Well, I'll never hear THAT song the same way again!

Being a visual medium, movies often change the way we see the world. But they can also change the way we hear the world too.  Rarely is that effect more striking than when a movie has its way with a song we know and love. The song is often altered forever - whether we want it to be or not.

I was on a Paul Thomas Anderson kick recently, and I watched Boogie Nights for the first time in a while. The film was building to a sweaty, fevered pitch as it hurtled through its third act.

Then "Sister Christian" came blaring on the soundtrack.

Before Boogie Nights, I had always regarded that Night Ranger song as one of those gloppy slices of Velveeta for which people of my generation carry a strange torch. I remember the video being played ad nauseum on MTV, when a couple of band members engaged in what I call the "dramatic Night Ranger squat"  (at about 3:41 in the clip).



But that's not what I think of anymore when I hear "Sister Christian." Now when that song comes on, even if it's not in the movie, I can't help but hear firecrackers snapping on the ground. And in a strange way, it gives the song a "cool cache" it NEVER had before.



"Layla" was a song I knew very well long before I saw GoodFellas in 1990. But after Marty Scorsese got through with it, I could never again hear it without thinking of a lot of dead bodies (9:24 in).



And then there's Roy Orbison's "In Dreams." Now - this is a slightly different case. I had never heard that song before seeing it in David Lynch's Blue Velvet - and I'm kind of glad I didn't. Because the ONLY image that song conjures up now is of Dennis Hopper being horrifyingly sadistic. That song wasn't "ruined," but it was introduced to me in a very, very twisted way. I can only imagine how my mind would have melted had Lynch used "Oh! Pretty Woman" or "Only the Lonely."



So how about you? What songs did the movies irrevocably change for you - for good or ill?