The soothing sounds of soundtracks

I’m a big advocate for soundtracks. They have the ability to excite you, make you cry, dance, give you chills and what can be most important; sooth and relax you.

I grew up with soundtracks. Les Miserable, Phantom of the Opera to start and as I got older, I got into the movies; Forest Gump, Titanic, Chicago… to name a few.

Even in college, the guys were heavy into Star Wars I, and I can’t even tell you how many times we listened to that soundtrack in their dorm room or on our way to Denny’s.

Once I started working for the prison system, as I’ve mentioned before, I had a very difficult time with sleep. I’d either lie there with anxiety knowing I had to start my Monday the next morning, or lie there afraid someone had broken into my house and played out every scenario of that happening. Or what was sometimes even worse, having really bad nightmares that would wake me up drenched in sweat with my heart pounding so hard it would just stop.

When nights became too much for my head to handle, I would grab my cd player and put in my favorite soundtrack; Meet Joe Black. The only soundtrack that had the ability to sooth me to sleep. Sometimes it would take only a few tracks, sometimes it would take the entire cd, but in time, I’d drift off to sleep.

To this day, its still one of my absolute favorite soundtracks. Even as I write this, I’m listening to it picturing where we are in the movie. And that’s what’s so great about soundtracks! If you’ve seen the movie enough, you can play the entire scene in your head as you listen. There’ll be times I’ll pause in what I’m doing to play it out in my head and a little smile will appear because as always, its one of my favorite parts.


Every soundtrack evokes a different emotion in me. When I’m needing to decompress from the day, I’ll play my ‘soundtracks' playlist that begins with Pride and Prejudice, followed by Meet Joe Black and then Pearl Harbor. It continues on to others, but these are my top 3 favorites to have me unwind. If I’m feeling more upbeat, I’ll listen to Chicago and sing along or {when I had it} Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I plan to always have soundtracks in my life. I think its very important for my {future} kids to appreciate the finer music. The symphonies and feeling the emotion in every note they make. To sit back and close their eyes as they soak in the sounds, being able to pick out the cellos and clarinets, the violins and flutes. Feeling the beat…

I can certainly go on and on about it, that’s how passionate I am about beautiful music. What also gives me a huge appreciation for it is watching how the composer made the music. G-man and I one night, awhile back, watched a documentary on the Rocky movies. In it, they talked about the music. In the very first movie, they had such a low budget, they filmed primarily in the middle of the night or at dawn. That’s why you see so many morning shots. They had to because they didn’t have a permit to shoot in the city as it was too expensive.

With the music, generally they’re given weeks (if I remember correctly) to watch the movie and play the music in their studio repeatedly, along with a large budget but right before doing their first run through, the composer was pulled aside, told the budget was slashed to virtually nothing and without telling the musicians, started the recording and had them play every song for the entire movie.

They played every song once. That’s it. What you hear in the movie was their very first run through. Now if you watch that movie again, {which if you’re anything like me, you’re forced happy to watch it every time it comes on} I’d imagine your appreciation for it all will increase. Maybe its just me thinking its cool. But I can’t help it, I do.

I know I’m not alone in liking soundtracks, so what kind do you listen to?

What are your favorites and your go to’s?

Any that fall in line with Pride and Prejudice and Meet Joe Black? I would love recommendations on similar ones to add to my collection.

Happy Friday and weekend everyone. Oh and that’s my very first collage so go easy on me with how simple it is.

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