It’s been a weird time for movie theme songs lately. We had the dire Fall Out Boy/Missy Elliot Ghostbusters theme. Suicide Squad gave us an ‘unofficial’ theme that wasn’t great. Then Rihanna’s Star Trek Beyond music video has us wishing she was in the movie. But what was the last truly great movie theme song?
The movie theme song has died a death in recent years — sure, movies can be built around a licensed soundtrack, like the excellent Awesome Mix of Guardians of the Galaxy. Then there’s musicals like Frozen and its famous earworm, but even ‘Let It Go’ wasn’t a traditional “theme song.” Outside of something like the James Bond movies and their opening titles, you don’t really get actual movie themes all that often any more.
What do you think counts as a recent great example? We’ve put Adele’s Skyfall theme up as a suggestion, and we all have classic favourites — Fall Out Boy proved that you can’t beat a bit of Ray Parker Jr. — but let us know your favourite theme songs from the past few years in the comments below.