If movies are all about immersion and world-building, one of the best ways to do that is to add believable details—like a hit song, for example. Movie soundtracks are a great way to turn a good song into a hit, especially when the movie itself turns out to be popular. That mostly happens to songs that already exist, or songs written by a band or a singer to play over a movie’s credits, but sometimes the effect can be reverse-engineered.
Some of the best hit tracks come from the world of the movies themselves. That is, a song that is “already” a hit in the film can escape the matrix and become a hit in real life. These are the kinds of songs that are written to be hits, more often than not taking a few cues from real popular songs that already exist. A lot of the time, this happens in parody films, where the sheer corniness of the song is what makes it so catchy. In a way, all of these “fake” songs are written that way, with a degree of self-awareness, and are great even because of that.
For this list, we’ve found 12 of the best fake hits from film, from funk chart toppers to futuristic pop hits, jams from the ’70s and the ’80s that never existed, self-deprecating rap tracks, and ballads that beg to be sung during late night karaoke. These songs might have faked their initial popularity, but you can’t deny they’re real hits now.
12 “Fake” Songs from Movies That Are Actually Great
This is what happens when a song that is “already” a hit in a film escapes the matrix and becomes a hit in real life.
Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky
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