2. An obscure Who track. Crowe clearly believes that if you multiply longevity by creativity, The Who are the greatest rock band of all time. He presents further evidence herein.

3. The rescue of a great ballad from obvilion to standard. With MacGuire, Crowe salvaged the bittersweet "Secret Garden" by Bruce Springsteen. Here, he does the same for the achingly tender "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John. (As a side note, there's a good chance this track could finally become a single, some 28 years after its release. With that, Elton could extend to 31 years his record of consecutive Top 40 singles.)

4. A brilliant and eclectic collection of tracks that you will grow to love.

Remember, this movie takes place circa 1973. We could have been subjected to Tony Orlando & Dawn, the Stories and Clint Holmes, or else yet another collection of Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and ELP. Instead, the songs have been carefully culled, mixing soul, pop and rock into a brilliant pastiche of the era.

This one's a keeper. And expect to see the movie in several Oscar categories too!


Furthers the hum of the movie   September 19, 2000
 58 out of 63 found this review helpful

One of the great tributes of Famous is its ability to revive the innocence of these songs. I've heard (most of) them enough times as background music, without context or concentration, that they turned to plastic; Cat Stevens and Elton John, in particular. The genius of the movie is that they are all forgiven of their detours, the cache of bad memories is cleared and the songs are reborn. It's like the first time you (anxiously, carefully) set the needle to the vinyl.

If you enjoyed the movie this will continue its vein until you can see it again. You will sit in front of your stereo and do nothing else but listen. Yep, it will set you free.


Classic and obscure rock that evokes the period and the film   September 13, 2000
 41 out of 44 found this review helpful

Unlike the director, Cameron Crowe, or the film's protagonist, William Miller, I could not have been a music critic for Rolling Stone at age 15 or now. But I shall add my two cents worth anyway. I think many people who are buying this CD are like me. They saw the film and they want to connect more with the 1973 period of Cameron Crowe's film through the music. Therefore, a flaw I found with this CD is the liner notes. Although it contains shots from the film and a requisite centerfold of the fictitious band Stillwater in concert, I had hoped it would have included some notes on why Crowe and Bramson selected the CD's tracks, or included one or two excerpts of Crowe's original stories that were published in Rolling Stone when he was a teen (before he penned Fast Times at Ridgemont High). While the film had excerpts from about fifty songs in its soundtrack, the CD has 17. The few pieces written by Peter Frampton and Cameron Crowe are not on this CD. Of course, I enjoyed the popular cuts, like The Wind by Cat Stevens, America by Simon & Garfunkel, Yes' fourth cut, and Todd Rundgren's third cut. The other cuts were more obscure to me, but by a third listening, they grow on you and provide a better feel for that period in Rock. For example, Feel Flows by The Beach Boys (track 5) succeeds in combining the major streams of that period's heady, lazy rock spirit, and "Stillwater's" Fever Dog, which could have been a bad Spinal Tap parody piece, succeeds as a classic rock track. While it is comforting to hear Elton John's Tiny Dancer (track 12) in its original form, if I were producing this CD, I would have added a track of Tiny Dancer sung by the film's cast (the healing song sung on the bus after a major fight).














A list of all of the songs...   January 2, 2004
 31 out of 33 found this review helpful

I don't know if anyone's interested anymore, but I made a list of all of the songs that appeared in the movie. It's not perfect, and at the end of the list, there are a few other songs that were in the closing credits, but I don't know when they were played in the movie...

The Chipmunk Song - The Chipmunks
The Oogum Boogum Song - Brenton Wood
America - Simon and Garfunkel
Sparks - The Who
Search and Destroy - Iggy Pop
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Teacher - Jethro Tull
Roundabout - Yes (not sure)
I've Seen All Good People: Your Move - Yes
Feel Flows - The Beach Boys
River - Joni Mitchell
Fever Dog - Stillwater
Sweet Leaf - Black Sabbath
Every Picture Tells A Story - Rod Stewart
Small Time Blues - Pete Droge
Something In The Air - Thunderclap Newman
Go All the Way - Eric Carmen & The Raspberries
Mr. Farmer - The Seeds
One Way Out - The Allman Brothers Band
Albert Flasher - Guess Who
Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Love Thing - Stillwater
That's The Way - Led Zeppelin
Everybody knows this is nowhere - Neil Young
Burn - Deep Purple
Reeling in the Years - Steely Dan
Tiny Dancer - Elton John
Lucky Trumble - Nancy Wilson
I'm Waiting For The Man - David Bowie
Love comes and goes - Stillwater
Hour of Need - Stillwater
You had to be there - Stillwater
The Wind - Cat Stevens
Voodoo Child - Jimi Hendrix
Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin
Cover of the Rolling Stone (sung by the band)
Mona Lisa's and Mad Hatters - Elton John
Color my World - James Pankow
My Cherie Amour - Stevie Wonder
Peggy Sue (sung by Russell)
Cortez the Killer - Neil Young
The Rain Song - Led Zeppelin
Bron-yr-aur - Led Zeppelin
Tangerine - Led Zeppelin

Other songs that I didn't know where to place:

It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference - Todd Rundgren
Easy to slip - Little Feat
Future Games - Fleetwood Mac
Dear Jill - Bloodwyn Pig
Looking at you - MCS
Slip Away - Clarence Carter
Wishing well - Free
Chance Upon You - Stillwater

Now this, in my opinion, is what should've been the soundtrack:

America - Simon and Garfunkel
Sparks - The Who
Feel Flows - The Beach Boys
Fever Dog - Stillwater
Something In The Air - Thunderclap Newman
Mr. Farmer - The Seeds
One Way Out - The Allman Brothers Band
Love Thing - Stillwater
That's The Way - Led Zeppelin
Tiny Dancer - Elton John

Lucky Trumble - Nancy Wilson
I'm Waiting For The Man - David Bowie
The Wind - Cat Stevens
Voodoo Child - Jimi Hendrix
Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin
Mona Lisa's and Mad Hatters - Elton John
Cortez the Killer - Neil Young
Tangerine - Led Zeppelin