“Jinx” by Tad from “Singles”
Crowe tends to use music to accompany swooningly romantic moments, but he knows how to deploy a track for comedic effect. One of the best examples of this is in “Singles,” when Matt Dillon’s Cliff, aiming to win over Bridget Fonda’s Janet, shows off the sound system he’s just put in her car, playing Seattle stalwarts Tad’s bassy track “Jinx.” So bassy, in fact, that it borderline wrecks her car, smashing the window and not quite having the desired effect of wooing her. It’s funny stuff, but the scene is made by a cameo from Chris Cornell, whose reactions shots are right on the borderline of being accidentally and deliberately hilarious.
“Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty from “Jerry Maguire”
Unquestionable fact: Tom Cruise has never been as charming as he is in “Jerry Maguire,” and one scene towards the end of the first act proves that fact. Delighting at having seemingly won over star client Cush (Jerry O’Connell) and his father (Beau Bridges), Cruise’s Jerry cycles through the car radio trying to find the perfect song to sing along to. He rejects the Rolling Stones and Gram Parsons and charmingly attempts a falsetto to “Angel In The Morning,” before belting out to Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” lost in gleeful abandon.
“Secret Garden” by Bruce Springsteen from “Jerry Maguire”
One of cinema’s great uses for the pop song is for the moment-I-fell-in-love scene, and boy, does “Jerry Maguire” have a doozy. After almost an hour of build up, Jerry and his assistant Dorothy are finally about to go on a date. Jerry says goodbye to Dorothy’s young son (Jonathan Lipnicki), and as she’s moved to tears by the obvious bond between them, the winding synths of Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden” (a new single off his Greatest Hits record from the year before the movie opened) kick in, and you melt a little bit. The film became indelibly associated with the song and vice versa, in part thanks to a bootleg remix including dialogue from the film that became an unexpected radio hit.
“Shelter From The Storm” by Bob Dylan from “Jerry Maguire”
When you think of rom-coms, you don’t necessarily think of Bob Dylan. His vast discography touches on so many different subjects that love sometimes feels like the least of them. But along with the use of obscurer cut, “Most Of The Time,” from “High Fidelity” (the best Cameron Crowe movie that Cameron Crowe had nothing to do with), closing off “Jerry Maguire” with “Shelter From The Storm” from Blood On The Tracks suggests that filmmakers would do well to draw on Bob for their happy romantic conclusions more often. As Jerry and Diane walk off into the proverbial sunset, we get a final nugget of wisdom from Maguire’s mentor Dicky Fox (played by real-life Sony attorney Jared Jussim, after Crowe’s own mentor, Billy Wilder, turned the role down), and the song is the perfect warm blanket of comfort to wrap up the film on.
“America” by Simon & Garfunkel from “Almost Famous”
Given that it’s Crowe’s semi-autobiographical love letter to music, features an all-time great soundtrack, and is also his masterpiece, it’s no surprise that “Almost Famous” dominates this list. The film’s first great cue (excluding the use of the Chipmunks’ Christmas song over scenes of sunny California) is Simon & Garfunkel’s “America,” which Zooey Deschanel’s big sister Anita plays to her overprotective mother (Frances McDormand) and little brother (Michael Angarano) to explain, “Why I’m leaving home to become a stewardess.” The duo’s harmonies act as a nifty counterpoint to McDormand’s objection that “we have to listen to rock music,” and the song hints at the freedom that Deschanel’s character is about to find, and that William will eventually find, as he pores over the vinyl she’s left for him.
