10 Reasons The Sopranos Is Still The Best TV Show Of All Time
9. The Soundtrack
The show’s popularity made it a decent merchandise machine, with tie-ins of varying quality ranging from a cookbook to a video game. The best Sopranos swag were the soundtrack albums, because the show had one of the best jukeboxes in TV history.
The show’s music was personally curated by creator David Chase, and like in key Sopranos influence Goodfellas, it’s eclectic and hugely effective in boosting iconic scenes.
There’s the season two opening montage set to the ironic strains of Sinatra’s “It Was A Very Good Year”, an elegy for youth used to reflect the faded glory of the mob. Season three episode “University” makes great use of sinister late period Kinks track “Living On A Thin Line”.
Then there’s Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”, played, amusingly, off a CD of The Departed’s soundtrack, during a key moment in season six, a beautiful song that conjures oblivion while a character faces their own. Most famously, there’s Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” to soundtrack the show’s final moments.
There’s an art to assembling a soundtrack, and few have mastered it like Chase. The choices are seldom too on the nose - they do exactly what they’re meant to do, lifting each scene.