Track Listing

1. Do Anything - Pete Shelley
2. Brilliant Mind - Furniture
3. Cry Like This - Blue Room
4. I Go Crazy / Flesh For Lulu
5. She Loves Me - Stephen Duffy
6. Hardest Walk - The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Jesus and Mary Chain
7. Shyest Time - The Apartments
8. Miss Amanda Jones - March Violets
9. Can't Help Falling in Love - Lick the Tins, Lick the Tins
10. Turn to the Sky - March Violets

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4683 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Original language: English

Amazon.com
While most '80s soundtracks offer collections of radio-friendly hits from haircut bands, the Some Kind of Wonderful soundtrack features quirky non-hits from bands like the Jesus & Mary Chain, Flesh for Lulu, and the Apartments. This delightfully non-mainstream soundtrack features Stephen Duffy's "Lonesome," the March Violets' unforgettable cover of the Rolling Stones' "Miss Amanda Jones," and Pete Shelley's "Do Anything." The highlight of the CD is unquestionably Lick the Tins' gravel-voiced, tin-whistle-driven cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love." Just listening to this CD can throw you into a John Hughes nostalgia tailspin that you may not want to come out of. --L.A. Smith

Customer Reviews

Opening Track
A delightful film, matched by tracks that were obviously picked with scenes in mind. I have to agree with fellow reviewer Emily that the opening track is the cat's whiskers, but unfortunately, it doesn't appear on the album. The track is called Dr Mabuse by a German band called Propaganda, and the opening titles with Mary Stuart Masterson on drums listening to the track on headphones is excellent.

All Kinds Of Wonderful
Nowadays soundtracks are issued as strict money makers. Gather together a bunch of superstars, have them contribute material that's "inspired" by the movie and collect millions. Soundtracks are supposed to convey the feeling of and set the mood for a movie. Martin Scorcese & Quentin Tarrentino do it, but maybe no one better than John Hughes. He uses the songs included on this cd and the ones in the movie but not included here as the spirit of the film. They all have a hard edge to them with lyrics about obession, fear and vulnerability which is what the movie is all about. The artists are basically made up of unknowns with some typically strange 80's band names (Lick The Tins, Flesh For Lulu to name two) and there are no hits among them. Taken as a whole, the music, like the film, is: wonderful.

get it for furniture's "brilliant mind"
there's a scene in the movie where a song is playing on a boombox and one of the characters walks over and presses "stop." No! I stopped the DVD and played those few seconds again and again to hear the song. it turned out to be furniture's "brilliant mind," a hard to find single from 1986 that made the british charts. it's an understated, moody, and sophisticated song in the mold of the lotus eaters, talk talk, late roxy music & bryan ferry, or seona dancing. it begins with a world weary lament: "I'm at the stage where everything I thought meant something seems so unappealing, I'm ready for the real thing but nobody's selling" the song portrays the stuggle to find life's offerings worthwhile, and to the advice everyone around him offers, the singer replies "you must be out of your brilliant mind." it's a masterpiece of romantic new wave crooning.

the rest of the CD also offers some hard to find songs that give a better sense of the depth of 80s music than your average 80s comp. especially great and rare is the song by australian group the apartments. the flesh for lulu, stephen "tin tin" duffy, and jesus and mary chain songs are also great. I'm not as enchanted by the march violets and lick the tins as others seem to be, but in just 10 songs this CD offers a nice corrective to stereotypical 80s comps (including other john hughes soundtracks).