And now we come to the top spot, which goes to the Sid Vicious cover of Frank Sinatra's My Way in Goodfellas, The film, like many others on this list, not only uses music aptly as its end credits roll, but throughout the film with a soundtrack that is so jam-packed with classic rock hits it could practically be a Time Life compilation on its own. Especially memorable music moments are the Derek and the Dominoes' Layla set to the backdrop of a murder montage and the myriad of songs that score the film's famous helicopter sequence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5DdTIKk48 However, the song that really sticks out of the bunch is Sid Vicious' My Way, because no single song in the history of film has so succinctly encapsulated the thematic concerns of its film as this cover song. Goodfellas is a demythification of the mob, obliterating the notion that these street thugs who amassed so much power were anything other than brute hooligans, and the man who most personified the myth of the classy mobster was Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. In reality, while an undeniable talent, Sinatra engaged in a lot of abhorrent behavior, but, as the elegance and beauty of the song My Way illustrates, even when the lyrics to his songs indulge self-aggrandizing and egomaniacal tendencies, his classy façade could give them an air of virtue. What makes Sid Vicious' cover of the song one of the greatest cover songs in music, and such a perfect fit for the film, is it unmasks the lies inherent in the original version and exposes it for the bitter, ugly truth of a man who excuses all his own behavior, no matter what the consequences. In other words, the film is essentially the song version of the film Goodfellas, which is why no other pairing of music and end credits has ever been so powerful as Vicious' My Way and Scorsese's Goodfellas. If you thought a better song/end credits pairing missed the list, feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section below and speak up for you think should have made the cut.
A film fanatic at a very young age, starting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and gradually moving up to more sophisticated fare, at around the age of ten he became inexplicably obsessed with all things Oscar. With the incredibly trivial power of being able to chronologically name every Best Picture winner from memory, his lifelong goal is to see every Oscar nominated film, in every major category, in the history of the Academy Awards.
