Not every film song is a classic. For every monster hit like (shudder) 'My Heart Will Go On' from Titanic, there are endless tunes like Josh Groban’s 'Remember' from Troy which are, ironically, easy to forget. Even the Oscars isn't that helpful a guide; in 2011, just two songs got nominated for an Academy Award. But sometimes, Hollywood stumbles onto a real tune, and in an even smaller number of cases that song transcends the film that provided its start. In tribute to these rare creatures, we’ve gathered together 25 songs that became far bigger than the film they appeared in. You will no doubt be outraged at what’s been excluded or included, so let us know what we missed or got wrong in the comments section below.
Where's it from?* *Despicable Me 2
Who first performed it?* *Pharrell Williams
Who wrote it?* *Pharrell Williams
Give me a fun fact!* *Pharrell originally wrote the song for Cee Lo Green and has even said on the record that Cee Lo’s rendition "burns my version!" However, "the powers that be" decided that Cee Lo should concentrate instead on his 2012 Christmas album, Cee Lo's Magic Moment, leaving Pharrell to perform what became a monster hit.
ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS
Where's it from?* *Absolute Beginners
Who first performed it?* *David Bowie
Who wrote it?* *David Bowie
***Give me a fun fact! ***The musicians on this track were only told to show up at Abbey Road to record with a mysterious "Mr X". However, they guessed Bowie’s identity ahead of time.
RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD
Where's it from?* *Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Who first performed it?* *B.J. Thomas
Who wrote it?* *Burt Bacharach and Hal David
Give me a fun fact!* *We missed out on a Bob Dylan version – he reportedly turned it down before Bacharach and David settled on B. J. Thomas – but there is a French version by Sacha Distel called Toute La Pluie Tombe Sur Moi of 'Hooked On A Feeling' (without hooga-chakas).
FIGHT THE POWER
Where's it from?* *Do The Right Thing
Who first performed it?* *Public Enemy
Who wrote it?* *Public Enemy
Give me a fun fact!* *After Spike Lee specifically commissioned this song for Do The Right Thing, Chuck D wrote "a big chunk of it on a plane… flying over Italy". So next time your flight circles the Eternal City, don't forget to put on your seatbelt, lock your tray in position and "motherfuck" Elvis and John Wayne.
I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN
Where's it from?* *Born To Dance
Who first performed it?* *Virginia Bruce
Who wrote it?* *Cole Porter
Give me a fun fact!* *Even more disturbing than the Sinatra/Bono cover of 1993 was the British Heart Foundation's advert of a few years back, giving a newfound, very physical meaning to the lyrics.
Where's it from?* *Space Jam
Who first performed it?* *R. Kelly
Who wrote it?* *R. Kelly
***Give me a fun fact! ***On the US Billboard Hot 100, this never reached number one. It was denied the top spot by Toni Braxton, whose 'Un-Break My Heart' somehow managed to be even more schmaltz-filled and awful. Still, the video is quite entertaining.
STAYIN' ALIVE
Where's it from?* *Saturday Night Fever
Who first performed it?* The Bee Gees
*Who wrote it? The Bee Gees
***Give me a fun fact! ***The Bee Gees' regular drummer missed the recording sessions for this song because of the death of his mother. To fill the gap, the Bee Gees resorted to the loop you can hear in the final product (which was itself taken from 'Night Fever').
MOON RIVER
***Where's it from? ***Breakfast at Tiffany's
***Who first performed it? ***Audrey Hepburn
***Who wrote it? ***Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer
***Give me a fun fact! ***The song has a pretty narrow range of pitch, thanks to Mancini writing to accommodate Hepburn’s limited singing range. But despite being tailored for the actress, Hepburn’s voice-and-guitar version was nowhere to be found on the official soundtrack album, replaced instead by a somewhat western-sounding orchestral recording{
CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
***Where's it from? ***Blue Hawaii
***Who first performed it? ***Elvis Presley
***Who wrote it? ***Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and George David Weiss
***Give me a fun fact! ***The original melody is taking from a 1784 French tune, 'Plaisir D'Amour', by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini. Sound familiar. The King was right: love songs really are the same in any language.
9 TO 5
***Where's it from? ***9 To 5
***Who first performed it? ***Dolly Parton
***Who wrote it? ***Dolly Parton
***Give me a fun fact! ***Just before the song came out in the UK, Sheena Easton released a different song, also called 9 To 5{
***Where's it from? ***The Thomas Crown Affair
***Who first performed it? ***Noel Harrison
***Who wrote it? ***Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman
***Give me a fun fact! ***Udo Lindenberg did a German version back in 1997 and it's terrifying, frankly. Mind you, it's a lot better than Sting's take{
THE LOOK OF LOVE
***Where's it from? ***Casino Royale (1967)
***Who first performed it? ***Dusty Springfield
***Who wrote it? ***Burt Bacharach and Hal David
***Give me a fun fact! ***Bacharach was so, um, inspired by the seductive sight of Ursula Andress that he wrote this theme, which would have stayed an instrumental if not for the lyrical stylings of Hal David. David then went on to write the lyrics for two more Bond tunes: 'We Have All The Time In The World' (from On Her Majesty's Secret Service) and 'Moonraker'.
LOSE YOURSELF
***Where's it from? ***8 Mile
***Who first performed it? ***Eminem
***Who wrote it? ***Eminem
***Give me a fun fact! ***Instead of heading into a proper studio, Eminem recorded most of the song in his trailer while filming 8 Mile. Steve King, the song's engineer and mixer, told Rolling Stone that Eminem "did all three verses in one take and killed it... This story had been building up in him, so when he did that first take, it was incredible – it just came out of him."
QUE SERÁ, SERÁ (WHATEVER WILL BE, WILL BE)
***Where’s it from? ***The Man Who Knew Too Much
***Who first performed it? ***Doris Day
***Who wrote it? ***Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
***Give me a fun fact! ***"Que Será, Será" doesn't make grammatical sense in Spanish, French or Italian. The closest translation would be "che sarà, sarà" in Italian – a fact that rowdy, drunk supporters at a football match always appreciate hearing.
CALL ME
***Where’s it from? ***American Gigolo
***Who first performed it? ***Blondie
***Who wrote it? ***Debbie Harry and Giorgio Moroder
***Give me a fun fact! ***After a radio DJ played the song at double speed and claimed it was the new Chipmunks' song, The Chipmunks didn't miss a beat and quickly released their own version. Though we wouldn't recommend listening, here's the link if you're feeling masochistic.
***Where's it from? ***Neptune's Daughter
***Who first performed it? ***Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams
***Who wrote it? ***Frank Loesser
***Give me a fun fact! ***Loesser originally used to perform the song with his wife at private parties. When he hawked the rights to MGM for a tidy sum, Lynn Garland (aka Mrs. Loesser) was reportedly furious at the perceived betrayal.
FLASHDANCE... WHAT A FEELING
***Where's it from? ***Flashdance
***Who first performed it? ***Irene Cara
***Who wrote it? ***Giorgio Moroder, Keith Forsey and Irene Cara
***Give me a fun fact! ***Though for some the song will forever be linked to Jennifer Beals in a leotard and legwarmers, for a younger generation it's more closely associated with acid reflux – thanks to Gaviscon{
GANGSTA'S PARADISE
***Where's it from? ***Dangerous Minds
***Who first performed it? ***Coolio
***Who wrote it? ***Stevie Wonder, Coolio, Doug Rasheed, L.V.
***Give me a fun fact! ***Weird Al Yankovic produced his own version, Amish Paradise, which reportedly annoyed Coolio, who hadn't directly agreed to it. Well, either that, or the rapper resented the fact that Weird Al's parody was somehow a lot better{
IF YOU WANT TO SING IT OUT, SING IT OUT
***Where's it from? ***Harold And Maude
***Who first performed it? ***Cat Stevens
***Who wrote it? ***Cat Stevens
***Give me a fun fact! ***Although the artist currently known as Yusuf Islam wrote several songs for Harold And Maude, there was no soundtrack album on release. It took thirteen years for this song to make its way to an official release, on Stevens' Footsteps In The Dark.
EVERYTHING I DO (I DO IT FOR YOU)
***Where's it from? ***Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves
***Who first performed it? ***Bryan Adams
***Who wrote it? ***Bryan Adams, Michael Kamen and Robert John Lange
***Give me a fun fact! ***The song has nothing to do with Robin Hood whatsoever, which might actually have helped it gain a life of its own. It's now so ubiquitous that even Stewie covered it in Family Guy, complete with unnecessary nudity.
***Where's it from? ***The Woman In Red
***Who first performed it? ***Stevie Wonder
***Who wrote it? ***Stevie Wonder
***Give me a fun fact! ***We can officially say Stevie Wonder wrote this, since his ex-writing partner Lee Garrett and songwriter Lloyd Chiate lost a lawsuit claiming otherwise in 1990. The judge rejected the claim by Chiate that he and Garrett had written the song, ruling in favour of Stevland Morris (that's Stevie Wonder's real name, fact fans).
AGAINST ALL ODDS (TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOW)
***Where's it from? ***Against All Odds
***Who first performed it? ***Phil Collins
***Who wrote it? ***Phil Collins
***Give me a fun fact! ***The song gained a new life thanks to the passionate wailings of Mariah Carey and Westlife, alongside prodigious use in talent shows. In 2004, it was the debut single of the X Factor winner, Steve Brookstein – who, by the way, released an album this year called Forgotten Man.
THE WAY WE WERE
***Where's it from? ***The Way We Were
***Who first performed it? ***Barbra Streisand
***Who wrote it? ***Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Marvin Hamlisch
***Give me a fun fact! ***In 2014, Barbra Streisand revisited the song for a duet with Lionel Richie on her new album. Sadly, they don't appear to have actually met in person to record it...
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
***Where's it from? ***Honeysuckle Rose
***Who first performed it? ***Willie Nelson
***Who wrote it? ***Willie Nelson
***Give me a fun fact! ***Supposedly, Willie Nelson wrote lyrics for the whole song on a sick bag during a flight with one of the film's producers. We like to think it was an empty sick bag.
THINGS HAVE CHANGED
***Where's it from? ***Wonder Boys
***Who first performed it? ***Bob Dylan
***Who wrote it? ***Bob Dylan
***Give me a fun fact! ***Curtis Hanson shot the video with Dylan, which sees Robert Zimmerman inserted into various scenes from the sadly neglected Wonder Boys. If you've ever wanted to see Michael Douglas, Robert Downey Jr. and Bob Dylan in the same place (more or less), you're in luck.