Radiohead fans will be aware that director Cameron Crowe used the song Everything In Its Right Place at the beginning of the movie Vanilla Sky.
It's one of the most effective openings of a film since the spine-tingling moment at the start of Apocalypse Now when the The End by The Doors rises from the jungle.
Soon after seeing Vanilla Sky, I was in New York City and staying just off Times Square. I wanted to see if I could replicate that scene.
It's an eerie feeling, wandering out onto a stretch of road that is normally packed with people, when there's no one around. It didn't have quite the dramatic effect as Tom Cruise getting out of his Mustang and whirling around in the silence, but nonetheless, it was worth getting out there and surveying the scene.
Shooting that sequence is reputed to have cost the studio $1 million to shut off the surrounding streets for three hours on a Sunday morning.
I've chosen these following clips as among my favourite movie music scenes;
Low Rider by War in Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke
Woody Allen's ode to Manhattan, to the tune of Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue
The final scenes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are perfectly matched with Beck’s version of the Korgis classic Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime
In Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman dances to Urge Overkill's Girl
You'll Be a Woman Soon, then ODs on heroin.
The memorable scene in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs that uses Stuckin the Middle With You by Steeler's Wheel to complement the violence of the razor.
The emotion builds to an inspired movie moment as the various actors in different locations sing along with Aimee Mann's Wise Up
The Three Degrees giving it their best in the nightclub scene in The
French Connection
Ewan McGregor's heroin OD and trip to the ER in Trainspotting, to Lou Reed's Perfect
Day.
Cameron Crowe has impeccable taste when it comes to movie music. The soundtrack to Almost Famous is faultless and contains some unusual but welcome choices.
It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference by Todd Rundgren Easy To Slip by Little Feat The Wind by Cat Stevens Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters by Elton John Feel Flows by The Beach Boys plays as the credits roll
And, of course, Elton's Tiny Dancer is one of the key moments in the movie.
Here are my personal favourites - movie scenes where the choice of music was truly inspired.
