Five songs perfectly placed in TV shows

We love TV here at Flecking Records – dramas in particular. And not only do we love them, but we over-invest in them emotionally until real life is just that annoying thing that happens in between episodes.

What could possibly make our favourite thing even better? Our other favourite thing – music.

Songs that we didn’t like – or should I say, didn’t realise we liked – are suddenly must haves on our iPods after accompanying those big moments that make TV worth watching.

Our top 5 come from The Good Wife, Lost, Skins, Fringe and Mad Dogs, so if you’re not up do date, don’t read to avoid spoilers.

Make Your Own Kind of Music – “Mama” Cass Elliot (Lost)

Oh, the roller-coaster ride that was Lost. An absolute mind-fuck from start to finish, with an anticlimactic ending that not even Jack could fix. But back before the days of silly church scenes, time travel and hydrogen bombs, we just had a bunch of people on an island, rounding off season one by peering down the hatch. The start of season two was so fantastic, because when we met Desmond we didn’t realise he was living on the island, and had been the whole time. He’s living in a seemingly normal looking house, with happy hit Make Your Own Kind of Music playing in the background – the you realise he’s living in the hatch, and the music gets all Lost-y again. Brilliant, brother.

Only You – Yazoo (Fringe)

What a fantastic character Walter Bishop is. Not only in Fringe, but in the history of the world, ever. The year is 2036, and the world is on its arse. The Observers have invaded, and they’re running the show. Only the Fringe team can save the day, but things are looking bleak. All Walter wants is some music to help him think, and as he wanders out into a dystopia world he finds a CD, and a car that he can use to play it. It may not be Walter’s usual choice, but as Yazoo’s Only You plays he spots a single dandelion growing out of a crack in the road. This is all the more significant because it’s big, bad Observer Windmark who claims that “nothing grows from scorched Earth”. Music clears Walter’s mind and allows him to see a glimmer of hope in a terrible world – in his own words, “Music helps you shift perspective, to see things differently if you need to.”

Any Other World – Mika (The Good Wife)

Will and Alicia have always had bad timing. They fell for each other at college, but life got in the way and by the time they find each other again Alicia is married to the State’s Attorney with two kids. But what if the pair were to suddenly have good timing? What would that look like? That would look like an extraordinary moment, only made better by Mika’s beautiful voice. So much has happened since, but at the end of season two (and after much screaming at the screen on our part) Will and Alicia finally get together. As they try to get a room in a hotel, everything gets in their way. There’s a wonderful scene on the way up in the lift with Any Other World playing, and the lyrics couldn’t be more appropirate – “Say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in.”

Wild World – Cat Stevens (Skins)

It’s weird, but it works. It’s the season one finale, and the last four minutes are not filled with a dramatic scene, ending in a cliffhanger, oh no. The last four minutes see the cast lip-syncing to Cat Stevens’ hit, Wild World.
It’s a very peculiar ending because not only does the song feel appropriate considering the events of the episodes, but it’s also a bit of light relief with comedic moments – like the extras doing the backing vocals at the urinals. The track actually re-entered the top 40 back in 2007, after being featured in Skins.

Run – Snow Patrol (Mad Dogs)

Mad Dogs tells the tale of four friends who go on holiday and get caught up in something big – drug trafficking, corrupt police, the works. As series one comes to an end the guys are in big trouble, but Quinn takes a bullet for his friends – incidentally, by firing a bullet and killing a cop, and sticking around to take the fall so that his friends can get away. The four of them have been through so much together, and thinking that his life if not worth living, Quinn tells his friends leave without him, and they do. As the three of them drive away, a war-paint covered Quinn jumps in the swimming pool with the cop he killed to the tune of Run, by Snow Patrol. A dark ending for a dark show.