As the auteur of
post-punk
suburban adolescence, director
John Hughes
appropriately enhanced his '80s movies with relatively harmless
new wave
soundtracks. Where earlier films like
The Breakfast Club
and
Sixteen Candles
included the occasional
Wang Chung
or
Simple Minds
track, though, 1986's
Pretty in Pink
boasted a full lineup of "
rock
of the '80s" highlights. Foremost, of course, is
the Psychedelic Furs
' breakout remake of their 1981 college radio favorite
"Pretty in Pink"
; while it pales in relation to the raw and electric original, this new version still holds up even with some added horns and a general glossing over of the once hard-driving guitar and drum parts. Even better are tracks by
OMD
(
"If You Leave"
),
Echo & the Bunnymen
"Bring on the Dancing Horses"
), and
the Smiths
"Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"
). These era-defining sides certainly help make lukewarm additions like
New Order
's
"Shell-Shock,"
INXS
'
"Do Wot You Do,"
Belouis Some
"Round, Round"
easy to get through. And for more marginal
fare, there's
Jesse Johnson
Prince
-inspired
"Get to Know Ya"
Danny Hutton
pop/rocker
"Wouldn't It Be Good."
Topped off by
Suzanne Vega
's respectable reworking of her hit
"Left of Center,"
qualifies as one of the more relevant youth culture
soundtracks
. ~ Stephen Cook