Music is always a key part of a great movie. Whether it’s creating emotion, suspense, enhancing a romantic moment or other drama the right music can make a huge difference. Sometimes that means a specially written score for the film. In other cases, it’s selecting the right mix of songs to drop the needle on and play a section from.
The 1980s sure had a more than fair share of top movies and brilliant soundtracks for those. When it comes to ranking movies there are several ways you can go about it. Box office takings, critical reviews, and awards won all come into play. For the soundtracks, it's not that different and of course, music has its own sections in the Grammy and Academy Awards categories.
This listing is based on album sales. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) ranks those and awards Gold, Platinum and Diamond status to the top sellers in the US. This leads nicely to explaining why there are 17 soundtracks listed. They are all multiple platinum sellers.
Top selling movie soundtracks of the 1980s might surprise you
Below these 17 there are more great soundtracks. But they only had sales at gold or single platinum level. That would include the soundtracks for these million selling albums amongst others.
- Heavy Metal - a 1981 animated Sci-fi film which features tracks from Devo, Stevie Nicks and Donald Fagen plus a few more that wear the metal badge better.
- Amadeus - Neville Marriner conducted and supervised the many Mozart pieces in this biography of the composer's later life.
- Somewhere In Time - a1980 romcom with just one of many scores written by John Barry in addition to his James Bond themes.
1980s Movie soundtracks with sales of 2 million units
When Harry Met Sally
Maybe for this 1989 film with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, it’s not the music that immediately jumps to mind when you think of a scene and sounds. The album from the film did very well though with over 2 million sales. It helped establish Harry Connick Jnr. who provided the soundtrack, arranging and performing 11 classics written by the likes of George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.
Beverley Hills Cop
This 1984 film set Eddie Murphy on his way as a worldwide film star with his role as Axel Foley. The soundtrack was another 2 million seller and featured a range of artists. The standout hit was the overall theme song. An instrumental “Axel F” by German musician Harold Faltermeyer, in another clue, he’s back again on another movie later in this list.
Honeysuckle Rose
This might be one that slipped your mind if you were trying to guess the 16 films. The film was also known as On The Road Again. Willie Nelson played the lead role in the film and he and his family also get the credit for the music to this 1980 western romance. The film wasn’t a huge hit, but the song “On The Road Again” by Nelson picked up a Grammy nomination and the whole soundtrack album reached over 2 million sales.
Xanadu
This wasn't much of a box office hit either. A 1980 musical fantasy story about a nightclub called Xanadu. Olivia Newton-John was one of the stars in the cast and she, along with Electric Light Orchestra featured heavily on the soundtrack record with an album side each. The album did far better than the film with over 2 million sales and six singles released from it.
La Bamba
The story of Ritchie Valens with music by Mexican-US rock band Los Lobos came out in 1987. As you’d expect it featured them performing several Valens songs, the catchy “La Bamba”, originally a Mexican folk song was a stand out track and hit single. The soundtrack album was another 2 million seller.
1980s Movie soundtracks with sales of 3 to 5 million units
Urban Cowboy
John Travolta led the cast in this 1980 western romance which sparked a country music revival and pop-country crossover. The soundtrack included a mix of country based styles from the fiddles of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” through to tracks by Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Kenny Rogers and many others. The double album racked up 3 million in sales.
Eddie And The Cruisers
This 1983 musical drama covered the story of a fictional rock band. In casting, the search went out for a band that was a cross between Dion and The Belmonts, with a flavour of Jim Morrison and The Doors, mixed with a New Jersey scent of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. It returned John Cafferty and Beaver Brown, with Cafferty writing the score for the film.
The movie flopped in cinemas, lasting three weeks before being pulled. Later cable TV showings gave it and the soundtrack album a boost. To the extent of 3 million sales and a higher ranking than many would have expected.
Beaches
A 1988 comedy drama starring Bette Midler who also released the soundtrack of her many songs in it as an album. The most memorable song from Beaches was “Wind Beneath My Wings”, a huge hit and Grammy Award winning song for Midler. At 3 million sales Beaches is Midler’s biggest selling album.
Cocktail
We’re well into the top ten now with the music from one of many Tom Cruise movies. Sales of 4m place the Cocktail soundtrack at number eight on the list. The film was highly successful in commercial terms. But hey, what’s that got to do with the music? The Beach Boys, Bobby McFerrin and others featured on the album can sip a Margarita and toast their success.
The Jazz Singer
Another movie and soundtrack proving you can’t please everyone. This Neil Diamond acting debut was both praised and panned. The soundtrack album stood alone and surpassed the film. With 5 million sales, it is his biggest selling album. Three singles were released from it, “Love On The Rocks”, “Hello Again” and “America” all were top ten hits.
Top 1980s movie soundtracks 7 through 5
The Big Chill
One of three soundtrack albums all at 6m sales and together in sixth position on the list. This 1983 comedy drama included the likes of Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum in its cast about a reunion 15 years after university. The soundtrack album is another by that well known group Various Artists, with Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and The Rolling Stones among those featured. Perhaps the movie has a slight edge here as a follow up album, More Songs From The Big Chill sold a further 1m copies a year later.
Flashdance
In case anyone doesn’t know or has forgotten this is the 1983 story of a female welder, who also works as an exotic dancer, but wants to be a professional ballerina. So, yeah a pretty true to life gritty story. Backed by video clips from the movie the soundtrack album did amazingly well. 6 million sales, nine Grammy nominations and three awards. Film music guru Giorgio Moroder was behind the biggest hit sung by Irene Cara - “Flashdance - What A Feeling”. If you want to read a great ranking of the ten songs from the movie we’ve got it covered for you.
Little Mermaid
Ok, we’ve done well to get this far without a Disney film popping up. The family element to this 1989 animation will no doubt have boosted sales of this fun soundtrack to the 6 million level. It was the beginning of a resurgence in Disney music and films in the coming years. If that bothers you at all, let it go.
Top movie soundtracks from the 1980s third and second
Tied 3rd - Footloose
Sharing third place with 9 million sales is this lively soundtrack from 1984’s Footloose. The movie starred Kevin Bacon and was a big hit despite mixed reviews. A strong track listing had a great range of songs and top-selling singles released from it.
The top track was surely the title song “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins. But that was closely run with Deniece Williams' “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” and "Almost Paradise” from Ann Wilson and Mike Reno. Bonnie Tyler also had chart success around Europe with “Holding Out For A Hero”.
Tied 3rd - Top Gun
Also in third place with 9 million sales, here are both Tom Cruise and Harold Faltemeyer back again, but together this time. Faltermeyer scored the movie but is best known here for the “Top Gun Anthem” used in the film's opening. Other top music moments are “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” for the bar room scene where Cruise sings to Kelly McGillis and “Take My Breath Away” the love theme for the film by Berlin.
Kenny Loggins added another memorable track with the powerful “Danger Zone”. He was way down the selection list for the track though, around fifth choice after Toto, Bryan Adams, REO Speedwagon, and Corey Hart. Loggins did a decent job on what’s now another iconic track from the film.
2nd - Purple Rain
There is an underlying question here. Is this a regular album with a movie, or a movie with a soundtrack album? Either way, it’s Prince and The Revolution in amazing form. After his 1999 album Prince let Warner Brothers know that the songs he was writing for his next album would feature in a film, and he would be the star.
It sounds like an obvious yes let’s do it! But Prince wasn’t yet a huge star and it took some convincing that he could make the project work before his label agreed. The film and album were released in 1984. The film did well at the box office, $70 million against its $7 million costs. The album though was an enormous success and propelled Prince to the next level of stardom. It sold over 13 million copies and had huge hits with “When Doves Cry”, “Let’s Go Crazy” and the title track “Purple Rain”. Two Grammys and an Academy Award followed too.
The top movie soundtrack of the 1980s is…
...Dirty Dancing
Of course it is, Dirty Dancing is a wildly popular movie to this day. The chemistry of stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray stands the test of time and resonates around the world. Its early 1960s setting for the story is ideal and evocative, also allowing some great music to feature throughout the film.
The film had its first showing at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1987 before making its cinema debut in August of that year. Reviews were mixed and slightly above average at best, it wasn’t an obvious huge hit at first. But it grew at the box office and took around $63 million and then, significantly, continued to grow in popularity via video becoming the first film to sell over 1m copies in that format.
The soundtrack was overseen by Jimmy Lenner and had a mix of existing songs and music along with several new songs. That included “She’s Like The Wind” cowritten by Swayze a few years earlier and performed by him for the movie, it was a top five hit as a single. “Hungry Eyes” by Eric Carmen was another hit when released as a single. Add in some classics such as “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes, ‘Do You Love Me” by The Contours and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles and it's definitely earning its top place.
Pride of place song wise anyway goes to what has become the signature song for Dirty Dancing - “(I've Had) The Time of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. That song covered the iconic final dance in the film and collected a Grammy, an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award. Quite a shelf full of trophies.
The soundtrack album came out in August 1987 and had enormous success. 14m sales in the US were backed by even more worldwide as the film's success grew. An estimated 32 million sales across the globe make this one of the top selling albums, regardless of soundtracks. As an added clincher for top place here a second album, More Dirty Dancing was released in March 1988 and sold 4 million copies.