It’s funny: I knew I had a good memory for songs used on TV shows: I could describe for you, in great detail, the Queer as Folk scenes that used Ben E. King’s "Save the Last Dance For Me," ABBA’s "Chiquitita," Broken Social Scene’s "Lover’s Spit," and Matthew Good’s "Weapon." (If you remember that last one, too, you know why I’m not linking to it.) I could also probably reenact the Poco-"Keep on Tryin’" and Foreigner-"Hot Blooded" moments from Bones. But I didn’t realize I’d ever paid that kind of attention to a show’s musical score until I received an advance copy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer — The Score, a CD compilation of Emmy-winning composer Christophe Beck’s work from seasons 2 through 5 (in stores today).
Turns out, I knew exactly what scene "Sacrifice" was from — and almost cried listening to it. (Don’t click on that link, if you haven’t cleared Buffy’s fifth season.) I also got a perfect visual from "Drink Me" (from season 3’s "Graduation Day, Part II") and "Remembering Jenny" (from season 2’s "Passion," below).
Check out excerpts of the 29 tracks on Amazon, and tell us: what is the most memorable piece of Buffy score?
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“Sacrifice,” by far….It still makes me cry.
Sacrifice was the best of all the Buffy eps. That is the one I can watch again and again.
Jeebus, Mandi…clicking that Sacrifice link was NOT how I’d envisioned starting the day. Now I need a ShamWow. For my face. Because I have something in both my eyes. Or, it’s raining on my face.
SAVE SWINGTOWN! SAVE SWINGTOWN! SAVE SWINGTOWN! SAVE SWINGTOWN! SAVE SWINGTOWN!
Must have taken a too big a bite while watching that Sacrifice link. There a lump in my throat.
The entire score for Hush was pretty killer.
And I can’t cry for that clip, because I’m still giggling at Mark’s ShamWow comment.
The Suite from “Restless” – Buffy encounters the First Slayer in her dreams and the sound was just primal. Joss knew the right moment, though, to stop the score and let the fight across a sandy dune go eerily silent.
i got chills just opening that link for sacrafice.
Wild Horses – the Sundays from the episode “The Prom”. Awesome.
“Faith’s End” when Faith and Buffy duke during “Graduation Day, Part I.” It is embarrassingly the most played item on my iTunes.
Marc, I’m with you…somehow some of the rain outside made it in here onto my face after watching the Sacrifice clip. Oof. All the Buffy music is great, but my first thought after reading Mandi’s entry was, what about “Give me all Your Lovin” from the season 2 finale of Bones? (Course I just watched it the other night…)
I second the Wild Horses comment. I also thought the use of Stupid Thing by Nickel when Spike watches Buffy & co. dance at the Bronze was perfect stalker music.
To this day, I still remember the chills I got watching the “Massacre” scene for the first time, due largely to the music. Shiver! Also, the Hush score was equally chilling, and Sacrifice makes me very emotional everytime I hear even a little bit of it. Christophe Beck did great things for Buffy, there’s no question about that.
Cibo Matto’s “Spoon” from “When She Was Bad” always sticks out in my head. It’s not on the CD, but I can recall that scene like it was yesterday, in the Bronze when Buffy is dancing with Xander and walks away with a satisfied scheming look on her face. classic.
Michelle Branch’s “Goodbye To You” in the Tabula Rasa episode. She’s singing on stage at the Bronze with the montage of Tara leaving Willow, Giles leaving Buffy (and the country) and Buffy leaving her sanity by succumbing to Spike.
“Full of Grace” from the second part of the season 2 finale. Every time I hear that song I immediately picture SMG sitting on the bus leaving sunnydale as giles and the gang gather at school to wonder whether she’ll ever return.
Of all of the many memorable Buffy score moments (from the Elfman-esque “Hush” score to the “Final Fight” from “Chosen” (that now seems to pop up all over the place) to the total lack of score in “The Body”), the one that really sticks out to me is the “Close Your Eyes” score from “Becoming Part II” followed by Sarah McLachlan’s “Full of Grace.” That broke my poor little then-14 year old heart.
My most memorable Buffy music moment was the end of “Tabula Rasa” in season 6. The episode is absolutely hilarious, but it ends with Michelle Branch singing “Goodbye to You” accoustically while you see Tara packing up to leave Willow. Makes me cry every single time.
For me, the most memorable of Beck’s work isn’t on the list, but it is on the first Buffy soundtrack. It’s the Buffy/Angel Love Theme. But from that Amazon list, I’d have to go with “Remembering Jenny.” And I agree with Andie below, but it was Cibo Matto’s “Sugar Water” that they danced to, and to me that stands out the most of all the songs they used on the show.
i agree – that sarah mclachlan song…not only was season 2 quite possibly the best of all the buffy seasons, but i can totally picture her on the bus after having had to kill the love of her life. och. chokes me up just thinking about it.
but really, all the music from buffy was a perfect fit. chris beck did a wonderful job.
Sacrifice makes me cry every time I hear it and I have NO problem saying so. The Gift is, in my opinion, the finest hour of television ever created. It might even be my favorite work of art. Christophe is a genius. Sacrifice is some of the most haunting, beautiful scoring I have ever heard.
The Buffy/Angel theme is one of the most perfect pieces of music I’ve ever heard
I agree that “Sacrfice” is fantastic. Both the score and the songs used on Buffy were really really great!
I can hum off the top of my head the music from the season finale of Season 2 when Buffy stabs Angel. That music is haunting and always brings me to tears.
That’s a very good episode. I’m glad they made the music available. I love Buffy!
Christophe is not only an amazing composer but a wonderful individual. His mom was my high school Spanish teacher and when I was doing a scoring project in college, he invited me to come to LA and worked with me on perfecting the various themes and nuances of my project. His Emmy win was well deserved!
The theme song. Easily.
Those first 4 eerie notes, the hard guitars, the creepy gong at the end.
easily…
one of my favorite buffy songs is ‘full of grace’ in becoming, part two. amazing.
I would love to get my hands on the iTunes bonus track which comes with this. It`s the Willow/Oz love theme. It`s SO beautiful!! But with my luck, I guess it`s only gonna be available for the US iTunes?
PS….you can download the willow/oz theme as a single track. the album is not “album only”