The best songs featured in movies

25 April 2021, 22:00 | Updated: 23 March 2023, 17:37

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.

   

   Guns n'Roses - You Could Be Mine

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.

   

   Underworld - Born Slippy

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'?"

   

   Queen - Flash (Official Video)

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.

   

   David Bowie - Absolute Beginners (Official Video)

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.

   

   Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Video)

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.

   

   Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson (Audio)

7. Prince - Purple Rain

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

   

   Prince - Purple Rain (Official Video)

8. Eminem - Lose Yourself

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

   

   Eminem - Lose Yourself [HD]

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.

   

   Blondie - Call me