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.
American Graffiti
MCA (1973)
Selected by Mike Elliott
"With introductions by the Howling, Prowling Wolfman Jack" (so reads the liner notes on the back cover), this is where baby boomer nostalgia began. The year was 1973 and the times, culturally speaking, they had a-changed in the preceding ten years more than they had in anyone's memory alive at the time. American Graffiti—directed by some newbie named George Lucas and produced by his old film school buddy Francis Ford Coppola (in between Godfathers at the time)—was set in one glorious night in 1962, the beginning of the end of the innocence. The soundtrack—like the film—rocks, rolls, and inspired not only the manic '50s nostalgia that engulfed the rest of the '70s (Happy Days, Grease), but the oldies format that radio stations cynically developed, and profited from, by the 1980s.
The music, however, cannot be denied. It sounds as pure and powerful today as it ever did. Its energy and vitality directly influenced the fledgling punk scene at the time as well. One can virtually see the newly christened Johnny, Joey, Tommy, and Dee Dee Ramone spinning this soundtrack in their practice space in Forest Hills, Queens, as they mapped out their plan for taking over the world. If you want the sound of an era, yes, the soundtrack to American Graffiti fits the bill. But it's more than that: it's the sound of America coming to grips with its lost innocence.
LISTEN & WATCH: