10 Songs Bowie recorded for Soundtracks
Bowie’s music has been used in countless movies, including memorable moments like when he appeared to sing “Station to Station” in Christiane F., or when “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson” plays over the end credits of Seven, somehow capturing the mood of what we had just seen. But those and many, many other songs were not originally recorded for the soundtracks of the movies in which they appeared. These ten (and there are more than ten to choose from) were originally composed or recorded for the purpose of being used in a movie or television show. You’ll know of some of them, but I’m guessing you won’t know all of them:
1.“The Drowned Girl” (1982). Bowie appeared in the BBC production of Bertolt Brecht’s play Baal. Unlike many of his acting appearances, he sang in this one. A soundtrack exists out there in the form of one of Bowie’s lesser-known EPs, and if you don’t know it, it is pretty unlike anything else Bowie recorded. What might be even more surprising is the existence of a video of Bowie performing this song from the soundtrack, which I’ve embedded in this post.
2.“The Revolutionary Song,” 1978. Bowie starred in Just a Gigolo, which is not a very good movie. Neither is this “song,” if you can call it that, which features Bowie singing, “la-la-la.” And to think—he was doing so well with the vocal minimalism on Low!
3.“Safe,” 2002. Bowie wrote this one for…The Rugrats Movie. It ended up not being used in the movie, but Bowie released it as a B-side.
4. “When the Wind Blows,” 1986. The title track for a movie about the aftermath of nuclear war, I think of this as one of Bowie’s better, lesser-known songs from the 80s. Fortunately, it has subsequently been included in compilations and re-releases. Bowie was supposed to contribute more songs for the soundtrack, but ended up switching attention to working on Never Let Me Down. It makes you think, what could have been.
5. “Real Cool World,” 1992. There’s a feeling of, “did this really happen?” about this song. It was actually Bowie’s first solo release after Tin Machine and was produced by Nile Rodgers, who also played guitar on the song. Today, while not exactly forgotten, the song and its corresponding movie, Cool World, don’t get a lot of attention.
6. “Volare,” 1986. Everybody knows “Absolute Beginners,” and “That’s Motivation” is memorable because Bowie actually performed it in the movie. But he also recorded a version of “Volare” for the soundtrack. Bowie’s character is heard singing it under his breath in a scene, but the soundtrack recording is the complete song. It is not included in all versions of the soundtrack album, making it a rarity. Bowie performs it straight, but his sense of humor comes through.
7. “Cat People (Putting Out Fire),” 1982. This song worked so well that Bowie recorded a second version of it for the album, Let’s Dance, and it was prominently used in the subsequent, unrelated movies, Inglorious Basterds and Atomica, despite “Cat People” being in the song’s name.
8. “This is Not America,” 1985. This collaboration with Pat Metheny is one of Bowie’s better-known soundtrack songs (for The Falcon and the Snowman), though in recent years it has been used to evoke a kind of political commentary unrelated to its original purpose.
9. “The Buddha of Suburbia,” 1993. Bowie’s album of the same name probably was hurt, in a commercial sense, by sharing the name of a book and TV series. The song was indeed part of the show’s soundtrack (though I never saw it and don’t exactly know how it was used). But the album as a whole is not a proper soundtrack and probably would have done better if it wasn’t initially marketed that way. If you buy the album today, it features an image of a contemplative Bowie rather than characters from the show. But for purposes of this list, the song counts!
10. “Chilly Down,” 1986. I could have selected any of the songs from Labyrinth that Bowie performed in the movie, but this is one he wrote but left to some muppets to sing. It is…not my favorite Bowie song. There’s a demo version featuring Bowie himself singing that is worth hearing just to hear it, but he was probably right to hand it off in the movie.
OK, how many of these did you know? What did I miss? Did I get anything wrong? Yes, I know about the original songs for Lazarus, but that’s not a movie or television show, but yes, I know the those songs.
