Napoleon Dynamite [SOUNDTRACK]

John Swihart

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 5, 2004)
• Original Release Date: August 27, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Lakeshore Records
• ASIN: B0002XL1WG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,061 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In a promising filmmaking debut, young BYU grad Jared Hess informs this indie tale of an aggressively nerdy backwater teen's foibles with the bittersweet dimensions of the director's own small-town upbringing, making it the dry comic hit of Sundance. Its soundtrack picks up on that earnest awkwardness via dollops of '80s new wave, both underexposed (Yaz's "Only You", Alphaville's "Forever Young") and otherwise (Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy," a faithful cover of "Time After Time" by Sparklemotion), as well as moodier contemporary cuts by Rogue Wave (a live take on "Every Moment"), Figurine in full synth-pop revivalist mode, and the nuevo-soul of Jamiroquai and Money Mark. Interspersed with a generous sampling of dialogue snippets, John Swihart's shrewd, intimate underscore runs the gamut from "The A-Team Theme" to geek-friendly exotica and nervous cocktail jazz, stitching the score's disparate parts into a memorably quirky whole. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

Music from the "cult" hit of the summer "Napoleon Dynamite" featuring original score by John Swihart, songs from the film and your favorite "laugh out loud" classic Napoleon dialogue! Sweet!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Missing Songs Listed, January 19, 2005

By	T. Parry "Music Man" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would have given this 5 stars, but there were some songs missing I had to go track down--freakin idiots! :)

1. So Tuff, So Ruff - Zapp & Rogers (Pedro's Cousins bump music going to the dance)
2. More Bounce to the Ounce - Zapp & Rogers (Pedro's Cousins music when kid's bike getting borrowed)
3. The Rose - Amanda McBroom (Helping Hands song)
4. Larger Than Life - Backstreet Boys (Summer's skit)
5. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper (different version than on CD)
6. Music For A Found Harmonium - Penguin Cafe Orchestra
7. We're Going to be Friends - The White Stripes

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome! Incredible! Indespensible! (but incomplete). Buy This CD!, August 8, 2005

By	Bryan E. Leed "Jesus says, 'Go and Sin No More!" (Dayton, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This CD is a "must have" item for any NAPOLEON DYNAMITE fan. It is the only place to get the fun, cheezy organ music that is played throughout the film. There are also plenty of little sound bites of dialogue from the film. Unfortunately, there are some major songs that did NOT make it onto this CD, so you will have to get those tunes separately.

I tried to gather them up, based on the end credits from the DVD listing. The missing songs are:

* "We're Going to be Friends" by the White Stripes, on their album "White Blood Cells." This song is played during the opening credits, written in food.

* "The Rose" by Bette Midler, I got from her Greatest Hits CD. It is also on the soundtrack for the old movie "The Rose," but that version has some audience applause in the background, at the very beginning of the song. In Napoleon, it is the song that the Happy Hands Club performs in class with Napoleon.

* "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper. I got it from "The Essential Cyndi Lauper." This is played while Napoleon and Deb dance together at the school dance. The Napoleon Soundtrack has this song on the CD, but it is performed by a different artist. The movie credits say it is the Cyndi Lauper version used in the film.

* "Larger Than Life" by the Backstreet Boys, I got from their "The Hits--Chapter One." This is played during Summer Wheatly's skit, onstage with the Happy Hands Club.

* "Music of a Found Harmonium" by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. This is played at the end of the film, as they show how everybody ends up, before Napoleon plays tetherball with Deb. CAUTION: This song appears on many different Penguin Cafe Orchestra CDs, in different versions. The closest version I found is on the CD "Preludes Airs and Yodels (A Penguin Cafe primer)," which contains two different versions. It is the Patrick Street version, track 11, that sounds the most like the Napoleon movie version used, in my opinion. I COULD BE WRONG, but this is my best pick of which version the movie used.

(...)

There may still be some other music to find, but I don't know the names; like the music from Pedro's cousins' car when they pick up Trish, and the heavy metal music during the Rex Kwon Do commercial...?

Even though the CD is incomplete, I still highly recommend this Napoleon Dynamite soundtack CD for anybody who liked the movie!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gosh! Frickin' Idiot!, April 25, 2005

A Kid's Review

I saw at least two reviews that complained that the song Napoleon dances to is missing. Look at track 31 of the disc (make sure you click on the "See all 42 tracks" link). The songs that were in the movie but are not on the soundtrack are:

We're Going to Be Friends - The White Stripes
The Rose - Bette Midler
Larger Than Life - Backstreet Boys
Music for a Found Harmonium - James Galway & Phil Coulter

All (and I mean ALL) of the other songs from the movie are on the album. Basically, my opinion has already been said. The soundtrack is great because it flows, it's quirky and fun, it's complete, and (most importantly) it contains snippits of the best dialogue in the movie. That said, if you didn't like the movie (...)then you won't like the soundtrack either. For everyone else: Buy it.