There’s no soundtrack to Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” starring Mickey Rourke as a aged and washed-up former WWF-style superstar and it doesn’t sound like there’s going to be one. Even Clint Mansell’s minimalist and moody guitar score as played by Guns N’ Roses’ Slash is apparently just over 25 minutes, so even a score disc would be quite short. We digress, make your own soundtrack if you can track down all the songs that are actually out there. Here’s all the songs featured in the film (with audio context where applicable), we hope one day Fox Searchlight can team up with some label and release a disc, ideally peppered with a little bit of Mansell’s aforementioned score.
As you’ve read and probably imagined, a lot of the music in the film is ’80s hair-metal like Guns N’ Roses, Quiet Riot, Scorpions, Ratt, Cinderella, Slaughter and Firehouse. There’s even an new school Madonna track too which we believe plays when Marisa Tomei is stripping (we haven’t seen the film since September and haven’t had a chance for a second serving). You’ll notice the Ratt songs are performed by Rat Attack, which apparently is some members of the band. There must be some legal stickiness to why they couldn’t get the originals and had to re-record them for the film. Maybe one band member with a controlling interest was a hold out.
This image, btw comes from the opening title sequence of the film, in which designer Kristyn Hume had less than two minutes to summarize the life of pro wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Rourke’s character) by creating fake wrestling posters and magazines that spanned his once illustrious career. More on the job she did over at the L.A. Times.
All The Music Featured in “The Wrestler”
– Bang Your Head (Metal Health) by Quiet Riot
– 39 Stars by Peter Walker
– 8-bit Wrestler by Joel Feinberg
– Aloha Oe (Queen Liliuokalani) by Robert Neary
– Animal Magnetism by Scorpions
– Ayatollah’s Theme by Raz Mesinai
– Balls To The Wall by Accept
– Black Light by Macon Greyson
– Blowin’ Up by Solomon
– Dangerous by Mark Slaughter
– Dodge It by Sampda ‘Samsaya’ Sharma
– Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone) by Cinderella
– Don’t Walk Away by Firehouse
– Her Name Is Alice by The Days The Nights
– Hit Da Flo by Trai’d
– I’m Insane by Rat Attack
– Jerk It by Thunderheist
– Jump by Madonna
– Just Let Your Freak Out by Deesha Sarai
– Mirror by Dead Family
– N2 Sumthin’ by Takbir Bashir
– Nice Guys Finish First by Valerie Bisharat
– No Biterz by Miss TK and The Revenge
– Round And Round by Rat Attack (originally performed by Ratt)
– Soundtrack To A War by Rhino Bucket
– Stuntin’ Like My Daddy by Lil’ Wayne and Birdman
– Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses
– The Muscle by Bone Crusher
– The Wrestler by Bruce Springsteen