V/A: Goodfellas: Music from the Motion Picture (soundtrack, dark blue vinyl) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This dark blue pressing gathers 12 songs from Martin Scorsese's 1990 film. It runs from the doo-wop of The Moonglows and The Harptones to Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" and Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy."

This edition

• Dark blue vinyl
• Pressed in the USA
• Stereo mix

About the album

Scorsese gave himself one rule for the music in Goodfellas: a song could play in a scene if it could have been heard by the date the scene took place, and never earlier. So the soundtrack grows up alongside Henry Hill, starting with Tony Bennett's "Rags to Riches" over the opening credits and working through doo-wop, girl groups and soul into the rock of the late 60s and 70s. Each song, he said, had to comment on the scene or the characters in an oblique way.

The Moonglows' "Sincerely" plays at the cookout at Paulie's, The Cadillacs' "Speedo" introduces Jimmy Conway, and Billy Ward and His Dominoes' "Stardust" gives us our first look at grown-up Henry at Idlewild Airport. The Chantels' "Look in My Eyes" scores the Air France heist, The Harptones' "Life Is But a Dream" plays at Henry and Karen's wedding, and Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea" and Aretha Franklin's "Baby I Love You" carry the story into the 60s. Later, the piano coda of "Layla" rolls over the film's most famous montage.

Scorsese had "Layla" playing on set while he shot that sequence, so the cast heard it too. It's still the soundtrack we hear most often from the back room, usually followed by a staff member attempting a Joe Pesci impression. Badly.

Also at Kops: more Goodfellas on vinyl · browse Soundtracks

Tracklist

Listen

On Atlantic / Rhino (cat# RCV1 82152), a reissue of the 1990 soundtrack.