Soundtrack Review: Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese's Sensational Sounds of the Seventies - Page 2

When Henry wows his soon to be wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco) by escorting her through the kitchen of the Copacabana, stopping to greet the staff and greasing every palm from the maitre'd on down as he enters the floor of the club, Karen's dewy-eyed point of view is made crystal clear with the help of "And Then he Kissed Me."

Bobby Vinton's rendition of "Roses are Red" at the club is instant shorthand for how instantly Karen is seduced into the bling of Henry's glamorous but unsavory lifestyle.

In the harrowing sequence where "made man" Billy Batts is given his comeuppance by Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) et al. in a local bar--followed by the transport of a battered but still alive Batts in the trunk of Tommy's car--the peaceful strains of Donovan's "Atlantis" play ironically in the background.

When wigmeister Maury and wife Belle are killed and left sitting dead in their car, it is to the melancholy coda of Derek and the Dominoes' "Layla"--also used in the grisly scenes where various cohorts Jimmy eliminated show up in garbage trucks and meat lockers. It also plays, like a disturbing, recurring dream, in the closing credits.

But back to the original scene at hand--the penultimate sequence of the film--the one I've been leading up to that features my most beloved song. Here's the deal, in a nutshell:

Being such a critical cinematic sequence, Scorsese employs subtitles and various seventies songs to delineate each new bit of action. Some examples follow:

Harry Nillson's manic "Jump Into the Fire" plays (6:55 am) as Henry begins his day by hastily stashing a cache of handguns into a bag to sell to friend and partner in crime Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro). As a "narc" helicopter whirls above, a justifiably paranoid Henry heads off to drop off the guns at Jimmy's, pick up his brother from the hospital, and contemplate that afternoon's pick up of the "Pittsburgh stuff" for his babysitter/ "mule" Lois to strap to her body for her flight to Atlanta.

At 8:05 am the Stones' "Monkey Man" punctuates the scene where Henry decides to try to sell his guns to his coke dealer/"Pittsburgh connection" after Jimmy disgustedly rejects them. This is followed by a few bars of the Who's "Magic Bus" where Pete Townshend drawls "I want it I want it I wannitIwannit...." as Henry almost crashes into another car on his way to pick up his brother at the hospital (the doctor gives him a few tranks to help calm him down).

Article Author: Elvira Black

Elvira Black is a “retired” New York writer blogging for her own amusement here on BC. Her passions are politics, the arts, the weird things we do, and New York City.

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