Music on The Sopranos


The HBO television drama The Sopranos received considerable critical attention for effective use of an eclectic array of music. Series creator David Chase personally selected all the show's music, with the producer Martin Bruestle and music editor Kathryn Dayak—sometimes also consulting Steven Van Zandt, who portrays Silvio Dante on the show and is also a guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. They often selected music after completing an episode's production and editing, but occasionally filmed sequences to match pre-selected pieces of music.
Stylistically, the music on the show ranges from mainstream pop to oldies and classic rock artists, from classic jazz and soul to hip-hop, often within a single episode.

Opening credits

In the opening credits for each episode, Tony Soprano drives from the Lincoln Tunnel to his home in North Caldwell, New Jersey. The musical accompaniment for this segment is the "Chosen One Mix" of the song "Woke Up This Morning" by the British band Alabama 3. "Woke Up This Morning " is four minutes and five seconds long, so a shortened version of it is used in the opening credits, which is approximately one minute and thirty seconds long.

End credits

Each episode's closing credits sequence features a unique piece of previously recorded music, with few exceptions. The episode "A Hit Is a Hit" uses a song by the fictional band Defiler, which appeared earlier in the episode. Three episodes feature multiple songs in the credits sequence, while two episodes have no music at all.
The following is a list of songs used at the end of each episode:

Season 6">List of The Sopranos episodes">Season 6

;Part I
#Episode titleSong titleArtist
66"Members Only""Seven Souls"Material featuring William S. Burroughs
67"Join the Club""When It's Cold I'd Like To Die"Moby
68"Mayham""The Deadly Nightshade"Daniel Lanois
69"The Fleshy Part of the Thigh""One of These Days"Pink Floyd
70"Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request""Every Day of the Week"The Students
71"Live Free or Die""4th of July"X
72"Luxury Lounge""Recuerdos de la Alhambra"Pepe Romero
73"Johnny Cakes""I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town"Ray Charles
74"The Ride""Pipeline"Johnny Thunders
75"Moe n' Joe""Let It Rock"Chuck Berry
76"Cold Stones""Home"Persephone's Bees
76"Cold Stones""As Time Goes By" Dooley Wilson
77"Kaisha""Moonlight Mile"The Rolling Stones

;Part II
#Episode titleSong titleArtist
78"Soprano Home Movies""This Magic Moment"Ben E. King and The Drifters
79"Stage 5""Evidently Chickentown"John Cooper Clarke
80"Remember When""Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)"Benny Goodman Orchestra
81"Chasing It""Goin' Down Slow"Howlin' Wolf
82"Walk Like a Man""The Valley"Los Lobos
83"Kennedy and Heidi""Minas De Cobre "Calexico
84"The Second Coming""Ninna Ninna "Smithsonian Folkways recording, artist unknown
85"The Blue Comet""Running Wild "Tindersticks
86"Made in America"none — the credits play in complete silencenone

Alternate music in Europe

For the version of the series aired in Europe, the producers partially replaced the music for licensing reasons. European DVD editions contain these altered versions as foreign-language dubs as well as the original unaltered English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Soundtrack compilations

To date, there have been two official soundtrack compilations released in association with The Sopranos. The first, titled The Sopranos: Music from the HBO Original Series, was released in 1999, and contains selections from the show's first two seasons. The second, titled The Sopranos: Peppers & Eggs: Music from the HBO Original Series, was released in 2001, and contains two Compact Discs of songs from the show's first three seasons.

Track listings

''The Sopranos: Music from the HBO Original Series''

  1. "Woke Up This Morning" — Alabama 3
  2. "It's Bad You Know" — R. L. Burnside
  3. "It Was a Very Good Year" — Frank Sinatra
  4. "Gotta Serve Somebody" — Bob Dylan
  5. "Inside of Me" — Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul
  6. "I Feel Free" — Cream
  7. "Mystic Eyes" — Them
  8. "State Trooper" — Bruce Springsteen
  9. "I'm a Man" — Bo Diddley
  10. "Complicated Shadows" — Elvis Costello & the Attractions
  11. "The Beast in Me" — Nick Lowe
  12. "Viking" — Los Lobos
  13. "Blood Is Thicker than Water" — Wyclef Jean featuring G & B
  14. "I've Tried Everything" — Eurythmics

''The Sopranos - Peppers & Eggs: Music from the HBO Series''

Disc one
  1. "Every Breath You Take/Theme from Peter Gunn" - The Police; Henry Mancini and His Orchestra
  2. "Battle Flag" - Pigeonhed
  3. "I've Got A Feeling" - The Campbell Brothers with Katie Jackson
  4. "The Captain" - Kasey Chambers
  5. "Shuck Dub" - R.L. Burnside
  6. "Affection" - The Lost Boys
  7. "My Lover's Prayer" - Otis Redding
  8. "Certamente" Madreblu
  9. "Black Books" - Nils Lofgren
  10. "Frank Sinatra" - Cake
  11. "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" - Frank Sinatra
  12. "Thru And Thru" - The Rolling Stones
    Disc two
  13. "High Fidelity" - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
  14. "Living on a Thin Line" - The Kinks
  15. "Girl" - Vue
  16. "Vivaldi: Sposa son disprezzata" - Cecilia Bartoli
  17. "I Who Have Nothing" - Ben E. King
  18. "Return to Me" - Bob Dylan
  19. "Make no Mistake" - Keith Richards
  20. "Piove" - Lorenzo Jovanotti
  21. "Space Invader" - The Pretenders
  22. "Tiny Tears" - Tindersticks
  23. "Gloria" - Van Morrison
  24. "Core 'ngrato" - Dominic Chianese
  25. "Dialogue From 'The Sopranos'" - The Sopranos Cast