The Royal Tenenbaums: Complete Soundtrack

Gene Hackman's terribly sad passing inspired me to watch The Royal Tenenbaums this weekend for the first time in a decade or so. (Still great, by the way, particularly Hackman.) As with most of Wes Anderson's films, it's sheer heaven for us needle-drop nerds, one perfectly-placed song after another. Alas, due to the usual licensing issues, the official soundtrack (which was apparently issued with two slightly different tracklists) omits a few crucial cuts (most notably a pair of Stones songs and Van Morrison's film-closing "Everyone").

So, of course, I decided to make my own home-brewed CDR version, bastardizing the original soundtrack album and adding in the missing songs which appeared in the film but not on the record. 

While the official soundtrack shifts things around, I largely used the running order from the movie, though I made a few alterations (i.e. breaking up the two back-to-back Stones cuts); I also moved the incidental instrumentals around for flow, and subbed the instrumental version of Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here" in for the vocal version found on the soundtrack (which is pretty grating outside the context of the Peanuts cartoon). I edited down the running length of a few tracks as well.

I've recreated it on Spotify if you're interested. Alas, the mostly-instrumental "Hey Jude" cover used in the film & on the soundtrack (by The Mutato Muzika Orchestra) doesn't stream, so I had to fall back on a different, but comparable, cover. Otherwise, it's all here (albeit without the edits).

BTW, if you'd like to check out my original soundtrack for an imaginary Wes Anderson movie, it's here: