10 Rock Bands That Made Songs Specifically For Movies

When Rick Rubin talked about recording Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, he had mentioned that Tom said that the album had originally scared him. Even though he was now free to work at whatever label he wanted to, he had trouble understanding how the songs kept coming, some of which would become the best of his career like You Wreck Me and You Don’t Know How It Feels. There was enough here to make a decent double album, but the leftovers turned into the basis for the movie She’s the One.

While the soundtrack is not on the same level as Wildflowers, you can hear the more ramshackle version of the band coming out in full force on songs like Zero From Outer Space. There was one magic single left over from those sessions though, with Walls becoming the basis for the soundtrack. Although there’s nothing too out of the ordinary on this track from most of Tom’s greatest work, this feels like the quintessential song about what made his music great in the first place, talking about young love and how even if it’s not meant to last, that you have to keep moving on.

Taking the first few lines from a conversation he had with Johnny Cash, this song almost feels like a wave goodbye for Tom, which would become all too prophetic when he had to separate from his wife just a few years later. For the time being though, Tom could use his song to help roll with the punches. Some days are diamonds and some are rocks, so you just have to appreciate the diamonds while they’re still here.