One of the biggest holiday rituals in my family is that pretty much every Thanksgiving, for as long as I can remember, we watch Planes, Trains And Automobiles. Besides being appropriate to the occasion, it's fucking hilarious, one of the best things Steve Martin and John Hughes ever did, and I think the best performance of John Candy's career. I was thinking about how music is tied into some of my favorite scenes, and thought about buying the soundtrack. While it does exist (unlike the soundtrack to Ferris Bueller, the most iconic Hughes score), it has been out of print for a long, long time, so much that 85 fucking bucks is the lowest price any of the Amazon re-sellers have it listed for. And while the soundtrack does have some good stuff on it ("Modigliani (Lost In Your Eyes)" and "Power To Believe" totally get me choked up), I realized that most of the best songs featured or referenced in the movie weren't on the official soundtrack, and are commercially available. So these are the songs I've been listening to get ready to go home to mom's on Thursday, and hopefully watch the movie for the hundredth time:

Ray Charles - "Mess Around" (mp3)

Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - "Blues Moon Of Kentucky" (mp3)

Frank Sinatra - "Three Coins In The Fountain" (mp3)

"(Meet) The Flintstones" (mp3)

Yello - "Lost Again" (mp3)

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 at 11:23 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.