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.
Goodfellas
Atlantic/WEA (1990)
Selected by Mike Elliott
The music of a Martin Scorsese picture is as anticipated as the film itself. The legendary director knows how to score a film. This is a man that was an editor on Woodstock, directed The Last Waltz, a Rolling Stones concert film (Shine a Light), and the latest Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue doc, among others. His films have been just as musically exciting as his music-based documentaries, and Goodfellas is probably his greatest music-to-film moment (the pink Cadillac scene set to the coda from "Layla" is just one example).
From inarguable doo-wop masterpieces to the birth of album rock, the soundtrack follows the film's characters from the height of their powers in the 1950s through their sharp and violent fall in the '70s. Sadly, the soundtrack only includes about half of music that features in the film (none of the music during the masterfully edited helicopter sequence is included), but what is here stands as the perfect souvenir to the best the mob genre has to offer.
LISTEN & WATCH:
