Favorite Soundtrack Albums #7 - American Graffiti

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Rather than focusing on specific songs, or a certain band, the theme of this particular countdown is Favorite Soundtrack Albums. We are at #7: American Graffiti. Officially titled 41 Original Hits from the Soundtrack of American Graffiti, this, the soundtrack from director George Lucas' 1973 film, is the only soundtrack album in this series that isn't at least partly original material recorded specifically for the movie. But oh, what a soundtrack. All songs are the original hits, and are as integral to the film as the dialog and the acting. The triple platinum album, which reached #10 on the Billboard 200, contains popular "oldies" from legends such as The Beach Boys (two songs) and (two songs as well) Buddy Holly, to classics by the likes of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, The Platters (two songs,) The Big Bopper, Fats Domino, Del Shannon, and Bill Haley & the Comets. Interestingly, Universal originally encouraged Lucas to hire an orchestra to perform sound-alikes. Eventually, each publishing company was offered a flat, identical monetary sum for each song used ($90,000 total, which left no money for an actual score, which, in my opinion, would have lessened the impact of the songs used.) This entire thing is a classic. (By the way, the track listing follows the order that the songs appear in the movie.) If you dig oldies, you can do much, much worse than this collection. (Info verified by Wikipedia)