The Worst Songs Ever Written For Movies
Movies and music have a muddled history. For every "Mrs. Robinson" that electrified theater-goers, there's a song like Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap" that drove them towards the exits.
We sympathize. Writing a song for a movie that isn't overly corny or too on-the-nose appears to be a challenge for even some of the most talented performers. While there are amazing songs written specifically for movies, there are also really questionable ones.
Regardless of the quality of the movie it was written for, these truly terrible songs just missed the mark altogether.
MC Hammer's 1991 "Addams Groove" was recorded for the film The Addams Family and became a moderate hit for the rapper. That said, it's not his best moment, particularly with its groove that grows a bit too repetitive. MC Hammer's vocals are forgettable, the song lacks a hook, and it finally falls flat by the end.
It's one of the more monotonous songs ever written for a movie, and live performances didn't sound much better.
The Alicia Keys/Jack White duet "Another Way To Die" gets points for effort, but just doesn't have the same memorable hooks as other James Bond themes. The odd collaboration was poorly received by critics and fans alike, mostly for the lack of chemistry between the two artists.
Rolling Stone was particularly critical, saying the song was "less a duet than the sound of two people singing vaguely similar songs at the same time."
In 1998, the man who was then named Puff Daddy took the Led Zeppelin classic "Kashmir" and reworked it for the soundtrack to Godzilla. Puff enlisted help from Zep guitarist Jimmy Page, but that didn't make things any better. The collaboration was a trainwreck from note one - even Public Enemy's Chuck D thought so.
"I like Jimmy Page and P. Diddy, but what they did to 'Kashmir' was a debacle," Chuck D told Rolling Stone. "They are giants in their own way - and you can print this - but that was a f*cking travesty."
Though the duo performed the song live on a few occasions, most notably on Saturday Night Live, it failed to go down in the history books as a memorable remake - and probably angered some Zep fans in the process.
While many find "Ninja Rap" cringe-inducing, Vanilla Ice himself remains proud of his contribution to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. Ice claims he's seen how fans react to his song, which he also performed in the film.
"The impact was huge all around the world, not just in the U.S. When I go to Russia, China and Europe, I see fans dressed up as Ninja Turtles everywhere. It's amazing to see the song have such a gigantic impact," he said in an interview with an MTV.
The song "Wild Wild West" was a truly questionable release from Will Smith, who was one of the biggest names in movies and music at the time. That might explain why the whole thing was allowed to happen in the first place. In the years since, Smith has expressed regret over the song and the movie of the same name, explaining to Time that he wasn't quite focused on being an artist at the time.
"I wanted to win and be the biggest movie star, and what happened was there was a lag - around Wild Wild West time - I found myself promoting something because I wanted to win versus promoting something because I believed in it," Smith said of the project.
Used for the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack, "Take A Look Around" lifts the melody line from the original movie's theme song - but throws some rap-rock on top of it. With lyrics like "With the good comes the bad, the bad comes the good. But imma live my life like I should," it's no wonder it didn't make a more lasting impression on listeners.
The song is an unfortunate reminder of the nu metal craze of the late '90s, and hasn't aged well in the years since.
Elton John has produced some undeniably great soundtrack songs in his career, but the theme to The Road to El Dorado isn't one of them. Tim Rice's lyrics feel too on-the-nose, especially in the chorus - which repeats "El Dorado" one too many times.
Musically, the song lacks the memorable melodic nature of songs like "Can You Feel The Love Tonight," which is surprising considering he worked with celebrated composer Hans Zimmer on the project. Reviews of the soundtrack overall were lukewarm, and the theme song didn't age very well either.
Run-DMC's 1989 take on the Ghostbusters theme song came at a strange point for the group. While their popularity was still at a consistent high, the song failed to make as much of an impact as the rest of the Ghostbusters II soundtrack.
One later review went so far as to say the song "should have gotten a little more love back in 1989," but it was not meant to be. It's mostly been forgotten since, and doesn't have the same legacy as their rework of "Walk This Way" with Aerosmith.
Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger's Spider-Man collaboration with Saliva singer Josey Scott has some of the most head-scratching lyrics ever put to paper. It's not clear why Kroeger would want to hold on to the wings of eagles and fly away, and what that even means in the context of the song.
Interestingly, the spectacularly corny song caused a bit of a feud between Scott and Kroeger, after Scott claimed he wasn't paid properly for his contribution to the hit.
"They [screwed] me on that song," Scott told MTV in 2004. "I want the whole world to know it. They made millions off that song and threw me $5,000? That was foul, that was wrong, and that's bullsh*t."
Another James Bond theme, it's fair to say Garbage's "The World Is Not Enough" is objectively better than Alicia Keys and Jack White's efforts. But it doesn't have the musical impact as songs like "Live And Let Die" or "Goldfinger," and it definitely didn't leave the same cultural footprint as those songs.
The track was a modest hit for the band and did well critically, but it didn't entirely hit the mark as far as Bond themes go. Rolling Stone approved of its chorus, but called the verses "wishy washy."
"She's Like The Wind" might be the least memorable thing about the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Co-written and sung by the late Patrick Swayze himself, the song is a dated power ballad with not much going for it except a mega movie to back it.
Swayze's co-writer, Stacy Widelitz, later recalled the phenomenon around the song being completely intense, and said it got him a platinum album just as his gold record was put in the mail. Despite all the success, it's not anywhere near as memorable as "(I've Had) The Time of My Life."
When actor Emilio Estevez requested use of Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" as the theme song for Young Guns II, the band's singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi opted instead to write something new in the same vein. The result was "Blaze Of Glory," which led to Jon Bon Jovi writing and recording an album's worth of songs inspired by the film.
The song, a watered-down version of "Wanted Dead or Alive," doesn't stand up to the original. It was a major hit for the singer, however, and catapulted the solo album to the No. 3 spot on the Billboard charts in 1990. Despite the commercial success, it's gone down as a relatively corny song that is best known for accompanying a lackluster movie.
