Best Needle Drops In Film

Oscar award suggestions for categories that don’t exist, but should

In the film industry, a needle drop is the term for when an existing song is used to underscore a particular scene in a film. In the spirit of the upcoming Oscars, I’m giving credit to some of the most notable uses of needle drops during 2023.

Note: There may be some film spoiler-adjacent material ahead. I recommend being brave and pressing on.

Best song to be featured more than 10 times in a single film: Anatomy of a Fall for P.I.M.P., by Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band  

Best use of a 50 Cent song covered by a steel band to be featured in a film: Anatomy of a Fall  for P.I.M.P., by Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band  

Best folk song to feature in a film starring a lazy eye: The Holdovers for Silver Joy, by Damien Jurado

Best film to feature songs by The Smiths while an assassin plies his trade: The Killer for multiple songs by The Smiths

Best use of a Radiohead song in an overhyped dystopian sci-fi movie that could have been great but was ultimately disappointing: The Creator for Everything in Its Right Place, by Radiohead

Most appropriate use of a song during a scene where a psychotic killer dances in the nude: Saltburn for Murder on the Dancefloor, by Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Best unplugged performance of an ’80s pop song performed in a restaurant as a cautionary tale reframed as a quasi-romantic serenade: No Hard Feelings for Maneater, by Hall and Oates

Best blues song to feature in a 20 hour movie: Killers Of The Flower Moon for Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground, by Blind Willie Johnson

Most random and incongruous song to be featured in an animated montage sequence: The Super Mario Bros. Movie for Take on Me, by A-Ha

Thanks for listening (and watching).