'Deadpool' and the Best Use of Old Pop Songs in Superhero Movies

Ryan Reynolds and Brianna Hildebrand (Twentieth Century Fox)

If you saw Deadpool over the weekend — and given how much money it earned, odds are strong that you did — you may have noticed that the film makes prominent, simultaneously ironic and affectionate use of retro pop songs, a soundtrack choice that has become increasingly common in contemporary superhero movies.

Related: Read our complete ‘Deadpool’ coverage

In Deadpool, the musical flashbacks start from the very beginning courtesy of that gangbusters opening title sequence in which a camera pans through freeze-framed wreckage while Juice Newton’s soaring “Angel of the Morning” blasts through the multiplex speakers. Even more notable is Deadpool’s love of Wham! — that’s Wham, with the crucial exclamation mark — which leads to the use of “Careless Whisper” during a key romantic moment between our fourth-wall-shattering protagonist (Ryan Reynolds) and the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). The songs’ sentimentality clashes perfectly with the violence and snark that otherwise dominates the movie. The decision to use them is a comedic choice, and it’s one that has become increasingly popular in the superhero genre, where songs from previous decades often pop up to add bursts of jokey energy.

Guardians of the Galaxy unquestionably perfected that approach with its “awesome mixtape” of ‘70s tunes, including “Come and Get Your Love,” which underscores the introduction to grown-up Peter Quill…

…to baby Groot getting his groove on to “I Want You Back” by The Jackson Five (see below).

But even the Guardians weren’t the first Marvel Comic superheroes to kick it old-school. One of the best scenes in Spider-Man 2 is Sam Raimi’s inspired inclusion of B.J. Thomas’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” — the song that became the first No. 1 hit of the 1970s — in a montage devoted to Peter Parker’s attempt to lead a “normal” easy-going life.

A few years later, Kick-Ass made edgier of ‘70 and ‘80s tracks, including The Dickies’ 1978 cover of “The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana),” the theme from the kiddie TV show The Banana Splits, as well as Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.” Like Deadpool, Kick-Ass is a dark, exceedingly violent film and the song choices not only punch up the action and comedy, but sometimes, as in the case of the Banana Splits track, juxtapose the sounds of innocence with the sight of a young girl obliterating a roomful of drug dealers. (Warning: The video clip below is definitely NSFW and R-rated.)

More recently, in addition to the use of ‘70s favorites Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past laid a Jim Croce track over its bravura Quicksilver sequence, a thing of visual beauty that has extra impact because the song “Time in a Bottle” (A) is spot-on for the movie’s 1973 time frame; (B) alludes smartly to the movie’s time-travel theme; and © unspools fluidly in a way that syncs up perfectly with Quicksilver’s so-fast-it’s-in-slow-mo swim through all those frozen cops and bullets. (Watch the scene below.)

Though it’s technically not a superhero movie, I’d be remiss not to mention The Martian, which lays on the disco really thick, again, often for the sake of comedy but in ways — especially the pairing of Abba’s “Waterloo” with Matt Damon’s preparations for his return to Earth — that also evoke joy.

At this point, plunking in a ‘70s or ‘80s song has been done so often that it’s become a trope. But it’s a trope that’s pretty effective, so much so that I’m already trying to imagine what songs could get some play in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool sequels. I feel like Deadpool could have a really good time with the “Wham! Rap.”