How 'The Sopranos' used music to become a timeless classic

Chrissy on H aimlessly wandering the carnival at the feast of st elzear to Fred Neil Dolphins is peak cinema. The Tim Buckley cover is better imo but this version works perfectly on the show.

I watched this for the first time this year. I am kind of on a "eat my vegetables" tour of the big prestige shows I'd never made time for. Truly one of the best television series of all time and one of the only shows I've immediately started over immediately. Spoilers from here: Tony & Melfi's dynamic has still yet to be touched by anything I've seen that followed. I was certain Tony would be done with therapy by the end of season two, tops. I was so pleased that their relationship framed the entire series. One of the best explorations of masculinity I have ever seen, and it would have been absolutely lost on me as a younger man.

The bloody cops are bloody keen To bloody keep it bloody clean The bloody chief's a bloody swine Who bloody draws a bloody line At bloody fun and bloody games The bloody kids he bloody blames Are nowhere to be bloody found Anywhere in Chickentown

The two songs/scenes that stand out to me are Tony singing Steely Dan's Dirty work in his suburban, and AJ listening to Deicide and Tony screaming for him to turn it down. They both remind me of aspects of my life, and the music is incredibly varied which leads me to believe that's the point for most people.

To do a show without a background score is so damn intimidating, I think. Besides The Sopranos, the only other ones I can think of are The Wire and The Shield. Are there more?

* Oh Girl as Tony is beating that one guy half to death. * Thru and Thru for the season 2 finale montage. * Comfortably Numb as Tony kills Chrissy (because of drugs). * White Rabbit when Tony starts taking prescription drugs * [EBYT/Peter Gunn mashup](https://youtu.be/-DQkScJ94qg?si=SbU5K1Sv-_1jTsuT) while Tony is being bugged by the FBI. * Dont Stop Believin' as the finale song. * [Paparazzi instrumental](https://www.listnook.com/r/thesopranos/comments/6fc70u/one_of_the_most_iconic_scenes_in_the_sopranos/) during the crowning of Junor as the boss. Good god so many good moments.

John Cooper Clarke's "Evidently Chickentown" playing at the end of Season 6, Episode 14 was incredible choice for the scene in which it plays during/after. Just creepy and unnerving.

No one is mentioning (aside from the article itself) what made this possible at all was Chase’s genius move to insist from day 1 that they will have a dedicated (& substantial) music licensing budget. He wanted the show to ‘feel’ real & knew that these guys listening to actual music from the real world would lend itself to that. He was so right that it became a defining part of the show’s success/legacy & it’s interesting that while every other element of Sopranos has been replicated, the way they use music truly is unique to that show.

Living on a Thin Line by the Kinks always reminds me of the bing and Tony.

This show showed me The Kinks, which is now one of my favorite bands.

I mean the theme song is a banger we almost never skip

Up in da club

Heaven Only Knows by Emmylou Harris was perfect for the S5 opener.

Opening a season with Seven Souls was so goddamn good. Burroughs’ narration lives in my head rent free.

I Feel Free needle drop is one of my favorites.

Battle Flag by Pigeonhead just perfectly encapsulated the sleaze and chaos of that scene in the Bing where he beats up the worker with a telephone

SITTIN ON THE PARK BENCH DO DO DO DO DO DO

Pilot episode reminded me of Dion and the Belmonts .

Music licensing frustrates me because it limits the creators on what they can or can't do for their stories. Especially when many fees are mostly going to execs and not the musicians anyway

The series finale, whatever happened there…

This show introduced me to (and got me hooked on) Alabama 3, who do the opening theme song.