You might have overlooked it in the barrage of advertising for summer blockbusters, but this week sees the release of “Aloha,” the new Hawaii-set romantic-comedy with a glittering cast including Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, Alec Baldwin, and Bill Murray.
It’s notable for cinephiles because it’s the first film in nearly four years, and the seventh in total, from Cameron Crowe, the man behind “Say Anything,” “Jerry Maguire,” and “Almost Famous.” Crowe, who began his career as a prodigiously young rock journalist for Rolling Stone (as documented in “Almost Famous”), has always made music a hugely important part of his pictures, with even his weaker efforts having great musical moments and soundtracks. So we decided, as with Martin Scorsese a few weeks back, to run down twenty of the finest on-screen music moments from Crowe’s movies. We’ve included clips from the films where available, and the original song where we couldn’t track it down. Take a look below, and let us know your own favorites in the comments.
READ MORE: Watch Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, And Rachel McAdams Say ‘Aloha’ In Two New Clips From Cameron Crowe’s Latest
“All For Love” by Nancy Wilson from “Say Anything”
Crowe was married to Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson for nearly thirty years, and so it’s somehow fitting that the first great music moment from one of his films comes from her. A power ballad from the singer-songwriter, it plays on the car radio after Lloyd and Diane drive home from prom and she starts to open up to him. It’s not a great song in and of itself, but it nicely represents the awkwardness of a romantic song coming on at a moment like this, and is the kind of track that burns onto your brain when it’s connected to a key moment with someone you like (the song also features over the closing credits).
“In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel from “Say Anything”
Well, obviously we were going to include this one. John Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler turning up outside the window of Diane (Ione Skye), holding up a boombox blasting out Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” is one of cinema’s most enduring romantic icons, referenced endlessly, and adorning t-shirts and the like (though many forget that Lloyd’s tactic doesn’t work, at least at first). It could have been very different, though: the scene was shot with Fishbone’s “Bonin’ In The Boneyard,” until, sensibly, Crowe decided to go with Gabriel. That it’s the kind of thing that Lloyd would never normally play makes it all the better.
“Within Your Reach” by The Replacements from “Say Anything”
“Say Anything” doesn’t end with a closing credits montage over music in the way that it might if it were made today. Instead, the last song of the movie is heard, initially, as Diane gives a symbolic pen to her white-collar criminal father, then, after the cut, as Lloyd packs his bags before being turned up, semi-non-diegetically, to join Diane at the airport, with the out-of-sync drum fill matching as he leaves his current life. The song is The Replacements‘ excellent “Within Your Reach,” and it’s a subtle, but beautifully appropriate pick that nicely sets up the film’s “Graduate”-ish conclusion.
“State Of Love & Trust” by Pearl Jam from “Singles”
Almost accidentally, “Singles” caught the zeitgeist. Crowe’s second movie, about the loves and lives of Seattle twentysomethings, was finished at the beginning of 1991, but sat on a shelf for 18 months, until the grunge scene that the film revolved around suddenly went supernova thanks to “Nevermind” et al. The first of the grunge cuts you hear in the movie, and arguably the most effective, is Pearl Jam’s “State Of Love & Trust,” which cunningly accompanies a scene where Kyra Sedgwick’s Linda sees a guy who told her he’d left for Spain. Most of the band also have small acting roles, playing the rest of the band Citizen Dick, fronted by Matt Dillon’s character.
