Iconic Songs From 1960’s Movies

The Sixties were the golden age of music, but what about the movies?

Some iconic films came out between 1960-1970, providing us with great songs that became hits and live on with us today.

So let’s go down memory lane together, and see how a song can make a movie great and a movie can make a song timeless.

West Side Story (1961)

Imagine today’s Lincoln Center in NYC, what do you think about? Shiny buildings? Julliard school of the arts? The upper class of NYC?

Well, it wasn’t always like that:

Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim wrote the music for the West Side Story musical that came out in 1957 and was showcased at the Winter Garden Theatre in Midtown Manhattan—and at a time when the Upper West Side was still synonymous with working and lower class incomes, and the crime that came with it.

Bernstein and Arthur Laurents, the playwrights who wrote the original book for the stage version of West Side Story, were inspired by stories in the newspaper about what then seemed to be the recent phenomenon of gang culture emerging among America’s youth.

Thus, giving us our own modern version of Romeo and Juliet.

The Broadway show and movie are timeless, as this year Steven Spielberg came out with a remake that instantly became a hit again, 60 years after the original came out. In this way, providing a new generation with the same iconic music that their parents heard growing up.

I Like To Be In America（1961)：

Or other timeless classics like:

Somewhere (1961)

and Tonight (1961):

Blue Hawaii (1961)                                     

This might not be the most popular movie, but the theme song is timeless. Some might even call it “the greatest love song of all time”. I bet it will be stuck in your head after 20 seconds of listening.

Featured in many movies to come after its 1961 release in Blue Hawaii starring Elvis.

Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley became a certified platinum release and can be heard in other movies. Such as Coyote Ugly, Lilo and Stitch, and even Israel’s cult classic “Alex Hole Ahava”.

“Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley (1961)

The Melody of the song is originally from a 1784 french song called “Plaisir d’amour” written by Jean-Paul-Egide Martini

What about James Bond?

How about you try humming the theme music?

“Dum di-di dum dum”

Dr. No (1962)

1962 was the year we got our first James Bond movie.

Monty Norman was credited with writing the “James Bond Theme”. But,  the tune was arranged by John Barry who would later go on to compose the soundtracks for eleven James Bond films!

These two composers gave the world one of the most popular theme songs for a movie, being heard in 27 James bond movies and 7 different James Bond actors.

“James Bond Theme” by Monty Norman from Dr. No (1962):

Marry Poppins (1964)                            

If I ask you “are you excited?” and you grew up watching this movie, I bet your answer would have been “I‘m”:

Now that “um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay” is stuck in your head, I think you would like to know that “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” has 34 letters in it!

The song was performed in the Disney movie ”Marry Poppins“ in 1964 by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.

Written By the Sherman Brothers Robert and Richard, who won the 1965 academy award for it!

The Sound of Music (1965)                

When you think of the sound of music many songs come up, but one of the most well-known songs from the show and movie is:

Even before the release of the movie in 1965, the song was very popular among jazz Legends, such as John Coltrane:

Another song on this list performed by Julie Andrews, “My Favorite Things” is an instant classic. Surpassing over 50 years of pop culture, the song was picked up by Ariana Grande in 2019 reviving it yet again as “7 Rings”:

In the musical, the lyrics of the song are listed as things Maria loves, such as “raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens” These are the things Maria says she thinks about when times are bad.

Can you spot the differences between the song’s lyrics?

The Graduate (1967)                                   

Paul Simon might have written many great songs in the 1960s, but one stands out when you think about a song from a movie.

“Mrs. Robinson” was released in 1968, and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, topping the hit “The Sounds of Silence”.

But a year before that an early version of the song appeared in the motion picture “The Graduate” (1967) and its subsequent soundtrack. The song earned Simon and Garfunkel a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1969.

In the film The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman in his breakthrough role, plays Benjamin Braddock, a young man having an affair with an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson. Only the chorus of the song appears throughout the second half of the film.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Considered by many as one of the greatest films of all time, or the greatest science fiction film of all time, Stanley Kubrick delivers an instant classic that would impact the way the industry makes science fiction films forever.

Released in 1968, the film uses composer Richard Strauss’s tone poems to portray the feeling of drifting in space.

To many, thinking about music that portrays the vast emptiness of space, or a sound so epic it makes you get goosebumps, you would instantly start humming “Also Sprach Zaratustra”:

Maybe without even knowing the name of the song or the movie it came from. 2001: A Space Odyssey is remembered as a cutting-edge film, with innovative effects, an epic storyline, and a narrative still valid to this day.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

We are getting to the end of the 60s. But this list will be incomplete without these next songs.

Rainy day? Feeling blue? in a way B.J Thomas captures what we are all feeling. He did it so well he won an academy award for best original song in a film for “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”:

The song became so popular and iconic with a sad rainy day that it was used in many more films and TV shows for the next 50 years. examples include Forrest Gump, Spiderman, Clerks, Gray’s Anatomy the Simpsons, and many more.

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

“I’M WALKING HERE” is an iconic NYC phrase coined by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Midnight Cowboy. But the movie is also known for bringing forward and popularizing the 1966 song “Everybody’s Talkin” by Harry Nilsson:

The song even won a Grammy award the next year and later was known for being recorded in just one take.

Well, that’s all folks!

Did I miss anything? Let me know! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed our walk down memory lane together.