5 Banger Rock Songs Made Famous By Movies

Sound is easily one of the most overlooked aspects of filmmaking, no matter how crucial it is to the overall experience. Sound design alone can communicate a film's themes and sentiments, such as the evocative and cosmic-sized layers of a movie like "Interstellar." Sometimes it's the score itself that stands out, to the point where it's impossible to imagine a film without it. Such is the case with Howard Shore's myriad leitmotifs peppered throughout the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Then there are straight-up songs that, if done wrong, can easily distract from what's happening on-screen, particularly because of the presence of lyrics. But if done right, a song can elevate a movie the same way a movie can elevate a song — even a rock song. 

Plenty of movies feature popular music within the plot, like "Johnny B. Goode" from 1985's "Back to the Future." Other movies are straight-up musicals with full-on song-and-dance numbers incorporated into the narrative, like "La La Land" or that classic from 1952, "Singin' in the Rain." Here, we're discussing songs from a film's soundtrack where, in each case, the song and its movie are inextricably intertwined. And furthermore, each song rose to the level of megahit because of the movie. From "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" to "Danger Zone," these rock songs treated their host movies as a launchpad for eternal fame.

Those who suffered through Aerosmith's late '90s "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" era, we salute you. That's not because the song is bad — far from it — it's just that it got so popular, so overplayed, on every radio station, again and again and again, that anyone who lived through that time could reflexively mouth the lines. Plus, we even got that classic Steven Tyler shriek on the final "dream of you" choral line. Thanks, Bruce Willis.

Ok, it wasn't Willis' fault. Nor was it Ben Affleck's. Nor was it the fault of Lady Arwen Undómiel herself, Liv Tyler, daughter of the Aerosmith frontman. It was their 1998 movie, "Armageddon," a cornball but undeniably rousing disaster film that brought us Aerosmith's songmageddon. The movie featured an asteroid hurtling towards Earth and a crack team of heroes sent to stop it. And with the power of superior rock power — thanks to Tyler's ginormous singing mouth — humanity wins the day. So did Aerosmith's bank account: As of late 2025, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" has 1.2 billion listens on Spotify.

The funny thing is, even though "Armageddon" helped cement Aerosmith's legacy, the song's writer didn't get a lick of credit. Diane Warren was the pen behind the notes, a songwriter with an incredible track record of hits like Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" and LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live." She wasn't completely happy with the song's lyrics, but the song was still a smash — unlike the movie's asteroid.  

You've heard "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, trust us. Imagine Rocky delivering a punch along with every "Dun. Dun dun dun," and you've got the basic idea about why the song took off as the ultimate go-get-em, motivational victory song. Not the original 1976 Rocky, mind, but Rocky circa 1982's "Rocky III," the one where Rocky Balboa faces off against Mr. T himself, Clubber Lang, and certainly does not pity the fool. In the film, Rocky's former opponent-turned-mentor Apollo Creed (the late Carl Weathers) steps in to treat Rocky's flagging confidence. He tells Rocky he's got to regain the "eye of the tiger," and boom: cue the obligatory training montage.

Folks might have noticed that the lyrics to "Eye of the Tiger" are strangely on-the-nose when it comes to "Rocky III's" plot. The very first lines of the first verse seem to be describing the plot of the movie at the precise moment the music kicks in: "Risin' up, back on the street / Did my time, took my chances / Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet," and so on. That's no accident. 

"Eye of the Tiger" and its rousing, instantly recognizable theme were a direct request from Sylvester Stallone, who called Survivor members Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik to commission the song. He described the gist of "Rocky III's" plot to the band, who wanted to create a song with "a sense of urgency" and a "street feel" (via Muskoka Radio). The film and song elevated each other, and "Eye of the Tiger" stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks.

We all know the movie scene. Before the credits sync with the "La la la la's" of its song, there strolls John Bender (played by Judd Nelson) across Shermer High School football field, raising his fist into the air in a show of defiance, self-sovereignty, and newfound kinship with the other misfits at Saturday detention. This final scene from 1985's "The Breakfast Club" is so iconic and memorable that we're betting loads of people of a certain age remember it more than they remember their own high school life. And the credits song with the la la la's? That song, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Scottish rock outfit Simple Minds, wasn't merely made famous by the movie. It is the movie's body and soul, and can't be separated from it.

And wouldn't you know it? "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was written specifically for "The Breakfast Club," and Simple Minds didn't write it. Songwriter Keith Forsey wrote the song for "The Breakfast Club" and tried peddling it to some big-name artists, including Billy Idol. Perhaps to Idol's chagrin, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was a colossal hit, buoyed by the success of "The Breakfast Club," and vice versa. 

The movie's soundtrack went to No. 1 even as the movie made $50 million (over $150 million as of late 2025) on a mere $1 million budget. And while Simple Minds never again reached the heights of that era, it didn't have to. The band and that iconic song, just like "The Breakfast Club" and its characters, have become an immortalized pair. 

We've got fighter jets going zoom, classroom rivalries with heavy homoerotic undertones, that volleyball scene on the beach, Tom Cruise (Maverick), Val Kilmer (Iceman), and that other guy (Goose). What else do we need for 1986's "Top Gun"? Explosions? Missiles? Less-than-realistic dogfights? Heck no, we need a need-for-speed song for the Hollywood blockbuster soundtrack. Enter "Danger Zone," yet another song with an on-the-nose title, in this case describing the dangers of jets flying high, fast, close, and tight. 

The success of "Danger Zone" was architected, if meandering. No matter the catchiness of its main chorus line, the Kenny Loggins-led song floated around for some time before it landed on Loggins. As the story goes, songwriters Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock originally approached REO Speedwagon to perform the song, but REO dropped out because vocalist Kevin Cronin couldn't hit the song's high notes. Loggins said — perhaps apocryphally — that Jefferson Starship and Toto wanted the song, but he got it in the end (via Ultimate Classic Rock). No matter what path the tale took, "Top Gun" bolstered "Danger Zone," and as of late 2025, sits at about 650 million listens on Spotify.

Go ahead and try saying the words "born to be wild" without stretching out the "wild" into about five notes. No matter that the phrase "born to be wild" sounds like it could have existed for centuries, it was coined in 1968 by "Born To Be Wild" songwriter, Mars Bonfire (real name: Dennis Eugene McCrohan). Yes, the oddly-named but ever-rocking Steppenwolf performed it. But, it wasn't merely a rock-out anthem for free-spirited rebellion. It's the earliest of the songs in our list to gain steam because of a movie: 1969's "Easy Rider."

The opening sequence to "Easy Rider" will make you think that "Born To Be Wild" was written exclusively for the film, although it wasn't. Featuring characters Wyatt and Billy (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) riding motorcycles through the American Southwest, the opening to "Easy Rider" is a silent sequence that lets almost the entirety of "Born to Be Wild" play over it. The message is clear: This is the theme of the movie. The whole film is basically a friends' road trip misadventure along the lines of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road."

Of course, "Born To Be Wild" was released in 1968, while "Easy Rider" was released in 1969. But no matter how popular "Born To Be Wild" was on its own, "Easy Rider" shot the song's fame into the stratosphere and not only cemented its connection to rough ridin' road rogues, but the entirety of '60s counterculture. Since then, "Born to Be Wild" has been featured in loads of commercials and shows, from Diet Pepsi to Mercedes-Benz, which has only increased its staying power.