Worst to Best: 42 Songs from Movies That Made the Pop Charts, 1965-1969

Songs from and inspired by movies were all over the radio in the second half of the 1960s. Some were great. Some less so. And some quite weird.

The pop chart and movie soundtracks have long had a deeply entwined relationship, one particularly evident in second half of the 1960s when it became clear that the new sounds the young people were listening to weren’t going away anytime soon and began trying in earnest to figure out how to incorporate them—and profit from them in the process. (If James Bond’s quip about not want to listen to The Beatles without earmuffs already sounded creaky in 1964’s Goldfinger it sounded positively ancient in 1965.) The right song in a hit movie could become inescapable on the radio. A hit song could boost interest in what was playing at the local theater. The Beatles kicked open a door with A Hard Day’s Night that subsequent soundtracks tried to enter. Some found it easier than others to recreate the synergistic effect created by the pairing of a catchy song and a popular movie. And sometimes songs hit the charts in forms far removed from the versions heard in the movies in which they first appeared. (No one had Booker T. & the M.G.’s in mind while making Hang ‘Em High, but the band heard a song they could make a hit anyway.) 

The first of an occasional series looking at the relationship between movies and popular music, below you’ll find a ranking of the movie songs that hit the Billboard Hot 100. A few rules: a cover-friendly pop environment often produced multiple versions of songs, versions that sometimes competed with each other at the same time. For this list, we’re only considering the first version of the song to make the Hot 100, though we’ve tried to make mention of other notable versions. Is this fair? Not really, and in one case that means considering an inferior (but not bad) version of one of the best songs on the list rather than the version. But a list without rules isn’t really a list at all. 

Kicking things off: possibly the worst song ever created by one of the era’s best songwriting teams.

And, if you want to listen while you read, we’ve compiled a playlist of these songs — and some other ‘60s soundtrack items — that can be found on both Spotify and Apple Music. 

42. Tom Jones
“What’s New Pussycat?,” from What’s New Pussycat?” (1965)
Hot 100 Peak: 3
Let’s get this out of the way up top: Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote many brilliant, era-defining songs (some of which can be found much further up this list). Tom Jones had his moments, too. Yet, together, they created one of the most unbearable hits of the 1960s with this theme to a star-packed comedy scripted by Woody Allen. The horns, the tuba, the harpsichord (?), and the thumping waltz-time rhythm are annoying enough. Then Jones comes in with his growling, lascivious vocals and refuses to leave, making its just-over-two-minute running time feel much longer.

41. Elvis Presley
“Your Time Hasn’t Come Yet, Baby,” from Speedway (1967)
Hot 100 Peak: 72

We’ll need to talk at length about Elvis, who spent much of the 1960s starring in a string of movies filled with songs of, let’s say, wildly variable quality. Most of the worst never appeared in 45 form and at least one, the Stay Away, Joe track “Dominick," in which Elvis attempts to coax an aged Dominick to mate with a heifer, never even made it onto an album until after Presley’s death at the singer’s request. Yet, for some reason, Presley didn’t attempt to suppress this Speedway song telling a girl that she’s too young to date him but someday she’ll grow up. Sung to a toddler in the film, it’s quite innocent in context, but kind of unsettling on its own.

40. Roger Williams
“Born Free,” from Born Free (1966)
Hot 100 Peak: 7
Sometimes it’s not the original versions of soundtrack songs that make the charts. And sometimes those that do sound pretty gloppy. Matt Monro sings the Born Free theme song over the closing credits of the nice-people-raise-an-orphaned-lion-cub movie. But for some reason, it took the combination of Roger Williams’ pounding piano and a men’s chorus to make it a hit.

39. Ray Conniff Singers
“Lara’s Theme” (a.k.a. “Somewhere My Love”), from Doctor Zhivago (1966)
Hot 100 Peak: 9
Similarly, Maurice Jarre’s indelible theme to Doctor Zhivago underwent a radio-friendly cheese-ification process in the hands of bandleader Ray Conniff. Not to be outdone, Roger Williams also recorded a version, an instrumental take that stalled out at #65. Maybe it needed a men’s chorus.

33. [tie] Elvis Presley
“Spinout,” from Spinout (1966)
Hot 100 Peak: 40

33. [tie] Elvis Presley
“Frankie and Johnny,” from Frankie and Johnny (1966)
Hot 100 Peak: 25

33. [tie] Elvis Presley
“Do the Clam,” from Girl Happy (1965)
Hot 100 Peak: 21

33. [tie] Elvis Presley
“Let Yourself Go,” from Speedway (1967)
Hot 100 Peak: 71

33. [tie] Elvis Presley
“Puppet on a String,” from Girl Happy (1965)
Hot 100 Peak: 14

33. [tie] Elvis Presley
“Long Legged Girl (with the Short Dress On),” from Double Trouble (1967)
Hot 100 Peak: 63
OK, the Elvis issue: It’s easy to think of Presley’s professional arc as that of a brilliant musician who got sidetracked by a misguided movie career for most of the 1960s before getting back on track at the end of the decade. That’s not exactly wrong, but it overlooks at least a couple of genuinely fun movies and more than a couple of really good songs. What’s more, Presley’s manager Tom Parker kept putting him in them for a reason: moviegoers liked them and songs from them sold (at least up to a point). As the decade progressed, Presley’s movie ventures saw diminishing returns both at the box office and on the charts. That’s at least partly due to songs like these, which, like the movies that spawned them, aren’t awful, particularly if you already like Elvis. But they’re not great, either. They’re just kind of there.

32. Oliver
“Jean,” from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
Hot 100 Peak: 2
Watch the late, great Maggie Smith in Ronald Neame’s adaptation of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and you’ll hear poet/singer/songwriter Rod McKuen gasping his way through the theme he composed on a recording that sounds like it was made beside his deathbed. (In reality, McKuen lived until 2015). This smoother version, from “Good Morning Starshine” singer Oliver, became a #2 hit for reasons now list to history.

31. Glenn Yarbrough
“Baby the Rain Must Fall,” from Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965)
Hot 100 Peak: 12
Limeliters lead singer Yarbrough enjoyed his biggest solo hit with the theme to Robert Mulligan’s film of the same name. It’s fine.

30. The Sandpipers
“Come Saturday Morning,” from The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)
Hot 100 Peak: 17
The unobjectionable folk-inspired harmonies of this vocal trio have an uncanny ability to disappear from memory even as you’re listening to them, but they’re nice enough while they play.

29. Elvis Presley
“You Don’t Know Me,” from Clambake (1967)
Hot 100 Peak: 44
Co-written by Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker in 1955, “You Don’t Know Me” has inspired everyone from Rick Nelson to Emmylou Harris to Michael Bublé to, most famously and successfully, Ray Charles to take a stab at recording it. Presley’s version may not be the definitive interpretation (again, Ray Charles gets that honor) but it’s quite good.

28. Tom Jones
“Thunderball,” from Thunderball (1965)
Hot 100 Peak: 25
Like it says above: Tom Jones had his moments, including this theme to one of Sean Connery’s least-satisfying outings as Agent 007. (Sure, it opens with a jetpack, but it also features a scuba sequence that feels like it will never end.) Would Johnny Cash’s rejected theme have been even better? You make the call.

27. Glen Campbell
“True Grit,” from True Grit (1969)
Hot 100 Peak: 35
Glen Campbell doesn’t just co-star in this first adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel, he provides a theme song that lays out the plot of the film to come as it plays over the credits and includes the name of the movie in its lyric. That’s a full-service country crossover star move, though this was only the third or fourth best song Campbell released that year.