Search - Various Artists :: Our Little Corner of the World: Music From Gilmore Girls

A solid collection of songs (and cues) from "Gilmore Girls"

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 04/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First, to keep you from wasting an afternoon trying to figure out which episode of "Gilmore Girls" had the Pernice Brothers doing "Clear Spot," forget about it because it never happened. That particular group did "The Weakest Shade of Blue" during Season 4 on "Chicken or Beef?" but as for the song that appears on this collection of songs from "Gilmore Girls" it was not on the show, which is too bad because it really fits it quite well (irony abounds, pass it on). It took me a while to find that out today and if Scott Patterson has a major league baseball card I cannot figure out what it would be or if I have it (I certainly do not have any of his minor league cards for the Columbus Clippers). Despite this one glaring example these songs are mostly from the first and second seasons, with several from the third, and for fans of the WB series this is an excellent collection of music from the show.



There are three groups of tracks on this "Music from 'Gilmore Girls,'" beginning with the one that includes the theme song, "Where You Lead I Will Follow," sung most appropriately by Carole King and her daughter Louise Goffin (odd that it is not the first track on the album but the eighth). Then there are the incidental themes that pop up in just about every episode written by Sam Phillip, all of which are labeled "cues." Now you know that the perky "la-la" song is called "Getting Married" and the slower one is "Waltz #1." I am not sure how to really describe the difference between "Maybe Next Week" and "Rory and Lane" in terms of "la-la" songs but they will be familiar as soon as you play them.



The largest category are those tracks associated with key moments in the show, such as from the start of "Sadie, Sadie," where "I Found Love" by the Free Design plays as the Gilmore Girls walk around a Stars Hollow where everybody has one of Lorelai's thousand daisies. If that makes you think about the previous episode, then be happy that the album includes "One Line" by PJ Harvey Love, which is from the moment in "Love, Daisies, and Troubadours" where Rory tells Dean "I love you, you idiot" and kisses him. You also get "My Little Corner of the World" by Yo La Tengo from the end of that episode as Lorelai and Rory run to each other to share their good news, but the previous track makes you think of when Dean told Rory "I love you" in "Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers" and she said nothing, while John Lennon sang "Oh My Love." Big Star's "Thirteen" is from "Rory's Dance" when she goes walking with Dean through Stars Hollow afterwards. I am not sure if the Gilmore girls seeing the destroyed perfect snowman after "The Bracebridge Dinner" constitutes a great moment, but we get Bjork's "Human Behavior" here as well.



If for some reason you prefer Jess to Dean (not me and I wanted Felicity to choose Noel too) then you have "Girl From Mars" by Ash, which is at the end of "Nick & Nora, Sid & Nancy" when Jess and Rory engage in cute book talk. There is also Elastica's "Car Song" from "Teach Me Tonight," which is what is playing right before the car accident. "O'oh" by Yoko Ono is from "Lorelia's Graduation Day," when Rory and Jess are checking out New York City. This is not all about Lorelai and Rory, because you also get the cover of "What a Wonderful World" by Joey Ramone that plays when Luke knocks a hole in his apartment wall for Jess to have his own apartment in "Lost and Found" from Season 2. Yes, there are some memorable songs that are not here, but you probably already have everything by the Bangles and "Someone To Watch Over Me" by Ricki Lee Jones.



Finally, there are tracks that we did not really get to listen to. For example, in the second season episode "Like Mother, Like Daughter" we get both the song that Rory was listening to when the guidance counselor interrupted her at lunch at the start of the episode, "Know Your Onion!" by the Shins, and the song she listens to at the end, "It's Alright, Baby" by Komeda. "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" by XTC is the song that Lane plays off of her new CD for Rory in "The Lorelias' First Day at Chilton." Rory likes "Child Psychology" by Black Box Recorder, another song Lane brings over, played in "Emily in Wonderland," because it depresses her. Claudine Longet's version of "God Only Knows" is the song Rory and Lane try to listen to in "Double Date" while Lorelai is trying to study and keeps making them adjust the volume. Slumber Party's "I Don't Mind" is from "One's Got Class and the Other One Dyes," which is when Rory dyes Lane's hair.



Darn. Two songs left over. "Tell Her What She Wants to Know" is a complete song by Sam Phillips that was in Season 4's "Ballroom & Biscotti." Grant-Lee Phillips's "Smile" is from the end of "Application Anxiety," as Luke and Taylor are having a fight and Rory and Lorelai are strolling around Stars Hollow again. The last one goes in the third category and I guess the other one does by default. I guess the whole "Clear Shot" search has left me more shaken (but not stirred) than I had thought."

Welcome To The Gilmore's World

Thomas Magnum | NJ, USA | 10/15/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Gilmore Girls is a great television program on the WB about a mother, Lorelei, who is from a well-to-do family, got pregnant at sixteen, left home to raise her daughter Rory alone. Now Rory is sixteen and Lorelei and her are best friends. They live in the quirky Connecticut town of Stars Hollow that is full of strange, but lovable townsfolk. The show is full of witty dialogue and has a hip sense of music. The soundtrack to the program shows off its eclectic musical tastes. Carole King originally recorded "Where You Lead" on her Tapestry album and the show uses an updated version she recorded with her daughter Louise Goffin as its theme song. Grant Lee Phillips plays a troubadour on the show who plays musical interludes throughout episodes and he contributes the strong "Smile". Sam Phillips does not appear on the show, but her music is a strong part of each episode and the little snippets of her simple la-la-la cues are sprinkled throughout the album. Another strong aspect of the album is that while it has many well-known artists like John Lennon, XTC, Big Star and Joey Ramone, it doesn't pick obvious songs from their catalogues, but lesser known gems. Mr. Lennon's "Oh My Love" is a beautiful and tender song, XTC's "I'm The Man Who Murdered Love" perfectly encapsulates Lorelei's love life. Big Star's "Thirteen" is a sweet acoustic number and Joey Ramone rips through a thrashing version of the standard "What A Wonderful World". The Free Design's "I Found Love" is a quirky pop tune from the early 70's and The Shin's "Know Your Onion" is a quirky pop tune from 2001. Other standout tracks include Ash's rocking "Girl From Mars", PJ Harvey's "One Line" and Yo Lo Tengo's "My Little Corner Of The World"."

No Bubblegum Pop Here. Just Great Music From TV's Best Show

Thomas Magnum | 10/03/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, there's no shame in admitting that you love the Gilmore Girls if you're a heterosexual male. It's a great television show that features excellent characters, witty writing, two very attractive actresses, a hip sense of pop culture, and some of the best music ever heard on network TV.With a name like "Gilmore Girls" and with a teenage daughter as one of the leads, you'd expect that the show would submerge itself in the latest artificial bubblegum pop group fad. That couldn't be further from the truth. Gilmore Girls is a show that embraces real music, especially indie music. This is a show where the characters love to dance to the latest XTC album, or sit around talking about Claudine Longet and Yoko Ono, or jump with joy when they get tickets to a Bangles concert. (And instead of coming up with some contrived reason for meeting the band, they just sit in the middle of the concert hall along with the rest of the audience. How's that for a TV show being original?)This album is simply wonderful. Along with Sam Philip's lyrical musical cues from the show, it includes 20 great songs from such well-known and little-known groups as XTC, Joey Ramone (doing a wicked cover of a Louis Armstrong classic), Komeda, Slumber Party, Yo La Tengo, and Elastica. I have to admit that I had never heard of a lot of these groups prior to buying this CD, which I'm now kicking myself for. This CD will broaden your musical tastes, and it will make you appreciate some very underappreciated groups. As for myself, I plan on spending a lot of time in my local used record store looking for more from these groups.And not enough can be said of the new recording Carole King did with daughter Louise Goffin of her classic Tapestry song, "Where You Lead I Will Follow." Used as the Gilmore Girls' theme song, this new recording goes beyond the 45 seconds shown on TV and gives us a great song that really captures the theme of a show about mothers and daughters.So, in summary, if you're a fan of the Gilmore Girls, you need to buy this CD. If you like great music, you need to buy this CD. And even if you've never heard of the Gilmore Girls or watched the show, I highly suggest that you give the TV show and this CD a try. You may very well be surprised by what you find."