| Goodfellas Music from the Motion Picture | |
|---|---|
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| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | October 9, 1990 |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Length | 38:01 |
| Label | Atlantic / WEA |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   link |
Goodfellas Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack for the 1990 film Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, notable for its use of popular music from the various periods it portrayed. In a similar manner to American Graffiti and Scorsese's earlier Mean Streets, the songs served roughly the same purpose as a composed musical score. While an official soundtrack was released at the same time as the film, it only featured a small fraction of the songs used.
Scorsese chose the songs for Goodfellas only if they commented on the scene or the characters "in an oblique way".[1] The only rule he adhered to with the soundtrack was to only use music which could have been heard at that time, deciding that he could use any song released before the scene in which it played took place.[2]
According to Scorsese, a lot of non-dialogue scenes were shot to playback. For example, he had "Layla" playing on the set while shooting the scene where the dead bodies are discovered in the car and the meat-truck.[2] Sometimes, the lyrics of songs were put between lines of dialogue to comment on the action.[2]
Some of the music Scorsese had written into the script while other songs he discovered during the editing phase.[3] There is no music once Henry is arrested in his driveway by the DEA, until the end credits.
- ^ Gilbert, Matthew (September 16, 1990). "Scorsese Tackles the Mob". Boston Globe.
- ^ a b c Thompson, David; Ian Christie (1996). "Scorsese on Scorsese". Faber and Faber. pp. 150–161.
- ^ Kaplan, Jonah (2004). "Getting Made: The Making of Goodfellas". Goodfellas: Two-Disc Special Edition DVD. Warner Bros.