10 Famous Songs You Didn’t Know Came From Movies

See how many star-studded musicians owe their success to movie soundtracks.

With one of the most popular and successful albums of the summer being the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, it makes you wonder what other chart-topping hits have been spawned from major motion pictures.

It turns out that more songs than one would think were originally written for films. Artists such as the Bee Gees, Seal, R. Kelly and Boyz II Men owe a lot of their success to some of Hollywood's biggest box office hits. A lot of already established bands, such as Paul McCartney & Wings, Destiny's Child and Elvis, have continued to remain relevant and successful by teaming up with the silver screen to create major chart-topping hits to help bring success to themselves and to the movies they've collaborated with.

You might be aware of recent musician and movie collaborations such as Adele's song "Skyfall" for the James bond flick, Skyfall, as well as Pharrell's song "Happy" for Despicable Me 2. However, there have been many artists who have written songs for movies during the past 50 years or so that might surprise you. Take a look at 10 songs that have garnered much chart success due to the movies for which they were originally recorded.

10. "Independent Woman Part I" By Destiny's Child €” Charlie's Angels (2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lPQZni7I18

Destiny's Child's song has become the anthem for strong, independent women everywhere. The shoes on your feet? You bought them. The clothes you're wearing? You bought them. However, this song actually was written for the 2000 movie reboot of the '70s classic TV Show, Charlie's Angels. Although the movie has been pushed to the wayside of the early aughts, the song still continues to persevere as the go-to song for empowering women everywhere and causing them to shout, "I depend on me!"

Contributor
Contributor

Holland Baker is based in New York City, where she is an editor, writer and co-host of Whatever It Takes: A Degrassi Podcast. In her free time, you can find her searching for bodega cats, eating mass amounts of pizza and using humor as a defense mechanism.