberation, the following is what was agreed upon, in no particular order.1 – Canned Heat – Jamiroquai (Napoleon Dynamite, 2004)After spending the entire movie being the dorky, unpopular loser in school, Napoleon shows that you can strike a nerve just by dancing like a bad ass. Bad hair, horrible boots, and pants up to his eye balls couldn’t keep Napoleon from winning over the entire student body and it also allowed Jamiroquai to jump back in front of the masses once again. 2 – Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen (Waynes World, 1992)I was 12 the first time I saw this movie, and had no idea who Wayne, Garth or Queen were. I can remember watching that scene and being completely blown away by the music coming out of the television. Needless to say, I’ve been a fan of Queen ever since, and we really don’t need to go into how amazing they are….simply because of how amazing they are and their awesomeness cannot even begin to be described. Yup, I typed that all by myself.

<strong>3 – Hip To Be Square – Huey Lewis and The News (American Psycho, 2000)

Remember how much of a psychotic creep Christian Bale was in this flick. Now check out this scene and watch the creepiness hit an entirely different level. Such a poppy, upbeat song and yet an absolute insane scene. One thing is certain, Bale nails those dance moves while standing right next to the stereo.

4 – Stuck In The Middle With You – Steelers Wheels (Reservoir Dogs, 1992)

I could have honestly used Tarantino a dozen times in this list, but kept the selection down to one. A happy, fantastically poppy, 70’s track, which created an easy going background for Mr. Blondes vicious torture scene. Once again, we have another dance scene, completely nailed by an actor.

5 – Where Is My Mind – The Pixies (Fight Club, 1999)

And here we are back where this all started. If there was an order to this list, this selection would have to be my number one. The moment in which Norton discovers that it’s all been in his own mind and has no way to undo, what is about to happen. His closing lines, “Trust me. Everything is going to be fine.” as the buildings explode all and crumble to the ground, right in front of their own eyes. At that moment, you can’t help but want to start the movie all over again to really follow where his mind did go.

Honorable mention also goes out to Tiny Dancer (Almost Famous), In Your Eyes (Say Anything) and Old Time Rock n Roll (Risky Business). All three were good scenes, but if I had to, wouldn’t trade any of them for the first five.

JM