The Band Room

The original motion picture soundtrack for Rushmore includes an extraordinary collection of songs, making it an essential for any music lover.  If you enjoy this film even half as much as I have, this soundtrack will be very special to you.  This area of the page will explore the music of Rushmore, both included on the soundtrack and not included. But, first, a word from the director, Wes Anderson, from the soundtrack...

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"I originally wanted to score the whole movie of 'Rushmore' with songs by the Kinks.  I thought this made sense because the Kinks played loud, angry teenage rock songs, and they wore blazers and ties; and our movie is about a teenager who is loud and angry, and he is almost never seen without his blazer and tie (until he switches to a green velvet suit). I eventually expanded this concept to include the whole British Invasion, because they all basically dressed like that.

Then we did some research and started making tapes labeled SCHOOL MOVIE MUSIC, which I listened to on road trips while we were writing the script. Sometimes I put the same song on a tape five or six times in a row, because your mind wanders when you're on the road, and repetition helps focus your concentration.  We played lots of this music on the set during the shoot in Houston with a Bose stereo that Bill Murray got for us. My assistant had to lug the Bose around and get electricians to give her extension cables, and the inconvenience of that eventually led her to quit, although there were probably other factors which I don't know about. At the end of the shoot Murray gave the Bose to one of the make-up people. The only song we used that's not British Invasion (later noted, "Except Zoot Sims and Mark Mothersbaugh") is the Yves Montand of 'Rue Saint Vincent,' but I think that's a good one to stand on its own.  

Thanks very much, and I hope you enjoy this album."

(signed) Wes Anderson

The songs featured in "Rushmore" come from the British Invasion of the `60s. Music supervisor Randy Poster explains, "Wes started talking with me about the music for the movie a couple of years before we started shooting."

Anderson says, "We used the British Invasion music because it gets at the other side of Max. He presents himself as being very sophisticated, and he wears a blazer and a tie; but, really, he's a teenager, and he's kind of going crazy." 

Anderson choreographed the filming of some of the scenes to the music which he had already selected before filming began. In working with songs from this era, Poster expressed how Anderson was "trying to harken back to a music that expresses an emerging post-adolescent energy and vigor." Poster adds, "Something I related to in the script corresponds with the England of the `Angry Young Man' period. In a sense there is a certain stylistic parallel that we're illuminating, though clearly the times and realities are very different. But I think the emotional charge of some of these songs really adhere to the film and will reverberate with the audience in terms of the energy and emotional content. I think Wes has a singular and refreshing view of the things. And I think that the music will help stamp his identity on the brow of filmgoers throughout the world."

Credit: Rushmore press kit

Rushmore Criterion Collection DVD

Rushmore soundtrack