"Like a pizza in the rain, loco de amor..."

I've had Something Wild on the brain lately since it's been showing for free in HD on Comcast OnDemand and strong rumors have surfaced that Criterion has licensed it from MGM. Mr. Peel put together a nice tribute recently and it was one of the first films I wrote about here.

One of the strongest features of the film, like many a Jonathan Demme picture, is the wildly eclectic, hip soundtrack that fits the film like a glove. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about this soundtrack, is that most of the featured artists have never appeared on another soundtrack--this is no Big Chill-like greatest hits compilation or predictable collection of New Wave tracks as heard in the films of John Hughes. No, Demme and his co-compilers are connoisseurs of some seriously offbeat, off-the-radar indie (before that was a category) and reggae music of the '70s and '80s. There are a few well-known tracks, but there are quite a few that can't be found anywhere except in the film or on long out-of-print 45s and LPs. The official soundtrack only included 10 tracks out of nearly 50 heard in the film.

Anyway, all that said, I tried to correct that and did some online digging over several hours a few Saturdays back and compiled a significantly more complete--though still far from complete--soundtrack. You can hear "Riding in a UFO" by the Judy's here in Real Audio format (I couldn't figure out how to convert it to an MP3 file). So far as I can tell, Q. Lazzarus' "The Candle Goes Away" never appeared in any other format except the scene in which it appears, so the version included is from a DVD rip someone posted. The Feelies tracks from their classic debut Crazy Rhythms are the studio versions not the live versions they performed in the film.

Charlie and Lulu on location. (FYI, CLICK ON THE CAPTION for Download Link)