Soundtrack Rejects

OMD - "Goddess of Love". Originally intended to be the closing song for Pretty in Pink, which was planned to end with Molly Ringwald rejecting Andrew McCarthy and running off with John Cryer instead. That ending tested so disastrously that it was quickly reshot with Molly choosing McCarthy and Cryer ending up with Kristy Swanson as a consolation prize. "Goddess of Love" didn't work for that ending, so OMD had to bang out "If you Leave" in one day as a replacement, and scored their biggest US hit because we love well thought out stuff here.

Blondie - "For Your Eyes Only" Intended for the Bond film of the same name, rejected in favor of a Sheena Easton ditty instead. God only knows why.

Eurythmics - 1984 Their entire soundtrack was mostly rejected, I'm assuming because someone listened to it and realized it was a horrible fit for the tone of the movie. The album itself is actually Eurythmics' most underrated and experimental, but the producers of the movie were right to send it packing.

Michael Stipe & Tori Amos collaborated on a soundtrack for Don Juan DeMarco, but apparently the producers decided it was too weird and off-putting. To my knowledge, none of it has ever surfaced anywhere, but I haven't actually ever tried looking for it.

Prince - Batman Very little of Prince's soundtrack for Tim Burton's first Batman movie ended up in the actual film. Like the Eurythmics soundtrack for 1984, I reckon it's because it just didn't fit the tone of the movie as well as had been hoped. So instead of being released as a soundtrack, it became a "Music Inspired by..." album.

Smithereens, "A Girl Like You" apparently dropped from the soundtrack of SAY ANYTHING because it gave away the whole story. "London, Washington / Anywhere you are I'll run / together we'll be." And of course, "I'll say anything / almost anything / except goodbye."

To follow-up my original post, it seems that the producers of For Your Eyes Only didn't reject Blondie, Blondie rejected them. The Bond folks had contacted the band about recording the theme song for the movie, they said great, and Debbie Harry and Chris Stein sat down and wrote the song.

Then the producers said, "No, wait. We already have the song. We just wanted you to record it," to which the band replied oh, well, screw that, and the movie theme song was given to Sheen Easton, while Blondie's ditty ended up being one of the more listenable songs on The Hunter.

To this day I've never seen Pretty in Pink.

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To this day I've never seen Pretty in Pink

Here you go.

long live 80's flamboyantcy!

thanks HBK



Post Edited (05-11-14 01:18)

One of the all-time worst re-recordings of a song. The Furs stripped it of all its original melancholy and gave it the full Midnight to Midnight treatment. The Furs got pretty insufferable from '85-'88 or so during their rock star phase, but fortunately got their heads back on straight for the under-appreciated Book of Days and World Outside.

Part of my head wonders what Blondie could have done with the theme song that the producers had in mind. I'm trying to imagine it in Blondie's inimitable style.

But then I realize, Hollywood being the breeding ground for mooks that it is, they would've wanted the song to sound about the way that Sheena Easton's version does. They would've pressured the band to hew to the sound they had in mind; only the voice would've been different.

Or perhaps I'm speculating too much. Maybe Deb 'n Chris heard the intended theme song, decided it sucked, and that was that.

Agree with Reno about "Pretty in Pink." In its original version, that song introduced me to one of my favorite bands. My jaw dropped and my stomach churned when I heard the remake; the Furs had eviscerated it.

Saying that the band gave it the Midnight to Midnight treatment actually gives the Furs too much credit. That album's production was way overcooked, but "Heartbreak Beat" was a good single (admittedly best heard on the Furs comp or mix tape of your choice).

That's true. I hated Midnight to Midnight for a couple of decades, but have actually mellowed towards it these days. It's still their worst album - it built entirely on the more commercial moments of Forever Now and Mirror Moves but dumped all the mystery and atmosphere that even those two albums still clung onto. Midnight to Midnight sucks as a Psychedelic Furs album, but on its own terms it's a halfway decent mid-80s pop album, and I can sort of appreciate it on that level.

But I still loathe the "Pretty in Pink" remake. It's a butchery of a great song.

I think only a few tracks from Joe Jackson's soundtrack for "Mike's Murder" made it into the film.