[THEME MUSIC]
AISHA HARRIS: There are some songs that are so overused in movies, they’ve become cliches. So we’re rounding up a few we’re nominating for retirement and suggesting a few worthy replacements. I’m Aisha Harris. And joining me today on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour is my co-host, Stephen Thompson. Hello, friend.
STEPHEN THOMPSON: Hello, Aisha.
HARRIS: It is great to have you here. You are the perfect person to talk about this with. You know, obviously, there’s no real science to determining when a song has become overplayed. Although, I would argue, perhaps, you could go and look at a artist’s IMDb page and get a gander at how many times certain songs have been used. I’ve done that before– that’s for sure– in the past. But yeah, it’s more of a “you know it when you hear it” situation. Everyone’s mileage is going to vary. And we should also note that we had to narrow down our possibilities quite a bit because there are a lot of songs that are overused. That’s just how it goes. So we deliberately left out instrumental and classical music. So don’t come to us, you know, about Beethoven’s second or something– I don’t know– “Fur Elise,” whatever. Just– [LAUGHS] so, Stephen, you’re gonna guide us through this. So give us the first song you think we should retire from the movies.
THOMPSON: Well, one caveat I want to open with before we even get started, before you get your emailing fingers ready to yell at me, these are all great songs.
HARRIS: Yes.
THOMPSON: I specifically decided I’m going to pick three songs I love. It’s not going to be me dumping on “I hate Bryan Adams’ ‘Summer of 69.'” No, these are great songs. So when I say that they should be retired, I’m talking about specifically retiring them from use as signifiers in movies. They have been used again and again. They have turned up again and again in recent years. My first pick, a great song by AC/DC from 1990’s The Razor’s Edge called “Thunderstruck.”
THOMPSON: [AC/DC, “THUNDERSTRUCK”] Thunder!
THOMPSON: Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, thunder! Thunder!
HARRIS: I remember this. I remember this song.
THOMPSON: You can imagine Deadpool punching a guy to this song. It was used in the Super Mario Brothers movie, the Chris Pratt one, not the Bob Hoskins one.
HARRIS: Oh, yeah.
THOMPSON: It was used in The Fall Guy. It was in movies dating back as far as, like, Varsity Blues. This song, and particularly that “ah, ah, ah, ah, thunder!” like, there are other riffs.
HARRIS: [LAUGHS]
THOMPSON: Like–
HARRIS: So many.
THOMPSON: –there are other bands. AC/DC has other songs. And of course, there are other AC/DC songs that are also overused–
HARRIS: Yeah.
THOMPSON: –in movies. But what I’m suggesting is simply explore the hard rock canon for other sounds, for other riffs, for other styles, for other variations on (SINGING) guys we’re about to fight! Dun, dun!
[LAUGHTER]
HARRIS: I love it. I love it. So what would you replace it with? Because, you know, you’ve already mentioned that AC/DC has a lot of other songs, so I’m guessing we’re going with a different artist here.
THOMPSON: Yeah, I’m not just gonna suggest a different AC/DC song. Anyone interested in plumbing the depths of the ACDC catalog has the means and the will to do so. I am going to suggest– to my mind, the album that I go to whenever I want to be pumped up– I thankfully don’t get in a lot of fights. But if I did, to get pumped up for them, I would listen to the album and the song “I Get Wet” by Andrew WK.
[ANDREW WK, “I GET WET”]
HARRIS: It’s, like, a song that I both feel like I’ve heard before, but haven’t and I don’t know. But I like it. It’s cool. It gets you pumped. It gets you going.
ANDREW WK: (SINGING) I get wet when the party is dying I get wet without even trying I get wer, I get wet, I get wet I get wet, I get wet, I get wet
THOMPSON: This is “running through a brick wall” music. Every second of it is engineered for maximum rock and roll fury. There are three different songs on this album with the word “party” in the title. There’s “Party Til You Puke,” “It’s Time to Party,” and “Party Hard.” And all three of them are incredible. All of them would work brilliantly to achieve the exact kind of effect that you’re going for with a song like “Thunderstruck,” which is, like, big guitars, big action’s going to happen. You’re gonna have a good time, which is what “Thunderstruck” has sort of become. It’s just become a signifier of, like, this is an action movie. This is a movie in which buildings are gonna get knocked down, and punches are gonna get thrown. And this Andrew WK record, which came out in 2001, it’s not that it’s an obscurity. It definitely has its devotees. I’m far from the only one. But I think it has been underutilized in this particular realm. I’m sure somebody can point to, you know, the occasional movie or commercial here and there. He definitely has appeared on soundtracks and commercials and stuff before, just nowhere near to the degree of an AC/DC.
HARRIS: I can just envision chairs being thrown and people getting hit over the head, maybe even a food fight at a cafeteria. I don’t know. There’s a lot of uses. So thank you for that, Stephen. That’s “I Get Wet” by Andrew WK, and replace this, instead of “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. We just want some variety here, right?
THOMPSON: That’s right.
HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.
THOMPSON: That’s my one plea.
HARRIS: [LAUGHS] OK, so the next song on your list is actually the first song that I thought of when we were talking about doing this, and I have many thoughts about. But tell me, what is the second song you think is way too overused in movies?
THOMPSON: I absolutely love Nina Simone. My daughter’s middle name is Simone because of Nina Simone. I love her dearly. And in 1965, released a version of “Feeling Good,” a classic standard. It has become, over time, possibly her signature song, which, Aisha, I have read an essay that you have written–
[LAUGHTER]
THOMPSON: –that makes a very good and very 100% right case that that represents kind of an extreme flattening out of who Nina Simone was and what she stood for, what she sang about, what she represented. If you were to sum up Nina Simone’s view of the world, it would not be represented by the song “Feeling Good.”
HARRIS: No, not at all. Yeah, I did write an essay about this in the arts journal, Seen. And the thing about this song is that they always use the same part. It’s the opening. That’s the signature part.
NINA SIMONE: (SINGING) It’s a new dawn It’s a new day It’s a new life for me Yeah, it’s a new dawn It’s a new day It’s a new life for me
HARRIS: You just get her voice, no accompaniment whatsoever. And she’s just gliding over the melody.
SIMONE: (SINGING) And I’m feeling good
HARRIS: And then the big, the band– it sounds like a marching band– is coming in and strutting in. And I get why it’s used so many times, but my goodness, it’s been used now, especially in the last several years. It’s like clockwork at this point.
THOMPSON: Yeah, it’s in Cruella in 2021. It’s a very pivotal scene in Perfect Days, the Wim Wenders–
HARRIS: Yes.
THOMPSON: –film from 2023. It’s in a very, very pivotal scene in A Quiet Place– Day One. It just gets rolled out constantly, not only just turning up on these soundtracks, but turning up at key moments in films.
HARRIS: It’s meant to be a song where, usually, a character is suddenly reaching an epiphany or the apex of their self-actualization. It’s a moment where they– for lack of a better word, they’re feeling good. But I think it’s notable that there’s so many other songs that she has written that have a lot more– not to say that the song is not political, but that have so much more political bite and heft, whether we’re talking about her cover of “Strange Fruit,” even “I Loves You, Porgy.”
THOMPSON: Oh, that one, I truly could listen to every day for the rest of my life.
HARRIS: Yeah, but something about this song has now just become such a– I expect it. And it feels like it’s kind of dulled down her impact and her cultural impact. I’m curious as to what you would replace this song with.
THOMPSON: The way that I approached this wasn’t necessarily to try to find a song that thematically maps over “Feeling Good.” So much as I come to this with two suggestions, one, unlike AC/DC, Nina Simone has a few other songs that turn up a lot in movie soundtracks, but she really has a deep and rich catalog. And “I Loves You, Porgy” jumped immediately to my mind. You could easily just swap in a different Nina Simone song.
HARRIS: I know.
THOMPSON: But I also want to recommend another voice, another voice that I would love to hear more on movie soundtracks. One theme that I really want to get back to in this conversation as much as possible, when we’re talking about this issue, is this phenomenon that has happened where the more songs there are in the world, the fewer of them we hear.
HARRIS: Yes.
THOMPSON: This is happening all over the pop charts. This is happening on movie soundtracks. This is happening on radio stations. You listen to a classic rock radio station, and it’s formatted the way a pop station is formatted where you get, like 10 songs in high rotation. Like, there’s so much music. You have all the music in the world to choose from. Don’t give me these signifiers of a mood that are cliched shortcuts. So the voice that I’m recommending here is that of the late, great Jimmy Scott.
[JIMMY SCOTT, “WHEN DID YOU LEAVE HEAVEN”]
HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.
JIMMY SCOTT: (SINGING) When did you leave heaven? Why did they let you go?
HARRIS: Ah.
THOMPSON: You don’t hear a ton of Jimmy Scott’s voice in movies and on TV shows. You know, one filmmaker who got Jimmy Scott, loved Jimmy Scott, and occasionally used his music– David Lynch.
HARRIS: Oh, yes. You’re right.
THOMPSON: Which should tell you, David Lynch had some of the best taste in music imaginable. And he knew Jimmy Scott would evoke a certain mood. Jimmy Scott, as a kid, he was diagnosed with Kallmann Syndrome, which prevented him from experiencing kind of traditional puberty. His voice never changed. So his voice has kind of this amorphous quality to it. And it soared so beautifully. So “When Did You Leave Heaven,” it has this kind of mysterious quality, but it’s also just a very, very beautiful, straight ahead love song.
HARRIS: I love that kind of out-of-left-field pick because you’re right, he is not someone who is remembered in the same way that other contemporaries of his era have been. That’s a great, great choice. I love it, Stephen. I will offer my choice. I tried to–
THOMPSON: Yes.
HARRIS: When I was thinking about it, I was like, I kind of feel as though I want something that’s a little bit more thematically in sync with “Feeling Good”–
THOMPSON: Yeah.
HARRIS: –if we’re trying to replace it, since it is so often used in a literal context. It’s usually meant to symbolize a character’s transformation in some way. And so I would love to see a little bit more Dinah Washington, specifically, “What a Diff’rence a Day Made.”
HARRIS: [DINAH WASHINGTON, “WHAT A DIFF’RENCE A DAY MADE”] What a diff’rence a day made
HARRIS: 24 little hours
HARRIS: There’s just something beautiful about that song. It kind of has a similar theme where it’s, like, things have gotten better, or things are different, or, like, she’s describing the beauty of the world in the same way that, like, “Feeling Good” kind of does the same thing. And her voice is, again, another–
THOMPSON: Oh, my god, her voice.
HARRIS: –iconic, transcendent voice. And I think that’s what people are really mining here, right? It’s their voices when we’re talking about Nina and Jimmy Scott and someone like Dinah Washington. Like–
THOMPSON: Or a little more recently, somebody like Roberta Flack.
HARRIS: Yes, yes. Oh, “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” Like, something like that.
THOMPSON: Oh, my god.
HARRIS: Oh, yeah, yeah. We love “Feeling Good.” I would just love to hear it when I want to hear it, and not when some filmmaker has decided to just drop it in at any moment. [LAUGHS] Well, coming up, we’ve got a few more overused songs we’re going to talk about, so stick around.
HARRIS: All right. Welcome back. Stephen, what is your next pick for most overused song?
THOMPSON: Well, I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. The more songs there are, the fewer we hear. And having lived through the ’90s, I can promise you that there is a deep and rich mine of incredible music that does not get played in movies or on TV shows nearly as often as the song “Dreams” by The Cranberries.
THOMPSON: [THE CRANBERRIES, “DREAMS”] Then I open up and see
THOMPSON: The person falling here is me A different way to be
HARRIS: Ah, yes, this is in the trailer for a Babysitter’s Club movie. I remember that’s where I first heard this song. [LAUGHS] So many– so many memories.
THOMPSON: What is remarkable about the list of movies that this song has appeared in, “Dreams” by The Cranberries has been surging for more than 30 years.
HARRIS: [LAUGHS] Yes.
THOMPSON: It is in The Next Karate Kid. It is in Boys on the Side. It is in You’ve Got Mail. That is just a handful of the movies it appeared in, in the 1990s.
HARRIS: Yeah.
THOMPSON: For some reason, filmmakers just didn’t burn out on this song the way they’ve gotten burned out on some of what you think of as these classic movie montage songs, like “Taking Care of Business” or “Bad to the Bone” or whatever, where it’s, like, these days, if you heard “Taking Care of Business” or “Bad to the Bone” in a movie, you would assume that it was parody.
HARRIS: Oh, my god, yes. [LAUGHS]
THOMPSON: Yet, “Dreams,” that popped up in Madame Web.
[LAUGHTER]
HARRIS: Of course.
THOMPSON: No less a classic than Madame Web. It also pops up in trailers a lot. Liza Anne, a terrific singer-songwriter, has a cover of “Dreams” that’s in the trailer for Aftersun. So, like, you’ll also just pick up these reverberations in the form of covers, you know, slowed down versions, you know, all these different ways that songs get endlessly redeployed. Look, I love The Cranberries. I love “Dreams” by The Cranberries, I love “Zombie” by The Cranberries. I love “Linger” by The Cranberries.
HARRIS: Yes.
THOMPSON: Like, The Cranberries are great. And they are– they definitely are emblematic of a lot of ’90s music, you know? And so they’re evocative of a certain time and place. They’re used extremely well in the show, Derry Girls. Like, there is a time and a place for The Cranberries music. But this song has reached a point of saturation where you start to roll your eyes when you encounter it, and that’s not what you’re supposed to do.
HARRIS: [LAUGHS] All right. Well, it sounds like we don’t want “Dreams” right now. So what–
THOMPSON: Not right now.
HARRIS: So what should we be replacing it with?
THOMPSON: Oh, man. I really could have replaced this song with a playlist of just, like, favorite songs of the ’90s that sound like the ’90s, if you’re trying to evoke that kind of ’90s vibe, but that are not massively overexposed. So I’m gonna pick one of my favorite bands of the ’90s, a band that has not gotten nearly enough love and attention, kind of beyond an initial rush of critical acclaim and college radio airplay, a band called The Spinanes. Do you know them?
HARRIS: No, I do not.
THOMPSON: The Spinanes put out several phenomenal records. Lead singer Rebecca Gates, who was also just one of the best guitarists of the ’90s– check out the interplay of drums and guitars from the song “Noel, Jonah, and Me.”
THOMPSON: [THE SPINANES, “NOEL, JONAH, AND ME”] Count Noel, Jonah, and me
HARRIS: This is very Reality Bites. Yes, very ’90s. Very ’90s. [LAUGHS]
THOMPSON: It’s very ’90s. You could absolutely drop that song into any number of just, like, killer ’90s soundtracks, just that explosion of drums, those big, chunky, buzzy riffs, that voice that’s kind of floating over it all. It’s a very ’90s sound. You know, The Spinanes were of the ’90s.
HARRIS: Mm-hmm.
THOMPSON: But also a fan of music who has just heard the kind of endless echoes and reverberations of the ’90s will immediately tap into that song as just a phenomenal piece of rock songwriting.
HARRIS: Yeah. I dig it, and I think it’s perfect for evoking that feeling. I said Reality Bites, but also, like, I’m just getting Daria. I’m getting every–
[LAUGHTER]
HARRIS: –every ’90– I’m seeing flannel. I’m seeing it all. It is– I think that’s a great choice. I’m into it.
THOMPSON: We love the ’90s. They produced so much good music beyond the, like, nine songs that get played on retro radio.
HARRIS: I’m sure listeners are gonna be like, but what about this song? Are there any other songs that you want to run off quickly that we’re just, like, we’re tired of? I feel as though we’ve kind of– we’ve gotten the ’60s a little bit, but have we gotten “the ’60s”?
THOMPSON: Oh, yeah. I think– I think I know where you’re going with this. And I posted a call out on Bluesky, kind of just, like, hit me with your suggestions. Just, like, let me make sure I’m not forgetting anything. And several people, very rightfully, brought up songs like “Fortunate Son,” “All Along the Watchtower,” both the Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix versions, any sort of song that gets used any time you are trying to evoke unrest, war, protest in the ’60s.
HARRIS: Vietnam. [LAUGHS]
THOMPSON: Vietnam for sure.
HARRIS: Yeah.
THOMPSON: My friend Mark Hirsch popped up on Bluesky and was like, Vietnam needs a new soundtrack. In case you are somehow unfamiliar with this sound, let’s hear a little bit of the Jimi Hendrix, “All Along the Watchtower.”
[JIMI HENDRIX, “ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER”]
JIMI HENDRIX: (SINGING) There must be some kind of way out of here
THOMPSON: It kills me. It’s such an amazing, great song.
HARRIS: Yeah.
THOMPSON: And yet, you could just replace it with a voiceover that says, they were turbulent times.
[LAUGHTER]
HARRIS: It’s like, have you– have you ever watched a movie made by a male boomer? [LAUGHS] Then you probably heard this song. [LAUGHS]
THOMPSON: Well, and that’s why, like, rather than trying to throw up another suggestion, my suggestion, my foolproof plan for replacing these overused songs is to never make another movie about the 1960s.
HARRIS: Done. I’m sold, sold.
THOMPSON: Sold.
[LAUGHTER]
THOMPSON: Cut, print.
[LAUGHTER]
HARRIS: What a time. What a time that neither of us lived through, but we feel as though we have.
THOMPSON: I feel like I’ve lived it over and over and over again since I was born.
[THEME MUSIC]
HARRIS: Yes. Well, we want to know what you think is the most overused song in movies. We know that there are plenty of people who have a lot of opinions about this, just as we did. Find us on facebook.com/pchh. And that brings us to the end of our show. Stephen Thompson, thanks so much for being here and bringing us these replacement songs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
THOMPSON: Thank you.
HARRIS: Yeah. I hope some filmmakers are listening. And hopefully they can afford some– some different songs. [LAUGHS]
THOMPSON: My suggestions are much cheaper.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes, they are. I hope so. [LAUGHS] This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Hafsa Fathima, and Mike Katzif and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello Come In provides our theme music. And thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I’m Aisha Harris. We’ll see you all next time.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
