All 16 Songs from the Public Enemies Soundtrack
It was the jazz era. Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman ruled the roost. So went the Roaring Twenties into the Early Thirties; and so goes the soundtrack to Public Enemies. There are 16 songs in the movie Public Enemies, about half of which are on the soundtrack album, which also prominently features the score by Eliot Goldenthal.
John Dillinger was public enemy number one. The government hated him, but the public had a strange fixation with the jackrabbit, who leapt into and out of both banks and jails. He broke into two dozen of the former and out of two of the latter. As told through the eyes of the debonair Johnny Depp, the movie version of Dillinger is sad, loyal, even tragic. You know how it ends but want him to make to Caracas with Billie any way. The only thing I could have done without in the movie is Christian Bale, whose performance seemed awkward. It’s not the Untouchables, but it ain’t such a bad flick either.
Both the movie and the music will transport you to another era. Diana Krall’s version of Bye Bye Blackbird will haunt me for a while. I don’t know whether the lyrics were metaphor or anecdote, but it worked. Otis Taylor’s Ten Million Slaves – the song from the Public Enemies preview (and the chase scene in the woods during the beginning of the movie) – was also perfectly suited.
The soundtrack features the incomparable Billie Holiday, as well as Benny Goodman, Otis Taylor, Gene Autry and Blind Willie Johnson. Here’s the complete list of 16 songs from Public Enemies in the order they appeared in the movie, with notes on the scenes that most of them appeared in.
- After escape, packing at farm – Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah by Indian Bottom Association Old Regular Baptists
- Chase in the woods – Ten Million Slaves by Otis Taylor
- Dinner song – Chicago Shake by The Bruce Fowler Big Band
- Second dinner song – Ballroom Bounce by The Bruce Fowler Big Band
- Dance with Billie – Bye Bye Blackbird by Diana Krall
- Walking into the hotel & coat check – King Porter Stomp by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra
- (Unknown scene) – After The Shooting by Johan Soderqvist and Gustavo Santaolalla
- Kiss, love scene – Love Me Or Leave Me by Billie Holiday
- Bank robbery – Instrumental version of Ten Million Slaves by Otis Taylor
- Tucson hotel, after racetrack – The Man I Love (Life from Carnegie Hall) by Billie Holiday
- In car after broke out of jail – Nasty Letter by Otis Taylor
- Radio song in Billie’s apartment – Am I Blue? by Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra
- Talk about going to Caracas – Bye Bye Blackbird by Diana Krall
- (Unknown scene) – Close Your Eyes by Al Bowlly with Lew Stone and His Orchestra
- At the bar, fixing deportation – Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground by Blind Willie Johnson
- (Unknown scene) – Hanna Shoots Neil by Elliot Goldenthal
- (Unknown scene) – Beam by John Powell
- Closing credits - The Last Round Up by Gene Autry
- Original music for Public Enemies – Eliot Goldenthal
Update: Thank you to Liz for finding the video of Diana Krall’s version of Blackbird:
And a few more videos:
hey i think i found a better version of Bye Bye Blackbird for you…
I love your blog! Very insightful!!!
I saw Public Enemies this weekend, and the soundtrack is wonderful. However, I was shocked when I heard Billie Holiday’ voice. Of course, you have to love her music, but… her first recording wasn’t until a year after Dillinger’s death, and until then she was virtually unknown as she had only started singng about a year earlier in small clubs. It bugged me through the whole movie. Had her career started in Chicago, I wouldn’t have bugged as much. At least the songs were written in Dillinger’s lifetime.
BTW: These songs were recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939 and 1941.
I saw the movie this week. The soundtrack for Drive to Bohemia sounded very much like a very slow version of second eight measures in Afro Blue by Mongo Santamaria 1959. I was wondering if it adapted from that song or just sounds like it. Thanks!
[...] All 16 Songs from the Public Enemies Soundtrack It was the jazz era. Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman ruled the roost. So went the Roaring Twenties into the Early [...] [...]
Top Posts « WordPress.com said this on July 11, 2009 at 7:23 pm |
I had exactly the same experience. (Coincidentally, Otis Taylor is a good friend and I managed him for a year, so I came to the film with a real anticipation for the music.) As I listened to Elliot Goldenthall’s score, I kept returning to the notion that he had taken Mongo Santamaria’s Afro Blue theme and used it as the core thematic element through the film. The recollection of John Coltrane’s marvelous tenor sax wailing over these same Afro Blue changes kept intruding on my memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf4TiU3G7P0
here’s the diana krall version of bye bye blackbird
love this movie very much! Johnny depp is the best actor on earth!
I’m lucky that I found this site at the moment I started to search.thanx thanx thanx ! =) so my work is done n I’m not tired ^^
go to playlist.com they have a lot of their music
Depp is Dillinger, or anyone else he chooses to portray because, YES, he’s just that good–the BEST! Loved the music too.
[...] itself. Bye Bye Blackbird by Diana Krall is my favourite song from the soundtrack. For other songs, this site lists the titles of all 16 tracks from the [...]
“Bye bye blackbird” « said this on August 4, 2009 at 10:55 am |
where can i get/hear the background music that plays when depp is in the dillinger squad room? (its like a guy humming..)
This movie is simply just awesome. Love the soundtrack. Bye bye black bird is nostalgic. Gotta be watched by everyone movie. Its great to have seen the movie.
Ten Million Slaves performed by Otis Taylor is wonderful. The scene in the movie is great too.
Whats the song played when he is flyed in on the plane to go to jail that he eventually brakes out of.
whats the song at the part when hes in the plane about to be put in jail.
I love Johny Depp too, his face was so perfect and his ability in acting was so awesome. best wishes for him!