Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 100 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time, representing a varied cross-section of films and musical genres. Click “Next Soundtrack” below to explore each soundtrack in the list or for easier navigation, view the full introduction & soundtrack index here.
Almost Famous
DreamWorks (2000)
Selected by Sarah Paolantonio
I’ve been spending most of my adult life as a writer trying to explain why Almost Famous means so much to me, so I’ll try to keep it short. It’s where I first met Lester Bangs (played effortlessly by Philip Seymour Hoffman). It’s where I first went on the road with a band, Stillwater. It’s where I first fell in love with a silly little piece of music so much that it hurts (Zeppelin’s “That’s The Way”).
The soundtrack is full of 1970s hits and when I first heard it, I hadn’t heard them all a million times before. This collection includes, but is not limited to, Skynyrd’s “Simple Man,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “America,” and the Allman Brothers’ “One Way Out” (a mainstay of many OSTs; a short five minute jam that helps a camera move).
If you’ve only seen Almost Famous one time many years ago, I’m positive you remember the scene on the bus where the cast sings along to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” You remember it because it was done so well that it remains a cinematic memory for any who encounter it. A lot of the tracks are used as background music to set the scene putting us in a certain city at an exact time. They sum up an era.
Writer-director Cameron Crowe cemented his teenage years as a journalist for Rolling Stone with Almost Famous and even recruited Heart’s Nancy Wilson (his wife at the time) to write songs for the fictional band Stillwater. Like the movie itself, the soundtrack is a portrait of 1970s rock: Todd Rundgren, Yes, Rod Stewart, The Who, and, of course, Bowie.
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