Wow, what a weekend for the Eastern Shore! Not only did Ocean City have a huge weekend hosting the first leg of the 2013 Dew Tour, where many of the world’s best skateboarders and BMX riders competed to earn top honors, but more than 70 high profile bands – including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Red Hot Chili Peppers – invaded Dover, Del., for this year’s Firefly Music Festival. Now that the dust has settled, all I want is some rest to counterbalance the craziness of last weekend!

On that thought, it’s been a while since I’ve talked about movies and I’m especially exCited to watch films this week such as The Great Gatsby, which not only are great works on their own, but also have awesome soundtracks written by great musicians specifically for the movie. Honestly, what most intrigues me about The Great Gatsby is that its soundtrack was produced by Jay-Z. To gear myself up for my movie marathon this week, here is a list of my six favorite original movie soundtracks written by some of the best musicians in the world.

 

Soundtrack by: Explosions in the Sky

Being that Explosions in the Sky is an instrumental post-rock band with a relaxing, if often upbeat, tone, one may think this may not fit as the backdrop of a football movie. However, the drama of the film’s story makes the band’s emotional sound an ideal fit. All but three songs on the soundtrack are by Explosions in the Sky, and most songs are originals, save for a shorter re-cut of the song “Your Hand in Mine” from the album The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place that was released a year prior to the movie.

 

Soundtrack by: Isaac Hayes

The late Isaac Hayes – one of the most influential songwriters and singers of soul and everyone’s favorite Chef – recorded a huge discography of 20 studio albums, but none were as popular as his soundtrack to the movie about one of the baddest dudes on the planet, Shaft. Most of the songs are instrumentals, but three of Hayes’ songs are vocal tracks, including the classic “Theme from Shaft” that was the main factor of the album’s success. Hayes initially wanted to star in the film as the main role, but it was already given to Richard Roundtree. The musician was still given a cameo appearance in the film.

Soundtrack by: Daft Punk

This album had much more significance than simply being the soundtrack to one of Disney’s biggest movies of the year, as there were a couple of milestones made with the release of Tron: Legacy. First, it was the first time Disney has revisited the world of Tron on the big screen since the original movie’s release in 1982. It was also the first time fans of electronic band Daft Punk heard original music from the band in five years, and fans were clamoring for new material. While only a few of the tracks held up as stand-alone songs, fans were reminded that this was a movie soundtrack and not a studio album. The new music was still great and fans even got to see a glimpse of the duo in the film wearing their iconic robot helmets.

Soundtrack by: Prince and The Revolution

Now we’re bringing in the big guns. Though the film is revered enough to be deemed a cult classic, its accompanying record reached an even greater legendary status as one of the best albums of all time. All songs were written solely by Prince, except for one song on which he still had co-writing duties. The album spawned three huge hits, “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” and of course, the title track, “Purple Rain.” Unlike Isaac Hayes, Prince did play the starring role of the film and also starred in the movie’s sequel, Graffiti Bridge. The sequel was poorly received, but its respective album, also written by Prince, received very positive reviews even though it’s not considered to be anything close to the classic Purple Rain.

Soundtrack by: The Beatles

The first of five classic movies starring the Fab Four, both the album and big screen adaptation represent a high point of Beatlemania. Even though the film was essentially a goofy story about The Beatles romping around town, it was still hugely popular at the time and is known as one of the most influential music films of all time. Being The Beatles’ third album, A Hard Day’s Night started showing some more improved songwriting, but songs were still of the pop/rock and roll format. But remember, they’re still The Beatles, so the songs were amazing. Mega hits “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” were both featured on this soundtrack.

Soundtrack by: Pink Floyd

We’re kind of cheating here because the movie was released three years after the album, but because literally every song in the film is taken directly from the album save for one, I’d say it counts. This record is regarded by many as one of the band’s best works and it is on several lists of top 100 rock albums of all time. Recording came at an interesting time where tension in the band started to rise. Songwriter, vocalist and bassist Roger Waters conceived the idea of the album when he was becoming so irritated by fans’ actions while playing live, that he wanted to construct a wall between the band and concert goers. Waters created symbolism in the record and movie’s story between the literal wall separating him from his fans and a metaphorical wall separating the main character from society as his life broke down. Several songs became instant classics, such as “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” “Comfortably Numb” and “Young Lust.”