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.
Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood
Columbia (2019)
Selected by Mike Elliott
Quentin Tarantino crafts his soundtracks as carefully as he does his films. With Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, he takes it a step further by crafting a seventy-five-minute scope of a radio show, complete with commercials and a real boss jock, in fact, the boss jock, The Real Don Steele and his actual airchecks from his time at LA's legendary "boss radio," KHJ.
Intertwining DJ patter and commercials with a magnificent playlist of pop and rock songs from the era, the soundtrack stands as the sunny west coast antithesis to the counterculture-focused Easy Rider. Once Upon a Time's optimistic pop and nostalgia is as contagious and irresistible in its sound as it is naive and oblivious (just like the era chronicled by American Graffiti) to the end of innocence just around the bend.
LISTEN & WATCH:
