From their ‘Top 200 Songs of the 80s‘ to their Greatest Singers Ever and ‘100 Best R&B Songs of the 21st Century‘ rankings and beyond, the good folks at Rolling Stone are no strangers to being on the receiving end of cheers and jeers over the years for their polarizing “best-ever” listings.
The discussion surrounding their latest, the ‘101 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time,’ is proving no different.
Before unveiling their list, the music mag was sure to call out its criteria for ranking: soundtracks built around original songs and those boasting “expertly curated compilations.”
Citing the inclusion of only soundtracks that “could stand outside” of their parent film, such rubric excludes all musicals (Disney movies, ‘Dreamgirls,’ ‘Star is Born,’ ‘Sound of Music,’ ‘Grease,’ ‘Funny Girl,’ ‘The Wiz’ and ‘Wizard of Oz,’ etc.) and all original film scores.
And while some readers called “foul” after seeing Whitney Houston‘s ‘The Bodyguard’ (which stands in history books as the best-selling soundtrack of all time at 45 million copies sold worldwide) listed at #101 below ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ ‘8 Mile,’ ‘Waiting to Exhale,’ ‘Hard Day’s Night,’ ‘Blue Hawaii,’ and more, they were even more shocked to see ‘Titanic‘ missing from the list.
Listed at #1 was Prince‘s iconic ‘Purple Rain,’ which the mag branded was the “peak of [his] historic creative streak.”
Released in 1984, ‘Rain’ became the iconic singer-songwriter’s first Billboard 200 chart-topper and stayed atop the tally for a whopping 24 consecutive weeks at the height of its popularity.
At writing, it’s one of the best-selling albums ever having sold over 25 million copies worldwide.
See who else made the top 10 of the ‘Rolling Stone’ greatest soundtracks ever list.
10 – ‘Wild Style’
9 – ‘American Graffiti’
8 – ‘The Graduate’
7 – ‘Pulp Fiction’
6 – ‘SupaFly’
5 – ‘Saturday Night Fever’
4 – ‘Hard Day’s Night’
3- ‘The Harder They Come’
2 – ‘Help’
1- ‘Purple Rain’
Click here to see the full tally.
