Worst To Best: Tom Cruise Movie Singles and Theme Songs

Tom Cruise has left a long mark on film history, but also on the history of pop music. We ranked his greatest hits (and then some).

Tom Cruise has a long history making movies, as Top Gun: Maverick's arrival 36 years after the original ride into the danger zone has reminded everyone. He’s also had a long history on the pop charts, however indirectly. There’s not a lot that unifies songs that have appeared on Tom Cruise soundtracks, but many have taken on a life of their own after making appearances in Cruise’s films. Below is a ranking of 25 theme songs and/or singles from Cruise movies, from the awful to the sublime (with many that fall somewhere in the semi-memorable middle). 

26. “Kokomo,” The Beach Boys (from Cocktail)

A truly dreadful late-career Beach Boys hit, “Kokomo” was inescapable in the summer of 1988 and has, sadly, remained so ever since. It’s at the bottom of this list because it belongs at the bottom of just about every list for which it qualifies, including “Music Videos With John Stamos Cameos” or “Songs Co-Written by Children of Doris Day Who Made Enemies of Charles Manson.”

25. “Take a Look Around (Theme From Mission: Impossible 2),” Limp Bizkit (from Mission: Impossible 2)

Cocktail’s soundtrack became a huge hit (we’ll meet a single from it again further up the list), in the process helping to inaugurate an era in which soundtrack albums packed with of-the-moment artists were a mandatory element of any blockbuster movie release, whether the of-the-moment artists really fit the spirit of the film or not. Case in point: the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack, filled with very-2000 hard rock (and Tori Amos), bottoming out with this dire Limp Bizkit song in which singer Fred Durst mostly grouses about critics. But, hey, at least it incorporates the famous riff from the Lalo Schifrin theme. Synergy!

24. “Someday,” Black Eyed Peas (from Knight & Day)

An autotuned disaster that’s not even good by Black Eyed Peas’ standards.

23. “Losin’ It,” Jeff Allan Band (from Losin’ It)

Cruise took on his first starring role in this sleazy (but Curtis Hanson directed) teen comedy in which he plays one of a quartet of ‘60s teens trying to, you guessed it, lose it in Tijuana. Recorded by the never-heard-from-again Jeff Allan Band, this is possibly the most generic ‘80s theme song ever committed to wax.

22. “Paradise City,” Tom Cruise (from Rock of Ages)

Cruise has stuck almost entirely to action films over the last couple of decades. His appearance in Adam Shankman’s 2012 adaptation of the popular jukebox musical Rock of Ages is an exception. This stab at Guns N' Roses glory might be fun in context (and he hits some impressive high notes), but in isolation it’s a real don’t-quit-your-day-job moment.

21. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” Bobby McFerrin (from Cocktail)

Yes, Cocktail’s soundtrack went quadruple platinum in part because of this a cappella bromide. No, science still does not understand why.

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20. “All the Right Moves,” Jennifer Warnes and Chris Thompson (from All the Right Moves)

‘80s soundtrack regular Jennifer Warnes joins forces with Manfred Mann vocalist Chris Thompson for a bland-but-harmless anthem from this early-career football drama.

19. “Old Time Rock and Roll,” Bob Seger (from Risky Business)

Remember what we said about “Paradise City” probably playing better in context than in isolation? The same goes for one of the most famous songs in the Tom Cruise filmography. Yes, Cruise dancing in his underwear to this Bob Seger hit, originally released in 1979, soundtracks the moment that made Cruise a star. But, yeesh, is it obnoxious when encountered in the wild, a paean to classic rock and roll values that’s more grumpy than celebratory. Seger released a lot of immortal songs in his heyday. This shouldn’t have been one of them.

18. “Danger Zone,” Kenny Loggins (from Top Gun)

Ditto this Kenny Loggins track from Top Gun. It’s the perfect song in Top Gun, but who wants to hear it anywhere else? (Apparently a lot of people. It was a big hit. But should it have been?)

17. “Impossible,” Kanye West feat. Twista, Keyshia Cole and BJ (from Mission: Impossible III)

Kanye West’s contribution to the world Mission: Impossible soundtracks appeared back when the producer/rapper could seemingly do no wrong. Seemingly. This isn’t his finest moment and quietly disappeared after failing to crack both the pop and R&B/hip-hop Top 40.

16. “Endless Love,” Lionel Richie and Diana Ross (from Endless Love)

Cruise has only a small part in Franco Zefferelli’s ill-fated 1981 adaptation of a pretty good Scott Spencer novel, which yielded this sappy theme song from two remarkable talents. It might rank higher if it didn’t immediately summon up the memory of dentists’ waiting rooms.

15. “Sympathy for the Devil,” Guns N Roses (from Interview with the Vampire)

Notable mostly for being recorded at the very tail end of the original(ish) Guns N’ Roses lineup’s existence, this solid, unremarkable cover of the Rolling Stones classic plays over the closing credits of Neil Jordan’s Anne Rice adaptation.

14. “Show Me Heaven,” Maria McKee (from Days of Thunder)

Lone Justice is a pioneering country rock band from the ‘80s waiting for rediscovery, and singer Maria McKee probably deserved more success as a solo artist than she enjoyed. But also: Zzzzzzzz….

13. “Hold My Hand,” Lady Gaga (from Top Gun: Maverick)

Given the pounding standard set by the hits from the original Top Gun soundtrack and Lady Gaga’s own masterful ability to go biiiiiiig, why does this just-OK theme to Top Gun: Maverick sound a little too tastefully restrained?

12. “Iko Iko”, The Belle Stars (from Rain Man)

The British group the Belle Stars was essentially defunct when the song, recorded in 1982, appeared on the Rain Man soundtrack in a remixed form, in 1988. That didn’t stop it from becoming a hit, however. That’s just part of the song’s long history, which dates back to Mardis Gras Indian chants and became a big hit for the Dixie Cups in 1965 (a version that smashes this not-bad cover to pieces).

11. “Is Your Love Strong Enough,” Bryan Ferry (from Legend)

In 1982, Roxy Music released Avalon, a bittersweet, atmospheric light rock masterpiece. Then the group disbanded and lead singer Bryan Ferry mostly spent the rest of his career releasing (mostly pretty good) solo work that sounds like variations on Avalon. This is one of them. It’s not bad.

10. “Vanilla Sky,” Paul McCartney (from Vanilla Sky)

Cameron Crowe’s 2001 Vanilla Sky is a big, twisty, ambitious science fiction film about memory and meaning that makes extremely innovative use of pop music from start to finish, sometimes bleeding one song into another to hallucinatory effect. McCartney’s theme is a restrained, moody little ditty. It’s a counterintuitive choice, but not a bad one. 

9. “Book of Days,” Enya (from Far and Away)

With songs that mixed dreamy, Celtic-inspired melodies, ethereal vocals, and lots and lots of synths, Enya became a kind of genre unto herself. Who better to provide the theme to Ron Howard’s the-story-of-the-Irish-in-America film starring Cruise and Nicole Kidman? Nobody, that’s who.

8. “Oblivion,” M83 with Susanne Sundfør (from Oblivion)

The French synth-pop act M83 branched out into film scores with the theme to this kind-of-overlooked (but worthwhile) sci-fi movie from 2011. For the theme the group brought in Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør, whose vocals match nicely against the sweeping sounds behind it. Though not a huge hit, it’s a rare Cruise soundtrack song from the digital era, after studios and labels had given up on creating monster albums to go with their huge movies. No one tried to spin a hit off of, say, The Mummy or Edge of Tomorrow (though it’s kind of fun to imagine what those tracks might have sounded like).

7. “It’s in the Way that You Use It,” Eric Clapton (from The Color of Money)

No, it’s not hip. Yes, Clapton has been freely offering a lot of shitty opinions lately. But its smoky, ‘80s beer commercial power is still pretty undeniable.

6. “Theme from Mission: Impossible” by Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. (from Mission: Impossible)

Called upon to update Lalo Schifrin’s classic theme for the mid-‘90s, the other two guys in U2 kind of kill it (in a mid-‘90s kind of way).

5. ”A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (from Born on the Fourth of July)

For a brief moment at the end of the 1980s it looked like folk (and folk-adjacent) music was going to make a comeback, thanks to some surprise hits from Tracey Chapman and Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. This turned out to be a phenomenon isolated to, well, those mostly just those two artists. But it explains how Brickell and her band got the nod to cover this Bob Dylan classic for Oliver Stone’s Ron Kovic biopic. It’s a ‘60s song given a slick-but-effective ’80s sheen, making it kind of perfect for the movie.

4. “Secret Garden,” Bruce Springsteen (from Jerry Maguire)

One of the best songs from Springsteen’s wandering ’90s, this restrained ballad was written a few years before Jerry Maguire but sounds custom-made for Cameron Crowe’s tender romance. It became a hit, but only after a Portland radio station created an unauthorized remix incorporating dialogue from the film.

3. Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing,” Chris Isaak (from Eyes Wide Shut)

Similarly, this sinuous Chris Isaak song sounds like it was recorded just for Stanley Kubrick’s night-long journey of sexual anxiety, even though it was cut years earlier. It sets a tone of sexy menace that the film locks into and never abandons.

2. “Take My Breath Away,” Berlin (from Top Gun)

The synthesizer wasn’t invented only so this Oscar-winning power ballad could exist, but maybe it should have been?

1.“Save Me,” Aimee Mann (from Magnolia)

Just as “Kokomo” provided the inevitable bottom for this list, Aimee Mann’s Magnolia soundtrack serves as the unavoidable top. Take your pick of Mann tracks featured in the film, but we’re going with this one.