11) Tiny Dancer – Almost Famous
Few filmmakers probably have as extensive a record collection as Cameron Crowe. Many years before Crowe became one of the finest American screenwriters (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and directors (Jerry Maguire), he was a writer and managing editor for Rolling Stone magazine. The quasi-autobiographical look at his budding journalist years on the road with many of the hottest bands, Almost Famous, awarded him the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It also, to nobody’s surprise, features one of the best soundtracks of any film. (Crowe has also cemented many great rock songs in the pantheon of classic movie moments, including Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes in Say Anything…)
Almost Famous boasts tracks from a who’s who of early-to-mid 1970s rockers, from Jethro Tull to The Who, Led Zeppelin to Lynyrd Skynyrd. But nearly everybody who knows the film probably reminisces about a pleasant bus ride about halfway through the running time, where the rock group Stillwater, their friends and groupies, as well as young writer William (Patrick Fugit), break out into Elton John’s Tiny Dancer.
Everybody is still in cahoots from a misstep the band made the previous night and nobody really wants to chat or have any fun. But, then Tiny Dancer comes on and the music makers cannot help but feel the urge to sing along. The music is so pure, the lyrics so passionate, and with its references to a “band,” a “music man,” and “counting headlights on the highway,” perfectly captures the feeling of being on the road with a bunch of rock and rollers. While Crowe’s film makes the mistake of editing out the bridge – an exhilarating rush that builds to a cathartic chorus – the scene still works wondrously.
Tiny Dancer is now one of Elton’s most beloved and requested songs, partially due to Almost Famous making this one a new generation could sing around a campfire.