The Clueless soundtrack—a thoroughly nineties mix that dips primarily into that widely defined pool called alternative rock, but also dabbles in rap, pop, a touch of complaint rock, and a dash of retro covers—was released on July 4, 1995. A year later, it had sold enough copies to be certified gold; by February 4, 1998, it was certified platinum.
The soundtrack was released on Capitol Records, which, not surprisingly, orchestrated the inclusion of several of their artists on the CD. Most of those bands and solo performers had only the most basic sense of what Clueless was about when they agreed to allow their voices and music to be associated with it. But as a result of that association, some (though not all) either pocketed a decent chunk of change or still collect a nice little regular royalty check. And all of the Clueless soundtrack contributors eventually learned that being linked to Amy Heckerling’s teen classic would earn them a level of street cred that would last for two decades and counting.
Adam Schroeder, coproducer: At the time, soundtracks were a big marketing tool and they could be very important to a campaign. And record companies would give advances to films for the soundtracks. We actually had a $1 million advance from Capitol, which was really huge and exciting and amazing, because that stuff doesn’t happen anymore at all.
Karyn Rachtman, music supervisor: Capitol Records was already involved. They had already gotten the soundtrack rights . . . and it was funny for me because, right as I was being asked to do this movie, I was also being asked to become [a] vice president of Capitol Records. It worked out great for me because not only was I the music supervisor on the film, I was also the record company. I had a lot of control—not enough. I had some control.
Adam Schroeder: What happens when you’re working with a record label, they want you to use their artists. Which was great. Capitol is historic and they have incredible artists.
Karyn Rachtman: Amy had great taste in music and I think she could relate to me on that level. She liked my taste in music from some previous films.
Amy Heckerling, writer-director: Just as language expresses who [the characters] are, I mean, the college boy is going to be listening to the new Radiohead kind of music. And music from Seattle. Cher’s going to like happy, poppier stuff, and also all the rap stuff. Which was kind of different then. It was also like, “Slide, slide, slippity slide”—there was happy, fun rap.
Karyn Rachtman: The song at the end title . . . [“Tenderness”]. Based on [Amy] wanting the song . . . I kind of knew what direction to go with other songs, what she was looking for.
Amy Heckerling: I wasn’t saying, “Oh my God, this has to sound completely 1994. It can’t be songs from 1990.” I just wanted stuff that had the right feel for the movie, that made me feel so happy, and felt contemporary and cool. But I didn’t want to be snobby about it: “Oh, that’s two years ago.”
Was this just stuff that I liked? Yeah . . . “All the Young Dudes.” The people that I liked then—the Bosstones. I liked Radiohead. I liked the Beastie Boys and Gwen Stefani.
Karyn Rachtman: [With] “Shake Some Action,” with “Alright” by Supergrass, I think with clearly “All by Myself,” “Just a Girl”—they all fit the story. They fit. They were very much a part of the time.
Adam Schroeder: Capitol wouldn’t let us put [“Just a Girl” by No Doubt] on the soundtrack because the soundtrack was filled and they weren’t Capitol artists at all. . . . I’m so proud that it’s in the movie, but it would have been really cool to have been on the soundtrack.
Karyn Rachtman: I was blown away; I thought that was such a great song. I wanted to put it on the record and make it our first single and the president of the record label said no. I was so pissed.
But he didn’t think it was a single. That’s like the big joke or whatever. And they wanted it to be a single from our film. No Doubt and their management and everything, they were into it. They hadn’t done anything yet. What a great opportunity for them. And the record company said no.
It’s still in the movie, it’s just not on the soundtrack . . . but it should have been on that record. It would have made that record even better.
Adam Schroeder: The soundtrack did really well. We went platinum. But I don’t think any singles charted. Luscious Jackson was our first single and Jill Sobule was our second. I think Coolio did go out as a single but he had, that summer, “Gangsta’s Paradise” from Dangerous Minds, that Michelle Pfeiffer movie. So that was his single that summer, and we were kind of like, his other single.
That’s where I go back to my If only we had No Doubt . . . but I think the sum of the parts is all great, and I think it encapsulates the movie really beautifully.
Appearance in the movie: It’s the track that opens the film and provides the soundtrack to the Noxzema-style commercial montage.
Kim Shattuck, lead singer and guitarist, the Muffs: We had our cell phone, like a big, gigantic shoe phone kind of cell phone, in the car, that we were only allowed to use if the president of Reprise [Records] called us. Because it was so expensive and it was coming out of our budget. So we were like, don’t use it unless it’s somebody important. He called on the big shoe phone, and we’re like, “Oh my God. What’s going on?” He wanted to know if we wanted to do a song for Clueless.
So we had a choice of three songs. One was “Kids in America,” the other was “Go All the Way” by the Raspberries, and the other was a song that some songwriter wrote. Just some random songwriter. They gave us a cassette to listen to in the car.
We heard “Kids in America.” I’m like, yeah, I like that song. It’s melodic. I didn’t realize that the lyrics were so dumb, but I liked the melody. But I really liked “Go All the Way” by the Raspberries. It’s a really good song, but Babes in Toyland did it right before that and we didn’t want to also do it because we just thought that would be creepy. And then we didn’t want to do the song that the songwriter guy wrote, because it was probably the dumbest song we’d ever heard.
They gave us $10,000 to record it, which, for one song, you would think we’d be able to come way under budget. But we didn’t. . . . I’ve never gotten any money for it. The first original $10,000 they gave us to record, apparently it was an all-in deal. . . . You know, I have no regrets. It was cool to have it be in the movie.
Appearance in the movie: This song pops up twice when Cher is in proactive mode: first during the montage where she starts working to raise her grades, then again when she starts pitching in with the Pismo Beach relief effort.
Karyn Rachtman: I’m 98 percent positive that I found that song. I did not know it was a cover.
David Lowery, singer and guitarist, Cracker: The song that we have on there is actually a really obscure cover of [a song by] the Flamin’ Groovies. . . . I guess we’d been playing that live and, I don’t know if it was the music supervisor or whoever put together the soundtrack, had seen us do that.
Adam Schroeder: We did that remake with that band. That totally felt right. But again, they didn’t put it out as a single.
David Lowery: We’ve had some pretty big hits. That wasn’t really a radio hit for us but that’s definitely in the top ten of tracks that get streamed and spun and stuff like that for us. It’s had really a long-term impact on our career, basically.
Actually, the cool thing about that is the guys who wrote that, you know, the Flamin’ Groovies, they were pretty obscure . . . I think one of them told me that was the most money they made off of anything their entire career. And it came like almost twenty-five or thirty years after they wrote that song.
We were paid a quarter million dollars for that song, on that soundtrack, to record it and put it on there. . . . But that was the height of our popularity. That was about the going rate. And that was also when the music business had a lot more money than it does now.
Appearance in the movie: It’s on Josh’s car stereo after he picks up Cher, post-mugging, and drops off Heather.
Adam Schroeder: We had to have [Adam Duritz], the lead singer, come to sign off on it. We really wanted to use the song, it was just cool. You know, the Psychedelic Furs but being redone by Counting Crows, a very big band at the time.
Karyn Rachtman: Amy likes those eighties songs.
Adam Schroeder: We had him come to the lot to see it and he loved the movie and signed off right then and there. But you always run the risk of, they’re not going to let you use it and then you have to find something else.
David Lowery: That guy’s a movie freak. When [Adam Duritz] lived in Hollywood, he had an entire theater basically in his basement. Movie chairs and everything. We used to always go there and have movie night.23
Appearance in the movie: It’s playing after the Bosstones party has wound down and Christian is making plans to hit a “happening after-hours.”
Karyn Rachtman: We loved that song. That song was [by] a Capitol act. They were signed to the Beastie Boys’ label, [Grand Royal]. I don’t remember how it came about, but that was the first single from our soundtrack.
Jill Cunniff, bassist and vocalist, Luscious Jackson: I think we were an important part of the label at that time, and they were prioritizing the band. We had to approve it. We met with the team music supervisor and we got the gist and it sounded really great. You know, we were very picky about our stuff and that one was a good fit. So we were psyched.
Kate Schellenbach, drummer, Luscious Jackson: We always wanted to support other women who were doing their own thing. It’s still, especially in the film industry—there’s like a handful of successful directors that are directing movies for major studios. I think whenever we could, we would try to connect ourselves to other creative women who were leading the way. Definitely Amy Heckerling is one of those people.
Gabby Glaser, guitarist and vocalist, Luscious Jackson: The song was originally a rock ’n’ roll song. . . . One day in the studio, I actually don’t think I was there that day, our coproducer Tony Mangurian switched it to a disco beat.
Jill Cunniff: They call it a different name [on the soundtrack]: the “Squirmel Mix.” Remember what a Squirmel is? It was that toy that was on TV: it looks like a little furry snake and it has a string on the end of it. The guy would be like, “This is the greatest toy ever!” It had two little beady eyes. He would wind it around the paper. Then you get it home and you can’t do anything. It’s this crappy little thing on a clear piece of plastic. And on the commercial it was like, incredible. That’s what that reference is.
Kate Schellenbach: This actually worked out perfectly because I think the movie itself is female-positive. It’s pretty mild; there’s not really bullying. It’s encouraging. As New York girls who grew up in the city, we couldn’t really relate to the whole California rich-girl, high school scene, but I think . . . we liked the fact that it’s all about individuality and, just, positivity, and that kind of thing. And incest, of course.
Appearance in the movie: It’s what the baggy-pantsed dude-bros walk to in slow motion while Cher bemoans the way boys dress these days.
Karyn Rachtman: I think I was trying to update the record. It’s funny because I don’t usually do that. When I’ve worked with Quentin [Tarantino] in the past, I would never suggest that. But I felt like with this, it’s what people were doing. You’re recycling fashion in a new way. You’re recycling music in a new way. That cover was pretty damn close to the original. But I love World Party. It worked out fine.
Karl Wallinger, World Party: I didn’t really even know that much about the film because it was such a specific thing. I loved the song. It’s incredibly slow, which is amazing, and there’s nine seconds of it in the film. So I was quite astonished, really.
Appearance in the movie: It’s what Josh is listening to when he raids the Horowitz fridge; Cher hears it and asks, “What is it about college and crybaby music?”
Karyn Rachtman: Amy wanted the whole Radiohead thing. I was scared—you know, [because of] the line in the movie—and because I had just started at Capitol and Radiohead was a Capitol band.
Radiohead actually were very good sports. They said, put “Fake Plastic Trees.” It whines enough and it’s not on their record, so they’d prefer that. [The acoustic version that’s on the soundtrack] wasn’t on their record, it was a B-side. It’s a great song, actually . . . It’s one of those songs that I’ve come to appreciate a lot more as I get older.
Appearance in the movie: It provides the soundtrack to the montage in which Miss Geist and Mr. Hall find love.
Karyn Rachtman: That was on one of their records. . . . It’s a great song, I remember that. I don’t know if I found it or Amy found it. I loved it, though.
Appearance in the movie: It plays over the closing credits instead of the Oasis song once marked for that position.
Josh Caterer, vocalist and guitarist, Smoking Popes: After we signed with Capitol Records, one of the things that also happened was that I got a publishing deal with PolyGram, and they just started looking for movie soundtracks for our songs to be in. I think Clueless was the first one that they found for us, although they ended up placing songs in about four movie soundtracks, I think. There was Tommy Boy, there was a movie called Angus, which was a good movie, and then there was Boys, starring Winona Ryder. . . . The only thing that we agreed to in advance was that the filmmakers could use our song. Where they placed it was entirely up to them.
So even now, I’ll have friends who tell me, “Hey, you know, we were watching this movie Clueless last night and sort of fell asleep toward the end, but the credits were rolling and we heard this song come on and we were like, hey, that sounds familiar. Who is that? And it turned out to be you!” Which is sort of like, our song ends up being the hidden track.
The Clueless soundtrack is the thing that has survived that era of our career [and] continues to generate more publishing income than anything else we ever did. . . . It is something that has generated fans for the band over decades now.
Appearance in the movie: It provides the soundtrack to Travis’s skateboarding competition.
Karyn Rachtman: Amy really wanted the Beastie Boys. We managed to get it because they liked the movie and we had Luscious Jackson and, blah blah, they let us have it. The Beastie Boys never license their songs to movies. They just don’t. We got very lucky with that.
Appearance in the movie: It’s one of two songs performed by the ska-punk band during the movie’s second big party scene.
Karyn Rachtman: I remember I thought they were really nice guys. I thought they were perfect. I think [Amy] thought they were perfect. . . . I still talk to one of them every once in a while. I mean, they were the perfect party band to play that scene.
Amy Heckerling, writer-director: I don’t know if they’re like anybody else, but it was like the Specials kind of feel. And fun for college stuff.
Dicky Barrett, front man for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones: I think [Karyn] picked [which song to use on the soundtrack] and we didn’t mind. We loved all of our songs. It wasn’t like we were choosing from the Green Day catalog—“Which hit do you guys want?” It was like, “Which obscure college-radio track are you interested in us playing? And we’ll do that for you.”
Appearance in the movie: Surely you know that this song is featured prominently during the Val party, and again when it makes Tai cry over Elton during the restaurant scene.
Coolio: I was just asked if I had a song that could possibly fit in the movie, and it just so happened that I did. The actual song, “Rollin’ with My Homies”—those were the original lyrics for “Fantastic Voyage.” That’s what I was going to put out for “Fantastic Voyage” in the beginning. A friend of mine—actually it was a guy who worked for Tommy Boy. His name was Ian. He heard the “Fantastic Voyage” song and told me that if you change your lyrics a little bit and make it more universal, he said, I think this song could do good. So I took the lyrics from “Rollin’ with My Homies,” which were the original lyrics, I took those off, and I rewrote the whole song. And the rest is history.
My first album sold two million copies plus. I kinda became a household name from that. It’s kind of a weird thing. “Rollin’ with My Homies”: I mean, it sold a few copies but it didn’t do great or anything.
Karyn Rachtman: It was kind of funny, right, because it was a rip-off of his own song. It was bizarre.
Coolio: The reason I chose to do something with the lyrics as well was because I was getting ready to go on tour. I’m one of those people, I like to break shit down and overanalyze shit. . . . [But] I just went with it. I didn’t want to have to ponder over writing an all-brand-new song, you know, if I had the moves like that. It was because I needed to make it happen fast and I wanted to go ahead and record it, so as I was looking through my line book, I came across those lyrics.
I just wanted to make something that was kind of hood, that was kinda street . . . because the movie was kind of squeaky clean. It’s weird, though, I wouldn’t imagine them spending the kind of money they spent on that soundtrack.
Appearance in movie: It’s the buoyant Britpop track that plays while Cher takes photos of her friends.
Karyn Rachtman: They were ecstatic to be a part of it. They were so cool. I just thought that song—to me, that really felt like the movie.
Appearance in the movie: Ironically, the one song with forgotten in its title is also the hardest song to hear in the movie. It plays very faintly during the restaurant scene, before “Rollin’ with My Homies” kicks in.
Brian Nelson, guitarist, Velocity Girl: I remember going to see the movie and being told beforehand when to listen for our song, because it was so sort of quiet and obscure. It sounds pretty puny compared to some of those other songs on the soundtrack.
Occasionally, in my civilian life, I talk to people who find out I was in a band, and when they find out I was on the Clueless soundtrack they all know that movie. And then I have to go into the story about how they have to listen really hard.
I still get maybe a couple hundred dollars in royalties off of the Clueless soundtrack every year, which is kind of surprising to me. And surprisingly nice.
Appearance in the movie: The happy (and ironic) musical accompaniment to the Tai makeover montage.
David Kitay, Clueless score composer and cowriter of “Supermodel”: “Supermodel” was just one of those really fun, fast experiences. David Baerwald, Brian MacLeod, and I were kicking around a couple of ideas and then . . . we went and bought some teen magazines.
Karyn Rachtman: David Baerwald was in a band in the eighties called David + David. They had a big hit called “Welcome to the Boomtown.” I’ve worked with him a lot: he wrote the Ethan Hawke song for Reality Bites and he wrote a song for Romeo + Juliet, which ended up in Moulin Rouge, “Come What May,” that Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor sang. He’s a great songwriter.
David Kitay: On one of the magazine front covers it said, “Do you want to be a supermodel?” Then we literally played those chords—we just kind of called them out and played them in one pass in the span of three and a half minutes. It was done. It just kind of existed.
Every lyric in that was based on a teen mag line. . . . We just went out, got stoned, and bought every teen mag they had and ran with it.
Jill Sobule: They asked if I wanted to do the song and I was at first a little bit reluctant, because I don’t sing other people’s songs and I was trying to have people know me as a singer-songwriter. But then I thought, Am I stupid? And it’s a really good song. What should I be prideful about? Although I did add the middle section . . .
Karyn Rachtman: She added one line: “I’m not gonna eat today and I’m not gonna eat tomorrow. Because I’m a supermodel.” Which bugged me for some reason. I mean, it was funny. It was clever. But it bugged me, first of all, because eating disorders first came on the scene [in the nineties] and also because that was never an issue in Clueless.
Jill Sobule: I was also a person that had eating disorders when I was in my twenties so I felt like I just had to add my little thing. I think one of the many reasons why I probably had [an eating disorder] was from looking at magazines and supermodels. And that affected me. So I think I just tried to subvert it a little bit and still keep it fun.
I agreed to [record the song] but I think I might have had, not a bad attitude, but I wasn’t excited. And then when I saw it, I was so proud. [I went] from being, you know, some sort of snobby person to being like, “I’m in Clueless, everybody!”
23. Lowery has worked with Counting Crows, coproducing their 1999 album This Desert Life.