The Magical World of Harry Potter: The Soundtrack

October 8, 2009 6:10 PM

A friend of mine is throwing a Harry Potter party for Halloween. I've agreed to help her find suitably themed music. But beyond Harry and the Potters, I'm not sure where to begin. Recommendations? Picking up on themes or scenes from the books is encouraged.

The soundtrack is a given, but it is a party, so we don't want too much orchestral stuff. What songs can you connect to Harry Potter? (The whole song doesn't need to be relevant; just part of it is fine for now.) If the connection is a little vague, please free to give an explanation.

posted by bibliophibianj to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

Wizard rock (sometimes shorthanded as "wrock") is a musical movement dating from 2002 that consists of at least 600 bands[75] Bands include Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, Wingardium Leviosa, The Remus Lupins, the Whomping Willows, Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls, Ministry of Magic, The Moaning Myrtles, The Parselmouths, and Kingsley and the Shacklebolts.[76] They are made up of young musicians playing songs about Harry Potter..

And don't forget the movie soundtracks!
posted by amtho at 6:15 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Seconding Wizard rock. Harry and the Potters are awesome :D
posted by d13t_p3ps1 at 6:36 PM on October 8, 2009

Yeah amtho has it. I'm partial to Draco and the Malfoys though.
posted by dog food sugar at 6:53 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Play songs from A Very Potter Musical.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:25 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Don't forget The Weird Sisters - although I guess this is probably on the soundtrack.
posted by hnnrs at 4:12 AM on October 9, 2009

The documentary mentioned in that Wikipedia link above, We Are Wizards was surprisingly engaging and features many Wizard Rock bands. It's streaming on Netflix if you want to give it a watch.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:01 AM on October 9, 2009

Most fittingly, there's a punk band called "Harry and the Potters" who writes songs exclusively about the HP universe.
posted by CharlesV42 at 5:23 AM on October 9, 2009

Oops, lost it in amtho's linkdump
posted by CharlesV42 at 5:24 AM on October 9, 2009

"You've Got Hogwarts" is a hilarious parody of All-Star and you can download it here.
posted by soelo at 7:30 AM on October 9, 2009

In the Wizard Rock genre, I like The Remus Lupins and The Whomping Willows especially. You could also go for other John Williams music (a lot of it sounds like the HP soundtrack anyway, even if it's not connected).
posted by marginaliana at 7:51 AM on October 9, 2009

Do you want music that sounds like it could be from a HP movie? Or could titles be enough of a connection? For example; "Journey of the Sorcerer" by the Eagles (it's on my Halloween playlist). If so, maybe an itunes search for terms like wizard, magic, etc. might be profitable.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 9:29 AM on October 9, 2009

Toss in Pulp and Radiohead. Members of those bands made up the Weird Sisters, so it still has a thematic link.
posted by kaseijin at 2:59 PM on October 9, 2009

Response by poster: ObscureReferenceMan: I'm looking for both right now, and I can decide later which I want to play. I'd really like to hear some titles that could be related to HP somehow. So if you have specific titles, shoot!
posted by bibliophibianj at 6:12 PM on October 9, 2009

"Magic" and similar titles from my Halloween playlist:
Magic Man, Heart
Magic, The Cars
Black Magic Woman, Santana
Strange Magic, ELO
I Put a Spell on You, Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Burn the Witch, Queens of the Stone Age
Season of the Witch, Donovan
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 8:47 AM on October 20, 2009