The 9 Best Needle Drops of 2024

Music made the movies come together....

Who doesn’t love a good needle drop? A well placed song in a movie can become instantly synonymous with that time and place. (It’s why I’ll never hear Huey Lewis without thinking of Christian Bale.) And this year gave us a lot of choices when it came to needle drops. So, here they are, the nine best needle drops of 2024.

“Greatest Day” (Anora)

The Anora soundtrack got a lot of play in my car over the last two months, but no song has dominated my consciousness more than the film’s opening song: “Greatest Day” a Robin Schulz produced remix of the Take That song. The boppy pop sounds talking about “today this could be / the greatest day of our lives” as the women of the HQ Gentlemen’s Club go about another day at work not only presents the disconnect – between joy and sadness, work and pleasure – that permeates the film, it also sells the landscape as a symbol of who Ani (Mikey Madison) herself is. For her, every day could be the greatest day, the day her life changes.

We later hear the song again after Ani and the Russian Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) get married and have a whirlwind trip to Vegas that culminates with them settling into Vanya’s massive mansion. It’s Ani’s happy song, celebrating her life and how her dreams, once presumed as illusory, come true. Considering the ups and downs of this year, listening to this felt a lot like our collective love for “Dancing On My Own” back in 2017. Things might be terrible, but the infectious power of this song made me want to get up, dance, and remind myself that today might not be the greatest day, but maybe tomorrow. -KL

“Too Real” (Bird)

It’s worth its weight in gold when a song just completely matches the moment it underscores in a film. Andrea Arnold’s usage of the Fontaines D.C. rager “Too Real” in her latest feature Bird works on a multitude of levels. Fontaines has always been a band aligned with the working class and this song is a perfect example of where they stand in their ideals—ideals that live in the heart of Bird as well. The lyrics illustrate the unflinching truths in the proletariat struggle and then mocks your potential discomfort in those realities: “Is it too real for ya?”

That message couldn’t be more present in Bird, a film that doesn’t mince words about underclass struggle in the United Kingdom. Plus, lead singer Grian Chattan’s voice has this lived-in, worked-too-hard grit that feels right at home in the movie. He feels like he could be a character himself (and to that end, Fontaines guitarist Carlos O’Connell actually is). It gets you as hyped as the characters’ energy feels in some of the more fast-paced moments. It makes the viewer want to go on the adventure and take the joy ride that is survival. It takes a real ripper to do all of that with such pointed intention. -LB

“Come As You Are” (Queer)

The opening guitar riff to Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” is always going to be amazing, and when it starts in the opening of Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, I knew I’d be enthralled. The movie itself doesn’t live up to the needle drop, sadly, but for the three minutes it played I was on-board for whatever Guadagnino wanted to throw at me. It accompanies the film’s protagonist William Lee (Daniel Craig) as he walks through the streets of 1950s Mexico seeking sex and a good time. As the camera follows William we see the residents of the town he’s in certainly living up to the song.

They have come to the town as they are and … well, let’s just say there’s a double meaning to the song within the context of the film. Either way, the rangy guitar playing as Craig saunters down a street where sex is easy to obtain, drugs are flowing and nobody is worried about tomorrow is just the epitome of cool. -KL

“Tezeta” (Nickel Boys)

I’m pretty sure I gasped when Mulatu Astake’s transcendent “Tezeta” started to play in the finale of Nickel Boys. I fully realize everything I’m about to say about the usage of this ethio-jazz song in RaMell Ross’ sophomore feature is inherently biased because this song is an integral part of my morning wakeup routine and has been for a few years now, but “Tezeta” is truly that magical. The horns tug firmly at your heart as they crescendo and explode with longing, blending seamlessly with the carefully curated imagery Ross uses to illustrate the true suffering of the moment. But there is also a sense of resignation and a sense of comfort in the memories we return to, all in the way the horns seem to cry out, yearn and then settle. It’s a beautiful piece of music that seems somehow made for this moment. I can’t imagine the end of Nickel Boys without it. -LB

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” (The Last Showgirl)

It was hard to decide between this and Shelly’s (Pamela Anderson) audition to Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night.” In the end, I went with the movie’s use of Bonnie Tyler’s oft-covered classic “Total Eclipse of the Heart” for how it connects Shelly and her best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis). The song comes as both characters have hit a low point – Shelly is not only losing her job but is at odds with her daughter, Hannah (Billie Lourd), while Annette realizes she’s slowly being X’ed out of her job as a cocktail waitress because of her age.

For Annette, the timing of the song gives her an opportunity to enter an imaginary realm in her head, to when she was young and perceived as sexy by everyone else. As Shelly walks the streets of Las Vegas, Annette gets on a small stage in the center of the casino floor and starts dancing. It starts out as a cringe-inducing moment – she’s dancing in a casino in the middle of the day – but it’s a moment of pure freedom and release for Annette that is beautiful to see. Also, it’s just great watching Jamie Lee Curtis dance again because, let’s be real, she’s lost not an ounce of sexiness since True Lies. -KL

“Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl” (I Saw the TV Glow)

Teenage angst is a truly ageless phenomenon. This dreamy reinvention of the poignant 2002 Broken Social Scene hit “Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl” feels right at home in the analog neoncore world of I Saw The TV Glow. Yeule’s voice is the perfect representation of the aesthetic of the film and the inner voice of Owen, the film’s lead expertly played by Justice Smith. It’s another one of those songs that feels like the personification of the tonal and visual landscape of the film, a total nail on the head moment especially when you consider the moments when this cover is deployed throughout the film. When it hits in those scenes it goes for your throat, your nostalgia, your catharsis, your blood. The climax of this cover comes to devour you with emotion. -LB

“Gimme All Your Loving” (Maxxxine)

Maxxxine is a movie made for needle drops, so it’s understandable that I had a hard time picking just one. Honorable mentions went to our title character (Mia Goth) stabbing the hell out of Kevin Bacon’s sleazy PI with her car keys as the theme from St. Elmo’s Fire played. Or I could have gone with the amazing use of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Welcome to the Pleasuredome.” Instead, I went with the opening credits, and ZZ Top’s classic “Gimme All Your Loving.” (What can I say? I love a catchy guitar riff.) This accompanies the opening credits, right after Maxine auditions for the horror film The Puritan 2 and, as she confidently strides out of the studio, tells all the other girls waiting to audition to go home because “I just fucking nailed that!”

It’s such a moment of supreme cockiness that perfectly blends with the song’s guitar and feels so LA. From there the movie opens to show the dueling natures of the City of Angels, from the glitz of Hollywood and its stars to news segments telling people about the serial killer The Night Stalker. It’s these moments of darkness and glamour that has made Hollywood, and Los Angeles, what it is. And with ZZ Top it just makes you fall in love with the city’s sexy darkness. -KL

“I Wanna Get Next To You” (A Different Man)

The scene where Adam Pearson’s charming character Oswald dominates at karaoke much to the chagrin and disbelief of Sebastian Stan’s rapidly crumbling Edward, is one of the most memorable of the year. The whole screen seems to begin to glow, as if a beautiful filter was put on the lens to give us a hazy, heavenly view of greatness. It’s a wonderful little trick by director Aaron Schimberg that forces us to not only sympathize with Edward, but to then empathize with him.

Schimberg’s selection of Rose Royce’s “I Want To Get Next To You” for the karaoke track is just as impactful because Oswald is capable of the seductions he sings about, whereas Edward can’t figure out how to break free from his self-imposed prison of self-hatred. Pearson acts the whole thing up with his swagger and impeccable falsetto, and makes you like his character even more than you already did. He even makes Stan’s character see him in the same light… but only in a way that drives him mad. -LB

“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” (Kinds of Kindness)

I’ll never forget hearing the downbeat of “Sweet Dreams” at the Cannes Film Festival press screening for Kinds of Kindness. The whole room immediately perked up and the crowd immediately started clapping along with the pulsating core beat of the dance track. The colleagues I watched the film with would agree with you, but I couldn’t help but smile. It felt like a moment I’d always remember—the perfect opening to a movie that is wholly unforgettable. Co-writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos’ decision to use this classic Eurythmics tune speaks to the greater conceit of this devilish little film: how human beings use and abuse others as playthings in the name of something that feels to them like a greater purpose. As the famous lyrics go, “everybody is looking for something.” Sweet dreams are, in fact, made of this. -LB