When did movie soundtracks (on LP and CD) begin mixing in snippets of dialog from the film?

December 29, 2007 9:51 PM

When did movie soundtracks (on LP and CD) begin mixing in snippets of dialog from the film?

Pulp Fiction is probably the best-known example of using tidbits of dialog from a film inside the release of the soundtrack (either between tracks or interspersed inside tracks), but I know a ton of others have done it as well. I have a Blade Runner OST that did the same thing and I think it came out in advance of the Pulp one.

Can the MeFi crowd provide earlier examples and help us narrow in on when this catchy vehicle was first used?

thanks

posted by monkeybutt to society & culture (14 comments total)

I first remember it in Batman. The Keaton/Nicholson one, in the Prince song, though that may have just been a radio edit.
posted by sanka at 9:58 PM on December 29, 2007

Natural Born Killers (1994, same year as Pulp Fiction) is the one that springs to my mind.
posted by lovecrafty at 10:18 PM on December 29, 2007

The soundtrack to Where the Buffalo Roam, the (first) Hunter Thompson biopic, starring Bill Murray, featured bits of dialog from the film. It was released in 1980.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 10:29 PM on December 29, 2007

The Blade Runner Soundtrack didn't come out until 1994, even though the movie was much earlier.
posted by aubilenon at 10:36 PM on December 29, 2007

It appears The Great Escape (1963) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967) also did it, but this was only by doing a search for "dialogue" in track names at soundtrackcollector.com, I'm not exactly sure how they were implemented...
posted by sharkfu at 10:41 PM on December 29, 2007

Looks like The Third Man (1949) also did it, with every other track a dialogue track.
posted by sharkfu at 10:44 PM on December 29, 2007

The soundtrack to April Fools (1969, Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve) integrates dialog extensively.
posted by Crotalus at 10:49 PM on December 29, 2007

There are also more extreme versions of this, such as Apocalypse Now (1979), where the released soundtrack album is more than just music and snippets and basically contains the whole movie soundtrack: music, narration and dialog. I'm not sure how amny others there are though, or which was first.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 3:29 AM on December 30, 2007

I used to have the soundtrack to M*A*S*H, which was. like the Apocalypse Now, the whole soundtrack. (Had that too.)(And Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
posted by jessenoonan at 6:02 AM on December 30, 2007

The soundtrack of the Rankin-Bass cartoon of The Hobbit is a multi-LP set that seems to be just the audio of the whole thing. While I'm on the subject, it was also handsomely boxed and came with four iron-on transfers and a lavishly illustrated booklet.
posted by mundy at 6:53 AM on December 30, 2007

My LP soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz (1939, but the album was made in the 1960s) was like that, featuring either the entire audio track of the film or notable chunks of it before/after songs.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:59 AM on December 30, 2007

If we're looking for the earliest occurrences, it'd probably be wise to pay attention to children's media. Where's the line between a readalong storybook and a soundtrack-with-dialogue?
posted by box at 11:34 AM on December 30, 2007

Good Morning, Vietnam with Robin Williams had this feature.
posted by Wild_Eep at 1:41 PM on December 30, 2007

Clerks did this. For such a small movie with a high cult factor and a hip-for-the-time soundtrack, it was a smart, subtle marketing move. Like many kids of the 90s, I knew at least a few people who got into Clerks through mix tapes and such, or from kids spouting the quotes not-so-coincidentally found on the soundtrack.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:11 PM on December 30, 2007