Sing along with Sci-Fi!
An overview of the wonderful music I've come across while researching for this podcast.
You can go through all of these individually or click here for the Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever* YouTube music playlist.
(There's a link to the relevant podcast episode below every video.)
A Trip to the Moon - Florian Clar
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Let's start at the very beginning! Although this is definitely not the music the audience would have heard in 1902 whilst watching Georges Méliès' delightful and whimsical film Le Voyage dans la Lune it is the one I enjoyed listening to most whilst watching and researching the film.
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Click here to watch episode 2 The First Science Fiction Film Ever
Love Kills - Freddie Mercury
In the 1980s music producer extraordinaire Giorgio Moroder decided to round up some of the biggest stars to make a new soundtrack to the phenomenal 1927 silent masterpiece Metropolis. This is Freddie Mercury's contribution (but not his last on this list).
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Click here to watch episode 5 Metropolis: The Most Influential Sci-Fi Film Ever*
Never Swat a Fly - McKinney's Cotton Pickers
Never Swat a Fly features in the musical rom-com sci-fi Just Imagine (1930) but this version is better in my opinion.The racist name of the band was forced upon them by The Graystone Ballroom in Michigan despite opposition from band members. At a time of rigid racial segregation the band went on to become hugely successful under this name. The Synco Band was their original name.
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Click here to watch episode 7 Just Imagine a Musical Rom-Com Sci-Fi Film!
Flash - Queen
Freddie returns this time with the rest of Queen! I adore this song and think it's one of the best theme tunes ever made! Flash for the 1980 film Flash Gordon.
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Click here to watch episode 11 Flash Gordon: From Buck Rogers Rip-Off to Space Opera Legend
The Eve of War - Jeff Wayne
The rumbling of Richard Burton's voice and those violins! This song and album is such a curiosity. Made in 1978 the "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds" album sold millions globally.From anecdotal feedback I've received it seems to be much more well known by British Gen X than other countries and age groups. I listened to this song so much whilst reearching for the War of the Worlds episode that my children cannot stand even a second of it. Apologies to them and to Jeff.
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Click here to watch episode 17 The War of the Worlds: HG Wells' Martians in 1953
The Wilhelm Scream
Okay so this isn't music. A compilation of the most famous stock sound in cinema! The Wilhelm scream was originally recorded in 1951 but has been used across the decades to the point it's become a very big "inside joke". It is also used in 1950s big bug sci-fi classic Them! from 1954.
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Click here to watch episode 21 Them! The 1954 Horror Sci-Fi that Spawned Big Bug Cinema
Gojira Main Titles - Akira Ifukube
I adore the opening of the 1954 Gojira film in large part because of this music. It is powerful! It is grand! It is worthy of the world's first nuclear kaiju superstar!
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Click here to watch episode 23 Godzilla in 1954: Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare and Sci-Fi Legacy
Forbidden Planet Main Titles - Louis and Bebe Barron
Louis and Bebe Barron were excluded from Oscar nominations because they did not belong to the Musicians' Union. Their groundbreaking sound design for the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet was not permitted to be called "music" and had to be changed to "electric tonalities".
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Click here to watch episode 25 How Forbidden Planet Shaped Sci-Fi Cinema
The Blob - The Five Blobs
This song was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David in 1958 for the film The Blob. The Five Blobs were assembled (Blobs Assemble!) purely to record this very groovy track which sounds exactly as if it's almost ready to teeter over into the 1960s in a year or two.
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Click here to watch episode 28 The Blob, Steve McQueen and the Rising Teen
Gotta Travel On - Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte broke barriers becoming the first single artist to sell a million LPs with Calypso in 1956.But not everyone knows about his lead performance in the 1959 sci-fi The World, the Flesh and the Devil which features this wonderful song.
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Royal Jelly - Deap Vally
I can't remember how I came across this song just around the time I was researching for Roger Corman's film The Wasp Woman (1959).The lyrics appealed to my buzzing insect hyperfocus at the time and was played quite excessively.The song lyrics are somewhat inaccurate as Queen Bees do not make honey but I thoroughly enjoy this track so it's okay.
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Click here to watch episode 36 The Wasp Woman: Roger Corman's Corporate Queen
Ikarie XB​-​1 - ZdenÄ›k Liška
ZdenÄ›k Liška was a renown Czech composer with a huge number of musical scores to his name. Ikarie XB-1 offers a truly strange and futuristic experience.
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Click here to watch episode 47 Ikarie XB-1: 1963 Communist Utopia in Spaaace!
The Doctor Who theme music - Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire
My absolute favourite TV theme tune of all time! Although it is composed by Grainer he wanted to give Derbyshire a co-composer credit. Grainer didn't recognise the music Derbyshire played back to him. The BBC refused.
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Click here to watch episode 52 The Doctor, the Daleks & the 1960s
The Doctor Who theme across the ages
Another one for the brilliant Doctor Who theme just because I love it so! A video showing how the theme music has changed over the decades.
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Click here to watch episode 52 The Doctor, the Daleks & the 1960s
Prisencolinensinainciusol - Adriano Celentano
Okay so this doesn't feature in any sci-fi film I know of (as of yet) but I listened to this on a loop while researching The 10th Victim (1956). The film and this song both reflect the Italian mid-century cultural predilection with all things American.
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Click here to watch episode 56 The 10th Victim: Italy's 1965 Pop Art Dystopia