Ranking All The Songs from the Godzilla (1998) Soundtrack

Godzilla

The 1998 remake of Godzilla was originally intended to be the first in a trilogy. As it turned out, the first one drew so many negative comments and turned in such a minor profit, all of the planned sequences got shelved. But even if the film was a dud, the soundtrack wasn’t. Consisting primarily of a carefully curated selection of radio-friendly ’90s alt-rock, the album reached number 2 on the US Billboard 200 and earned platinum certification, selling over 2.5 million copies worldwide. Here’s how we rank all the songs on the Godzilla soundtrack.

15. Walk the Sky – Fuel

 

Fuel were just starting to make it big in 1998 when they contributed Walk the Sky to the Godzilla soundtrack. They’d get bigger, but this was where it started.

14. Undercover – Joey DeLuxe

 

Joey Merholz spends most of his time as a producer, but now and again, he puts on his composer hat, swaps Merholz for DeLuxe, and gives us treats like Undercover from the Godzilla soundtrack.

13. Opening Titles – David Arnold

 

We only get to hear two samples of David Arnold’s score on the soundtrack album, but fortunately, both are excellent.

12. Looking for Clues – David Arnold

 

Another snippet from David Arnold’s score next, this time the sublime Looking for Clues.

11. Air – Ben Folds Five

 

In 2005, Air showed up on a remastered edition of the Ben Folds Five album Whatever and Ever Amen. By then, fans of the band had already been aware of it for years thanks to its role on the Godzilla soundtrack.

10. Running Knee – Days of the New

 

They might have fizzled out in the 2000s, but back in 1998, Days of the New were still riding the wave of success after their first album sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide and generated a slew of hit singles. Considering how big they were at the time, it didn’t come as much of a surprise when they showed up on the Godzilla soundtrack.

9. Untitled – Silverchair

 

Silverchair were already huge in Australia when they released Untitled, but it wouldn’t be until the following year that they’d get just as big everywhere else with the release of their third album, Neon Ballroom, which charted at number 1 in Australia, number 50 on the US Billboard 200, and number 29 in the UK.

8. Out There – Fuzzbubble

 

These days, Jim Bacchi, Mark DiCarlo Jason Camiolo, and Brett Rothfeld go by the name Cult Stars From Mars, but back in the mid-1990s, they were called Fuzzbubble and they made hugely enjoyable power rock like this track from the Godzilla soundtrack.

7. No Shelter – Rage Against the Machine

 

A critic might say that Rage Against the Machine’s No Shelter – a song that makes a blistering attack on consumerism, feigned rebelliousness, and media control – has a whiff of hypocrisy about it, considering its placement in one of the biggest commercial blockbusters of 1998. Guitarist Tom Morello dismissed the accusations of getting into bed with the enemy, “A lot of times a soundtrack is an opportunity to collaborate with musicians you admire. It’s an opportunity to work outside of your band, or exercise — you know, to flex your musical abilities when Rage has downtime. Out of Godzilla, we happened to get a great song in No Shelter.” Either way, it’s an awesome tune.

6. Macy Day Parade – Michael Penn

 

He might not be as big a name as some of the other artists that feature on the Godzilla soundtrack, but Michael Penn’s contribution still ranks as one of the loveliest.

5. A320 – Foo Fighters

 

Foo Fighters bring some of their typical punk-pop magic to A320.

4. Brain Stew (The Godzilla Remix) – Green Day

 

Green Day rock as hard as ever on this remixed version of their 1996 hit, Brain Stew, from the group’s fourth studio album, Insomniac.

3. Come with Me – Puff Daddy featuring Jimmy Page

 

The Godzilla soundtrack had two big singles – the Wallflowers’ cover of David Bowie’s Heroes and Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page’s Come with Me. A rap version of the 1975 Led Zeppelin song Kashmir shouldn’t work on any level, but while it might make rock purists’ heads spin, it’s a lot more successful than it has any right to be. It became the big breakaway success of the soundtrack, breaking into the top 5 in Iceland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the United States, and various European countries.

2. Deeper Underground – Jamiroquai

 

As well as appearing on the Godzilla album, Deeper Underground also featured on Jamiroquai’s fourth studio album, Synkronized, along with the special edition of the group’s fifth album, A Funk Odyssey. Released as a single in July 1998, it became one of their biggest ever hits, topping the charts in their native UK (the first of their singles to ever reach number one) and performing well across Europe.

1. Heroes – The Wallflowers

 

In their review of the Godzilla album, All Music criticized the Wallflowers’ cover of Heroes for having been made with one eye on the charts and for being too reverent to the original. Both comments might have a point, but there’s nothing wrong with aiming for the charts or being respectable of an original, especially when that original was made by David Bowie. It might not be massively surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable, particularly when you factor in Jakob Dylan’s heart-wrenching performance. Released as a single in 1998, it reached number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and number 10 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart,

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